Blog Post 5: ELF

The first article I read was Baker's The Cultures of English as a Lingua Franca which looked at what ELF means in understanding relationships between languages and cultures. This research study analyzed intercultural communication from studies when using English in higher education in Thailand. She looks at how cultural frames are employed and perceived in ELF communication. An interesting point the article raises that I haven’t considered before is that English, or really any language cannot be seen as the property of one culture or community. This is suggesting that language isn't a solid thing belonging to one group of people exclusively but instead is complex and multifaceted. English is not connected to one culture of traditional English-dominant countries.  I don’t think many Americans see English in this way. In my own experience, I think that some people feel that they “own” English. I have heard  people say “If you come to this country, learn English” multiple times. This statement seems to suggest that America = English and ignores the language variation within our country. The article also defined English as a lingua franca which is a way to refer to communication in English through speakers with different first languages . The two people interacting have two different first languages and communicate in English. This definition was very helpful for me.

          I think Risafer’s theory discussing English in a differential sense rather than a generic sense was very interesting. Originally I believed in the generic/universal sense where language and culture are intertwined. However, she believes language can be separated. I didn't like how this was worded or agree with the statement until I read on. From what I understood she believes language can be separated from culture and other cultures could use those languages. What was confusing for me, is that if a culture uses a language other than the one typically associated with their culture, why does that not become part of their culture?  She does go on to say she believes English languages like English language cultures take on new cultural meanings. I agree that in any new communicative event a new language and culture link can be created because the use of that language is special. English is my first language and I have been studying Spanish since I was fourteen. When I am with some of my friends we actually speak Spanish with each other. I have a friend who has been to South America several times and I don’t get to see her very often but when I do we sometimes switch to Spanish during our conversations whether it is intentional or not. My use of Spanish here, versus my use of Spanish in the classroom is different. I’m not sure if this is a perfect example to reflect this idea but I did think about this. She believes events like this create languacultures, and that no language is tied to one culture. Every interaction and use of language is unique. 

           Baker also states language is what expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality (pg. 6). This quote stood out to me in the article. Language could be used for a variety of reason from representing shared experiences and knowledge, creating experiences to membership to a community. As TESOL students we all understand the importance of language. 

           I really enjoyed the study the article provided as well. I thought one of the participants, Nami’s explanation was very interesting. Nami said that English native speaker norms have influenced her but she also has adapted to suit her own needs and purposes. Another participant also commented on English speaking cultures being different than Thai, and seemed to relate to English cultures more.  This is an interesting look at how EFLs view the “English culture” and how it affects them. They are aware of differences.Ultimately I thought these participants observations and experiences were very helpful. The article examined their feedback away from House’s claim but more towards what Kenkins believes; that ELF is a vehicle for expressing and perhaps creating cultures and identifications (pg. 20.) The article overall looked at that specific relationship between culture and languages in ELF contexts. As it points out, there are a couple of ways of looking at the data from the article.One is that ELF has no culture, but individual communication does. Every person has a rich background and history that is reflected through their language, behaviors and expectations. All in all for lingua franca communication it is very difficult to identify a clear relationship between language and culture. As teachers we need to continue to examine data and different points of view to understand the many different theories, make our own conclusions and include them into our classroom.

             Next I read Marra’s Chapter  which discussed something I had not considered before, language in the workplace. This study specifically looked at New Zealand  and allowed participants the volunteers to record their own interactions for research. I thought this was a really interesting way to conduct a study but I immediately had concerns about this particular method. Workplace participants decide what is recorded, when and how so. While seeing how participants interpret interactions is very interesting I would pair this approach with a researchers unfiltered observations as well. The participants personal ideas could be included through interviews etc. but overall I think it’s better to have the control in the researchers hands too. Another change I would make to this study is to look at ineffective communication as well. While looking at effective communication is helpful,  it would be interesting and beneficial to see what doesn't work as well. I think observing ineffective communication would open the doors to many more conclusions and a better understanding of what makes communication effective.

            I also thought it was interesting how aware the researchers were and how much they separated themselves from the indigenous group, the Maori population.  They called themselves outsiders, visitors and limited. I think in this case you need to somewhat step aside to make observations and conclusions. It’s great that they acknowledged their own cultural differences as to avoid making assumptions or allowing those ideas to influence their research but It might have interfered. I think you have to remain neutral and be willing to learn and not focus on your differences.  I liked that the researchers did not take simple characteristics of this culture as true but considered that there are differences among members of this group. As they stated on page eight, they knew they had to “explore deeper” than what they were just told. I also wonder how they found these Maori organizations. Were all of the workers Maori, or did they assume that everyone in the work place related to this culture. I wish they had clarified on that more because I did wonder how they considered all of the workers as Maori when they conducted research on these “Maori Organizations”. I’m sure there was diversity in these corporations. To assume all workers belong to the same culture could have influenced some their research findings.

             I did like that they talked a lot about keeping in contact with the volunteers. They said that they had a lot of really enthusiastic volunteers who recorded a lot of information. The article mentioned that sometimes two people would record the same interaction. As a researcher I would have loved to see that and I would have encouraged it. I think an instance like that really is a great opportunity to look at data for a variety of factors. You could see how different perspectives interpret social interactions, what individual background does in interpreting language and interaction etc. I just thought that instances like that would be really great!

             Overall, the article explained the challenges that occurred in recording and analyzing interactions for New Zealand workplaces. Reading this article really made me think about what I would do if I was conducting a study and raised questions for me to find additional research. I believe that is an important characteristic among teachers. We should be interested in knowing our students and knowing what learning a language entails so we can help them. We need to continuously improve ourselves, ask questions and find information to start forming our own conclusions.

              Looking at social interactions between people from different cultural backgrounds is difficult. We don’t have clear answers and there are many things to explore in this area. As these researchers found, it is also difficult to analyze a group of culturally diverse participants if there is no prior research involving them and/or if you are unfamiliar with their culture. While the researches tried to learn about the culture they were studying from outside sources, they were aware that what they were learning could not compare to what is truly behind the culture.  I think that while the research originally set out to look at how cultural differences play a role in interaction in the work place they found something quite different. They found how really complex this topic is and how difficult it is to asses and how many factors need to be taken into consideration to appropriately collect data, analyze and come to conclusions.