The ABC of ELT... ELF ——In this Issue,Jennifer Jenkins looks at English as a Lingua Franca

The term English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) refers to the English that is used as a contact language among speakers who come from different first language and cultural backgrounds. Although native speakers of English are not excluded from ELF interactions, they are a very small minority, given that English is the first language of only around 25 per cent of the world s Enlgish speakers (Crystal, 2003). More typically, then, speakers who engage in ELF interactions are non-native speakers of English communicating with each other. This means that ELF is rather different from EFL ( English as a Foreign Language), whose goal of learning is to be able to interact with native speakers of English, and whose norms are therefore those of English as a Native Language. The term EIL (or English as an International Language) is often used interchangeably with ELF. However, the latter has come to be     

Same vague expression, different conceptualizations

The study was to investigate the vague words measurement across native and non-native English speakers and gender differences. Ninety-two students from the University of Oklahoma participated in this study by filling out an internet-based questionnaire on the vague words. The researchers put each of the thirty-two vague words in a context, or the same word put into different contexts. The participants were asked to rate the degree or the numerical value that they thought was the most appropriate in the context of the vague word. It was found that ten out of the thirty-two words had a significant difference across the native and non-native English speakers, and two of thirty-two words had a significant difference across genders. The word ＂fairly＂ showed the most significant difference interactions of language speaking by gender.     

The analysis of the Distinction of NSs and NNSs and its Significance in ELT

The distinction of’native speakers’(NSs) and’non-native speakers’(NNSs),and their roles in English teaching has led to great discussion in the field of EFL and ESL recently.Despite the limitations of this distinction,it is meaningful in the field of language teaching when both groups of speakers’potential advantages and disadvantages in language teaching are equally recognized.The distinction of NSs and NNSs English teachers tells about the background information of the two groups,and therefore enables the teachers and professions to assess the pros and cons of them in real teaching practice,so as to initiate possible cooperation or to design reasonable syllabi for teacher training programs.     

Analysis of the Causes of Chinglish in Spoken English among Students

Chinglish is what occurs when the Chinese language and English language crash into one another.When native Chinese speakers who are learning English attempt to directly translate Chinese into English,using Chinese sentence structure,wording and grammar,a blend of Chinese and English happens.Among Chinese English teachers and English as a second language (ESL) foreign experts working with students,this phenomenon is commonly referred to as Chinglish.In order to help students to overcome Chinglish in their oral English and cultivate their sensibility of foreign culture and mode of thinking the awareness of the causes of Chinglish is a must.This paper focuses on analyzing the causes in terms of negative transfer of mother tongue and the differences between modes of thinking and cultural backgrounds.     

A Study on Spoken-English Teaching in Country Schools

Spoken English teaching plays a significant role in English teaching.It reflects the students’ability of practical English usage.However,the state of spoken English teaching in the country schools can’t make us content and it falls behind the state of cities.It is urgent to pay attention to this problem and try to find good ways to settle it.Many available approaches in spoken English teaching will be found in this paper.These ideas,perhaps,can stimulate people to think of more creative methods to teach spoken-English and improve the students’ability of practical English usage in country schools.     

English in Cameroon

Cameroon, a Western African coastal country, with a heritage of its history of being a previous colony of both British and French from 1916 to 1960, advocates a bilingual language policy in which English and French both serve as official languages. Due to the complex multiethnic and multilingual situation in Cameroon, multilingualism is the factual norm for the population. Besides English and French, numerous indigenous languages, especially Cameroon Pidgin English as the most significant lingual Franca of the country, are also widely used. Some demographics and sociolinguistic survey even reveal the evidence that this pidginized variety of English has occupied its indispensable position in almost all the aspects in the Cameroonian social life. Since this variety of English has long been used in the country for over 500 years, it has formed distinctive features in phonology, lexis as well as in grammar. This nativized language is now increasingly accepted as distinctive Cameroonian contributions to the world Englishes. Will the spread of this variety stand in the way of the learning "standard" English, or should this unstandardized variety be discouraged or banned in order to preserve the authenticity of English language? English as an international language teaching thus is confronted with new challenges and pondering about its future.     

A Corpus-based Investigation of NEED in Written American English

As one of the most frequent words in the English language,the study of NEED has attracted the attention of linguists in the late decades.Nonetheless,none of the previous research had ever examined the diachronic variation of NEED in American English from 1810s to 2000s as this study did,thus not in a position to make a comprehensive observation of NEED variation.The present study is based on a well-balanced corpora-Corpus of Historical American English(COHAE)1 to investigate the diachronic change of NEED in written American English.Moreover,intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors were analyzed to provide reasonable explanations for the differences in frequency.The aim was to improve the understanding of the development and variation of NEED usage in American English.The study suggests that before the 1900s,NEED as a model and verb in American English shows a distinct and complex picture different from that in the British English,but it shows similar development since then.It also finds that need to is undergoing grammaticalization.Another finding worth noting is that NEED undertakes degrammaticalization on the one hand and experiences regrammaticalization on the other hand.     

“Border Crossing”in English Job-Seeking Discourse——Informalization and Marketization in One Creative Résumé

Border crossing is a metaphoric term in sociolinguistics referring to a blurring of English use across different domains of social discourses.This article shows how border crossing in English job-seeking discourse is manifested in a real-life English creative résumé,and how this phenomenon brings about two related consequences,informalization and marketization,through critically analyzing the informal and promotional features of the résumé.It then reaches the conclusion that such border crossing phenomenon reflects a voice by the young in reconstructing their self-identities in job-seeking discourse in post-industrialized,post-modern western societies.     

The Rise of the Elizabethan Language:Self-consciousness and Language Policy

The notion of"Queen’s English",depending on who is the ruler of the time,could be traced back to the sixteenth century,when the idea that the monarch’s usage of the language should be a model in speech and writing.That is where the"Elizabethan English" originated from.From the linguistic point of view,Elizabethan English is categorized into Early Modern English,which dominantly spanned the Renaissance,Elizabethan era and Shakespeare.On a smaller scale,this paper focused upon language itself,trying to exemplify the rise of Elizabethan Language from the second half of 16th century to the outset of 17th century by presenting two factors of self-consciousness and the relevant policy.     

A Brief Study On Uyghur Teachers’ Code-switching In English Classroom

Generally speaking,code-switching is a common phenomenon in language contact,both in bilingual and multilingual environment.It refers to circumstances in which a speaker uses two or more than two language varieties.Teacher code-switching,is a quite common occurrence in English classrooms.This study intends to investigate into Uyghur teachers’ code-switching in English classrooms.This research concludes that the teachers’ code-switching plays a complementary and facilitative part in English classrooms.It is necessary to switch from English to Chinese,English to Uyghur to explain grammar and usage of words,and classroom management.     

Maximizing the usage of technology-enhanced teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English program in the Malaysian secondary schools system

This research is attempting to examine the effectiveness in the application of ICT （information and communication technology） and standardize courseware in ETeMS （English for Teaching Mathematics and Science） or PPSMI （Pengajaran and Pembelajaran Sains and Matematic dalam Bahasa Inggeris） in English program in the Malaysian secondary school system. Five dimensions of secondary school （type of school, demographic, leadership quality, teaching and learning culture, and teachers＇ personal and working experience） were examined to determine the maximizing usage of TEC （technology-enhanced classroom） in the learning program. In general, there is a significant difference among factors stated above with maximizing usage of TEC in teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English program. The learning culture is also closely related. In addition, the school and teaching staff are another two essential factors found to be the strong fundamental of maximizing the usage of technology in TEC teaching and learning with towering quality. This study represents an addition to the extant literature on maximizing the usage of technology-enhanced teaching and learning towards the excellence of education in the secondary school system. The maximizing usage of TEC teaching and learning environment within the secondary school system is pivotal towards achieving high quality human capital and improving the efficiency and integrity of technology-enhanced learning of science and mathematics in English program. This study provides further groundwork to assist existing education managers to improve work quality and deliver the maximizing usage of TEC teaching and learning towards the excellence in secondary education.     

An Experimental Design--Role of Daily Report in Improving MiddlSchool Students’ Speaking Ability

At present, the common problem in English teaching of middle schools is that students lack of good oral communication skills. In order to improve students' communicative competence, we put forward the research topic of"using daily report to im?prove English speaking skills of middle school students". After doing this, the students' classroom learning atmosphere is active, and the enthusiasm for participating in teaching activities is significantly improved, and they are willing to speak or communicate with students or foreign friends. At the same time, it promotes the teaching level and scientific research level of teachers.     

An Investigation into English Pronunciation of Three Different Language Groups

This paper is a study of pronunciation differences among three varieties of English speaking groups, namely Australian, Chinese and Indonesian. Simple linguistic method which contains examining and analyzing the pronunciation of each group member was used in this study. The findings indicate that the major difference of Australian English is its vowel sound, whereas there are many different problems for both non-native speakers of English in this study.     

An Empirical Study on the Students’ Motivation and Attitudes Who Take Esp Optional Courses

The learners’ motivation and attitude toward English for Specific Purposes(ESP) is always an influential element for the quality of ESP course.Teachers should at first get to know the learners’ motivation and attitude toward this course so as to teach the course well.Therefore,by means of questionnaire survey on the students’ motivation and attitudes who took accounting English in M University as their elective course during the next term in 2009,and through qualitative study,such as interviews,diary and classroom observation on the accounting English choosers in the next term in 2010,some conclusions are discovered that there are about 4 factors and 3 variables among the students’ motivations,and their attitudes toward this course is positive in general.Both accounting and English are their learning targets,and oral English and translation are their favors.The combination of blackboard-writing and multimedia technology is preferred than any of the other single teaching models.But the shortage of class hours and the lack of systematic arrangement also affect the students’ motivation and their learning efficiency.     

英汉翻译中的词语选择

To those whose interest is in translation, an important topic for study is the choice of words. As lexicon is the mostactive and the liveliest component of a language, in the course of translation, due attention must be given to the analysis andcomparison of words and phrases before a suitable word or phrase is chosen to convey the meaning in the original version.Meanwhile, English words and phrases are rich and the same words or phrases may be different in meaning in a certain context,therefore, the diction in translation from English to Chinese is undoubtedly a matter of importance.     

Informal and formal approaches to communicative language teaching

The main purpose of this article is to give some clarity to the use of the term "communicative" in describing approaches to foreign or second language teaching. It is suggested that a distinction be drawn between "informal" communicative approaches which promote second language "acquisition", and "formal" communicative approaches which promote "learning". This distinction between "acquisition" and "learning", which is taken from the work of Stephen Krashen, is carefully explained and the conditions for achieving both in the classroom considered. In addition it is suggested that there is a need actively to teach pupils how to make use of conscious "learnt" knowledge in order to "monitor" their performance in a second language appropriately.     

A Brief Account of Chinglish

Chinglish, or Chinese English is speech or writing in English that shows the interference of Chinese language or the influence of Chinese culture. It is liable to bring about misunderstandings in intercultural communication and has become a great obstacle to English education in China. It is high time to attach importance to the problems brought about by Chinglish and seek solutions to cope with the problems in question.     

Simplification of English Sentence Pattern Structure in the Teaching of Translation and Grammar

In the teaching of translation and grammar,it is essential that the English sentence structure is analyzed and transformation of sentence structures both in English and Chinese in class and after class. However,many kinds of English sentences structures prevent the students who study English from getting the basic idea and concept of a sentence in translation or grammatical analysis. In this paper,the author submitted the basic mould of simplification of English sentence structure,and the students can learn and master the translating technique through the simplified English sentence structure. Thus it helps to improve students’ competence of translation.     

Teachers’Evaluation of Error Gravity in English Majors’Writing Class in Art Colleges

In the English writing class, teachers have to confront numerous and diverse errors in students’writings. They must decide which types of errors require the most attention. In this research, through the investigation of a group of English teachers’ evaluation of different types of errors selected from students’writings, it was found that these teachers paid more attention to local errors than global errors, which is different from native speakers’ evaluation of error gravity. Causes for this phenomenon as well as pedagogical implications are also discussed in this paper.