Conceptualising English as a business lingua franca

On Saturday 9 July 2022, we had our second session of “Conversation about BELF”. Unfortunately, Miya Komori-Glatz*, the article’s author, couldn’t make it as she was with covid. Nevertheless, our goal is to encourage conversations; therefore, mission accomplished! With 12 teachers attending, our discussion about Miya’s paper had the following highlights:

Starting with BELF’s definition, one of the definitions in the article (below) differs slightly from the group’s discussion in the sense that it doesn’t encompass every business context. For instance, building rapport isn’t a primary need in aviation English. 

“It should be noted here that Kankaanranta and her colleagues’ third pillar of BELF, building rapport, plays a vital role in creating such a hybrid code, since the longer and better the interlocutors know each other, the more shared linguistic ground they can develop (Kankaanranta & Planken 2010; cf. Angouri 2013).” (Komori-Glatz 2018:10)

We also discussed the issue of native speakers and how they use English in BELF situations. This can sometimes have a negative effect, for example, by discouraging contributions from other interactants, or by simply causing potential misunderstandings through the use of complex or idiomatic language. 

The gap between ELF/BELF theories and classroom practice was also approached because teachers often feel lost regarding what they actually teach. In fact, the question ‘What is it that we teach?’ was raised countless times. Especially when Anne Kankaaranta’s “continuum” was mentioned. The picture shows two kinds of English, the corporate, “official” one, and what she calls BELF, the co-constructed, shared language people use at work. Attendees observed many students regularly navigate both sides of the continuum; thus, it’s challenging to prepare them for BELF interactions.