Language Regulation in English as a Lingua Franca: Focus on Academic Spoken Discourse

329 Pages·2016·1.49 MB·English

by  Niina Hynninen

Niina Hynninen
Language Regulation in English as a Lingua Franca
Developments in English
as a Lingua Franca
Editors
Jennifer Jenkins
Will Baker
Volume 9
Niina Hynninen
Language Regulation
in English as a Lingua
Franca
Focus on Academic Spoken Discourse
ISBN 978-1-61451-768-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-61451-667-5
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0052-7
ISSN 2192-8177
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Acknowledgements
This book has benefited from the expertise, advice and support of a number of
people, who I would like to express my warmest thanks to. The book is based on
my doctoral dissertation, which would not have come about without the inspir-
ing and constructive supervision I received from Anna Mauranen and Anna
Solin. Thank you Anna M. for sharing your wide expertise and for introducing
me to the world of academic networking. Thank you Anna S. particularly for
pushing me to consider different ways of approaching and presenting my find-
ings, and lately also for your collegial support. I would also like to thank my
pre-examiners Marina Bondi and Barbara Seidlhofer for their useful comments
on my dissertation manuscript.
During my doctoral studies, I was lucky to be a member of Anna Mauranen’s
English as a lingua franca research group, the Global English (GlobE) consor-
tium and the Finnish doctoral programme in language studies (Langnet). I wish
to thank the people in Langnet for the thought-provoking seminars that helped
move my research forward. The members of the lingua franca research group and
the GlobE consortium I wish to thank for their insights and support during my
dissertation writing process. My thanks particularly to Jani Ahtiainen, Izabela
Czerniak, Henrik Hakala, Sanna Hillberg, Netta Hirvensalo, Markku Filppula,
Juhani Klemola, Lea Meriläinen, Maria Metsä-Ketelä, Hanna Parviainen, Heli
Paulasto, Diane Pilkinton-Pihko, Elina Ranta, Paula Rautionaho, Jaana Suviniitty,
Svetlana Vetchinnikova, and last but not least, Ray Carey, who also helped out
with the data collection.
I am grateful to my former and current colleagues at the Department of
Modern Languages at the University of Helsinki as well as at the Department
of English at Stockholm University. My special thanks to Beyza Björkman and
Maria Kuteeva for taking an interest in my project and for support in developing
my book proposal. I also wish to thank Miguel Garcia Yeste, Mara Haslam, Nils-
Lennart Johannesson, Minna Palander-Collin, Elizabeth Peterson, Hanna-Mari
Pienimäki, Howard Sklar and Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen. Along the way, I also
received support from many other, sometimes unexpected, places. My thanks to
Emma Dafouz Milne, Valeria Franceschi, Esko Koponen, Hanna Laitinen, Mikko
Laitinen, Tuula Lehtonen, Janus Mortensen, Kari Pitkänen, Tiina Räisänen, Tamah
Sherman and Ute Smit.
The research reported in this book would not have been possible without
the students, teachers and English instructors who participated in the research.
My warmest thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts and your time! I also
thank the Studying in English as a Lingua Franca (SELF) project assistants who
helped me with collecting and processing the data. My special thanks go to Pirjo
vi   Acknowledgements
Surakka-Cooper with whom I collaborated during the first stages of the research.
Thank you also Marianne Hiirsalmi, Anni Holopainen, Zinaida Merezhinskaya
and Niina Riekkinen.
I also wish to thank the editors of the Developments in English as a lingua
franca (DELF) series, Jennifer Jenkins and Will Baker, and my editors at De
Gruyter Mouton, Lara Wysong and Emily Farrell, for making this book possible.
Last but not least, I thank my family and friends for taking my mind off
work, particularly my daughter Julia. Your birth may have postponed the writing
of this book, but importantly also gave it new perspective. Special thanks go to
my husband Timo Lagus for being my personal IT specialist, and for his love,
support and understanding.
This work would not have been possible without the financial support from
various sources. I have been privileged to be part of different research projects
both during and after my doctoral studies, including the SELF project, funded
by the University of Helsinki Research Funds, the GlobE project, funded by the
Academy of Finland, and more recently the Language Regulation in Academia
(LaRA) project, funded by the Kone Foundation. The work I did for this book
has also benefited from personal research funding (received from Langnet, the
University of Helsinki and the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation), as well
as from my previous employment as a lecturer first at Stockholm University and
later at the University of Helsinki.
Some of the findings reported in this book, including some of my thoughts
and arguments have appeared in the following articles. I thank the publishers
and editors for permitting me to include them in this book.
Hynninen, Niina. 2010. “We try to to to speak all the time in easy sentences” – Student con-
ceptions of ELF interaction. Helsinki English Studies 6. 29–43. [Special issue: English as
a lingua franca, ed. by Anna Mauranen & Niina Hynninen]. http://blogs.helsinki.fi/
hes-eng/volumes/volume-6 (accessed 8 Feb 2016).
Hynninen, Niina. 2011. The practice of “mediation” in English as a lingua franca interaction.
Journal of Pragmatics 43(4). 965–977. [Special issue: English as a lingua franca, ed. by
Beyza Björkman.]
Hynninen, Niina. 2012. ICL at the micro level: L2 speakers taking on the role of language
experts. AILA Review 25. 13–29. [Special issue: Integrating content and language in
higher education at mainland European universities, ed. by Ute Smit & Emma Dafouz
Milne.]
Hynninen, Niina. 2014. The Common European Framework of Reference from the perspective
of English as a lingua franca: What we can learn from a focus on language regulation.
Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 3(2). 293–316.
Niina Hynninen
Klaukkala, February 2016
Contents
Acknowledgements — v
1 Introduction — 1
1.1 Language regulation as a complex phenomenon — 4
1.2 Defining ELF — 11
1.2.1 Language users in their own right — 13
1.2.2 Similar to dialect contact — 14
1.3 E nglish in Finnish higher education — 15
1.4 Structure of the book — 18
2 Language regulation — 20
2.1 Norms of language — 20
2.1.1 Language norms as social norms — 21
2.1.2 Related concepts — 24
2.1.3 Normative beliefs vs. behaviour — 25
2.1.4 Common vs. normative — 27
2.2 Language regulation as the negotiation of living norms — 29
2.2.1 Defining language regulation — 30
2.2.2 Prescriptive vs. living norms — 35
2.2.3 Concept of community of practice — 40
2.2.4 Norms and accommodation — 45
2.3 Summary — 49
3 P revious research on ELF and language regulation — 50
3.1 ELF attitude studies — 56
3.2 Descriptive ELF studies related to language regulation — 60
3.3 Studies on academic ELF — 63
3.4 S tudies on language regulation in different languages and in
L1–L2 interaction — 66
3.5 Summary — 69
4 E xploring an academic ELF setting in Finland: the research site
and methodology — 71
4.1 Research site — 72
4.2 Research questions — 74
4.3 M ethodological framework: two dimensions of language
regulation — 75
viii   Contents
4.3.1 The data — 80
4.3.2 Methods of analysis — 94
4.4 Summary — 103
5 Language-regulatory practices — 105
5.1 Language expert roles: who regulates language? — 106
5.2 Kinds of regulation — 112
5.2.1 Importance of mode: interactional commenting of speech
vs. written texts — 113
5.2.2 S cope of correctness: interventions relevant for determining
“correctness” — 127
5.2.3 Broader scope of acceptability: tacit regulation — 139
5.2.4 Summary of the findings regarding kinds of regulation — 175
5.3 Summary — 177
6 I nterview accounts: perceptions of English and its regulation — 180
6.1 Language expert roles in student and teacher accounts — 182
6.1.1 Students’ reliance on L1-based language expertise — 183
6.1.2 Teachers’ responsibility to act as language experts? — 193
6.2 Orientation to regulation in student and teacher accounts — 202
6.2.1 Students’ reported experiences of ELF vs. normative beliefs — 203
6.2.2 Teachers’ reports of regulating for the purpose of use — 215
6.3 English instructors’ views of lowering the standards for
English — 220
6.4 Summary — 227
7 Comparisons: the construction of living norms — 232
7.1 Comparative analysis — 233
7.1.1 Ideologies for comparison — 234
7.1.2 Comparisons of the findings — 237
7.2 Living norms: alternatives to ENL norms and standards — 243
7.3 Summary — 246
8 Conclusions and implications — 248
8.1 Summary and relevance of the findings — 248
8.1.1 Regulation in the study event interaction — 248
8.1.2 Regulatory views — 250
8.1.3 Comparisons and the negotiation of living norms — 252
8.1.4 Evaluation of the study — 253
8.2 Implications of the findings — 255
8.2.1 Theoretical implications — 255
Contents   ix
8.2.2 Methodological implications — 258
8.2.3 Practical implications — 259
8.3 The way ahead — 265
Appendices — 268
Appendix A: Transcription conventions — 268
Appendix B: Interview guides — 269
Appendix C: Clock face activity — 282
Appendix D: Interview transcriptions in Finnish — 284
References — 294
Index — 315