Margie Berns

Issue after issue of such journals as World Englishes and English Today deliver insights into and an understanding of the nature of the world's Englishes. Most of these scholarly contributions rely upon the Concentric Circle Model of World Englishes, a central feature of the Kachruvian paradigm since 1985. While the Englishes of each circle are covered in each issue, my interest in this paper is the Expanding Circle. I give attention to its representation in these two journals and to the model's integrity as a tool for investigating the sociolinguistic reality of English worldwide. I first report on two studies which I conducted that examined the representation of the Expanding Circle in the forenamed journals. Each study, conducted in two separate time periods, recorded the number of articles that appeared in each issue, listed the regions and countries covered, and tallied how often each region or country was the focus of an article. I then consider some implications of the findings and apply them to an analysis of the strength of claims made about alleged weaknesses in the Concentric Circles Model. I argue that the more that is known about Expanding Circle Englishes, the more that the model proves to be a robust, productive tool for description and analysis, even as varieties change and develop and users acquire new identities.

ABSTRACT:  One of the objectives of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) researchers is an account of the unique features of English that they have found in the speech of European users of English. These features, it is argued, describe a variety of English which they label “English as Lingua Franca”. The choice of this particular term is problematic because, as a construct, “lingua franca” generally refers to an overarching function of language, not to any specific set of idiosyncratic forms themselves. However, ELF researchers do not make this distinction. This has resulted in considerable attention being given to a confusing use of linguistic terminology and to the assumptions and theoretical underpinnings guiding ELF research. This paper extends this discussion to an examination of the relationship of ELF studies to English in Europe and the adequacy of “lingua franca” to represent the sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes. It first looks at work written by prominent ELF researchers to determine what they mean by “lingua franca”, outlines the distinction between form and function with illustrations of the role and status of English in Europe, and discusses how the architect's principle that “form follows function” is relevant to an understanding of the notion “lingua franca”.

ABSTRACT:  This paper tests claims concerning the English as Lingua Franca (ELF) movement's position within the world Englishes paradigm. To do so, it considers the writings of Jennifer Jenkins, a leader in this movement, on what she calls “phonological intelligibility”, and the writings of Larry Smith, an established scholar on intelligibility in cross‐cultural communication. The mutual intelligibility of Expanding Circle users of English is a primary concern to ELF researchers, and Jenkins has identified Smith's work as the foundation for her investigation of core phonological features to use in pronunciation teaching. The paper aims to determine the extent to which Jenkins' theoretical views on intelligibility correspond to Smith's concept of understanding as a central issue in international communication.