“The Transience of ELF Encounters \u2013Implications for Research on Professional Settings”<\/p>\n
Dr. Janus Mortensen<\/p>\n
University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n
Saturday, December 17th, 2022,\u00a0 \u00a0 4:30pm \u2013 6:00pm<\/p>\n
Bldg. 3 Room #601 (Waseda Campus)<\/p>\n
Free and open to everyone<\/p>\n
English (no translation)<\/p>\n
Transient communities where individuals from different linguacultural backgrounds come
\ntogether to collaborate on shared projects for a limited period of time constitute ripe sites for
\nthe study of social and linguistic norms in the making (Mortensen and Kraft 2022). For that
\nreason, the study of transient communities speaks to a wide range of research interests within
\nsociolinguistics and related fields. In this talk, I focus specifically on how the notion of
\ntransience can contribute to research on the use of English as a lingua franca in professional
\nsettings. Drawing on select examples from the TMC project (www.tmc.ku.dk) and the
\nextensive literature on professional settings where English is used as a lingua franca, I will
\nargue that exploring the transient nature of ELF encounters allows us to observe and theorise
\nthe processual, situated, and embedded nature of language policies (broadly conceived, cf.
\nSpolsky 2004) in ELF encounters. The insights offered by such an approach will be of use to
\nELF researchers and practitioners alike.<\/p>\n