Researching ELF communication

There has been extensive research on the sociolinguistics of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and on its potential relevance for language pedagogy. My concern here is with its wider applied linguistic significance as implicated in the problematic issues that globalisation gives rise to. As I pointed out some years ago in sketching out directions for future research (Seidlhofer 2011), accounting for the very nature of ELF communication calls for a rethinking of the traditional notions of ‘community’, ‘competence’, and ‘legitimate speakers’ of ‘a language’. This becomes a matter of immediate practical urgency where ELF functions in high-stakes interactions in areas such as asylum procedures, language policy and language planning, language and the law, international publishing, testing, and interpreting – all situations where effective communication is crucial and where breakdowns have potentially serious consequences for the people involved. In this chapter I will outline how the kinds of problems that arise in these situations point to new areas of ELF research.