MARCELLA CAPRARIO (THE EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG)

AN ELF-INFORMED PEDAGOGICAL INTERVENTION : WORLD ENGLISHES/ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

Communication strategies are an important component of successful communication in English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Kaur, 2022). Including such strategies in English language teaching would provide pedagogical targets that meet learners’ real-world communication needs in global contexts. Although scholars suggest teaching such strategies, few empirical studies have been conducted on this topic (House, 2022). The result is a lack of evidence-based guidance for instructors and curriculum developers. This study developed and investigated the effectiveness of instructional materials and assessment instruments for teaching six communication strategies that have been reported in ELF descriptive literature. Forty-three university students in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia participated in this mixed methods study (28 experimental; 15 control). The quasi-experimental portion included three pre-posttests to measure: 1) ability to identify communication strategies in authentic discourse (receptive skill), 2) ELF communicative competence including the use of communication strategies (productive skill), and 3) attitudes towards ELF. Data were analyzed through linear mixed effects modeling. Semi-structured interviews, analyzed using thematic analysis, explored self-reported transfer of learning to authentic communication outside the classroom beyond the intervention. The results indicated significant improvement in the experimental group’s receptive skills, improvement of productive skills among participants with low pretest scores, and no meaningful changes in attitudes. The interviews revealed inconsistent transfer, influenced by perceptions of ELF communication strategies, language attitudes, and relationships with interlocutors. The findings provide guidance for instructors, curriculum developers, and test designers who aim to provide ELF-informed instruction. The findings also highlight important directions for future research in this area.

Marcella Caprario earned a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include English as a lingua franca, L2 English pragmatics instruction, and corpus pragmatics. She has worked in the U.S., China, and Malaysia, as a researcher, teacher, and teacher trainer.