This study examines L2 speakers' accent attitudes in relation to their linguistic profile and current practices, recruiting 107 multilingual postgraduate students of 34 different nationalities enrolled in leading research universities in Japan. The participants completed a survey regarding their perceptions of different English varieties in…

In recent decades there has been a growing interest in the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), for example identifying the lingua franca core (LFC), or pronunciation features important for intelligibility in ELF contexts. While some analyses of course books (CBs) have shown ELF research findings are not yet reflected in these materials, few…

The following article attempts to characterise the current changes in the communication of people living in the area of Polish-Czech borderland based on the results of the study conducted in 2018 and 2019. The aim is to determine the dominant mode of supranational communication, as well as the reason behind its prevalence by analysing the language…

English has assumed a new role in international communication in recent decades, that is, as a Lingua Franca (ELF) among speakers with different first languages. This study attempts to investigate and analyze Chinese university students' perception and production of paired English fricatives from the perspective of ELF. By using a listening…

This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility…

Examines the future spread of English around the globe and the challenges of maintaining common standards and mutual intelligibility among different varieties of English. Discusses changes in Kachru's three circles of English speakers, and features of English as a global language. (Author/VWL)