The unit and focus of analysis in lingua franca English interactions: in search of a method

ABSTRACT

The dominant analytical approaches to Lingua Franca English interactions are largely influenced by a structuralist orientation that prioritizes verbal resources in localized face-to-face contexts. This article argues that recent developments in globalization, mobility, and digital communication call for a more complex orientation to the focus and unit of analysis. Researchers should consider how more expansive and layered scales of time and space mediate and shape interactions. Also, semiotic, material, and multimodal resources beyond words should be treated as part of the data. The article demonstrates the implications for expanding the focus and unit of analysis by illustrating from a study of workplace communication in an English-dominant country.

KEYWORDS:

• Lingua franca English
• structuralism
• scales
• multilingualism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Suresh Canagarajah is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Applied Linguistics, English, and Asian Studies at Penn State University. His publication Translingual Practice (Routledge, 2013) won the best book award from AAAL, BAAL, and MLA.

ORCID

Suresh Canagarajah http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1292-2366

Notes

1 I thank Jo Anne Kleifgen for giving me permission to use her data for my analysis in this article.

2 These excerpts are from the transcripts in the appendix of Kleifgen’s book (2013, 173–180).