Express-ability in ELF communication

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela

doi:10.21256/zhaw-4067

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4067

Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	Express-ability in ELF communication
Authors:	Albl-Mikasa, Michaela
DOI:	10.21256/zhaw-4067 10.1515/jelf-2013-0005
Published in:	Journal of English as a Lingua Franca
Volume(Issue):	2
Issue:	1
Page(s):	101
Pages to:	122
Issue Date:	14-Mar-2013
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	De Gruyter
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Berlin
ISSN:	2191-933X
Language:	English
Subjects:	Thinking for speaking (TFS); Express-ability; English as a lingua franca; Shared languages benefit
Subject (DDC):	420: English
Abstract:	In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers’ restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision. In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett’s effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin’s Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communication.
Further description:	Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch)
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/2416
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Applied Linguistics
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Translation and Interpreting (IUED)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik

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Albl-Mikasa, M. (2013). Express-ability in ELF communication. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2(1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4067

Albl-Mikasa, M. (2013) ‘Express-ability in ELF communication’, Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2(1), pp. 101–122. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4067.

M. Albl-Mikasa, “Express-ability in ELF communication,” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 101–122, Mar. 2013, doi: 10.21256/zhaw-4067.

ALBL-MIKASA, Michaela, 2013. Express-ability in ELF communication. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca. 14 März 2013. Bd. 2, Nr. 1, S. 101–122. DOI 10.21256/zhaw-4067

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. 2013. “Express-Ability in ELF Communication.” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 2 (1): 101–22. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4067.

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. “Express-Ability in ELF Communication.” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, vol. 2, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 101–22, https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4067.