intercultural-communication
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- PaperLanguage Teaching29 May 2026
Global Englishes: Research agendas and tasks in English as a lingua franca
Will Baker, Fan Fang, Telma Gimenez
This paper outlines nine research tasks for Global Englishes and English as a lingua franca, emphasizing intercultural and digital communication through trans theories like translanguaging and transmodality. It calls for rethinking communicative competence to include multilingual and multimodal resources, with implications for pedagogy, teacher education, and assessment.
Original abstract
Global Englishes, and within that the field of English as a lingua franca, is a huge and expanding area of research and pedagogy. This paper provides a sample of our beliefs about productive areas of research. The nine tasks presented suggest the importance of research in the areas of intercultural and digital communication, especially through the adoption of trans theories such as translanguaging, transmodality, and transcultural communication. Furthermore, concepts such as communicative competence will need rethinking to match the multilingual, multimodal, and multicultural resources that appear in such communication. The implications for pedagogy are extensive, including a re-evaluation of models and aims such as the (ir)relevance of the native speaker, global citizenship education, translanguaging, and decolonial perspectives, and approaches to both oral and written communication. Accompanying any changes in pedagogic practices must be changes in how we think about teacher education as well as assessment. Pedagogic research is crucial as there is a need to address the persistent gap between “real-world” translingual, transmodal, and transcultural uses of English and monolingual, Anglophone-orientated English language teaching models and approaches.
- PaperApplied Linguistics21 May 2026
Social perception of English irony: a comparison of L1 and L2 speakers
Kathrin Rothermich, Yunwen Su, Renuka Giles, Marc D Pell
Both first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) English speakers rated literal and positive statements as more polite and appropriate than ironic and negative ones in audio-visual conversations, but L2 speakers were less willing to use irony themselves. Sarcastic remarks were judged less polite than literal negative statements, challenging the Tinge Hypothesis that irony softens criticism. These findings advance understanding of intercultural pragmatics and L2 sociopragmatic development.
Original abstract
Irony plays an important role in social communication, but its perceived politeness and appropriateness can vary across linguistic backgrounds. This study investigated how first-language (L1) English speakers and advanced second-language (L2) English speakers (Chinese L1) evaluate ironic (sarcastic, teasing) versus literal statements in audio-visual conversations. Participants watched videos and rated them on politeness, appropriateness, and their own likelihood of using them. Stimuli differed by communicative intent (positive vs. negative) and delivery style (literal vs. ironic). Both groups judged literal and positive statements as more polite and appropriate than ironic and negative ones. However, L1 and L2 speakers differed in how willing they were to use irony themselves, with L1 speakers preferring literal over ironic remarks more strongly than L2 speakers. Sarcastic remarks were judged less polite than literal negative statements, contrary to predictions of the Tinge Hypothesis that irony softens criticism. Our findings show that paralinguistic cues shape irony evaluation and that L2 speakers interpret irony similarly to L1 speakers but are more cautious about using it themselves. These results advance the understanding of intercultural pragmatics and L2 sociopragmatic development.
- PaperRELC Journal30 Apr 2026
Pragmatics and transcultural communication through English as a lingua franca
Will Baker
This position paper argues that traditional cross-cultural and intercultural frameworks are insufficient for analyzing pragmatics in English as a lingua franca (ELF) interactions due to their dynamic and fluid nature. It proposes a transcultural communication perspective, aligned with translanguaging and transmodal theories, where participants move across cultural and linguistic borders, using emergent resources that index multiple scales simultaneously. The relevance of this approach for understanding, researching, and teaching pragmatics in ELF is discussed.
Original abstract
The deep connections between English, globalization and intercultural communication are now well established. Research in English as a lingua franca (ELF) has made clear that this is a multilingual use of English in which other linguistic and communicative resources are present and frequently a core part of the interaction. Furthermore, ELF studies have highlighted that pragmatic strategies are a central part of those communicative resources. Yet how to approach pragmatics within an ELF framework has not been straightforward. Cross-cultural perspectives comparing the norms of first language communication in relatively static communicative contexts have little relevance to the dynamic and fluid communicative practices of ELF. This has led scholars to adopt intercultural frameworks to conceptualizing and documenting pragmatics in ELF interactions in which cultures and languages, and the accompanying pragmatic strategies, are viewed as adaptable and hybridized. Nonetheless, there are limitations to such intercultural perspectives due to the range and complexity of communicative resources we see documented in the superdiverse settings of much ELF communication. It is not always possible to delineate which languages or cultures are being hybridized and adapted and the ‘inter’ of intercultural communication becomes problematic. Transcultural communication perspectives are a recent extension of intercultural communication research in which interactants are seen to move through and across (rather than in-between) cultural and linguistic borders. Transcultural perspectives align with translanguaging and transmodal theories with participants making use of their full range of communicative resources in a manner which transcends national borders. Communicative resources and references may simultaneously index multiple levels or scales from the local, to the global, without being fixed to any single scale and often involve the use of emergent resources and practices. In this brief position piece, I will discuss a transcultural communication approach and consider its relevance for understanding, researching and teaching pragmatics in ELF.
- PaperELT Journal5 Mar 2026
Linguistic landscape for joint learning amid conflict in Israel
Brigitta R Schvarcz, Dafna Yitzhaki
Two ELT initiatives in Israel used linguistic landscape pedagogy to create contact between Jewish and Arab teachers and students amid ongoing conflict. Teachers planned projects exploring cultural narratives through LL, while students collaboratively studied each other's LL environments. The initiatives demonstrate how LL can foster dialogue and critical thinking in politically divided communities.
Original abstract
This article describes two ELT initiatives in Israel, offered by the English Inspectorate, aimed at learning about ‘the other’ in an area of intractable conflict. These initiatives create contact between Jews and Arabs, teachers and students, where the two school systems are separated, and contact between the communities is scarce. Both initiatives are based on linguistic landscape (LL) pedagogy that fosters activism and critical thinking. In the first initiative, teachers planned projects for learning about cultural narratives through LL. The second initiative involved collaborative work of Jewish and Arab students who met to study each other’s LL environments, inspired by the Shared Education model. The manuscript integrates visuals from the projects. We show how LL can be used to bring politically divided communities together, enabling contact in times of severe tension in long-standing conflict.