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
The paper identifies nine research tasks for Global Englishes and English as a lingua franca, focusing on intercultural and digital communication through translanguaging, transmodality, and transcultural approaches. It argues for rethinking communicative competence and pedagogical models to align with multilingual, multimodal, and multicultural realities, addressing the gap between real-world English use and traditional monolingual teaching.
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
L1 and advanced L2 English speakers judge literal and positive statements as more polite and appropriate than ironic ones, but L2 speakers are less willing to use irony themselves despite similar evaluation patterns. Sarcastic remarks were perceived as less polite than literal negative statements, challenging the Tinge Hypothesis. These findings highlight the role of paralinguistic cues and suggest that L2 speakers develop pragmatic comprehension before production.
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
English as a lingua franca (ELF) involves dynamic, multilingual interactions where pragmatic strategies are central. Traditional cross-cultural and intercultural frameworks are insufficient for the superdiverse, fluid nature of ELF communication. This paper advocates for a transcultural communication perspective, aligned with translanguaging and transmodal theories, to better understand and teach pragmatics in ELF.
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.