27.1501, Review: Socioling: Baker (2015)

Thu Mar 31 17:29:48 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1501. Thu Mar 31 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1501, Review: Socioling: Baker (2015)

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Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:29:18
From: Sofia Rüdiger [sofia.ruediger at uni-bayreuth.de]
Subject: Culture and Identity through English as a Lingua Franca

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-3180.html

AUTHOR: Will  Baker
TITLE: Culture and Identity through English as a Lingua Franca
SUBTITLE: Rethinking Concepts and Goals in Intercultural Communication
SERIES TITLE: Developments in English as a Lingua Franca [DELF] 8
PUBLISHER: De Gruyter Mouton
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Sofia Rüdiger, Universität Bayreuth

Reviews Editor: Robert Arthur Cote

SUMMARY

This monograph, entitled ‘Culture and Identity through English as a Lingua
Franca’ by Will Baker, contemplates the fields of intercultural communication
and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and is part of the De Gruyter Mouton
series on Developments in English as a Lingua Franca. The text consists of
eight chapters, which move from theoretical considerations of culture and
identity through ELF to the concept of intercultural communicative competence.
In the course of the text, Baker introduces his own concept of intercultural
awareness (ICA) before arriving at an attempted blending of the previously
mentioned fields and a case study on a course of ICA and ELF for English
language learners in Thailand. The book also includes several appendices,
which mainly provide additional material and information on the case study. 

The introductory chapter not only sets the agenda of the book but also
provides a  seven-page overview of the field of ELF. Baker mainly addresses an
audience who is already familiar with the frameworks and concepts associated
with ELF (p. 5) and therefore purposefully keeps the overview succinct. He
also explicitly states the questions he endeavors to answer in his work: i.e.
how well do ELF and intercultural communication research go along with each
other, how can they inform each other and what are the implications for
language teaching specifically for teaching English as a foreign language?

In Chapter 2, “Intercultural communication and ELF”, Baker begins with an
anecdote from his own experience as an English teacher in Thailand,
illustrating real-life assumptions regarding nationality and culture and how
they influence intercultural interactions. He then sets out to characterize
intercultural communication and culture in general. Baker pointedly avoids the
term ‘definition’ though, as the concept of culture has been used in various
academic fields to divergent ends and with different denotations. Baker
succinctly gives an overview of fields where the concept of ‘culture’ has been
of central relevance: business and management studies, politics, and applied
linguistics, including intercultural pragmatics and discourse studies. The
rest of the chapter is devoted to differentiating cross-cultural and
intercultural communication from each other and critiquing the terminology and
approaches in intercultural communication. Third places/spaces,
transcultural/transnational flows and Interculturality are introduced as
alternative approaches. Of particular interest to ELF and intercultural
communication researchers is the sub-section in which Baker brings both
perspectives together and explicates areas where the fields can be brought in
agreement with each other and where not. 

The third chapter, “Understanding culture through ELF”, is devoted to an
extensive overview of the notion of culture in academia and its initial
development. Different perspectives on culture are introduced: as a product,
as discourse, as practice, and as ideology. Furthermore, the chapter explores
the interrelation between culture, nation, and globalization. The subsequent
sections deal with the relationship between language and culture (i.e.
linguistic relativity) and the engagement with language and culture in ELF
research. 

The next chapter, “Culture and identity through English as a lingua franca”,
presents the notion of identity, the concept of cultural identity, and how
they relate to ELF and interculturality. Baker further connects cultural
identity with several other keywords in the field, such as ethnicity, race,
nationality, and globalization. These notions are accompanied by examples from
previous research by Baker and other researchers.

Chapter 5, “Re-examining intercultural communicative competence: intercultural
awareness”, is one of the central chapters in the monograph as it re-examines
the notions of communicative competence, intercultural competence, and
intercultural communicative competence as well as some alternative approaches
such as symbolic competence. Baker then introduces his own alternative
approach labeled ‘intercultural awareness’, which consists of twelve elements
on three different levels indicating basic, advanced, and intercultural
awareness. This model is explained in detail and illustrated with examples and
diagrams.

Chapter 6, “ELF and intercultural awareness: implications for English language
teaching”, applies the model of intercultural awareness to ELF and explains
the theoretical implications that this has for teaching English as a foreign
language. Baker also provides suggestions for employing the results on ICA and
ELF research into the language classroom.

In Chapter 7, “Putting it into practice: a study of a course in ELF and ICA
for language learners in Thailand”, Baker completes the previous theoretical
chapter with a report on a practical case study. Baker surveyed several Thai
university students enrolled in an online  ELF and ICA course,  which was
preceded and followed by questionnaires and in-depth interviews with selected
individuals. Baker extensively describes the Thai setting, the course itself,
and the course evaluation. He then interprets the results with a view on the
development of ICA.

The conclusion brings all concepts together one more time and succinctly
summarizes the answers to the questions brought up at the beginning of the
monograph. 

EVALUATION

This monograph does not try to describe and analyze structural features of
ELF, as has been attempted by many previous books in the field (e.g. Prodromou
2008, Cogo and Dewey 2012, Vettorel 2014). Rather, it aims to establish how
the two fields of intercultural communication and ELF can inform each other
and subsequently what kind of consequences this can have for the teaching of
English as a foreign language. Consequently, Baker introduces his concept of
intercultural awareness (ICA). Especially valuable are his suggestions for
incorporating ICA into language teaching by offering five recommendations to
grow intercultural awareness of students in the classroom: “exploring the
complexity of local cultures”, “exploring cultural representations in language
learning materials”, “exploring cultural representations in the media and arts
both online and in more ‘traditional’ mediums”, “making use of cultural
informants” and “engaging in intercultural communication both face to face and
electronically” (pp. 195-198). Importantly, Baker is aware of the contextual
and situational differences of language teaching and emphasizes that these
recommendations might not be applicable to every classroom and that it is
often impossible to devise absolute guidelines. Nevertheless, this monograph
is highly relevant for teachers and material developers in the language
teaching field even though most chapters are of theoretical nature. In fact,
only Chapter 7 has a real practical focus using an online course as an example
for developing awareness of ICA in students.

Due to the many different contexts of language teaching and learning and the
more theoretical focus of the monograph, a follow-up work including more case
studies from diverse backgrounds would be appropriate. As the conclusion
states, researchers need to “avoid neat, simplistic answers in understanding
culture and identity in intercultural communication through ELF” (p. 232).
Both ELF and intercultural communication studies and their relevant concepts
are characterized by a high degree of complexity and dynamism. It is therefore
not surprising that some of the chapters in this monograph are also very
complex in nature and very dense in informational value. This in itself is of
course not problematic, and Will Baker should be applauded for his succinct
overviews of the intricate topics. However, the complexity of most chapters
makes the monograph very advanced reading, which might not be suitable for
most undergraduate students and could even be a challenge for advanced
students. As such, it is more suitable for researchers who are already
familiar with at least one of the fields of the book, i.e. intercultural
communication or ELF. 

Unfortunately, the text contains a high number of typos. Examples in the first
two chapters alone include the following: ‘though’ instead of ‘through’ (p.
2), ‘Mauranen explain it’ instead of ‘Mauranen explains it’ (p. 7), ‘give the
wide range’ instead of ‘given the wide range’ (p. 17), ‘Hofstede influential
research’ instead of ‘Hofstede’s influential research’ (p. 19), ‘it is
important not oversimplify’ instead of ‘it is important not to oversimplify’
(p. 22), ‘empahsised’ instead of ‘emphasised’ (p. 23), ‘similar critical
question’ instead of ‘similar critical questions’ (p. 23) and ‘to dominant the
interaction’ instead of ‘to dominate the interaction’ (p. 35). Although the
typos do not subtract from the general value of the monograph, they should be
corrected in future editions of the text.

REFERENCES

Cogo, Alessia and Martin Dewey. 2012. Analysing English as a Lingua Franca: A
Corpus-Driven Investigation. London/New York: continuum.

Prodromou, Luke. 2008. English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-Based Analysis.
London/New York: continuum.

Vettorel, Paola. 2014. English as a Lingua Franca in Wider Networking:
Blogging Practices. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Sofia Rüdiger obtained her M.A. in Intercultural Anglophone Studies from the
University of Bayreuth in Germany, where she is also currently employed as a
research assistant at the English Linguistics department. At the moment she is
working on a PhD project on ELF use by Korean speakers. Her research interests
include varieties of English, ELF, English in the Korean context, corpus
linguistics and computer-mediated communication.

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