Symposium announcement: English as a 'lingua franca'

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from Lang-Use:

Symposium announcement: English as a 'lingua franca'

SYMPOSIUM

English as a lingua franca: Implications for (university) teachers,
students, researchers of discourse and communication (and other humans)

Tuesday 31 October, 2006

Aalborg University, Denmark

Auditorium (1.104), Kroghstraede 3, 10.00-16.00

EVERYONE is WELCOME to attend


Background: Over the last half-century the English language has become
firmly established as the lingua franca of international trade, business,
entertainment, higher education, research, the internet, diplomacy, pop
music, and tourism. What are the implications of such a development for
language teachers and students, for universities, for the media, and for
our understanding of language in society? When non-native speakers of
English outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1, how should we
respond to such a state of affairs? What becomes of the native speaker,
who hitherto has been the King of foreign language teaching? How should
students of English, as well as other languages, respond to the lingua
franca status of English? Where are standards of correctness and language
norms in this scenario? How has the English languages status as a lingua
franca affected the status of Danish?

These questions are addressed in this one-day symposium.

Programme:

10.00 Introduction: Alan Firth, Aalborg University

10.15: Bent Preisler, Roskilde University Centre: Lingua Franca
Englishes?  Communication, standards, values

11.15: Dennis Day, University of Southern Denmark: Peace, Love, and
Lingua Franca

12.15: Lunch

NB! ROOM CHANGE: 4.128:

13.00: Torben Vestergard, Aalborg University: Prescriptive and
descriptive attitudes in teaching grammar to foreigners

14.00: Alan Firth, AAU:  English as a Lingua Franca: Implications
for Applied Linguistics

15.00 Break

15.15 Discussant: Mike Sandbothe, Aalborg University

16.00: End


Alan Firth PhD
Associate Professor
Dept. of Languages, Culture and Aesthetics
Aalborg University
Kroghstraede 3
DK-9220 Aalborg
Denmark
Tel (office, direct): +45 9635 9164

Homepage: www.hum.aau.dk/~firth

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