English as a Lingua Franca in Intercultural Communication

Abstract

The integrated, almost ‘borderless’ Europe triggers mobility to an extent that was unimaginable fifteen years ago. As a result, the European Union, this multilingual geo-political entity, is increasingly characterized by interactions taking place between individuals not speaking the same mother tongue. Effective communication among European citizens of different linguistic backgrounds can only be achieved by using a lingua franca as a medium for communication. This paper investigates how English has taken up the role of lingua franca in intercultural interactions in Europe, and calls attention that making language students achieve native-like proficiency became less important than making them aware of the importance of mutual intelligibility and negotiation of meaning in intercultural interactions.