Cross-cultural Mediation in ELF Migration Contexts: Pedagogical Implications on ELT Multilingual Settings

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 269 - 286, 31.07.2019

Silvia Sperti

https://doi.org/10.32601/ejal.599253

Cited By: 2

Abstract

ELF
cross-cultural interactions and mediation processes in specialized migration
settings are often characterized by ‘gatekeeping’ asymmetries between the
participants involved challenging a successful meaning negotiation (Guido, 2008).
The exploration of migration encounters (Sperti, 2017) is particularly useful
in the analysis of naturally occurring dialogues among ELF users, since it
shows how ELF speakers, engaged in intercultural interactions, appropriate the
English language according to their own native linguacultural and paralinguistic
schemata, and to specific pragmalinguistic purposes and processes. The multimodal investigation of the occurring hybridization
processes is focused on (i) ELF redefinition of existing native paralinguistic
correlates in the pragmalinguistic use of an ELF variation; and (ii) resulting
L1 transfers affecting the performing of speech acts and the conversational
composition and progress. The analysis reveals (a) the mediation of meaning,
experience and intentionality in terms of resulting lexical, syntactical, and
register performance; and (b) the role played by prosody and paralanguage in
the mutual acceptance of speakers’ intentions, attitudes, and cognitive
schemata, in spoken specialized discourse related to medical and legal
integration, mediated migration narratives, cross-cultural conceptual
representations and reception of traumatic experience. The heuristic
approach applied to the analysis of data derived from the exploration of real
plurilingual cross-cultural exchanges is particularly useful in the promotion
of the conscious use of cross-cutting strategies as powerful learning tools
embedded in the language learning process, with the ultimate aim of (i)
investigating the possible impact of migration on teacher education, (ii)
defining an ELF-aware pedagogical framework in plurilingual educational
settings, and (iii) enhancing the development of learners’ skills in
intercultural communication.

Keywords

ELT; migration; English as a Lingua Franca; language mediation; intercultural communication

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