Defining English as a professional lingua franca: a specialised approach

Philippe Millot (1)

1 CEL - Centre d'Études Linguistiques - Corpus, Discours et Sociétés

This article examines English as a professional lingua franca, a field of study lying at the intersection of Professional Discourse Analysis (PDA) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The discussion begins with an overview of the traditional approaches to professional discourse where English is mostly conceived as a business language and where the specialised aspects are generally relegated to the realms of technical lexis. It then proceeds with a short typology of English as a professional lingua franca by using the Goffmanian metaphor of frontstage and backstage discourse. Finally, it presents some methodological and pedagogical implications through the presentation of a professional ELF corpus which is tailored to the needs of professional or specialised discourse analysis.

Mots clés: business English; corpus analysis; English as a professional lingua franca; professional discourse analysis; specialised discourse; specialised network

Domaines: Linguistique

Philippe Millot. Defining English as a professional lingua franca: a specialised approach. ASp - La revue du GERAS, 2015, 67, pp.5-26. ⟨10.4000/asp.4626⟩. ⟨halshs-01340908⟩