Lingua franca, interpreting (ELF)

Abstract

The global spread of English as lingua franca (ELF) has impacted interpreting in far reaching ways. With an estimated two billion people, a third of the world’s population, now using English (Potter and Crystal 2016) – of which only 372 million, or one fifth, are native speakers (Simons and Fennig 2017) – it is important to examine ELF in its own right rather than as deviation from the Standard English (SE) norm. At the same time, the claim that ELF use is “functionally appropriate and effective” (Seidlhofer 2011:120) is inconsistent with the reality reported by professional interpreters and translators.