English as a lingua franca: an overview of communicative strategies

The present contribution discusses the importance of communicative strategies in introducing English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). A brief meta-analysis of the research conducted in the area of pragmatics reveals that one of the most salient elements of using ELF is the users’ ability to conduct meaningful exchanges through various communicative strategies. The results of the case study show that certain strategies are less favoured by ELF users, like those that seem to require manipulation of the language content and adjusting the language forms to meet the goals of communication. It is also demonstrated that contrary to the results of the meta-analysis, the participants of the study use all types of strategies: avoidance, compensation, and stalling without easily observable differences in the gathered results. The analysis of the results allows us to claim that incorporating communicative strategies should be of importance in considering the possibility of teaching ELF or at least allowing the learners of the English language to explore various strategies that may be proved as useful in their language use in a global marketplace.