English Lingua Franca: Reality or fiction? Assessing the debate on the status of English as language of global communication.

The prominent role of English as language of global communication has long been acknowledged in the literature. Quite recently, a new research paradigm has made its way into the discussion, aimed at investigating the use of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) in international exchanges. The present paper constitutes an attempt to assess the main positions in the current debate on ELF communication. On the one hand, some scholars consider ELF as an emerging independent variety characterized by distinctive formal features and interactional strategies that guarantee successful communication among non-native speakers of English. On the other hand, other researchers challenge this view and regard ELF as a register and the putative distinctive traits as features of learner's interlanguage systems. In the concluding part of the paper, the thorny issue concerning the role of participants' native languages and cultures in shaping ELF discourse is addressed, by reviewing the main hypotheses put forward in recent studies.