Introduction. English as a Lingua Franca: Theory and Practice

Crucial to the line of enquiry introduced in this article is the notion of ELF as ‘language authentication’, which implies an appropriation of the English language according to its non-native users’ L1 parameters, and which justifies the case for the existence of ELF variability, depending on the particular groups of users from different lingua-cultural backgrounds who ‘authenticate’ English according to their own diverse native cognitive-semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and specialized-discourse parameters. Such a notion represents a challenge, on the one hand, to the view of ENL as the one and only ‘authentic variety of English’ to be used in every context of cross-cultural interaction and, on the other, to the widespread view of ELF as a unique and shared ‘international variety’ of English for efficient and economical communication in everyday interactions and specialized transactions – which is not expected to be ‘actively appropriated’ to the non-native speakers’ own lingua-cultural background, but rather to be ‘passively learnt’ by them as a ‘foreign language’ (as they do with ENL).