L’inglese lingua franca come strumento di marketing nel commercio internazionale

The English language as an international language has become a key element of communication in the international trade of products and services of all types. This is because all small, medium and large companies are facing an increasingly globalized world with all the competition that this involves both in the domestic and export market. While quality of the product or service remains a key factor, the ability to communicate in a globalised world can mean the difference between struggling to survive and expanding. In particular, the use of English in the Apulia region is of paramount importance for economic development, especially in the markets for traditional agro-food products (e.g. wine, olive oil or dairy products) and for attracting tourists on the national, European and extra-European levels: areas where English has almost become a second language. In this chapter, we will examine how ELF is used in conjunction with the more traditional English as a native language (ENL) in marketing, focusing on a case study of the scope of wine descriptions produced by two well-known Apulian wine producers. Before reporting on our analysis, we will briefly discuss Christiansen’s (2016) typology of the various forms of English used in international business circles and discuss the general factors that are to be considered before adopting one type of English rather than another in the context of various international marketing.