FROM STUDENTS TO STAFF

There are as many as two billion speakers of English as a lingua franca – a common language between speakers whose native languages are different – worldwide.

The Centre for Global Englishes (CGE) is a hub for the study of the lingua franca phenomenon and is headed by an international team – many of whom are themselves University of Southampton alumni.

Dr Will Baker, Associate Professor and Director of CGE, explained: “At CGE our main research focus is on English as a lingua franca, which is where it is used as a contact language among speakers from different first languages. The use of English in this way forces us to reconsider the links between languages, cultures, communities, nations, and identities. In our research, we explore these issues and the implications for how we think about communication and teaching languages.”

Although it is now recognised that the majority of English use is for intercultural and transcultural communication among multilingual speakers of the language, rather than Anglophone ‘native speakers’, the full significance of this is only just beginning to be understood. In particular, the decentring of the Anglophone world for teaching in and through English is still regarded as controversial.

Much current language teaching is based on simplistic monolingual and monocultural views of communication that fail to match the multilingual and transcultural experiences of most English language users. CGE explores alternative locally relevant approaches to English language teaching and English medium instruction that recognise users’ full multilingual and multicultural communicative repertories. Furthermore, promoted by CGE research, the CGE team and colleagues in Modern Languages and Linguistics and the Academic Centre for International Students have been rethinking the role and assessment of (English) language in our own English medium courses.

Alongside Will at the helm of the CGE are Dr Sonia Morán Panero and Dr Ying Wang. All three of the team studied at Southampton and have gone on to undertake various roles within the institution leading them to CGE.

DR WILL BAKER

Having completed an undergraduate degree and a Master’s at the University of Bristol and the University of Leicester respectively, Will came to Southampton in 2005 and undertook a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Immediately prior to this, he taught at Silpakorn University in Thailand for four years.

“My time teaching in Thailand set me in perfect stead for my PhD, examining intercultural communication and English as a lingua franca among university students in Thailand,” he said.

“Alongside studying for my PhD, I worked at the University as a language tutor. I then joined the staff in Modern Languages and Linguistics in 2009 as a teaching fellow. This felt like a natural progression and was the next step towards my goal of becoming a lecturer.”

Will achieved that goal in 2011 and began lecturing in Applied Linguistics.

“In 2019 when the founding director of the CGE, Professor Jennifer Jenkins, retired I was honoured to take up the directorship,” he said. “The Centre is a national and international focal point for intercultural research, and as such we spearhead many innovative research projects and programmes.

“We are a hub for PhD students wanting to study in this area, and this is an element to our work which I am particularly proud of and involved in as I myself was a Southampton PhD student.”

DR YING WANG

Having completed an English degree at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Ying came to the UK and undertook a Master’s at King’s College London.

She said: “While at King’s I worked with Professor Jennifer Jenkins. I found her an inspirational colleague and when she moved to the University of Southampton, I went with her and undertook a PhD here in Modern Languages.

“On completion of that I decided to return to China to take up the role of Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at China Three Gorges University. I was keen to put my PhD studies to use and very much enjoyed teaching and researching. I went on to establish the Centre for Global Englishes at Three Gorges University, to collaborate with CGE at Southampton.”

In 2015 an opportunity arose for Ying to return to Southampton as a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Global Englishes within the CGE.

“I decided to come back to Southampton because the department offers a resourceful research environment, and the Centre provides inspirations that have kept broadening my research horizons,” she added.

DR SONIA MORÁN PANERO

Hailing from Spain and having obtained an undergraduate degree at the Universidad de Salamanca, Sonia came to the University of Southampton in 2009 to complete a Master’s in Applied Linguistics.

She said: “The reason I chose to come to Southampton was because of the strong Master’s offer in the Modern Languages and Linguistics department, their reputation in Applied Linguistics, and my previous positive learning experience as an Erasmus student in the UK.

“My Master’s led on to my PhD, and during my studies I was very fortunate to be a research assistant on several projects at the University. For instance, I collaborated in a study on ‘English as a lingua franca in the international university’. Another project was one known as LANG-SNAP that explored ‘Languages and social networks abroad’. I was also a teaching assistant during this period.

“Being a research and teaching assistant whilst studying for my PhD was so important because it meant I obtained valuable collaborative skills and a wealth of knowledge on research methodologies and pedagogical strategies.”

On completing her studies, Sonia secured a role at the University first as a teaching fellow and then as a lecturer and key member of the CGE team.

“The great thing about the team at CGE is that we come from all over the world and bring diverse first-hand experience and perspectives to our study of the use of English as a lingua franca,” she said.

Whilst working for the Centre, Sonia co-led an Impact Case Study (ICS) for REF2021 with Emeritus Professor Jennifer Jenkins, which traced evidence of international impact emerging from CGE research.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to learn about how our work is transcending academic circles, reaching ‘real world’ English users and educators, and leading to change in English-medium-instruction institutions around the world,” added Sonia. “For instance, after engaging with CGE research, many educators reported to have shifted their views on diverse English uses they used to dismiss as erroneous before. Some told us they even transformed their assessment criteria and learning objectives to prioritise successful content expression and communicative competence over narrowly defined linguistic correctness.

“Others changed their own language use to be more intelligible, and some institutions developed Global Englishes informed English-medium-instruction training for their staff. Participants in the ICS also reported direct benefits such as increased student participation and selfconfidence”.

THE MAIN AIMS AND FOCUS OF THE CENTRE FOR GLOBAL ENGLISHES

• To produce, support and disseminate research on the linguistic and sociocultural dimensions of global uses, usages, and users of English (i.e., Global Englishes), and on English as a lingua franca in particular.

• To explore the implications of such research and develop new conceptualisations of English language and communication.

• To investigate, evaluate, promote, and influence conceptions and applications of English in academic settings, including a strong focus on internationalisation in Higher Education.

• To provide a forum for knowledgesharing and collaboration with other interested researchers and research centres around the world, as well as with those not directly involved in researching the field but interested in learning more about it.

Find out more southampton.ac.uk/cge