English as an Academic Lingua Franca in Denmark: – a pilot study of student–student interaction

Beskrivelse

Danish higher education is currently undergoing a process of internationalization, and one of the consequences of this process is that English is gaining ground as a lingua franca at universities and other institutions of higher education. So far, we know very little about what characterizes this particular use of English as an academic lingua franca. In my PhD project, I address this issue by investigating aspects of how English is used as a lingua franca in undergraduate student–student interactions within the humanities at Roskilde University, RU. The data for the project consist of a number of video recorded study group meetings. Apart from ELF interactions recorded at RU, the data comprise meetings where Danish and English are used as first languages. In my investigation I focus specifically on modal verbs and epistemic and evidential adverbs. I compare their use and function in the ELF interactions to their use and function in the Danish and English native speaker interactions. In this paper, I will present some of my methodological considerations in relation to the comparative nature of the project as well as some of my preliminary findings.

Periode	6 mar. 2008
Begivenhedstitel	The First International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Helsinki, Finland