Expanding the English as an International Language paradigm from different native language perspectives

Abstract

The present paper aims at expanding the English as an International Language (EIL) paradigm and providing new insights into the current status and role of EIL.1 The main focus of the study is on information structuring (IS) in dialogic speech events to show how IS affects the use of particular constructions, namely it-clefts, wh-cleft and topicalisation (left dislocation) which seem to show higher frequency in EIL than in standard English (Biber et al. 1998). For the purpose of this preliminary study, samples of spoken ELF data including private dialogues and academic discussions were selected from the VOICE (Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English) to investigate left-right asymmetries in EIL interactions, which is an area still lacking of attention with respect to lexical and other phrasal phenomena.