University of Iceland

School of Humanities
Department of English

Language of social media

Examination of English as a Lingua Franca in social media

B.A. Essay in English

Jóhann Daníel Jimma

Kt.: 040686-2749

Supervisor: Erlendína Kristjásson

May 2017
 Abstract

International communications have always relied on a Lingua Franca an

intermediary language, to serve as a bridge to mediate understanding between
individuals with diverse cultural and language background. With the arrival of social
media in 1995 with the appearance of Ebay, has resulted in an amplified need for a
Lingua Franca. Since then, social media has grown into a global phenomenon that has
billions of individuals partake in various media services available to them. Due to how
wide spread social media has become, it allows members of numerous cultures and
languages to interact with each other on a daily basis. This leads to the need for a
Lingua Franca to be used to overcome various language barriers that would form in
communications of such scope. The language used as a Lingua Franca will vary. But
more often than not, the language chosen for that role will be the one of the country
with the strongest economic presences. In modern time, the United States of America
has that possession. As a result, their mother tongue English had been a dominant
Lingua Franca even before emergence of social media. Therefore, as social media
spread around the globe so did the influence of English as a Lingua Franca and the need
to use English. Allowing the presence of English to grow even stronger.
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................... 1

Definition of Lingua Franca ................................................................................. 2

English as a Lingua Franca ................................................................................... 3

What is social media ............................................................................................. 7

Language usage in social media ........................................................................... 9

ELF and social media ......................................................................................... 11

ELF in social media – a study............................................................................. 14

Method ............................................................................................................ 14

Participants ..................................................................................................... 15

Results............................................................................................................. 15

Discussion ....................................................................................................... 21

Concerns about ELF and conclusion of the study .......................................... 24

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 25

Works cited ......................................................................................................... 27

Introduction

The difficulties created by the differences in cultures, languages and locations,

have made global communications problematic. When interacting with members of
different cultures for the purpose of business, pleasure, tourism or education would
present challenging situations for communications. These interactions would often be
problematic due to language barriers, even more so for people in the remotest places,
who had even less contact with speakers of a different language. They would have the
hardest of times just ensuring basic communications. During these instances, an
intermediary language or Lingua Franca as it is known, would often be used for this
purpose. The language that would be elected for this purpose would be the one of the
country with the strongest and largest economic presence in the modern world. In the
present historical context, the country would be the United States of America (Berns,
2009; Seidlhofer, 2011). English, the mother tongue of the U.S.A, has the leading status
of languages that serve as a Lingua Franca. What is more, the English language has
occupied this role since the end World War 2. Due to the expanded economy and
political influence of the U.S.A from that time, maintaining that role even to modern
day (Phillipson, 2012). This role is even further enforced due to the advances in modern
communication technologies that have led to the possibility of interaction between
people from distant countries with different linguistic and cultural background. These
advances in communications have given way to what is referred to as social media.
Which included web serves such as: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and online gaming.
Where distances are reduced to a click, and people from anywhere in the world can
interact with one and another. In addition to this, English as the Lingua Franca that is
used for communications in social media, business and in education around the world,
in order to secure its command among the highest possible number of people. This
ensures that no one is left out of the collective dialogue happening in the global village
that the world is becoming (Berns, 2012; Jenkins et al, 2011). This essay will discuss
English as a Lingua Franca, giving particular attention to its predominant use on social
media and the reasons behind it. At the same time, there will be an attempt to establish

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the effects that the use of English as Lingua Franca by speakers of other languages has
on the English language itself.

Definition of Lingua Franca

The world is a home of a vast number of countries and even greater amount of
languages. This diversity of languages would often result in to what is referred to as a
language barrier, a type of blockage due to the incapacity to understand a speaker of
another language. That barrier is one of the major hurdles to overcome when it comes to
international relations in the fields of politics and economy. In current times, mainly
thanks to technological advancements, the encounters between people of different
linguistic backgrounds has become more frequent. This has created an even greater
necessity to overcome the language barriers associated with such types of exchanges.
As the demand to resolve the problems associated with the language barrier grew more
evident, there was a need to create an alternative language to favour mutual
understanding, such as a pidgin dialect, or the adoption of an already existing language.
The resource to the latter solution originated what is known as Lingua Franca: an
intermediary language used by speakers of different language backgrounds (Seidlhofer,
2005; Berns, 2012).

The term Lingua Franca was first used during the middle ages, as a way to
describe the pidgin that developed from interactions between French and Italian
crusaders of that time (Mufwene, 2008). Since then, the definition of Lingua Franca has
changed to the umbrella term that it has in modern times. It is important to note
however, that a Lingua Franca is not just a pidgin or a third language that is used for the
sake of communication, it can also be the language of one of the persons that are having
the discourse at the time. For example, if people of Norwegian, German and Chinese
origins are having a conversation where they are all speaking German. Even though
there in the conversation there is someone who has German as his native language, the
Lingua Franca is still German. Even though there is someone in the group whose native
language is German, the Lingua Franca is still German. That is because the other two
parties in the conversation have different native tongues and are using German as an
intermediary language to secure communication (Berns, 2012). The essential aspect to
take into consideration is that, when people with different mother tongues interact, they

2
speak with one and another using an intermediary language. That intermediary language
that is used as a tool for communication is Lingua France. It is through the use of
Lingua Franca that the relations between different countries and peoples are maintained.
In the modern world, where communications occur in such an instant manner, the
understanding of the phenomenon behind Lingua Franca has assumed an even more
relevant position. When it comes to the selection of the language used as Lingua Franca,
people tend to choose a language that is more widely used, recognized and known. In
practice, the country with the strongest economy, tends to have its language used as
Lingua Franca (Seidlhofer, 2011). It is somehow natural that other countries will adopt
the language of the dominating country to establish communication, create and reinforce
relations. In addition to this, there will be the need to teach this language as a part of an
official educational program, in order to insure its diffusion and command. In short, that
is how the rise and diffusion of Lingua Franca occurs. Currently, the language most
widely used as Lingua Franca in matters of business, education and leisure, is English
(Berns, 2012; Jenkins, 2009; Seidlhofer, 2005).

English as a Lingua Franca

Nowadays, English is the most widely used Lingua Franca in international

communication. The strongest reason behind this prevalence is related to the economic
pre-eminence of the United States of America (U.S.A.). There are, however, other
factors behind the pervasiveness of English as a Lingua Franca. Among these, is the
predominance in terms of dimensions and power that the British Empire occupied from
the 16th century until the end of the Second World War. During almost 400 years,
English was the mother tongue of a powerful country and a great Empire, being used for
the daily communication both inside and outside of their borders (Berns, 2009). Thanks
to that, it had ample time and opportunity to establish its foot hold as the dominating
Lingua Franca (Jenkins, 2009; Seidlhofer, 2011). The criteria that is used to determine
whether conversations carried out in English represent instances of Lingua Franca is the
circular model defined by Braj B. Kachru (Seidlhofer, 2011). Kachru defines English
speakers is into three categories or circles of English users: Inner circle, outer circle and
expanding circle. These circles are applied to the country of origin of speakers to
determine their place as users of English. Speakers of the inner circle are the ones that

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are referred to as 'native' speakers, they come from countries that are known to have
English as their mother tongue like U.S.A, United Kingdom (U.K) or Canada, among
others. The members of the outer circle are from countries that were former British
Colonies during the time of the British empire, such as India, Nigeria and the
Philippines. The inhabitants of these countries are users of English as a Second
Language. Countries outside of these circles fall under the expanding circle. They are
countries such as Russia, Japan and Iceland, where English is taught as foreign language
(Kachru, 2007).

Table 1: Kachru’s Circles

Inner Circle (Native) Outer Circle (Second Expanding Circle (Foreign

language) language)
Australia. Canada, New Former British colonies e.g. Russia, Japan, Iceland,
Zealand, U.K, U.S.A. (India, Kenya, Tanzania). Egypt, Peru and more.

According to Kachru’s definition of native and non-native speakers, it is clear

that native speakers are vastly out-numbered by non-native ones. In modern times,
where the use of English is on a rise, due to the increasing contact between people of
different origins, the language has almost naturally assumed the role of Lingua Franca.
However, Kachru’s circles don't take into consideration the complex language
environments. For instance, when a child that is born to a Canadian family, where both
parents are Canadian and speak English, but they are living in Denmark when the child
is born. According to the Kachru’s circles, the child is a member of the expanding circle
even though it should be considered a native speaker of the language because of its
family being Canadian. Therefore, the determination of nativity of the child with the
concept of L1 and L2 speakers would be better suited for this situation (Jenkins, 2006).
Speakers of L1 and L2 are identified by the manner in which they learn to speak a
language rather than considering where they are from. Speakers of L1 are referred to as
'native speakers', and they learn speak a language before they learn to read and write it.
Speakers of L2 are the ones that learn it at the same time or after they learnt to read and
write, they are referred to as ‘non-native speakers’ (Norton, 2000). With this definition
in mind, the number of native English speakers should increase. The reason behind

4
using this newer model, is that the exposure to English is far greater than in previous
times. A fair number of children are starting to pick up spoken English much quicker
than they did before. Consequently, when they finally start to learn the language in a
formal environment, they already have a firm grasp of vocabulary and grammar before
they learn to read and write (Jenkins, 2006; Norton,2000).

Table 2: L1, L2 Model

L1 Learners (Native) L2 Learners (Non-native)

Learn to speak the language before they Learn to speak the language at the same
learn to read it time or after learning to read it

Currently, Kachru's model is more used when determining English speakers’

nativity to the language. As people from the inner circle countries have English as their
mother tongue, it would seem correct to assume that they have a much better
understanding of both the evolution and changes that are occurring in the language. That
would justify the assumption that, in a way, speakers that are included in the inner
circle, might feel as custodians of the language and that they should be the judges of
what constitutes its correct usage, taking on a sort of prescriptive role. However, those
notions are nothing but that. In fact, the changes that are occurring in the English
Language are happening at such a pace, that sometimes, it is difficult to know whether
there we should be speaking of English as a unit or of ‘Englishes’ as the set of different
strands or dialects that share the communicative space around the world (Berns, 2009).
Due to a growing globalization and a need to shorten the distances through a common
tool for communication, the use of English as ELF is far greater than before (Berns,
2012). This facilitates a greater interaction between speakers that would be originally
divided into different instances of Kachru’s language circles, and whose native
languages would undoubtedly affect their use of the English language and influence its
evolution (Jenkins et al, 2011; Berns, 2009; Dewey, 2007).

Technological advances in communication are additionally contributing to the

increasing influx of speakers to the language. These advances have led to the emergence
of what is known as social media, leading to a greater exposition of people from

5
different countries to the English Language. This phenomenon leads to an increase in
the use of English as Lingua Franca in order to surpass the communicational barriers
between people of different linguistic backgrounds. This also originates a larger
proficiency in the use of English among people who were not born in English speaking
countries, calling the notion of 'native' users of English into question (Dewey, 2007;
Page et al, 2014). The L1, L2 model, which will be mentioned in this dissertation when
referring to individuals as native speakers of English, is more up to date and therefore
could be considered more relevant in that regard. Kachru’s model will be used when
referring to a nations’ native tongue. Even though bilingualism, rather than the
apprenticeship of a single mother tongue, is becoming a more common phenomenon in
current times. However, these bilingual speakers are not considered native English
speakers, because they are born in countries where the mother tongue is not English.
This difference will be important later on in this discussion. When it comes to ELF
discussions, it is important to note how speakers view themselves. There are speakers
that view themselves as native speakers even though they have never set foot in an inner
circle country. The amount of exposure to English media through television, music and
material on the internet, has resulted in the increase of speakers from the outer and
expanding circle countries. Many of them achieve native-like speaking fluency before
they even learn the alphabet. This, in turn, promotes more consumption of media, which
results in even more English exposure. It is this exposure to English in media and the
ease of access to it that has resulted in Kachru's model not being sufficient when
discussing ELF, as it does not address matters such as bi or multilingualism (Iaia, 2016;
Phillipson, 2008).

Multilingualism is important when it comes to ELF interactions, especially in

the case of social media, which has a great congregative capacity as it facilitates
communication between a great number of people from different linguistic origins. This
increased interaction has users of all ages talking to one another. While the users from
older generations are more likely to be mono-lingual, the younger ones that are born
after 2000 are more likely to be bilingual due to their greater exposure to English and
the need they have to use it in their daily lives (Kelly-Holmes & Pietikäinen, 2012).
Until 2005, when the online service know as Facebook was lunched, people’s
interaction with each other via social media escalated greatly. This, of course, has made

6
it much easier for ELF instances to occur, Furthermore, the use of ELF has been on the
rise thanks to other forms of social media such as blogging, news and online video
games. Nevertheless, none of these forms had the same explosive effect that Facebook
had when it came to bringing people into contact with one another. That is why it is
important to properly explain what social media is, and reflect on its different forms
(Dewey, 2007; Iaia, 2016; Kelly-Holmes and Pietikäinen, 2012).

What is social media

The term social media, functions as an umbrella term that includes internet
based sites and services that function for or promote social interactions between
individuals that use them as an important part of their interpersonal communication
(Page et al, 2014). Social media in its current form began its development in the 1980s,
under the forms of bulletin board system (BBS), UseNet and Internet relay chat. These
services, while not referred to as social media, are considered as their modern form
precursors. What is more specifically referred to as social media is the range of tools
that started to appear in the 1990s. One of the first sites that came out in 1995 was eBay.
In 1997, the term web log, which was coined by Jorn Barger and was later shortened to
blog by Peter Merholz, came to light. However, services that would use these names
first appeared in 1999 with the arrival of Live Journal and blogger.com. The next seven
years saw the rise of multiple services that are commonly used in the present, such as
Wikipedia and Trip advisor, in 2001. Then, in 2003, Skype and Word Press made their
debut. After that, in 2004, Facebook, which is arguably the most widespread and used
service in social media, was launched. In 2005, YouTube came to existence, and the
following year a service named Twitter began to operate. The arrival of two data file
formats: one for audio files, named mp3 and a flash software plug-in for web browsers,
which allowed videos to be played much more easily in web browsers is what made
these sites and services possible. With these two data file formats, users are allowed to
create and share digital animation and audio resources more easily. This is, in short, is
what lead the internet from being a mostly a text based medium to the assumption of its
modern and interactive format (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Page et al, 2014).

Since the arrival of eBay, social media gained many different forms and
functions that aim to fulfil the types of services that the users seek, such as forums,

7
blogs, wikis, content sharing and virtual worlds. However, these are merely a few
examples of all the different types of services that are available to users, as many social
media services often merge forms or group them together. It is this inherent versatility
that social media possesses that makes it so appealing to users. It is also the reason
behind the daily increase of its clients. Currently, social media is divided into three
categories:

Table 3: Three Categories of social media

Communications Collaboration Multimedia

Blogs, Social Nets Wikis, Social News Streaming, Videos, Virtual

Worlds

These categories were defined by Cann, Dimitriou and Hooley in their booklet: social
media: A Guide for Researchers (Cann et al, 2011). When people use social media, they
use the service that they require. For example, services that fall under the
Communications category, which includes services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter that are used by people to maintain connections and relations. If, on the other
hand, people would feel the need to express themselves, they would use online journals,
which have come to be known as Blogs, such as LiveJournal, WordPress and Blogger.
Collaboration services are diverse, as they can serve multiple purposes, for example,
Wikipedia or Wikis, which is a site for any user to collect, add or edit content using a
web browser. As a part of this category, there are also social news sites such as
Newsvine and Reddit, that allow anyone that signs up for their services to spread news
that they feel are noteworthy. Finally, there are Multimedia services, which are often
connected to entertainment services such as video sharing sites like YouTube and
Vimeo. Streaming sites like Twitch, which has users broadcast live content from their
computers, are also included in this category. The content originated in streaming can
include anything from playing a game to what is known as a podcast, which is
somewhat similar to a radio show, with the difference that it can also be used to
showcase videos as well. The final category of the Multimedia branch of social media is
virtual worlds. This category includes online video game playing, and it can be referred

8
to what is known as massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), such
as, World of Warcraft, Everquest or Final Fantasy 14. Additionally, there are games
which are competitive in their nature, such as Counter Strike: Global offensive and
Overwatch, which all belong to the first person shooting genre. There are also those
referred to as Massive Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs), including games such as League
of Legends (LoL), and Defence of the Ancients 2 (DOTA2) (Cann et al, 2011; Iaia,
2016).

Language usage in social media

It is important to keep in mind that these different types of media vary from
service to service. This discrepancy affects the way in which people speak and depends
on the purpose of their interactions, as there is a difference in the way people
communicate within games or how they do it on Facebook, for example. Facebook
users can post their messages allowing a broader audience to access them or use private
messengers (PM) when they wish to establish a more personal type of communication.
In the case of games, however, communication tends to be a lot faster as it takes place
in real time. Another example of modern day online interaction is Twitter, which
follows a similar system for communication to Facebook. Nevertheless, Twitter is
mostly used for a quicker reading and writing of messages, allowing the use of a limited
character space. Facebook messages, on the other hand, can be much longer, reaching a
different degree of depth. These limitations have a direct influence on the manner in
which people address each other. Services often mix methods of communication to suit
the needs of people that are using them, and securing their customers. While YouTube
is primarily a video media site, it also has a message board-style comment system which
has no limitations in terms of length. In this section, different users carry out a
discussion about the content of the video, reply to questions asked by the creator of the
video or about other topics related to the video. There are also users who engage in
discussion about different subjects or personal interests. In addition to this, sites such as
Facebook and Twitter allow content from other services as, for example, YouTube and
Reddit, to be ether linked or shared in the users’ posts or messages. It is this ability to
mix services and share them that brings so many users to social media. What is more,
users of social media come from all over the world, each bringing their own

9
backgrounds and cultures in to the mix (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Kelly-Holmes &
Pietikäinen, 2012).

With such a global user basis, social media becomes a melting pot of languages
used in different manners and for different purposes. This has resulted in the creation of
an alternate dialect that, with its immediacy, favours real-time communication as, for
instance, the acronyms that are used in instant messages. Examples of these acronyms
would be expressions such as LOL, which means to laugh out loud. One of the oldest
acronyms used on the internet, LOL it is often used to convey the message that the user
found the subject of the conversation funny. Its first use was simply due to the feeling
that writing the full sentence took too long. At around the same time, peer to peer chat
services were gaining more use in main stream communications, which increased the
popularity of its use. Likewise, many other language groups developed their own
acronyms to express the same meaning as LOL. In Japan, for instance, people use two
or more w to signify laughter. In Russia, people use XAXA and JAJAJA in Spanish
speaking countries. In some linguistic contexts, people abandon the use of the alphabet
altogether, such as in Thailand where 555 is used for expressing amusement (Carter et
al. 2013; Kelly-Holmes & Pietikäinen, 2012). Online language usage is full of these
types of acronyms, along other methods to address a subject or call attention to
something. An example of this phenomenon is Hashtagging. Hashtagging uses the
hashtag symbol # to draw attention to an action or subject that people feel that should be
paid attention to on social media. By Hashtagging an image or a reference to an event,
people actually succeed in creating trends on social media. Because it uses a symbol
rather than a shortening of a sentence, hashtagging tends to be used in the same manner
in various languages. These types of phenomena are occurring in various languages that
are used in social media, creating a sort of dialectic comprehension among users along
the lines of a Lingua Franca. However, these are mostly bound to written languages as it
lacks the auditory features of spoken dialog. At the same time, there are services that
offer online voice chat and also allow for the use video cameras for face to face
dialogue, such as Skype and Discord. Nevertheless, the majority of online interactions
takes place in written format. Due to either time, word or character limitations,
acronyms and other various referencing methods are increasing in their numbers and
usage in online communication (Iaia, 2016).

10
 According to what has been previously mentioned, acronyms are often used in
online communications. This is the reason why, when it comes to ELF interactions in
social media, people will more likely associate the acronyms that are used in their own
language to those used in English, and make an ample use of them during the
conversations that they will establish. This will also affect their capacity to get the
message across to their interlocutors, depending on the misunderstandings that can
emerge due to the wrong use of acronyms. This is often a problem when using social
media in real-time conversations or in the case of immediate exchanges of words during
the use of online games. In both these cases, communications take place at a high speed,
resulting in the need for the users to rapidly summarise their thoughts. The positive
outcome of their interactions will greatly depend on their command of the English
language. More often than not, the necessity of recurring to acronyms during a fast-
paced discussion leads users from different linguistic backgrounds to default to their
native languages’ acronyms. That, in turn, can lead to communication problems,
converting the use of acronyms into a liability when it comes to the use of English as
Lingua Franca (Iaia, 2016; Kelly-Holmes & Pietikäinen, 2012).

ELF and social media

As discussed earlier, social media is a global phenomenon on a scale thus far

unknow in history. The amount of countries and people that are in contact with one
another at any given moment is ever increasing thanks to modern technology.
Examination of the user statistics of Facebook and Instagram helps understanding how
global this is. According Kaplan and Haenlein: since its launch in 2004, Facebook has
grown to 175 million active users by the year 2009 (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Furthermore, according to Facebooks company info, the number of daily users that
engaged in the sites’ services during December 2016 reached 1.23 billion on average.
With 85,2% of activities taking place outside North America
(“https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/”). Further reinforcement of this notion is the
user statistics of Instagram services. Which reached 700 million active users in April
2017 since starting its’ services in 2010, with 80% of those users being outside the
U.S.A (“https://instagram-press.com/blog/2017/04/26/700-million/”; Parker, 2016). As
social media brings people from different countries together, it is safe to assume that

11
these people will also bring their linguistic and cultural backgrounds with them into the
communicational situations. Therefore, if and when these languages clash, obstructing
the dialogue that is taking place, the most common solution is to search for an
alternative means to secure communication. This is where Lingua Franca comes in. In
the present time, this function is occupied by English, the most commonly used
language for global relations of personal and political exchange. According to what has
already been mentioned, English already occupied a strong position as Lingua Franca
due to the privileged economic position of the U.S.A, which was reinforced by the
widespread of American culture promoted by the export of the national entertainment
industry. These factors have contributed to an emerging necessity of the command of a
minimal degree of proficiency in the use of the English language in order to reach at
least a basic understanding of the surrounding realities. Additionally, the increase of
international travel for business, education and leisure, along with the diffusion of the
use of the internet, has had a determining influence in the popularization of the use of
English in international situations of communication. It is due to this increase in the
reduction of real and virtual distances between inhabitants of a growingly globalized
world that the odds of using English as a Lingua Franca have exponentially increased
along with the risks of miscommunication associated with this phenomenon (Berns,
2012; Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Cann et al, 2011).

When considering the use of English on a global scale, it is preferable to recur to

the term ‘native speaker’ according to the connotation that it is given in Kachru's
English circles. The need for non-inner circles members to use English is greater, as
they need to process the knowledge that is available to them online at the same time that
it will allow them to understand and enjoy the sources of entertainment that they are
being offered. They can also establish a meaningful contact with other people, thus
promoting their inclusion into society. In this sense, social media has made it even
easier for people to conduct their communicative interactions according to their needs
and desires. Moreover, social media’s adaptability and reach makes it an ideal ground
for ELF interaction to happen. A progressively satisfying experience has, in its turn,
originated the users’ demand for better and more effective resources, thus contributing
to the development and modernization of the available services. In order to reach greater
audiences, the creators of these services must also consider the most effective means of

12
communication for their purpose, which has been shown to be the use of English as a
Lingua Franca. It is this need to communicate and be understood that keeps on elevating
English as the world’s most used Lingua Franca. The rate in which social media is used
makes for a proportional increase of the users of the English Language. Against all
odds, there are still users who do their best to use as little English as they can. However,
they are outnumbered by those who do use English, which make a growing effort to
increase their proficiency in the use of the language (Berns, 2012; Kelly-Holmes &
Pietikäinen, 2012). This phenomenon also has a direct relation to the younger
generations. The children who were born after the year 2000, the so-called millennials,
have almost been brought up using social media. This has resulted in the younger
generations of speakers belonging to the outer and expanding circles having greater
English skills than those of their precedents (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

As mentioned earlier, while the circles model is good when considering the
speakers’ nativity in term of the use of the English Language on a global scale, the L1,
L2 classification is more effective when it comes to individual classification. However,
there is another factor that has a strong influence on ELF, and that is how people view
themselves. Quite frequently, members of the outer and expanding circles do not view
themselves as native speakers. Additionally, they are often unaware of the L1 and L2
model, as it is a more recent and not well known method to determine if a speaker is a
native user of the language. Another issue is that the circles model is only used for
English, while the L1, L2 model can be used for any language. Nevertheless, with
number of young speakers of English on the rise, and due to their different and complex
circumstances, it is becoming clear that the circles model is becoming outdated, mainly
because it is too general. Thanks to social media, the younger members of the English-
speaking communities from the inner circle are outnumbered by the outer and
expanding circle members. They often achieve a level of fluency quite close to that of a
native speaker. However, due to the fact that their native country is not an English
speaking one, and their mother tongue is not English, these speakers will often regard
themselves as non-native, disregarding matters such as bi or multilingualism. The
reason why social media leads to children achieving a native like proficiency as
speakers is due to ELF occurrences in social medias. Children often use social media for
entertainment, watching videos on YouTube, using Facebook and Twitter, and playing

13
online video games. All these serve as a source of entertainment for them and often
require them to have some form of ELF communication, for example, when playing
video games, they use the games’ in-built voice chat which leads them to exercise their
English-speaking skills. Likewise, YouTube videos serve as a method for them to listen
to English speakers and build up their vocabulary. In the case of Facebook and Twitter,
users practice their reading and writing skills. When confronted to such situations, it is
necessary to rethink what is the definition of a native speaker of English. When
considering the qualities of a native speaker, linguists must also consider the tools and
resources that have been added to a speaker’s ability to communicate and acquire
English thanks to social media. Even more so when considering the ELF interactions
and discussions that take place thanks to the use of these services (Boyd & Ellison,
2007; Iaia, 2016; Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

ELF in social media – a study

The discussion will now move to the subject of the use ELF in social media.
According to what has already been established, the transition of ELF to social media is
a natural result of its status as the dominant Lingua Franca (Iaia, 2016). Nevertheless,
finding data on people’s language usage in social media proved itself a difficult task.
Therefore, an online survey was conducted from 21- 26th March 2017 in order gather
data on the use of ELF in social media.

Method

The survey was created by using Google forms and contained 16 questions
which were divided in to 3 main sections. First was general information, age, gender,
country of birth and residence were asked along with language speaking ability. The
second section covered social media usage. In this section, it was asked which social
media services were used, how often per week they were used and information about
online gaming was gathered. The last section was used to gather correlation data on
respondents’ language usage in social media with the prime focus on English usage.
The questions were in regard to which language they mainly used in social media, and
whether they used English when interacting with a person who has a different native
language than they did. Attitudes towards English as a Lingua Franca in social media

14
and views of English’s position as the main Lingua Franca in social media were also
covered. It is important to note that none of the questions were mandatory to answer so
the subjects would not feel uncomfortable, in case they encounter a question that they
felt was inappropriate. The survey was distributed through Facebook and Discord text
chat. Participants were asked to share the survey on Facebook or spread it through
Discord. It was allowed to be answered and shared for one weeks’ time, after which it
was closed to new responses.

Participants

The survey was anonymous and was conducted in English. This was done due to
the nature of the subject at hand, and in hopes of gathering responses from a diverse
group of individuals from different national backgrounds. The most crucial factors
would be to have an understanding of written English and that participants used social
media. This resulted in a total of 86 participants from 15 different countries. 59 (68.6%)
were female while 27 (31,4%) were male. The participants were of various age groups
with 41+ years old being the most numerous with 27 (31,8%) followed by 25 to 30 old
with 20 (23.5%) of participants. The third group was 19 to 24 years old that had 16
(18.8%) followed by 31 to 35 age group that had 8 (9.4%). The two smallest age groups
were 36 to 40 and 10 to 18 years old both groups had 7 (8,2%) respondents each. It is
important to note that not all of the participants answered every question, therefore there
will be some fluctuation in the numbers presented.

Results

All of the respondents answered about their country of birth: 41(47,7%) of them
were from native English speaking countries, while 45 (52,3%) of them were born in
outer and expanding circle countries. The second most numerous country represented
was Iceland, with 29 (33,7%) respondents. Germany occupied the third position as the
country of origin of the respondents with 4 (4,7%) people of German nationality.
However, only 37 (44,6%) of the respondents were residing in an English-speaking
country. Three of the respondents preferred not to answer.

15
 Chart 1: Respondents country of birth and residence base on Kachru’s circles

Respondents country of birth and residence base on

Kachru’s circles

60

47 49
50
38 37
40

30

20

10
1 0
0
Inner Circle Expanding Circle Outer Circle
Native 38 47 1
Resident 37 49 0

The participants were also asked about their language skills, that is what was
their native languages and which languages they could communicate in, only one of
them did not answer the question on native language. The list of native languages in the
question slot were Chinese, Danish, English, France, Icelandic, Japanese, Norwegian,
Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Other. Among the participants, 41 (48,2%) stated that
their native language was English, with Icelandic coming up as the second highest
among the answers, at 30 (35,3%). The results for ‘other’, with 10 (11%) participants,
stood at third place, with languages such as German, Dutch and Russian. The rest of the
languages had 1 or 2 respondents each, sharing a 1(1.2%) and 2 (2,4%) among the
participants. Only Danish and Chinese were left without results. The survey also
inquired about what languages the respondents could speak, with 76 (91,6%) answering
English. Icelandic came second, with 32 (38,6) and Other was third with 24 (28,9%)
participants. However, this was a multiple-choice survey. Therefore, many participants
answered with more than one option. The languages that were presented as options were
the same as those contained in the question that identified the respondents’ native
languages.

16
 Chart 2: Language capabilities

Language capabilities
140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
Icelandi Japanes Norweg Portugu
Chinese Danish English France Spanish Polish Other
c e ian ese
Spoken 0 20 76 13 32 8 7 21 1 2 24
Native 0 0 41 1 30 2 1 2 1 2 10

After the collection of general information and data concerning language

knowledge, information regarding social media usage was gathered. The first question
inquired about the media services that the participants used. This was also a multiple-
choice, and the sites asked about were: DeviantArt, Facebook, Google+, Instagram,
Myspace, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube and Other. The most used media site by the
respondents was Facebook with 79 (91,9%) participants, after which appeared YouTube
with 56 (65,1%) and Instagram 47 (54,7%). Myspace had the least amount of votes,
with only 1 (1.2%) participant. Data on the frequency with which they used these
services was also collected, with most of the participants: 20 (23,3%), answering 6 to10
hours a week. After that, came 1 to 5 and 21+ hours per week, with both options sharing
18 (20,9%) respondents each. Finally, 16 (18,6%) participants answered 11 to 15 hours
and, in last place appeared 14 (16,3%) respondents with a 16 to 20 hour of weekly time
of use. It is important to note that all participants answered this question. It was also
asked if they played any online video games and 47 (55,3%) participants answered that
they did not. Among the remaining participants, 17 (20%) responded affirmatively, as
13 (15,3%) answered that they played video games sometimes. Finally, Yes, rarely
yielded the lesser results with only 8 (9,4%) respondents. This made up for a total of 38

17
(43,5%) participants who play video games online with a varying degree of regularity.
One of the respondents did not answer this question.

Chart 3: Social media usage

Social media usage

Facebook 79

Myspace 1

Google+ 13

Youtube 56

Twitter 41

DeviantArt 11

Instagram 47

Tumbler 16

Other 9

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

The participants who answered affirmatively when asked whether they played
video games were additionally asked to identify the games that they played. This was a
multiple-choice answer taken by 36 of the respondents. That means that only 2 among
the 38 that had previously declared to play video games did not answer this question.
The options presented were the following: Counter Strike, DOTA 2, Final Fantasy 14,
League of Legends, Star Craft 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and
Other. This time, Other had the most votes, with 19 (52,8%) respondents, with Final
Fantasy coming in second place, with 14 (66,6%) votes, and the third place being
occupied by Overwatch, with 7 (19,4%). The relevance of inquiring about what type of
game is played, as well as the specific game that is used has to do with how
communication takes place during these games. Additionally, some of these games also
have in-built voice chat, while others have a text based chat, which also influences the
manner in which players interact with one another.

The following question was about the language used in social media.
Participants were able to choose from the following languages: Chinese, Danish,

18
English, France, Icelandic, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and
Other. English came in first place, with 82 (96,5%) respondents claiming to use the
language when communicating through social media. It was followed by Icelandic, with
27 (37,6%) respondents and, in last place, the option of Other with 7 (8,2%) participants
choosing this answer. This was also a multiple-choice question, which was left
unanswered by only one of the participants. The next question inquired about the
importance of the command of the English language when interacting with people from
different linguistic backgrounds. This question was presented through the use of a scale
of 1 to 5, where 1 meant ‘not important’, and 5 meant ‘very important’. Among the
respondents, 39 (45,3%) chose very important, while 21 (24,4%) chose the ‘somewhat
important’. ‘Neutral’ came in third position, with 18 (20,9%) respondents choosing this
option. The choice indicating ‘not important’ only received 2 (2,3%) votes. It is
important to note that all respondents answered to this question.

Chart 4: Necessity for English in international communication

Participants were also asked whether they used English when interacting with
people whose native languages were different from their own. The participants that
responded divided their answers in the following manner: 81 (95,3%) said that they use
English when they interact with speakers of other languages, while only 4 (4,7%)
respondents answered negatively, with only one choosing not to answer. It was also

19
asked if any other language was used as a Lingua Franca, and only 10 participants
responded to that question. Among them, 4 (40%) said that they used Japanese as a
Lingua Franca, with 2 (20%) saying that they would prefer to use their interlocutor’s
native language, in case they knew it. In the next question, participants were asked
whether they felt that English was the main Lingua Franca used in social media around
the world. 77 (89,5%) participants answered English was the main Lingua Franca used
on social media, with only 9 (10,5%) negative answers.

Finally, the last question referred to the position of English as the main Lingua
Franca used on social media. The format of the answers was offered through the use of
a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 meant ‘not at all’, and 5 meant ‘very strong’. Among the
respondents, 47 (54,7%) answered 5 (very strong), followed by 4 (somewhat strong),
with 22 (25,6%) votes. 14 (16.3%) respondents chose 3 (neutral), while 1 (not at all)
only collected 2 (2,3%) votes. It is important to note that everyone responded to these
two questions

Chart 5: Is English the Lingua Franca of social media?

English is the main language used in Social Media ?

No
11%

Yes
89%
Yes No

20
Discussion

According to the data gathered from the survey, it becomes quite clear that an
overwhelming majority of the participants considers English as the Lingua Franca of
social media, with 77 out of 86 respondents offering a positive answer to this question.
What is more, the majority of the participants identified themselves as being either
bilingual or multilingual. Few respondents claimed to be monolingual, and those that
did identified themselves as native speakers of English. The participants that did not
agree with the claim that English is the most popular Lingua Franca in use, were often
from an English-speaking country themselves or resided in a country that does not
welcome the influence of the English language, such as Japan (Kelly-Holmes &
Pietikäinen, 2012). While it is understandable that countries such as Japan deny this
reality, it is curious to perceive that native English speakers also assume a similar
position. It is also interesting to note that the participants that did not agree with the fact
that English is the most popular Lingua Franca in use on social media are also the ones
that make the least use of the services related to it. These respondents were among those
that claimed to use social media during 1-5 hours on a weekly basis. Therefore, it could
be concluded that they simply did not spend enough time on media sites or services in
order to offer a satisfactory response. However, those who identified themselves as
native speakers and effectively spend more time on social media, as well as multilingual
speakers assumed a neutral position in reference to the predominance of the use of
English as Lingua Franca. The majority of the respondents also considered the
knowledge of English as an important factor when interacting with people with different
native languages, as is demonstrated in the data that was offered previously. The
interactions that occur in social media have, additionally been identified as taking place
for leisure or entertainment purposes. This is a typical aim of the majority of the
interactions that occur through social media (Iaia, 2016; Berns, 2012).

Frequently, the language that is used during these conversations is informal, as it

makes it easier for people with different levels of proficiency to find a common
understanding (Reed, 2015). This, in turn, would encourage people to use English more
often when interacting through social media, as they would feel less concern about
making mistakes. They would additionally, feel more at ease to express their thoughts
and emotions without the fear of breaking grammatical rules (Iaia, 2016; Boyd &

21
Ellison, 2007). It is, therefore, the urgent need to communicate, and to do so in an
effective manner, that prompts the users of social media to use a language that they feel
as more likely to be understood, this is where English comes in (Dewey, 2007). In
addition to this, the media service that is being used will also determine the form in
which these interactions take place. In the most popular services, such as Facebook and
YouTube, communication occurs mainly in the form of written messages or through the
use of audio-visual means, mainly videos that the users create and post online. In the
case of YouTube there is also the possibility of writing comments on the correspondent
sections offered for that purpose. These sites are well-known global phenomena, that
originate extensive networks which allow users from all over the world to connect with
each other and communicate in a very simple and practical manner. Additionally, the
great popularity of Facebook and YouTube, as well as their global diffusion, allow these
services to offer their websites in different languages. Therefore, this may lead certain
users to claim that the notion of English as Lingua Franca is not that accurate. This is
the case of the respondents who denied the claim that English is the predominantly used
Lingua Franca on social media. Two of these participants were from an English-
speaking country. However, the remaining participants that sustain this claim are from
countries such as Japan, Russia and Germany, where YouTube offers its services in
their native language, allowing them to upload their videos in their language of choice.
Therefore, the exposure to videos in English is significantly reduced and the users are
more likely to be exposed to material in their own language (Page et al, 2014).

As stated earlier, people often use social media for entertainment purposes.
Consequently, this influences the manner in which ELF communications take place.
While in media outlets such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, communication is
more informal and relaxed (Page et al, 2014; Berns, 2012), when it comes to virtual
world or streaming, it has the tendency to assume a faster and, therefore, more strenuous
pace. This happens as a consequence of the users’ need for a quicker reaction when it
comes to interacting with other users in a real-time context. This interaction takes place
under the form of text-based chats, and may work well within MMORPGs, such as
Final Fantasy 14 or World of Warcraft, where the activity is often much slower than in
most games, as it can take hours for a game to reach its conclusion. Sometimes,
however, players tend to resort to voice chat through the use of an external program,

22
such as Skype. The reason behind this is the necessity of a greater coordination among
the players in order to conclude the game at hand, which can only be achieved through
real-time voice conversations. On the other hand, in the case of games such as Counter
strike, Overwatch, and League of Legends, which often have their matches in smaller
time intervals that rarely surpass an hour, the communicational needs are quite different.
Often those games have in built voice chat that allows the players to directly speak to
one and another (Iaia, 2016). This is important keep in mind, when considering that
online games are played all over the world and often by players from different
countries. When users choose to play a video game online, after identifying the original
region where their connection is originated, the host server additionally asks them to
choose the language they want to use during their match. However, some servers do not
inquire about the preferred language and simply use English as their default language.
According to what has been stated earlier, most players are likely to use English when
addressing users of different languages. This confirms the data originated by the survey
that has been conducted, where 95,3% of the respondents claimed that they use English
when addressing speakers of different countries. As a consequence of the wide
popularity of English, it is also possible to affirm that people are more likely to
understand some of the language specific quirks, such as idiomatic expressions and
acronyms. The knowledge of these particularities of the language becomes even more
important when it comes to the use ELF in social media (Iaia, 2016). Non-native
English speakers are more likely to understand some English acronyms due to their
wide use in the social media services that they use. Consequently, these players are
likely to make a more frequent use of these acronyms in online games to be able to
insure a smooth pacing of the activities that they are engaging in (Carter et al, 2013;
Iaia, 2016).

The most meaningful conclusion to extract from the survey that was conducted
is that the majority of the respondents consider English to be the most widely used
Lingua Franca on social media. This is patent in the affirmative response given by
89,5% of participants, which confirms this notion.

23
Concerns about ELF and conclusion of the study

The widespread use of ELF across the globe, greatly thanks to the growing use
of social media, rises a series of concerns regarding the its possible effects on the
English language and its evolution (Berns, 2012; Carter, 2013; Jenkins, 2006;
Phillipson, 2008). To begin with, there are people who do not identify with the choice
of English as the ideal language of use for interactions on social media. This has been,
additionally, confirmed by the results of the survey. There is also the well-founded
concern of the influence of English loan words on the purity of a given native language,
and the changes that this phenomenon entails (Reed, 2015). Nevertheless, this has been
frequent occurrence in the history of the English Language. Very well know and widely
used words, such as Pizza, Pyjamas, Yoga and Jungle are loan words (Durkin, 2015). In
the case of social media, however, this phenomenon deserves greater attention due to
the wide and rapid scale in which it takes place. Because of social media, ELF
interactions happen more frequently than ever before. This occasion a greater incidence
of language contact, which in turn, leads to an increase in the use of loan words. The
advent of social media has facilitated this pervasion of loan words into the corpus of
different languages, leading to the aforementioned concerns of the possible
consequences that it may occasion in the future. This also raises interrogations
regarding the extension of the language changes in terms of the vocabulary, but also of
the possible marginalization of the people who do not have access to the internet
(Durkin, 2015; Reed, 2015, Philipson, 2008).

Another issue to take into consideration is the effect that social media is having
on the evolution of the English language. The abundant use of abbreviations acronyms
and neologisms, for instance, with their ability to convey more meaning while using less
words and grammatical instances is a preoccupying factor (Carter et al, 2014; Reed,
2015). Acronyms and neologisms are used in social media for two reasons. First of all,
the small amount characters allowed in social media services such as Twitter and
Instagram, propitiates the use of acronyms and abbreviations. Secondly, grammar can
be an obstacle for non-native speakers whose command of the English Language is not
very effective. The use of acronyms allows the interlocutors to communicate through
the use of ELF and thus ensure a proper understanding of the message that they are
trying to convey (Berns, 2012; Carter et al, 2014). This further contributes to the

24
popularity of ELF as a privileged medium of communication on social media. As a
matter of fact, the whole concept behind ELF is the possibility of its use by people of
different linguistic backgrounds in order to reach a common ground of understanding.
The effects this has for the native speakers of other languages that use English as a
Lingua Franca is yet undetermined. However, the prominence of English as a Lingua
Franca is, at the present time, undeniable. Additionally, this prevalence is somehow
boosted by social media which, in turn, benefits from the widespread of ELF, in an
interesting dynamic of cooperation and interdependence (Dewey, 2007; Iaia, 2016).

Conclusion

English has been the main Lingua Franca in use the world for almost 400 years.
English owes its popularity to being the native tongue of two nations that had the
biggest economies. It is used in business, entertainment and leisure, as a preferred
means to maintain communicational exchanges. With the arrival of social media, the
possibilities of interaction between people of different backgrounds has increased to an
unforeseen extent. Despite being the most widespread language in the world, with the
advent of social media, English has reached its peak of dissemination thanks to the use
of ELF propitiated by these types of services. The users’ desire for a simple and
efficient means to convey their thoughts has converted English into the mainstream
language for textual and verbal communication on the world-wide web. Additionally,
the constant growth and dissemination of the use of social media is likely to contribute
exponentially to a growth in the number of speakers of English that originate from
different countries and, therefore, have different native languages. The results of the
survey that was conducted support this affirmation, as a great majority of them claimed
that English is the Lingua Franca of social media. Even the respondents that claimed not
to speak the language, could at least read it, demonstrating how effective social media is
as an alternative resource to acquire a basic command of English. Many of the
participants were also multilingual speakers, that demonstrated an understanding of the
need to be able to communicate effectively with people from different linguistic
backgrounds. This is the reason why these users recur to the use of English when
engaging in conversations with people from different countries with diverse native
languages.

25
 The survey also demonstrated the great amount participants use multilabel social
media sites, with Facebook at the top of their preferences, followed by YouTube,
Instagram and Twitter. Despite the small number of participants that took part, it is safe
to say that the survey mirrors the wider reality of the users of social media around the
world. These data only serve to confirm the great power assumed by social media in
today’s world. A power that can also determine the linguistic trends among its users.
Moreover, apparently, these trends, at least in terms of language, seem to favour a
growing use and dissemination of English as a Lingua Franca: the language that serves
as a connection between people of different origins when they attempt to establish
meaningful interactions among each other in the digital world. The ease of interactions
that social media allows is one of the many features that make it so appealing to
induvial, that with the ability to find entertain, gather information and even seek
education are what allows social media to be so prominent in modern times. It is thanks
to this adaptability of social media is that supports its’ staying power. Allowing the
users to customize their experiences in accordance with their desires leads to it appeal,
that in turn leads to more people that will start using these types of services.

However, the consequences of this widespread use of English are unpredictable

in terms of the evolution of the language itself and of the effect that its pervasive
influence may exert on other languages. The more global usage of English leads to
influx of loan words, slang and acronym usage. These are just examples of concerns
that scholars have when it comes to this increase of non-native users. It must be said
that these worries are not without foundation, but the concern is more about the rate that
slang, loan words and acronyms are introducing to the language. This introduction rate
has risen greatly because of the ease that information is able spread through social
media. And as a result, trends and language quirks tend to be acquire stronger footholds
in language faster. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the use of ELF in the context of
social media in our globalized world will constitute another fascinating chapter in the
long history of the English language.

26
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