Victoria,

I am not sure what you mean by "third culture" but the proposition of Dörnyei that students are motivated to learn English because the imagine themselves in  the future using English to be part of the "cosmopolitan international society" makes good sense to me.

I have observed in many of my papers that anytime two people meet who do NOT speak the same native language, they will each likely have some ability in English, allowing them to communicate.

Dear Victoria Jack,

 Although some scholars like Anna Wierzbicka tend to warn us against Anglocentricism, the point of fact is that interlocutors from different cultures are willing to  resort to English as a lingua franca . There are several reasons behind such inclination. First, the so-called information  explosion  and globalization dictates a common ground between interactants from different parts of the world. Second, People in major English speaking countries enjoy a high degree of openness to outside influences. Naturally, tolerance of things opposed to the local values is a major principle of democratic nations. That is why people from different cultures almost invariably see traces of their own language in the English lexicon. For instance, words from Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, etc. are regular entries in English dictionaries. As such, speakers of different languages are inclined towards using English as a lingua franca because it gives them a sense of belongingness..

Best regards,

R. Biria

Dear Victoria,

 your question is valid and timely. While I agree with the last respondant in part I would urge caution. English as a lingua franca happens every day and in all sorts of contexts (at all sorts of language levels?) but these are usually transactional interactions (even university essays written on an English-language-as-means-of-instruction course slip into this category from a pragmatic point of view).

I am all in favour of languages like English helping out in situations where communication might be difficult but I personally feel that creating a culture requires depth (socially, politically, historically etc) and assumptions about the benefìcial powers of English may be dangerous. I would also stress the value of translation (as a skill and as a form of negotiating understanding) and would claim that it is not simply a cost (as it so often presented), but an activity with intellectual and social benefit to humanity.

Lastly, I would warn against the danger that English as a lingua franca becomes just another means of linguistic imperialism; not all intended, but de facto an issue.

Hope this answer doesn't seem too polemical!! 

English as a (Multi-)Lingua Franca theories target, and seek to comprehend in situ, communication in multilingual and multicultural settings (e.g., Jenkins 2015).  As being a natural linguistic phenomenon, ELF is (socio-lingua)culturally fluid and contingent (e.g., Baker 2009, 2015).

Jenkins, Jenkins. 2015. Repositioning English and multilingualism in English as a Lingua Franca. Englishes in Practice 2(3), 49–85.

Baker, Will. 2009. The cultures of English as a lingua franca. TESOL Quarterly 43(4). 567–592.

Baker, Will. 2015. Culture and identity through English as a lingua franca: Rethinking concepts and goals in intercultural communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Assuming you mean third culture in the sense of hybridity and 'in-betweenness' i.e. neither part of a first culture or target culture (see Kramsch 1993; Bhabha 1994) then communication through ELF is often used in the construction of such third cultures (as Tomokazu has illustrated above). I have found it a very helpful concept both in theorising and interpreting empirical data in ELF communication (e.g. Baker 2009).  However, I think we need to be cautious as there are limitations to the idea, as Kramsch herself notes (2009).  Firstly, in ELF communication it is not always clear what cultures a third culture is in-between. As ELF is a global use of English, rather than English associated with any particular group of people, there is no obvious target culture.  Secondly, people can be members of multiple groupings at the same time without having to be hybrid or in-between, so we need to be wary of reifying third cultures. And of course this is not unique to communication through ELF, third cultures can be constructed through any language used in intercultural communication.       

Victoria,

Inasmuch as English approaches (or at least targets) universal appeal, not only among scholars but among the general public, it seems to be the natural language to transmit serious scientific ideas to the masses.

I'm not sure what cautions of "imperialism" are necessary since English traditionally emerges from globally diverse cultures, and as more people use English as a second language from almost all world cultures, any centrism that might traditionally be associated with a language diminishes even more.

 Thank you to all of you for your contributions above.  I have read them with great interest.  Firstly for some clarification, I am indeed referring to the 3rd Culture as discussed by Kramsch (1993) and others.  Secondly, I would like to pick up on Will's last comment about "intercultural communication" and move it into the domain in which I am particularly interested: "transcultural communication"; to introduce the concept of critical interculturality, as I believe it addresses more directly the experiences I am encountering in both my teaching and research.  (See Guilherme & Dietz, 2015 for a discussion of definitions). I leave the "politcial" discussion of ELF to one side for the moment, as I work in the UK with a mix of home and overseas students with and an institutional EMI. I would therefore like to rephrase my question...

"Can home students ("native speakers" of "English") learn ELF in order to particpate in the/a 3rd culture?"

NB my quotation marks around native speaker and English.  

Victoria,

 thanks for starting up a really interesting discussion.

Your question at the end is something that is at the heart of the ELF debate, in my opinion. You're quite right to use quotes when you do, but I would also be tempted to put them around the word 'learn' as well. The idea of "native English speakers" participating genuinely and respectfully in ELF cultural exchanges is fundamental, but it might also be a big ask. Learning ELF for a NS of English will be a very different experience from my struggles with French and German at school (without the feelings of bewilderment, overload and relinquishing control etc.), but this need not mean it will be a lesser experience for that. There is a lot of work to be done on the idea of NS English speakers becoming 'semi-bilingual' with ELF as their second bowstring, both theoretically and with practical observation. 

Just a couple of observations. First, unless the members of a culture are so culturally homogeneous that they have no need to accommodate individual idiosyncrasies in communication with each other, it would suggest that all communication, intracultural and intercultural, involves (to quote Will Baker) "hybridity and 'in-betweenness'".The difference would therefore seem to me to be one of degree rather than one of nature.

The second observation is that any language can be an LF. Apart from its prevalence, ELF is surely no different from FLF, JLF, GLF, HLF or SLF.

Finally,  let me hazard a guess that the answer to the question "Can home students ("native speakers" of "English") learn ELF in order to particpate in the/a 3rd culture?" is that it depends more on whether they want to or not, not whether they can or cannot, and possibly even who they are talking to at any particular time.

Dear colleague, the following papers describe English as lingua franca:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287980152_Globalization_and_the_World_Languages?ev=prf_pub

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286449305_LANGUAGES_TODAY_-_COMPETITION_OF_REGIONAL_NATIONAL_AND_INTERNATIONAL_LANGUAGES_ON_THE_EXAMPLE_OF_GEORGIA

Article Globalization and the World Languages

Article LANGUAGES TODAY – COMPETITION OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND INTE...