The Lingua Franca Core (LFC) is a selection of
pronunciation features of the English language recommended as a basis in teaching of
English as a lingua franca
English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication" and can be understood as "''any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communica ...
. It was proposed by linguist
Jennifer Jenkins in her 2000 book ''The Phonology of English as an International Language''. Jenkins derived the LFC from features found to be crucial in non-native speakers' understanding of each other, and advocated that teachers focus on those features and regard deviations from other native features not as errors but as acceptable variations. The proposal sparked a debate among linguists and pedagogists, while Jenkins contended that much of the criticism was based on misinterpretations of her proposal.
Features
Jenkins summarised the Lingua Franca Core as follows:
* may be substituted by other consonants.
* Syllable-final is always produced (
rhotic).
*
Intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
are always pronounced rather than (lack of
flapping
Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or ''t''-voicing, is a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby ...
).
*
Allophonic
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
variation within a consonant is allowed insofar as it does not interfere with another
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
(as in for , which may be mistaken for ).
* Word-initial are
aspirated.
*
Pre-fortis clipping is present, so that the vowel in ''kit'' is shorter than that in ''kid''.
* Omission of consonants in
clusters is allowed word-medially and -finally (but not initially).
* Vowel
epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...
between consonants is allowed.
* The contrast between
checked and free vowels
In phonetics and phonology, checked vowels are those that commonly stand in a stressed closed syllable; and free vowels are those that can stand in either a stressed closed syllable or a stressed open syllable.
Usage
The terms ''checked vowel' ...
is maintained quantitatively, not necessarily qualitatively, so that the vowel in ''heat'' is longer than that in ''hit'' but need not differ in
quality
Quality may refer to:
Concepts
*Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something
*Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property
*Quality (physics), in response theory
*Energy quality, used in various science discipli ...
.
* Non-native vowel qualities are acceptable as long as they are consistent, except for the vowel.
*
Contrastive stress
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or Sentence (linguistics), sentence. That emphasis is typically caused ...
is present.
Jenkins also identified non-core features, which did not hinder intelligibility among non-native speakers and were therefore deemed non-essential in teaching:
* , , and (allophone of )
* Finer vowel quality
*
Weak forms of
function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s (which can rather have an adverse effect on intelligibility)
* Some features of
connected speech
In linguistics, connected speech or connected discourse is a continuous sequence of sounds forming utterances or conversations in spoken language. Analysis of connected speech shows sound changes affecting linguistic units traditionally described ...
, such as the
place
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own Municipality, municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road ...
assimilation of a word-final
plosive
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
* Pitch movement signalling attitude or grammatical meaning
* Lexical stress
*
Stress-timed rhythm
Jenkins stressed that the LFC should be taught in parallel with "accommodation skills" to facilitate communication with speakers with different language backgrounds.
The features were based on 40 tokens of misunderstanding between speakers from Japan and Switzerland, and were intended as subject to further empirical testing and fine-tuning. The legitimacy of inclusion or exclusion of certain features has been challenged, such as , rhoticity, the vowel, lexical stress, and pitch movement. Taking into account these perceived shortcomings of the LFC, recommendations similar to the LFC but intended for learners from specific linguistic or geographical backgrounds have been produced.
Application
is considered the first textbook for language teachers to incorporate the Lingua Franca Core.
References
Bibliography
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English-language education
Forms of English
English phonology
English as a global language
English as a second or foreign language
Interlinguistics