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9 - Are Multilinguals the Better Academic ELF Users?

Evidence from a Questionnaire Study Measuring Self-Assessed Proficiencies

from Part II - Zooming in on ELF

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2020

By
Peter Siemund  and
Jessica Terese Mueller
Edited by
Anna Mauranen  and
Svetlana Vetchinnikova
Anna Mauranen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Svetlana Vetchinnikova
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Summary

The question of putative multilingual advantages is still being hotly debated. Following some initial euphoria, the field is currently characterized by a wave of sobering criticism, as key findings fail to be replicated. Here we offer a summary of the current controversy, followed by a discussion of new evidence drawn from a questionnaire study of 1,454 students and 341 instructors at the University of Hamburg. This study measures self-assessed proficiencies in English among subjects who regularly use English as a lingua franca in the context of tertiary education. We compare self-assessed English proficiencies between monolingually and multilingually raised ELF users in five CEFR domains. The results attest slightly higher scores for multilingually raised ELF users, of statistical significance in some domains, which we interpret in terms of a multilingual advantage. However, we wish to be cautious about generalizing these findings, as they need to be substantiated by tests that objectively measure proficiencies.

Keywords

Common European Framework of Reference for LanguagesEnglish as a Lingua Francamonolingually raised ELF usersmultilingual advantagemultilingually raised ELF usersquestionnaire studyself-assesses proficienciestertiary education
Type
Chapter
Information
Language Change
The Impact of English as a Lingua Franca
 , pp. 234 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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