University of Helsinki Department of English

ELF Forum 2008: The First International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca

On this page you can find:

• Information about previous and upcoming ELF conferences
• Information about the 2008 conference publications
• Extended abstracts
• Conference photos

Previous and upcoming ELF conferences

The first international ELF Forum was held at the University of Helsinki in 6–8 March, 2008. The organising committee wishes to thank all the participants for a successful conference!

The Second International Conference of ELF was arranged in Southampton in 6–8 April, 2009.

The Third International Confeference of ELF was arranged in Vienna in 22–25 May 2010.

The Fourth International Conference of ELF was arranged in Hong Kong in 26–28 May 2011.

The Fifth International Conference of ELF will be held in Istanbul in 24–26 May 2012. The main conference theme is Pedagogical Implications of ELF in the Expanding Circle.

ELF Forum 2008 conference publications

A selection of papers have been published in a thematic volume on the main themes of the ELF Forum Conference:

Mauranen, Anna and Ranta, Elina (eds) (2009) English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and Findings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

To read a description of the contents, go to Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

To our regret, we had to turn down many interesting and deserving proposals. The selection was highly limited, and given the large number of proposals we received, only a fraction of the papers fitted into the publication. However, we are happy to inform you that by permission of the authors, extended abstracts that did not fit into the thematic volume will be published on this website (see below).

In addition, papers directly related to academic, business and professional life have been published in English for Specific Purposes (2010, Vol. 29, No. 3).

For further inquiries please contact Anna Mauranen (anna.mauranen(at)helsinki.fi).

Extended abstracts

Batziakas, Bill: Surveying the Degree of Implementation of English as a Lingua Franca in Greek State School English Classrooms

Hay, Josiane: ELF: a historical perspective

Monroy, Rafael: Speaking English as a Lingua Franca with a Spanish Accent. Desirability vs. Reality

Roberts, Paul: A Comparison of ELF, ENL and ESL Conversations

Sifakis, Nicos C.: Towards a transformative framework for the professional preparation of ELF teachers

Photo gallery

Click the link to view the 1st ELF Forum conference photos.