English Philology

E-mail: eng-info(at)helsinki.fi

Personal e-mail addresses: firstname.surname@helsinki.fi

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English Philology office:
P.O. Box 24
(Unioninkatu 40 B)
00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND

Telephone International: +358 9 191 24718
Fax International: +358 9 191 23072

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ELFA

England and America are two countries separated by the same language
- G. B. Shaw
Research into English as a global lingua franca is a very recent research field, in which English Philology at the University of Helsinki is at the cutting edge. We explore the consequences of global use to English: how it changes, who its speakers are, and how English is now spoken.

The ELFA project has compiled a pioneering one-million word corpus of academic spoken English, funded by the Academy of Finland. It provides a large database for tracking down special features of ELF, together with its commonalities with vernacular Englishes and second language use. The SELF project adopts a more ethnographic view on speakers of academic ELF in English-medium programmes. The first international conference on ELF, the ELF Forum, was held in Helsinki in March 2008.

For more information, please contact Prof. Anna Mauranen.

Read more:
→ ELFA project: http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/elfa/elfacorpus.htm
 → SELF project: http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/elfa/self.htm
→ ELF Forum: http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/elfa/elfforum08.htm