English as a Lingua Franca in International Exchange Students’ Online Communication

This research focuses on a case study of Italian International Exchange students speaking English online. It aims to explore contemporary English communication in social media discourse communities (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube), the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), its communicative role in every country, spoken by non-mother-tongue speakers, and its crossing of national borders and cultural boundaries (Crystal, 2003; Jenkins, 2009). ELF allows students European integration and global perspectives, as well as an intercultural communicative potential that explains why most Italian students choose to communicate in English when producing a video about their experience with Erasmus. But what language do they use? The main objective of the research is to demonstrate how the pragmatics of their native Italian language influences their use of English (Tutino & Littunen, 2022). In addition, the study will consider the pragmatic markedness (Guido, 2000) and vocabulary used in online discourse communities. The research sample consists of 15 Erasmus students (enrolled at the University of Catania, with different achievement levels according to the CEFR), whose short videos are analyzed using a mixed-method approach. The expected finding is that online discourse, which encourages cross-cultural exchanges and inclusiveness, is shaped by creative markedness based on the L1 influence and discourse-community use of the language, which leads to several deviations from the English spoken in more formal contexts. (Kecskes, 2019). English as a Lingua Franca typically involves reconciling these two factors: the intercultural intelligibility among its users and the cultural identity of individual speakers (Pölzl & Seidlhofer, 2006). The main implication is that the traditional emphasis on the English language native speakers is increasingly questioned.