Conceptualizations of English as a lingua franca in a globalizing start-up company: tensions between authenticity, formality and practicality

Globalization and digitalization profoundly influence various companies' and professionals' daily jobs. Work tasks are often carried out in English which is the omnipresent language of global business enabling companies to reach new markets and allowing employees to interact with customers and colleagues across the globe. English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) has been conceptualized as an emergent resource in interactions (e.g. Cogo 2016), and embedded in the organizational context of the corporate language (Kankaanranta et al. 2018). Most earlier research on BELF has focused on its role and functions in relatively established, multinational companies (e.g. Ehrenreich 2009). However, little research exist on the negotiation work and decisions behind the adoption of English as the shared language during a company 'going global' (but see Louhiala-Salminen et al. 2005). The present paper focuses on the uses and conceptualizations of English as a lingua franca in a globalizing start-up company in health technology sector. By following a key participant (the company CEO) both on site and online, the paper aims to investigate where, how and why English is used at work in the process of going global. By analyzing interviews and interaction data, the paper shows tensions emerging between authenticity, formality and practicality in the use of English in the globalizing company. References Ehrenreich, S. 2009. English as a lingua franca in multinational corporations. Exploring business communities of practice. In Mauranen, A. & E. Ranta (eds.) English as a Lingua Franca. Studies and Findings. Cambridge Scholars, 126-151. Cogo, A. 2016. "They all Take the Risk and Make the Effort": Intercultural Accommodation and Multilingualism in a BELF Community of Practice. In Lopriore, L. & E. Grazzi (eds.) Intercultural Communication. New Perspectives from ELF. 364-383. Roma Tre Press. Kankaanranta, A., Karhunen, P. & Louhiala-Salminen, L. 2018. "English as corporate language" in the multilingual reality of multinational companies. Multilingua 37 (4), 331-351. Louhiala-Salminen, L., & Kankaanranta, A. (2011). Professional communication in a global business context: The notion of global communicative competence. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 54(3), 244-262.