English as Lingua Franca on Campus: Cultural Integration or Segregation?

Abstract

To enhance global competitiveness, internationalization of staff, students and programs have become an essential part of the strategic plan of universities in recent decades. These internationalization initiatives have had a profound impact not only on the learning spaces but also the social spaces in universities, especially universities in non-English speaking countries. Based on in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 60 students at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, this paper examines the impact of the use of English as a lingua franca inside and outside the classroom on the interaction amongst students from diverse linguistic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It observes that the way in which each student positioned themselves in these social spaces had led to intercultural understanding or misapprehension, social integration or segregation, and fragmentation or coherence of the community. It argues that a “lingua franca” should not be narrowly conceived as solely referring to a common linguistic code; it should also be conceived as a common discourse mediated by multiple languages, a discourse which embraces and celebrates cultural diversity, empathy and mutual respect.