Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This paper focuses on English as a lingua franca, an area of research that has gone through several phases of reconceptualization over recent years. What has not changed despite the reframing is the insistence that ELF, with its focus on intelligibility rather than formal accuracy, is not to be judged on the basis of standard English norms. In response to these claims, researchers have argued from linguo-political and philosophical perspectives that re-labelling English 'ELF' does not remove native-speaker privileges and linguistic injustice. This paper addresses the topic by presenting some results of an investigation into students' language choices and practises during study abroad. Drawing on data gained by means of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, it will show that, despite their use of English in lingua franca situations, a considerable number of students adhere to standard English as an appropriate model and measure their own proficiency in English and progress in language learning against native-speaker norms.

Due to its role as a lingua franca, English has become a major source of language influence worldwide. This article addresses the impact of English on German. Contact-induced influences can be observed at all levels of the linguistic system in German, extending from preferences for particular morphemes to the structure of texts and genres. This study focuses on the largely under-studied area of phraseology. Phraseological Anglicisms, i.e. word-groups and sentence-like units such as catchphrases, proverbs, formulae and slogans of English origin, are gaining ground, particularly in fields like media, journalism, advertising and entertainment. The phenomenon is analyzed here via the example of the German satirical TV program heute-show. It is shown that the modification of phraseological units is an oft-used technique of political satire. Phraseological Anglicisms represent about one third of all occurrences in the examined data set, and thus play an important role. They most commonly take the form of political slogans, titles of films and brand names. The discussion focuses on particular types of modification and whether the German audience understands and appreciates them.

English has become the dominant means of international communication. Its non-native speakers now far outnumber the conventional native speakers in the UK, the USA, Canada etc. Against this background, a number of authors have recently stressed the functions for which foreign languages are learned. They make a distinction between a 'language of communication' and a 'language of identification'. The terms, which were coined by the German applied linguist Werner Hüllen (1992), have recently been popularised in the context of English as a lingua franca. English, it is said, can be used as a language of communication without necessarily being a language of identification. As it is used for practical communicative purposes, correctness and particular stylistic features associated with the speech community from which it originates are of lesser importance. Recent developments in European language policy seem to be focused in the same direction with the proposal that the EU should advocate the idea of a "personal adoptive language". This language should be freely chosen by every European and it should be "different from his or her language of identity, and also different from his or her language of international communication" (Maalouf 2008). The paper examines the use of the terms 'language of communication' and 'language of identification' in the literature and challenges the existence of the dichotomy with regard to the English language as it is used today. Focusing on phraseology (i.e. idiomatic phrases and pre-fabricated speech), the article shows a number of language practices that are used by non-native speakers of English to display identity. ; peerReviewed

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) form a regular and relevant feature in drylands, as they stabilize the soil, fix nutrients, and influence water cycling. However, biocrust forming organisms have been shown to be dramatically vulnerable to climate and land use change occurring in these regions. In this study, we used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data of biocrust-dominated pixels (NDVIbiocrust) obtained from hyperspectral and LANDSAT-7 data to analyse biocrust development over time and to forecast future NDVIbiocrust development under different climate change and livestock density scenarios in southern Africa. We validated these results by analysing the occurrence and composition of biocrusts along a mesoclimatic gradient within the study region. Our results show that NDVIbiocrust, which reached maximum values of 0.2 and 0.4 in drier and wetter years, respectively, mainly depended on water availability. A predicted decrease in rainfall events according to all future climate scenarios combined with increased temperatures suggested a pronounced decrease in NDVIbiocrust by the end of the 21st century caused by reduced biocrust coverage. Livestock trampling had similar effects and exacerbated the negative impacts of climate change on biocrust coverage and composition. Data assessed in the field concurred with these results, as reduced biocrust cover and a shift from well-developed to early stages of biocrust development were observed along a gradient of decreasing precipitation and increasing temperatures and livestock density. Our study demonstrates the suitability of multi-temporal series of historical satellite images combined with high-resolution mapping data and Earth system models to identify climate change patterns and their effects on biocrust and vegetation patterns at regional scales. ; ERC was supported by a Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen fellowship; the REBIOARID (2018-101921-B-I00) project, funded by the FEDER/Science and Innovation Ministry-National Research Agency through the Spanish National Plan for Research and the European Union Funds for Regional Development; Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad from the Junta de Andalucía (GlobCRUST project EMERGIA20_0033), the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (BIOCOST project) and the RH2OARID (P18-RT-5130) funded by Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad from the Junta de Andalucía and the European Union Funds for Regional Development. BW was supported by the Max Planck Society (Nobel Laureate Fellowship) and the German Research Foundation (projects WE2393/2-1 and WE2393/2-2). EG is supported by the European Research Council grant agreement n° 647038 (BIODESERT). The research of US was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, promotion number 01LG1201N).