Understanding ‘English as a lingua franca’ (ELF) through the ‘abolishing, preserving and transcending’ (aufhebung) movement

enlightenments on O’Regan’s Marxist criticisms towards ELF

Abstract

This is an analytical paper that fits within a specific and controversial dispute faced by English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) scholars, which still reverberates in studies, within the field of Applied Linguistics. The ELF field has been questioned during its development; the fiercest criticisms seem to have derived from a Marxist stance. In this scenario, departing from four significant articles depicting the ‘attacks and defenses’ published in the Applied Linguistics journal between the years of 2014 and 2015, this paper aims to analyze these publications elucidating some of the points of disagreement that the authors present to subsequently put forward a different understanding on ELF, one sublated by a Marxist epistemological stance, capable of answering to some of O’Regan’s criticisms addressed towards this field. The Marxist epistemological stance of this study derives from its affiliation with Vygotsky’s Cultural- Historical approach to human development based on dialectical and historical materialism. In this vein, this paper attempts a dialectical movement of aufhebung proposing to abolish, preserve and transcend some aspects of ELF still open to such criticism, while dialectically proposing ELF as a Vygotskian scientific concept and then, endeavoring to answer to some of O’Regan’s criticisms.