Promoting Interaction between Migrant Communities and Host Societies via English Languages

The ‘Three-circle Model’ (Quirk et al. 1972; Kachru 1992), one of the most influential models accounting for the spread of English world-wide in terms of the three concentric circles –the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle – though still an important stepping stone for the grouping of varieties of Englishes, does not seem to be sufficiently dynamic to reflect the reality of today’s uses English in the world (Rajadurai 2005). In particular, Kachru’s tripartite model disregards the new dominant function and status of English as a lingua franca (ELF) between speakers who do not share a mother tongue. In many cases English is also spoken by both migrants community and Expanding Circle host societies – Italy being a case in point – is often the only way to (partially) overcome linguistic barriers, be it in the workplace, in their neighborhood, at school, at in the offices of the local administration, and so on. Additionally, not only EFL still needs to be defined more precisely, but the classification between the Circles themselves cannot be clear-cut, due to current ceaseless “population movement, language loss, divergent language attitudes, and massive shifts in language” (Crystal, 1995: 363). From this viewpoint it has become virtually impossible to provide workable distinctions between ‘native speakers’ and ‘non-native speaker’ as well (Davies 2003). Furthermore, research on the use of English as a lingua franca in Europe, where English is not only learnt, but more widely used in different settings, has highlighted a new variety of English - sometimes also controversially called ‘Euro-English’ (Mollin, 2006), to be found ≪not only in restricted fields such as business and commerce, but also in a wide range of other contexts of communication including its increasing use as a language of socialisation≫ (Jenkins 2003: 38). In this perspective, our investigation tries to account for the uses of English by a group of migrants based inCastel Volturno (a small Southern Italian town nearby Naples). We administered a self-assessment questionnaire survey aiming to gauge to what extent the use of English enable(d) these migrants to engage with people in the Italian receiving society and promote effective mutual interaction. The results and their implications are discussed in the paper.