English as a Lingua Franca: Applied Linguistics, Marxism, and Post-Marxist theory

ABSTRACT This paper is motived by a reading of “English as a Lingua Franca: An Immanent Critique” (O’REGAN, 2014), who claims that ELF researchers place their work at the forefront of debates with regard to what function and form English should play in the lives of its numerous speakers worldwide. O’Regan questions the use of an epistemology based on a positivist and objectivist paradigm, connected to a postmodernist and poststructuralist ‘sensibility’. To attempt a fair analysis of O’Regan’s critique of ELF, I consider it essential to examine Marxist theory in the light of the analyses of Sim’s (2000) Post-Marxism and of the work published by Laclau and Mouffe (1985). My reading leads me to claim that traditional Marxist thinking is compromised by its association with authoritarian and totalitarian stances, as opposed to Post-Marxist views of pluralism, libertarianism, and openness to the cultural climate of postmodernism. Based on the disillusions of post-Marxist thinkers, I conclude that the views of classical Marxism are not applicable to ‘English as a Lingua Franca’