8月25日上午，第八届英语作为通用语国际研讨会特邀英国南安普顿大学的Jennifer Jenkins 教授做了大会主旨发言，发言的主题是 “Seeing the World Through Three ELF Eyes”。本场主旨发言由中国英语教学研究会会长、国际应用语言学学会执行委员、北京外国语大学中国外语教育研究中心文秋芳教授主持。

文秋芳教授

      Jennifer Jenkins 教授是英国南安普顿大学全球英语中心的主席，在英语作为通用语研究领域有重要地位，她与Mauranen, Seidlhofer 并称为“three mothers of ELF”，2000 年她撰写的专著《英语国际语的音位学》（The Phonology of English as an International Language）由牛津大学出版社出版，首次提到了英语通用语的视角。除此之外，她还著有：English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity (OUP，2007)，English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: The Politics of Academic English Language Policy (Routledge，2015）也具有广泛的国际影响力。

Jennifer Jenkins 教授

      Jenkins教授首先生动形象地使用“眼睛”这个比喻，提出“Seeing the word through three ELF eyes”。Jenkins教授将ELF定义为“English as it is used as a contact language among speakers from different first languages”（Jenkins, 2009）。她强调英语使用者对英语享有所有权，非本族语者对英语通用语同样拥有合法的权利和地位。

      Jenkins教授接着介绍ELF理论发展历程中的两个重要阶段(ELF1，ELF2),并在此基础上提出自己的理论(ELF3)。

      The first phase, ‘ELF1’, focused on forms, and envisaged the possibility of identifying and maybe codifying ELF varieties.
The second phase, ‘ELF2’, shifted focus to ELF’s variability, saw this as possibly ELF’s defining feature, with ELF communication transcending L1 boundaries to the extent that varieties couldn’t be identified, and codification wouldn’t be possible.
The third phase, ‘ELF3’-‘EMF’(Multilingual communication in which English is available as a contact language of choice, but is not necessarily chosen) ,the focus moves again, this time away from ELF as the framework to ELF within a framework of multilingualism. English, while always in the (potential) mix, is now conceived as one among many other languages, one resource among many, available but not necessarily used. (Jenkins 2015:78)

      Jenkins教授的主旨发言由浅入深、发人深省，她引用了众多文章和学者观点，对于ELF理论大发展进行了梳理，同时对ELF做了重新定位，提出了自己精辟、独到的见解。文秋芳教授评价Jennifer Jenkins教授的理论是对ELF概念化的大胆创新和深入探索。