International Business Email Communication in ELF (English as Lingua Franca)

E-mail correspondence has become one of the most useful ways for global communication, and more precisely for international business communication. As it is explained in the introductory section diverse studies of global communication in English have been carried out concerning ELF (English as lingua franca) and BELF (Business English as lingua franca). The purpose of this research is to bring to the forth the latest variation patters in business email communication in English. The study aims to analyze an authentic corpus of 90 emails written in English by business managers of different chemical companies set up in 14 different countries around the world, including native and non-native speakers of English who use this language as lingua franca for commercial and distribution purposes. The central research targets are to observe: first, the main register patterns of variation towards a more informal and conversational nature; secondly, the main communicative strategies to achieve the required communicative competence in BELF for international business purposes; and third, the prototypical move structure fluctuation from the standard structure of, for instance, business letters to a more relaxed pattern. The conclusions reveal an inclination towards a more informal, co-operative and goal-oriented international business email communication