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During recent decades, the use of ELF as the principal language of business, science and academia has been well observed. However, very little research has been done concerning the interesting development of ELF as the primary means of communication in interpersonal relationships. This book stresses the growing importance of ELF as the private lingua franca´ and it will focus on ELF as used for personal purposes. One of the most intimate uses of English is as a means of communication for couples. The major objective of this work is to investigate ELF as the language of couples. It rests on a qualitative study of five couples who use ELF as the language of their relationship, drawing on the data of interviews in which the participants exchanged perceptions of their language choice and how it affected their relationships. The findings provide insight into the couples´ motivations for choosing ELF, and raise other interesting issues like the extent to which ELF is an adequate means of expressing emotion and how far it might serve as a family language. These issues in turn raise questions about the possible limitations as well as the advantages and disadvantages of ELF.

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Julia Gundacker, Mag (phil): Studium der Anglistik und Amerikanistik (Universität Wien). Diplom für Deutsch als Zweit/ Fremdsprache (Universität Wien). Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant (University of Montana)

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