ABSTRACT
As discussed in Chapter One, the current position of English as a lingua franca in the world necessitates that speakers from different first languages come into contact with each other and achieve understanding. In this chapter, we first have a look at the definitions of the notion of CSs and then we explore various approaches taken in relation to the study of CSs. We also look at different views of psycholinguistic and interactional approaches to CSs. Although the psychological approach to CSs focuses on the cognitive processes of a speaker and problem-solving activities, the interactional approach to CSs focuses on the interaction and negotiation of the meaning between speakers. Then this chapter provides a description of different taxonomies of CSs, including Dörnyei and Scott’s (1997), followed by a section reviewing previous empirical research conducted on the CSs used by ELF speakers.
