ABSTRACT
It is nowadays well established that not all features of pronunciation are equally important in maintaining intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) interactions, and has proposed a Lingua Franca Core (LFC) of the features of English phonology that are essential for avoiding misunderstandings in international communication in English. This chapter investigates ELF conversations that took place in Brunei, looking at initial clusters in more detail in order to determine the extent to which simplification or substitution occurs and focusing on the degree to which accurate production of initial clusters is important for maintaining intelligibility. Pronunciation has been identified as a key factor in many cases, and it seems that in more than one-third of tokens in which simplification of initial consonant clusters occurs, this results in a misunderstanding. Jenkins claims that it is important for initial consonant clusters to be maintained, while there is scope for some simplification of final clusters.
