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Maintaining mutual understanding is one of the pillars of ELF communication, and even more so in the business context, where high-stakes interactions often take place. In order to achieve their communicative goals in and outside the professional context, ELF users engage in proactive, cooperative behavior to ensure that comprehension is achieved, employing a range of strategies to prevent or solve instances of miscommunication. This study aims at contributing to the investigation of workplace interactions by exploring BELF users’ perceptions and practices through a questionnaire-based survey including close-ended and Likert-scale questions. The survey, aimed at non-native speakers who use English as a Lingua Franca for professional purposes, focuses on both oral and digital interaction, analyzing these contexts separately due to their inherently different nature. Respondents, recruited through network sampling, were asked to identify what they perceive to be the essential aspects of successful communication and those that on the contrary may lead to mis- or non-understanding. The survey also aims at shedding light on which Communication Strategies users employ when faced with potential challenges, and at comparing preferences of use in different oral and digital media of communication., Status Quaestionis, N. 19 (2020): An Interdisciplinary Approach to English as a Lingua Franca

Today’s work markets are increasingly shaped by the multilingual reality. The present research offers an intercultural communication perspective on language diversity and power relations at modern work environment. Study investigates how young professionals and their foreign colleagues perceive diversity affecting in their communicative behaviours in culturally heterogeneous workplace. Analysis of data from participants has been conducted through an analysis of open ended self‐report questionnaire in a multinational company where English is used daily as a corporate language. In particular, results of present study indicate that more diverse language skills are attributed to perception of power. Respectively low proficiency in second language communication at workplace seems to cause feelings of alienation and exclusion among employees leading to misunderstandings and conflicts. In addition, the need of standardized language policies in organizational level is raised.