English is now increasingly used as a lingua franca among people from different language backgrounds, and its widespread use in global contexts has attracted a great deal of attention in the field of sociolinguistics. This volume contributes to the growing body of scholarly work on English as a lingua franca (ELF) by presenting an in-depth and comprehensive study of the phenomenon from a European perspective. The book is firmly grounded in recent sociolinguistic approaches, namely the ELF paradigm and the postmodernist view of ‘English’, and views ELF as a discursive formation that manifests itself in local linguistic and communicative practices. Based on an ethnographic study of Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) press conferences which treats them as a community of practice in which European ELF emerges, the book addresses the phenomenon of European ELF by employing a range of qualitative and quantitative sociolinguistic methods.

The volume is clearly structured and is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 sets the scene by introducing the general context of the study, that is, language use in ESC press conferences as a community of practice. Chapter 2 discusses the differing views on the status of English in Europe and the conceptualization of ‘English’ within the ELF paradigm. Chapter 3 introduces the methodological framework of the case studies focusing on different linguistic levels of ELF talk. Chapter 4 looks at code choice practices at press conferences and argues that code-switching practices reflect the hybridity of ELF talk. Chapter 5 presents an analysis of the participants’ metalinguistic comments on the use of ELF and sheds light on how they conceptualise and motivate their linguistic practices in the ELF contexts from a folk-linguistic perspective. Chapter 6 examines the participants’ complimenting behaviour via ELF by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Chapter 7 investigates the internal structural hybridity of European ELF and its variability exhibited in relativisation patterns, suggesting that nonstandard relativisation is not a typical feature of ELF talk. Based on the case studies presented in the previous four chapters, the author then presents a synthesis of the major findings and arguments in Chapter 8, throwing new light on the conceptualisation of ELF in general, the relationship between ELF and ‘Europeanness’, and the implications of ELF for European language policies.

On the whole, the volume makes an important contribution to the key debates and approaches to ELF in the European context. The in-depth and informative case studies based on an innovative dataset of ESC press conferences offer a refreshing look at journalistic language use in ELF contexts, an under-explored area in ELF research. Given the rigorous and detailed data analysis, the book not only provides valuable insights into various aspects of ELF discourse in a European setting, it also offers the much-needed empirical data for the author's timely advancements in conceptualising English as a European lingua franca. Certainly, the volume will be of interest to scholars with expertise in sociolinguistics, global Englishes, English in Europe, folk linguistics, European studies, and language policy and planning.