ABSTRACT
The global spread of English has shaped, and continues to shape, how scholars approach the study of languages. This chapter focuses on Jenks' examination of reprehensive talk in online chat rooms by reporting on the ways in which lingua franca speakers are disagreeable, objectionable, confrontational, and generally unpleasant. It explores how interactants are demonstrably uncooperative interactionally, pragmatically, and socially, and what this form of interaction means for English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research. The chapter examines a range of communicative situations and interactional contexts, including online chat rooms, conversations in a shared kitchen space, and project group work at an international university. It investigates how uncooperative talk is organized interactionally, and identifies the pragmatic and social actions and practices involved in being mutually unsupportive. The social discord that is experienced in and through uncooperative interaction may stem from a single utterance within a larger conversation or can manifest as a series of actions and/or utterances.
