Exploring the roles of English: English as a lingua franca in master's programmes at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Europe's largest business university, WU sees offering master's programmes in English as a means to stay competitive. This paper highlights the roles of English and other languages at a strategic level in the university as well as in intercultural student teams. The data is taken from a multi-modal research project investigating students' language and interaction in teamwork on English-medium programmes. The results show that students use English as the medium of communication in and out of class and for discussing task-related topics, while they use other languages for socialisation purposes and to develop a sense of community.