Author(s): Gosala Pandu, Eeda Vamsi, Abilash Valluri, Delsly Tenneti

Abstract: English has become the default working language of cross-border commerce, yet the great majority of its users in this domain are not native speakers. This article examines the role of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and, more specifically, Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) in international trade negotiations, synthesising three decades of research at the intersection of applied linguistics, pragmatics, and international business studies. Drawing on a narrative review of empirical and conceptual literature, the article traces the shift from a native-speaker-normed view of business English to a function-oriented, accommodation-based model in which intelligibility, cooperation, and relational competence outweigh grammatical correctness. It identifies four recurring themes in the literature: (i) the genre-specific pragmatics of negotiation talk, including hedging, repetition, and comprehension-checking; (ii) the accommodation and meaning-negotiation strategies that BELF users deploy to pre-empt and repair misunderstanding; (iii) the persistence of power asymmetries and native-speakerism despite the theoretical 'de-nativisation' of English; and (iv) the emerging influence of digital and AI-mediated communication on lingua franca negotiation practice. The article concludes that trade negotiation success in ELF settings depends less on proficiency in Standard English than on shared business and cultural knowledge, cooperative pragmatic strategies, and negotiators' capacity to co-construct meaning in real time. Implications for negotiation training, language policy in multinational firms, and English for Specific Business Purposes (ESBP) pedagogy are discussed, alongside directions for future research.

Keywords: English as a Lingua Franca, Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF), international trade negotiation, intercultural business communication, pragmatic accommodation, global Englishes

Article Info: Received: 23 Sep 2026; Received in revised form: 20 Oct 2026; Accepted: 25 Oct 2026; Available online: 31Oct 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.115.70