Benefits and drawbacks of English as a Lingua Franca and as a working language: the case of conferences mediated by simultaneous interpreters

English is currently learned and used by a growing number of people all over the world. This unprecedented dissemination of a shared means of communication is enabling native speakers of other languages to understand each other in international and intercultural situations (Seidlhofer, 2011; Holmes & Dervin, 2016). However, it is also having a profound impact on the translation and interpreting (T&I) industry, creating new challenges and opportunities at different levels in terms of both training and professional practices (Albl-Mikasa, 2010; Taviano, 2010, 2013). This chapter focuses on the interpreting industry, specifically on simultaneous interpreting at international conferences. First, I contrast the notion of English Lingua Franca (ELF) (Jenkins, 2007) with the concept of Lingua Franca Englishes (LFEs) (O’Regan, 2016) and give a general overview of the main challenges and opportunities presented by ELF/LFEs, especially as perceived by service providers, i.e. professional simultaneous interpreters (Section 2). Then I illustrate how communication is managed at international conferences where interpreting services are provided and discuss the role of working languages (Section 3). Finally, I present a case study in which a conference mediated by two simultaneous interpreters is analysed (Section 4). This conference involves native speakers of Italian, both native and non-native speakers of English, and two professional interpreters (with English as their active working language and Italian as their native language). The different language configurations are addressed not only from a linguistic perspective, but also in terms of floor and information management. In particular, I consider speaking time and rate of delivery to account for participants’ communicative power and ability to express themselves, highlighting the advantages and limitations of English used as a working language and as a lingua franca by native and non-native speakers.