Parallel Language Use Research Articles

We should have one of these, too!

This article investigates how a questionnaire for needs analysis (NA) for Danish language courses for transnational knowledge workers, constructed at the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) at the University of Copenhagen (KU), can be used in a German language institution, the ZfS Zentrum für Schlüsselqualifikationen (Key Skills Centre) at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (CAU). The compares the role of state and education system(s) when establishing curricula for Danish and German courses for occupational purposes at the CIP and the ZfS. German informants partaking in the survey assess that the questionnaire could be used at the ZfS, and generally invite a future use of NA there. General findings from the experience with needs analysis and the survey instrument as such, and advantages for other target groups beyond this individual case are reflected in the final discussion.

English for university admin staff: it’s all in the mix

Abstract As a result of increasing internationalisation, the University of Copenhagen established the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) in 2008 as a research, competence development and resource centre. Part of CIP’s remit is to provide language training (mainly in Danish and English) for students and staff at the University. While there has been a lot of focus on teaching and learning through the medium of English, the language needs of administrative staff seem to have been neglected. They are expected to communicate with international students, teachers and researchers who do not necessarily speak the local language. This activity report looks at how CIP has set about meeting these needs by developing specific terminology-based language courses in English for university administrative staff, including HR, finance and study administrative staff. The terminology taught on the courses is tailored to the specific group of participants; however, a basic framework of activities is used as the starting point for all the terminology courses. As participants’ course evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive about the blend of activities, this paper reports on the design of the framework and how it is applied to the courses in practice.

Bringing into focus multilingual realities: Faculty perceptions of academic languages on campus

The widespread use of English in academia has been reported to have detrimental effects on other academic languages and to pose considerable language problems to those scholars that use English as an Additional Language. This paper, however, seeks to bring into focus the functionality of English along with that of other academic languages for campus-wide internationalization. Using data from semi-structured interviews with university faculty, the paper examines the plurilingual practices of a localized disciplinary community in a non-Anglophone academic setting. The data show that while several causal and intervening conditions promote English in the domain of research communication, context-specific factors support the use of Spanish in the domain of education. Regarding the spoken mode, faculty accounts of language-related phenomena (language mixing, translanguaging and parallel language use) reveal complex multilingual interactions. Furthermore, their accounts of informal academic interactions and of features of English as a Lingua Franca confirm that they communicate effectively in English with other academics even if their English does not fully conform to the English Native Language norms. Given that macro-level (institutional) language policies have a dramatic impact on language practices, we advocate effective language planning and management to preserve and enhance plurilingualism on campus.

Global flows in local language planning: articulating parallel language use in Swedish university policies

In this paper, the language policies of three Swedish universities are examined as instances of language planning in local contexts. Although Sweden has the national Language Act of 2009 (SFS 2009:600) as well as a general Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100; SFS 2014:1096), language planning for higher education is left to the purview of individual institutions. Since language planning in local contexts often involves the intersection of locally situated communication needs and wider circulating ideologies, the present study considers how national language planning goals are taken up and reinterpreted by higher education institutions. In particular, the focus is on universities whose policies are framed using the Nordic language planning concept of “parallel language use”, which has emerged over the last 20 years as a way to theorize a sociopolitical balance between English and Scandinavian languages. The concept indexes a range of issues related to the relative position of Swedish and English, including linguistic tensions surrounding international aspirations and national responsibilities for universities and the mitigation of purported domain loss by Swedish to English. Drawing upon a discourse analysis of policy approach, we analyze the policies of these three universities as examples of local language planning, focusing on how they engage with ideas related to parallel language use while also expanding upon the concept to include the linguistic needs of local students and staff.

Discursive mechanisms and human agency in language policy formation: negotiating bilingualism and parallel language use at a Swedish university

In the wake of the enactment of Sweden's Language Act in 2009 and in the face of the growing presence of English, Swedish universities have been called upon by the Swedish Higher Education Authority to craft their own language policy documents. This study focuses on the discursive negotiation of institutional bilingualism by a language policy committee at one Swedish university during the process of developing a draft language policy. Following an ethnographic/discourse analytic orientation to language policy and planning research, data were collected during language policy committee meetings at the university. Using nexus analysis, circulating discourses are mapped and analyzed, with a specific focus on how these discourses were negotiated through mediated actions during committee meeting interaction and then entextualized in a draft policy. Analysis reveals how ‘bilingualism’ became reinterpreted as ‘parallel language use,’ a concept developed and used in Nordic language planning over the past 15 years. Analysis further shows how committee members negotiated the meaning of parallel language use and the processes of resemiotization that took place as discourses from other sociolinguistic scales entered into the committee's discussion and writing. In all, the study highlights discursive mechanisms of language planning and the interplay of social actors and texts.

The parallel language use of Swedish and English: the question of ‘nativeness’ in university policies and practices

As a result of internationalisation, many universities in northern Europe have adopted English as a medium of instruction. At the same time, recent language policies have reinforced the importance of the national language(s) in the academic domain. Parallel language use was introduced and institutionalised in order to ensure students' right to receive education in their native language and to protect the national language(s) from the ‘threat’ of English. In this article, I discuss the concept of parallel language use and the extent to which it promotes ‘nativeness’ as a benchmark for language use in educational contexts. Drawing on the data collected at a major Swedish university, I show that the development of academic literacy in English is often mistaken for a need to achieve a native-like proficiency. I argue that academic language competence requires both more and less than a native/native-like competence. Thus, academics and students at Swedish universities may be mixing apples and pears and setting unrealistic goals regarding English proficiency in academic contexts, based on the standard native English norms.

Parallel language use in academic and outreach publication: A case study of policy and practice

Parallel language use has been accepted as the guiding principle for university language policy writers in the Nordic region. However, the extent to which parallel language use reflects the actual publication practices of academics is yet to be established. This study begins to address the gap by investigating the languages used for academic and outreach publication in three departments at a major Swedish university. Questionnaire and database trawl results reveal that English, Swedish and other languages are used for academic and outreach publication, although Swedish dominates in the outreach domain. Furthermore, results derived from semi-structured interviews with 15 informants suggest that language practices are primarily determined by pragmatic forces such as intended audience, publication outlet, topic and genre, rather than by ideological or language-political factors.

English as an academic language at a Swedish university: parallel language use and the ‘threat’ of English

In recent years, universities across Europe have increasingly adopted the use of English as an academic lingua franca. Our article discusses current trends in Swedish higher education by presenting the results of a large-scale survey on the use of English conducted at Stockholm University. The survey involved 668 staff and 4524 students and focused on the use of English for academic purposes and students’ and teachers’ attitudes to English as a medium of instruction. The results indicate that complex patterns of academic English use emerge, which are related to the specific discipline studied, the level of instruction (undergraduate versus Master's) and the receptive versus productive use of English. They also indicate that in the sciences the use of English is a pragmatic reality for both teachers and students, whereas in the humanities and social sciences, English is typically used as an additional or auxiliary language in parallel with Swedish.