University Language Policies Research Articles

Lecturer identity as a nexus between EMI planning and practice: a case study at the University of Lleida (Spain)

ABSTRACT The implementation of EMI programmes in Spain has put a strain on content lecturers who need to navigate a series of tensions related to the language of instruction, which have been shown to shape their professional identity. This study aims to explore how an EMI lecturer balances university language policies, ideology, and beliefs about English language teaching and learning and classroom practice in an EMI Strategic Marketing subject taught at the University of Lleida. The results show that, in the absence of explicit guidelines from the university, the EMI lecturer puts forward language-related methodological principles that are rooted in their personal journey of learning English and not so much in their content specialist identity. EMI is a magnifying glass of the challenges involved in enacting language policies in higher education and of the instrumental role of the content lecturer in this process.

Contrasting a university's language policy with its linguistic landscape: a Norwegian case study

ABSTRACT This study demonstrates that linguistic landscape analysis is a powerful tool for assessing the effectiveness of a university language policy, as it provides in situ evidence for discursive patterns shaping language use in public space. It uses the official language policy of a Norwegian institution of higher education (Høgskulen på Vestlandet, HVL) as a case study, contrasting its language guidelines with the linguistic make-up of the signage in the linguistic landscape on one of its campuses. The comparison shows that the linguistic landscape prioritizes the national representational level (use of Bokmål) in its bottom-up signage, while the language policy of the university mainly highlights regional and international aspects (connected to the parallel use of Nynorsk and English). At the same time, it is shown that the top-down signage issued by the university does not efficiently implement its language policy goals, as bilingual Nynorsk-English signs are rare, Nynorsk faces substantial competition from Bokmål, and English is both neglected and constructed as a less important variety.

The Situation, Policies, and Development of Foreign Language Education in Contemporary China

Foreign language education is an important part of Chinese education, but the overall foreign language education in China is still relatively underdeveloped. Foreign language education and policies in contemporary China are closely related to China’s political, economic, and social development. The contemporary Chinese foreign language education and policies, since the establishment of New China in 1949, can be divided into four periods. The first period is a period of domination by the Russian language (1949–1956), the second period is a period of exploration and transformation (1956–1966), the third period is a period of interruption (1966–1978), and the fourth period is a period of development and improvement (1978 to present). Understanding foreign language education and policies in contemporary Chinese universities can contribute to the future development of foreign language education and policies in China.

State and university tensions in Baltic higher education language policy

Abstract This article explores state and university language policy (LP) agents in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to illuminate their relationship and standpoints in higher education language management. Being interested in who stands for what and whose positions are legitimised, we study the higher education LPs of each state, language principles of universities, and public debates. We conceptualise active LP agents as people with power, people with expertise, people with influence, and people with interest, and consider them to exercise agency in five stages: policy initiation, involvement, influence, intervention, and implementation. By means of argumentation analysis we examine the nature of agents together with the standpoints they express. The findings reveal the central role of most of the nationally oriented state policymakers in university language management in all three settings. Other state policymakers, university administrators, staff, and students become active agents when they disagree with the policies. Agents in each setting share the overarching policy goal, but the main difference of opinion that arises among them is about agency: Should the state or universities implement higher education LPs? And is the state capable of achieving the common policy goal when it takes the task upon itself?

ВОСПИТАТЕЛЬНЫЙ И УЧЕБНЫЙ РЕСУРСЫ УНИВЕРСИТЕТА В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ КУЛЬТУРНОЙ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ЛИЧНОСТИ СТУДЕНТА

The article defines the content components of the concept of "linguistic personality", analyzes the problematic aspects and charac-teristic features of the speech space of the university on the basis of the study of research. A special place is given to the communi-cative competence of a specialist. In general, the concept of the university's language policy is presented, aimed at the formation of a student's cultural linguistic personality by means of educational classes and extracurricular (educational) activities.

Between two fires

Abstract This article focuses on the advocacy of social justice through the implementation of language policies in South African universities. Noting the multilingual complexity of South Africa with 111 official languages and the intricacies surrounding South Africa’s political and sociocultural borders, the submission explores the advocacy of social justice in informing the reappraisal and the ensuing implementation of such a language policy by exploring constitutive dimensions (specifically identity) and instrumental dimensions (non-identity/functional aspects) from a linguistic justice perspective. The institution used as a case study is the North-West University (NWU) which is a by-product of three campuses that were merged in 2004. The authors use survey data eliciting opinions about revising the institution’s language policy. Central to the analysis is how linguistic justice could be exercised in consideration of constitutive vs instrumental dimensions based on the work of De Schutter (2007). With 20, 000 responses, the authors used a qualitative analysis, supplemented by frequencies, to tease apart identity and non-identity aspects to determine which of these had a closer relationship with linguistic justice and the selected institution’s language policy. The results of this study aim to offer insight into future revisions of higher education language policies in order to fulfil the mandate of linguistic justice.

Language ideological landscapes for students in university language policies: inclusion, exclusion, or hierarchy

ABSTRACT Many universities in non-English speaking countries have been adopting English as a medium of instruction to internationalize their education. We set out to compare the language policies of a Finnish and a Japanese university using the lens of language ideology – a set of normative beliefs about the social dimension of language. Data were collected from selected documents of the two universities, and analyzed utilizing critical discursive psychology. This social constructionist approach allows mapping out language ideological landscapes – interrelationships among different co-occurring language ideologies – from which students may draw ideas about how they orient themselves towards their peers on international campuses today. Our analysis shows that different language ideological landscapes are constructed in the language policies of the two universities, affording them different positioning in the phenomenon of internationalization. The findings suggest that both multilingualism and languaging would be important discursive resources for universities to maintain ethnolinguistic nationalism and ensure equality among students with different linguistic backgrounds, in the process of internationalization of higher education through English. On international campuses where multilingualism is prevalent, students are likely to be constructed as cosmopolitans for inclusion, locals and foreigners for exclusion, or ‘native/native-like and non-native speakers’ for hierarchy through different monolingual language ideologies.

MULTILINGUALISM AND CLIL METHODOLOGY WITHIN MULTIED ERASMUS+ PROJECT

The paper presents the results of a research into Ukrainian state and university language policies, and a Ukrainian university community’s potential to become multilingual in terms of its foreign language proficiency and attitudes toward multilingual educational approach. The article highlights the importance of multilingualism in modern society and the interdisciplinarity of its study as related to sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and pedagogics. The results of the research prove that students understand the opportunities of foreign languages and ready to face new methods in teaching among them were relevantly presented storytelling as method of language teaching withing CLIL methodology. Ukrainian universities can develop their own multilingual models, as the case study of one top Ukrainian university (Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University) suggests.

‘English-only’ English medium instruction: Mixed views in Thai and Vietnamese higher education

Emerging from the growing body of work on English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education are challenges to policy implementation, particularly when it is implemented top-down without a careful needs analysis or when it fails to address problems associated with ‘English-only’ implementation and so-called ‘native speaker’ norms. Our study responds to this need by exploring the role of English in EMI classrooms. We draw on data collected from 17 universities in Thailand and Vietnam using questionnaires with 1,377 students, 83 teachers of English for academic purposes (EAP), and 148 content teachers, as well as interviews with 35 students, 31 EAP teachers, and 28 content teachers. We also draw on data from 14 focus groups with teachers and students at seven universities in Vietnam. Findings reveal differences in attitudes amongst stakeholders and highlight that the L1 in EMI classrooms in Thailand and Vietnam, albeit used sparingly, is a useful pedagogical tool. Overall, however, participants preferred native-accented teachers with experience abroad, and English-only instruction. This study calls for more research into raising awareness of Global Englishes and translanguaging practices to challenge such attitudes, university language policies, and teacher recruitment practices that seem to reflect native-speakerism and discourage bilingual instruction or L1 use in EMI classes.

State policymakers on Latvian, English, and Russian in higher education in Latvia: language ideological debates through the lens of argumentation analysis

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the positions of state policymakers in Latvia on Latvian, English, and Russian in higher education. By using argumentation analysis, the study explores policymakers’ statements in two public debates: on the use of Russian as a medium of instruction (May 2018–June 2020) and on the use of English as a language of doctoral theses (November–December 2019). The paper shows that the main difference of opinion among policymakers is about the role of the state in university language policies. Through a focus on the discursive elements in policymaking, four responses to language use in academia are outlined: firstly, the dominant nationalising discourse, which is reinforced to insist on the need for the state to continue with its nationalising language policies; secondly, the globalising discourse, which is manifested in the statements of the same policymakers to justify the state’s support to English, but not Russian; the final two discourses emphasise that universities should be autonomous to implement their own language policies, yet one of these is solely used to argue for institutional autonomy, whereas the other links autonomy with arguments that suggest construing Russian in academia as a right and a resource, not as a problem.

Academic writing centres in multilingual settings: Intermediary agents of higher education language policy?

Academic writing centres in non-Anglophone countries navigate language policies that encourage the development of local languages and English within multilingual university settings. These policies entail diverging language ideologies that connect language use to diversification and standardisation aims. Although writing centres are stakeholders in academic language development and therefore participants in the policy process, their role and agency in this process has been neglected. The study explores how writing centre staff perceive their work in relation to university language policies and aims. Data were collected via a nation-wide survey of centres in Sweden and seven focus groups. The results demonstrate that the staff claim agency as language brokers. Institutional ideologies of monolingualism and assessment regimes that value the text product over the learning process provide limitations. The reported practices illuminate the special status of Swedish for English text production, and opportunities for grassroots agency as intermediaries between students, lecturers and policies.

University language policy in Estonia and Catalonia. Is there a north-south divide in European higher education?

Abstract Within the context of the internationalisation of higher education, language matters have become increasingly prominent for universities across a wide variety of contexts. This has made the higher education domain an attractive site for applied linguists and sociolinguists to investigate in close detail. One relatively consolidated idea is that contexts in which English has made further incursions in universities are more internationalised than those settings where English has penetrated to a lesser extent. In line with that, a supposed north-south divide in European higher education has been conceived of, with universities in the north leading in terms of internationalisation efforts, while those in the south lag behind. In this article, I problematise this idea and suggest instead that a narrower and more focused contrastive analysis between language ecologies across different countries and contexts might be more useful. In doing that, we can thus avoid the dangers of binarism and lumping that can come associated to holding preconceived geographical borders. In particular, the comparative analysis proposed here allows us to highlight two key issues that seem to be highly pressing in present-day higher education domains: the language-ideological and the socio-economic. I build the argument in the paper by utilising empirical material from Estonia and Catalonia, two contexts that have been at the centre of my own work in recent years.

A comparative study on motivation in foreign language learning in Brunei and Malaysian Universities

Universiti Brunei Darussalam has been fostering the study of foreign languages in Brunei to expand their undergraduates’ accessibility in the job market and overall give them equal opportunities to have a quality foreign language learning experience. This paper is a critical analysis of past studies by Ainol and Isarji’s (2009) on foreign language learners at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and Farhana’s (2019) study on Universiti Brunei Darussalam’s (UBD) foreign language learners’ motivation. A focused investigation at how different motivation types, namely intrinsic, extrinsic, instrumental, and integrative, affect foreign language learners at the university level in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia. A pattern observed in Brunei and Malaysian universities is that intrinsic motivation is the foundation of foreign language learning. Bruneian undergraduates are learning out of interest, and their Malaysian counterparts are learning because they enjoy the experience. While the university's language policy determines the number of students learning a foreign language each semester, the outcome is still highly dependent on the student's motivation to learn the foreign language.

An appraisal of bilingual language policy implementation in South African higher education

The demand for promoting bilingual and multilingual language policies in African universities can be regarded as a decolonial force for driving pedagogical changes in teaching and learning. In South Africa, there have been polemic debates particularly on the need to include African languages as alternatives to English. This article intervenes in the increasing tensions about language policy implementation in tertiary institutions. The study utilises a qualitative methodology that blends secondary and primary data collected from semi-structured interviews and questionnaires from two campuses (Howard and Pietermaritzburg) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Findings reveal that the UKZN academic staff and students have mixed feelings about the implementation of the bilingual language policy. The authors argue for the need to balance the use of African and non-African languages for teaching and learning. The study ends with a highlight of the challenges related to this Africanising project through language policies by emphasising key tenets for strengthening language policy implementation in South Africa.

ESTUDIANTES BRASILEÑOS EN LA FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS MÉDICAS DE ROSARIO (ARGENTINA): IMPLICANCIAS INTERLINGÜÍSTICAS

RESUMEN Globalmente, la migración estudiantil universitaria aumenta. En Latinoamérica, Argentina se destaca como epicentro de los intereses de extranjeros, especialmente en las carreras de Medicina. Brasil restringe el acceso a la universidad vía examen de ingreso. En los últimos años, el número de inscritos brasileños en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Santa Fe/Argentina) ha aumentado significativamente. Este fenómeno se presenta en la agenda de los medios de comunicación; sin embargo, los estudios académicos al respecto son escasos. Por esto, el objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las implicancias lingüísticas del fenómeno en relación a: a) la reciente política lingüística universitaria (exigencia de certificación en idioma español a ingresantes no hispanohablantes); b) la formación de comunidades lingüísticas cerradas; y c) el posicionamiento en un paradigma médico, que usa jerga propia. Partimos del marco teórico de la Sociolingüística (ROTAETXE AMUSATEGI, 1990), específicamente de las Políticas Lingüísticas (CALVET, 2007; ARNOUX, 2000), y adoptamos conceptos teórico-metodológicos del Análisis de Discurso (ORLANDI, 2015, 2011; PÊCHEUX, 1975/2016) para construir y analizar el siguiente corpus: documentos institucionales, noticias periodísticas y entrevistas semiestructuradas. De acuerdo a los tres objetivos propuestos, el análisis señala que: a) la aprobación en el examen de lengua española no garantiza el desarrollo expresivo en el contexto áulico, b) el fortalecimiento de la comunidad de brasileños interfiere en su apropiación del idioma español y c) no se constata dificultades lingüísticas sustanciales respecto a la apropiación de la jerga médica. A modo de conclusión, consideramos apremiante fortalecer las políticas lingüísticas e interculturales universitarias volcadas al acogimiento de estudiantes extranjeros, sobre todo en el campo de la formación en Medicina.

Toward Multilingual Tertiary Education in Ukraine: The Case of Zaporizhzhia National University

The article presents the results of a research into Ukrainian state and university language policies, and a Ukrainian university community’s potential to become multilingual in terms of its foreign language proficiency and attitudes toward multilingual tertiary education. The results allow assuming that Ukrainian state acts and university regulations allow for multilingual tertiary education. Ukrainian universities can develop their own multilingual models, as the case study of one top Ukrainian university (Zaporizhzhia National University) suggests.

Language regulation in collaborative student writing: a case study

The article provides a micro-analytical perspective on processes of collaborative writing among university students at an international BA program in Denmark, investigating the extent to which language regulation takes place as part of the students’ joint writing activities and exploring the language ideological underpinnings of such regulatory practices. Four overall analytical observations are made concerning the practices of the group: (1) Writing is a multilingual process; (2) Written products are monolingual; (3) Language regulation rarely concerns form; (4) Getting the message across is key. These findings are discussed in relation to existing findings in the literature and related to the topic of university language policy.

University language policies

In this article, we discuss the position of Finnish constitutional bilingualism in higher education in the context of internationalisation in English, by focusing on two universities: one dominantly monolingual (Finnish), one dominantly bilingual (Finnish–Swedish); in addition, both teach in English. This article investigates how discourses around language choices (language policy documents, selected staff and student interviews) construe these universities as monolingual, bilingual or trilingual, and what these discourses say about the universities as organisations themselves. Results suggest that, although lack of clarity remains regarding language choices in many practical situations, Finnish and English are seen as self-evident primary languages of the universities; Swedish, as the third language, occupies a more contested place. Dans cet article, nous discutons de la position du bilinguisme constitutionnel finlandais dans l’enseignement superieur dans le contexte de l’internationalisation en anglais, en nous concentrant sur deux universites: l’une a dominante monolingue (langue finnoise), l’autre majoritairement bilingue (finno-suedoise); en outre, les deux enseignent en anglais. Cet article etudie comment les discours sur les choix linguistiques (documents de politique linguistique, personnel selectionne et entrevues avec les etudiants) interpretent ces universites comme monolingues, bilingues ou trilingues, et ce que ces discours laissent voir a propos des universites en tant qu’organisations elles-memes. Les resultats suggerent que, malgre le manque de clarte concernant les choix de langue dans de nombreuses situations pratiques, le finnois et l’anglais sont consideres comme des langues primaires evidentes des universites. Le suedois, en tant que troisieme langue, occupe une place plus contestee.

The language question at a historically Afrikaans university: Access and social justice issues

The year 2015 saw the most unprecedented student protests since apartheid South Africa. The issues ranged from decolonisation of the curriculum to no paying of fees to challenging the hegemonic position of Afrikaans in historically Afrikaans universities. After the 2015 protests, the question of language in ensuring educational access and validating lived experiences of African language-speaking students remains largely unaddressed. This paper interrogates the intersection between language, epistemic access and social justice. Contention is made that university language policies play a central role in this interconnectedness. It is further argued that because a language policy is not a value-free document, but a text that embodies ideologies that inform its existence, the policy has an impact on how the languages are distributed for educational access and the implication of such distribution on social justice issues. Specifically, these issues are discussed with reference to North-West University. The institution's language policy is critically examined to show how the language strategies recommended in the language policy support and/or constrain access to knowledge by all students and the possible effects of the strategies on social justice issues. The article ends with a call for inclusive and transformative approaches to the language policy in order to address the educational needs of all students and therefore ensure social justice for all students.

The Dictionary in Examinations at a South African University: A Linguistic or a Pedagogic Intervention?

This paper interrogates students' use of dictionaries for examination purposes at Rhodes University in South Africa. The practice, which is provided for by the university's language policy, is widely seen as a linguistic intervention particularly aimed at assisting English additional language students, the majority of whom speak African languages, with purely linguistic information. Such a view is misconceived as it ignores the fact that the practice predates the present institutional language policy which was adopted in 2006. Although it was difficult to establish the real motivation prior to the language policy, this study indicates that both English mother-tongue and English additional language students use the dictionary in examinations for assistance that may be considered to be broadly pedagogic rather than purely linguistic. This then invites academics to reconsider the manner in which they teach and assess, cognisant of the pedagogic value of the dictionary which transcends linguistic assistance.