Language diversity management in higher education: towards an analytical framework

Abstract

Linguistic diversity and its management have become increasingly significant for higher education institutions around the world. Indeed, in the context of a growing student and staff mobility, information exchange, and networked multilateral interactions, the multiplicity of languages used by university stakeholders in more and more contexts has steadily grown over the past decades. A wide range of scholars (from applied and sociolinguists to higher education researchers) have responded with an equal growing attention to this phenomenon. In this paper, we funnel some of the relevant recent scholarship on the language-planning dimension of the internationalization of higher education, providing as a result an analytical framework that attempts to capture the complex sociolinguistic nature of present-day universities. To date, with only a handful of exceptions, few attempts have been made to provide a comprehensive overview of the different levels, stakeholders, and contexts of language use in higher education. Given the rapid changing nature of language matters in such context, the framework we present in this paper should be useful to both sociolinguists interested in language issues in higher education and to on-the-ground university administrators actively engaged in language planning initiatives in their institutions. The framework, however, is not conceived of as a closed-end solution to language problems at universities today, but rather as a guiding roadmap to think productively about such issues.

Exploring The Effects of English as a Foreign Language on First Language Development of Young Children: The Case of Greece

“…The application of the CPH in the modern, linguistically diverse world presents challenges in devising universally applicable pedagogical strategies due to the variety of linguistic backgrounds, cultural environments, and age groups learners come from. The interplay of multilingualism and language contact in many learners' lives necessitates an adaptable approach to language education that considers these complexities (Darquennes et al, 2020;Hakuta et al, 2003;Hartshorne et al, 2018;Singleton, 2005Singleton, , 2017Singleton & Leśniewska, 2021;Vanhove, 2013;Zurlinden, 2004).…”

The Urdu and English Medium Divide in Punjab, Pakistan

“…In Pakistan, only private colleges are offering A/O level schooling and public sector colleges are offering other intermediate programs and affiliate them with the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. In Pakistan, the term Urdu and English medium have also become a social status (Darquennes et al, 2020). The elite class students get admission in English medium schools only and do not prefer to go Urdu medium schools, whereas the students belonging to middle class and low obtain admissions in Urdu medium colleges due to their financial conditions, but these some students get admission in English medium on scholarship if they are extraordinary, brilliant (Akhtar & Hussain, 2019;Manan, 2019).…”