Language hierarchies at the international university

Abstract

This article presents a framework for the analysis of language hierarchies at the international university. Taking into consideration that more than 50 different languages may be present among the language resources of students and staff, the article approaches the problem of how one can analyze practices of hierarchization, inclusion and exclusion of languages in a de facto multilingual setting such as a university. The major analytical categories are those of language hierarchization in practice and in representations, as well as distinctions of language hierarchies at different levels: the global, the regional, the state and the institutional levels. The article positions universities in this complex linguistic landscape and presents a case in which a multilingual policy has been implemented: Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University, an educational program that deals with issues of multicultural and multilingual society in a global and postcolonial perspective.

English-Medium Instruction in European Higher Education

“…Forty-one per cent of the students enrolled on these master's programmes delivered in English were not Spanish (University of the Basque Country 2013), which seems to indicate that the UBC's aim to attract foreign postgraduate students is on the right track. This course of action on the part of the UBC would confirm Risager's (2012) statement that internationalisation of higher education institutions is leading to the almost exclusive use of English, especially at the master's and PhD level. As a result of this trend, in the UBC the role played by Basque is getting smaller in postgraduate studies and research, whereas English is becoming more important (Cenoz 2009: 231).…”

“…Policymakers, if only implicitly, seem conscious of it. Nevertheless, adopting more specific and more clearly defined policies at that level would be helpful in order to avoid the paradox that internationalisation forces seem to pose (Risager 2012, Saarinen 2012 and to prevent this from driving the system towards language homogeneity, rather than plurality. On seeing the question more optimistically, this might lead to an increased variability and an enhanced degree of plurilingualism among HE students and staff, with richer and more heterogeneous language repertoires.…”

International universities and implications of internationalisation for minority languages: views from university students in Catalonia and Wales

“…The responses are seen as negative because they directly or indirectly indicate a preference for less Catalan. In terms of Risager's (2012) university language hierarchies and policies, this could be viewed as a preference for a bilingual policy based on international languages (here, Spanish and English) and as resistance to a trilingual policy of international and regional languages (here, Spanish, English and Catalan). There are two main themes in their comments.…”

Internationalization, Mobility and Englishization in Higher Education Across OECD Countries

“…Following these developments, the urge for internationalization has received various reactions from the higher education institutions at a macro level. These reactions, according to Risager (2012), may include using a monolingual, only English policy; a bilingual, English plus the national language policy; and a trilingual, English plus the national and the regional language policy. Risager (2012) concluded that especially the extended or monolingual English language policy has been quite popular in graduate programs.…”