The Englishization of Polish higher education

Abstract

The tension between monolingualism and multilingualism has left its mark on the cultural history of Europe. Current public and academic debates about the Englishization of higher education pitch proponents of the monolingual ideal of a common language that promotes communication against advocates of the maintenance of linguistic diversity that does more justice to the multicultural reality and enriches life. Notwithstanding the differences between European countries, the switch from an initially monolingual curriculum to a bilingual and sometimes multilingual curriculum in higher education has led to debates about the consequences of the Englishization for the quality of higher education, cultural identity, inequality between stakeholders and the opportunities to express concern about this process.

The dynamic role of the English language in contemporary Poland

“…All in all, the aforementioned higher education reforms seem to have achieved their intended effect, as recent research found a dramatic increase in the use of English in scholarly articles published by Polish scholars between 2015 (52%) and 2019 (73%) (Cierpich‐Kozieł & Mańczak‐Wohlfeld, 2021). Another study revealed that 63% of SSH faculty at one Polish university had published in two languages (usually Polish and English), 29% in three or more languages (French, German, Spanish and Russian) and 8% had published only in Polish.…”