Whose parallellingualism? Overt and covert ideologies in Danish university language policies

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the study of multilingualism in the workplace by analysing top-down language policies advocating parallellingualism at Denmark’s eight universities. Parallellingualism, a key concept in Nordic language policy, has been suggested as a way to ensure an equitable balance between English and the Nordic language(s) without the former encroaching on the latter. Drawing on theories which consider discourses about language to constitute positioning for or against a particular social, moral or political order (Cameron 2012), the paper contrasts state- and institution-authored university language policies. The overall aim is to understand what the different actors mean when they invoke ‘parallellingualism’. Supplementary data consist of a corpus of newspaper articles on the topic of the use of English and Danish at Danish universities published in the same period as the university language policies. It is argued that while both state and institution-authored policies overtly advocate ‘parallellingualism’ as a guiding principle for managing multilingualism at Danish universities, in the state-authored policies, this seems to mean ‘more Danish’, while in the institution-authored policies it seems to mean ‘more English’. Some underlying ideologies of each of these positions are proposed before the implications for workplace discourse are discussed.

Nordic language policies for higher education and their multi-layered motivations

“…The idea was that the national language and English would be treated as two equal languages, used pragmatically in the most convenient ways in different situations. However, Hultgren (2014a) found in Denmark that applying the "parallel language policy" tended to emphasize the use of Danish on the state level and English on the institutional level. Further, as Thøgersen points out, the local language and the language of internationalisation do not have an equal status simply because not all people have access to both or all of the languages.…”

English-Medium Instruction in European Higher Education

“…Interestingly, unlike Hultgren's (2014a) contrast of state authored and institutional policy documents, we see here that even state level policies can work towards trying to shape reality in different ways. In short, Hultgren (2014a) finds that state authored documents foster (more implicitly than explicitly so) a more important role for Danish in Denmark's universities.…”

“…In short, Hultgren (2014a) finds that state authored documents foster (more implicitly than explicitly so) a more important role for Danish in Denmark's universities. In parallel, institutionally authored documents seem to portray a bigger role for English.…”

“…Notwithstanding such apparent growth and national variation, numbers often obscure considerable variation across institutions and disciplines. Institutionally, the provision of EMI has been found to vary (Hultgren 2014a), partly in accordance with the aims and identity of the institution as illustrated by the contrast between the internationally-oriented Roskilde University in Denmark and the nationally-oriented universities of the Faroe Islands and the Sami University College in Norway Bull 2012). With respect to EMI subjects, the greatest proportion of master's programmes is in business and economics (28 percent) and engineering and technology (21 per cent), followed by the social sciences (14 per cent), the natural sciences (9 per cent), and the humanities and arts (8 percent) (Brenn-White and Faethe 2013).…”

English at Nordic universities

“…In some language policies it is employed to secure a continued place for the local language (as originally intended); in other policies it is used to refer to the promotion of English in (sub)domains where an English alternative to the national language is felt to be wanting (Hultgren 2014;Thøgersen, 2010; cf. also Linn's, discussion of the term in this volume).…”