Transcript New contexts for university languages: the Bologna Process

The Language of Higher Education
Jim Coleman
The Open University
The Language of Higher Education
The End of Modern Languages
(Graddol 2004: 1329)
The Language of Higher Education
Global dominance of English (Brutt-Giffler
2000, Crystal 2003, Graddol 1997)
• undesirable (European Commission 2003,
Roy 2004)
• imperialism, marginalisation, individual
rights (Canagarajah 1999, 2002, Dalby 2003,
Kachru 1982, 1992a, 1992b, Pennycook
1994, Phillipson 1992, Skutnabb-Kangas
2001, Widdowson 1993)
• environmentalism and biodiversity (Abley
2003, Graddol 2004, Nettle and Romain
2002)
The Language of Higher Education
Not new:
‘English will be the most respectable
language in the world and the most
universally read and spoken in the next
century, if not before the close of this one’
(Adams 1780)
‘English is widely used on the European
continent as an international language.
Frequently conferences are conducted in
English (and their proceedings published in
English) when only a few of the participants
are native speakers.’ (Ferguson 1981)
The Language of Higher Education
Q31 Sollte man sich im Rahmen der europäischen
Einigung auf eine gemeinsame Amtssprache einigen?
61.7% (valid 69.1%) Ja
Q32 Falls ja: Welche sollte die internationale
Amtssprache für Europa sein?
84% Englisch
(Schröder & Macht 1983; N = 1916 German, Belgian,
Finnish university students)
The Language of Higher Education
Not always negative:
‘For the first time a natural language has
attained the status of an international
(universal) language, essentially for crosscultural communication. Whatever the
reasons for the earlier spread of English, we
should now consider it a positive
development.’ (Kachru 1992b: 67)
The Language of Higher Education
Not always negative in formal international
scientific settings:
• global academic exchange
• advancement of knowledge
• career advancement and mobility
(Montgomery 2004: 1334)
‘English is the language of science. That is
the language we have to use if we wish to
prepare our students for an international
career in a globalizing world’ (Kruseman
2003).
The Language of Higher Education
Not necessarily a conspiracy:
‘by happenstance rather than planning’
(Brumfit 2004: 165)
‘the process of globalizing English seems a
rather wild and woolly affair, a cumulative
effect of myriad decisions by editors,
teachers, students, parents, writers,
publishers, translators, officials, scholarly
associations, corporations, schools, and so
on, with an equally wide array of motives’
(Montgomery 2004: 1334)
The Language of Higher Education
English as a lingua franca (Seidlhofer 2001,
Wright 2000):
‘the academic lingua franca’ (C. van Leeuwen
2003: 20) vs. the ‘lingua franca trap’
(Breidbach 2003).
‘At some stage, the EU will have to face the
mismatch between its support for diversity
within the foreign language curriculum […]
and the reality of a dominant lingua franca.’
(Wright 2001)
The Language of Higher Education
European Union, Council of Europe, Bologna
Process: ‘proper provision for linguistic
diversity’.
But problematic against increase in use of
English in higher education (Béacco & Byram
2003, Brock-Utne 2001, Phillipson 2001) .
The Language of Higher Education
‘For the first time in recorded
history, all the known world has a
shared second language of
advanced education’ (Brumfit
2004: 166)
The Language of Higher Education
English is the language of European higher
education
Graddol: up-to-date books & articles >
English-medium teaching > English-speaking
graduates > social use, children’s education.
• ‘English-medium higher education is thus
one of the drivers of language shift, from L2
to L1 English-speaking status’ (1997:45)
• social privilege
• internationalisation of education, global
trade in higher education
The Language of Higher Education
Academic Cooperation Association Survey
2001/02 (Maiworm & Wächter 2002):
• 1558 HEIs in SOCRATES-ERASMUS
• 30% at least one English-medium
programme (25+%)
• 2-4% of HEI’s programmes, 1% overall
• new phenomenon: most since 1998, 8%
pre-1990, huge expansion
• Alps watershed (Finland, Netherlands,
Germany)
• Larger internationalised universities
• Business and Engineering
• Postgraduate level
The Language of Higher Education
Why? (Hellekjaer & Westergaard 2002,
Maiworm & Wächter 2002, Tella,
Räsänen & Vähäpassi 1999, Räsänen
2000)
• European exchange programmes
• International recruitment
• International staff
• Prestige
• International graduate employability
• not language learning
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: Maastricht
• English-medium since 1987
• Economics Faculty English-only
• Probably > English-only university
• Studies, Conference in October 2003
(Bob Wilkinson)
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: Hungary 1993-1999 (Dörnyei &
Csizér 2002):
• study of globalisation, motivation, language
choice
• Russian gone, German traditional regional
lingua franca
• cultural interest down for all languages
• contact with native speakers down for all
languages despite increased opportunities
• integrativeness: English stable, others way
down
• instrumentality: German stable, English up,
others down
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: Hungary 1993-1999 (Dörnyei &
Csizér 2002):
‘Our results point to the conclusion that the
declining interest in foreign languages only
applies to non-world languages, whereas
world language learning has maintained its
high popularity’ (437-8).
Very high scores reflect ‘almost unanimous
and unqualified endorsement’ (438) of global
English.
Enyedi & Medgyes (1998): HE students
learning English 20% in 1988/89, 50% in
1996/97
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: English-medium universities in Turkey (at
least one Faculty) – private sector:
Bilkent University, Ankara
Baskent University, Ankara
Cankaya University, Ankara
Atalim University, Ankara
Koc University, Istanbul
Sabanci University, Istanbul
Bilgi University, Istanbul
Bahcesehir University, Istanbul
Izmir University of Economics, Izmir…
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: English-medium universities in Turkey (at
least one Faculty) – public sector:
ODTU (Orta Dogu Teknik University) (METU - Middle
East Technical University in English) , Ankara
Bogazaci University, Ankara
Istanbul Teknik University (ITU), Istanbul
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul
Hacatepe University, Ankara (some faculties in
English)
Ataturk University, Eskisehir
The Language of Higher Education
Snapshot: France
•
acceptance of lingua franca: ‘La langue
commune de l’Europe ne peut pas être
autre, dans un schéma réaliste, que
l’anglais. C’est le langage technique de
la communication, la langue de travail
commune’ (Alfred Mahadavy, conseiller
du commerce extérieur de la France,
janvier 2004)
•
acceptance of need for more Englishmedium university courses
The Language of Higher Education
Need for data > survey
• European Language Council
• CercleS
The Language of Higher Education
Bilingual and bicultural identity?
Graddol (2004: 1330): ‘major impact [of
English] will be in creating new generations of
bilingual and multilingual speakers across the
world’
Arnett (‘The Psychology of Globalization’
2002: 777): ‘Most people in the world now
develop a bicultural identity, in which part of
their identity is rooted in their local culture
while another part stems from an awareness
of their relation to the global culture’.
Wright (2004: 249): One language for identity
(culture), one language for communication
(utility): ‘many might come to choose this
differentiated bilingualism’.