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The expansion of English-medium instruction in the Nordic countries: Can top-down university language policies encourage bottom-up disciplinary literacy goals?
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Languages. Uppsala University.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3244-2586
Aarhus University, Denmark.
University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Stockholm University.
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2017 (English)In: Higher Education, ISSN 0018-1560, E-ISSN 1573-174X, Vol. 73, no 4, p. 561-576Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Recently, in the wake of the Bologna Declaration and similar international initiatives, there has been a rapid increase in the number of university courses and programmes taught through the medium of English. Surveys have consistently shown the Nordic countries to be at the forefront of this trend towards English-medium instruction (EMI). In this paper, we discuss the introduction of EMI in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). We present the educational setting and the EMI debate in each of these countries and summarize relevant research findings. We then make some tentative suggestions for the introduction of EMI in higher education in other countries. In particular, we are interested in university language policies and their relevance for the day-to-day work of faculty. We problematize one-size-fits-all university language policies, suggesting that in order for policies to be seen as relevant they need to be flexible enough to take into account disciplinary differences. In this respect, we make some specific suggestions about the content of university language policies and EMI course syllabuses. Here we recommend that university language policies should encourage the discussion of disciplinary literacy goals and require course syllabuses to detail disciplinary-specific language-learning outcomes.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2017. Vol. 73, no 4, p. 561-576
Keywords [en]
University language policy, Bilingualism, Disciplinary literacy, English-medium instruction, Nordic language policy
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-64199DOI: 10.1007/s10734-015-9950-2ISI: 000398931400002Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84945143686OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-64199DiVA, id: diva2:1097894
Available from: 2017-05-23 Created: 2017-05-23 Last updated: 2019-08-29Bibliographically approved

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Airey, John

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