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Monolingual - Bilingual - Multilingual Tensions in Higher Education
Lund University, Sweden. (EdLing)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8686-9959
University of Maryland, USA.
2021 (English)In: AILA 2021 - World Congress in Applied Linguistics, University of Groningen , 2021Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Sustainable development
SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, SDG 10: Reduce income inequality within and among countries
Abstract [en]

In the Nordic countries, university language policy and planning centers on balancing the use of the national languages(s) vis-à-vis English (Hultgren, Gregersen & Thøgersen, 2017), whereas less attention has been paid to the roles played by other languages. The present study focuses on how space was negotiated for different languages in real time by a university language-policy committee while crafting a draft policy. Using an ethnographic discourse analytical approach (Barakos & Unger, 2016; Hornberger & Johnson, 2007), interactional and textual data were collected over 10 months during committee negotiations. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis (Saldaña, 2015; Zhang & Wildemuth, 2009) in applying Ruiz’s (1984) orientations to language: language-as-problem, language-as-right and language-as-resource, and Blommaert’s (2007) concept of ‘scale’. Analysis revealed that English, Swedish and other languages were variously positioned as problem or resource: English as problem in undergraduate teaching and in performing certain University ceremonies, and as resource in communicating research and in communication with international students, staff and external reviewers. Swedish was framed as problem in the domains of research communication and in communication with international staff, students and reviewers, but as resource on the institutional scale. Other languages, notably 'Scandinavian', were positioned as resources in restricted areas of University operations. Individual multilingualism was framed as resource, whereas institutional multilingualism was positioned as problem. Parallel-language use (Swedish and English) was framed as being the only solution to the tension between the Swedish Language Act’s requirement of Swedish in legally binding documents and the requirement of English in the University’s international operations. In sum, this presentation illustrates tensions between a Swedish University’s need for monolingualism, parallel-language use and multilingualism on the individual and institutional scales, as well as languages named and identified as problems and resources on the institutional, research-discipline and individual scales.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
University of Groningen , 2021.
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Humanities, English Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-106635OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-106635DiVA, id: diva2:1588662
Conference
AILA 2021 - World Congress in Applied Linguistics
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-03469Available from: 2021-08-27 Created: 2021-08-27 Last updated: 2023-02-27Bibliographically approved

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Källkvist, Marie

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf