Linguistic Diversity and Linguistic Authenticity: The Interplay between Danish, English and Other Languages at an Internationalized University

Aktivitet: Tale eller præsentationForedrag og mundtlige bidrag

Beskrivelse

The papers focus on language issues in a university that is in part, but not exclusively English-medium. The European ‘Bologna Process’ of university programme internationalisation has often been interpreted as a call to introduce English as a medium of instruction along with the local national language, since at present many universities consider this their only realistic option for facilitating transnational student mobility. But the effects have been far more complex. The international university is apparently not just a university where English has become a new medium of teaching and research alongside, but separate from, the traditional ones. It is a multilingual university in which English is used in some contexts, but not in others; the precise role of English has not yet been satisfactorily described.

 Roskilde University, a newish Danish university founded in 1972, started international programs in 1989. This gives us almost 20 years of experience with the cultural and linguistic practices which have developed as a consequence of transnational student mobility. These three papers will focus on three different aspects that in our opinion stand out as lessons from this history: that students (both Danish and international) enter the university with multilingual resources that they can use and enhance, that transnational student mobility not only encourages the use of English as an academic lingua franca, but also the learning of the language of the host country, and that teacher roles have to be redefined and reassessed due to the challenges of teaching in a foreign language and/or to foreign students.

Periode19 jun. 2008
BegivenhedstitelLanguage Issues in English-Medium Universities: A Global Concern
BegivenhedstypeKonference
PlaceringHong Kong, Hong KongVis på kort