The English language in Danish Higher Education and in Denmark: perspectives on language practice and language ideology

Beskrivelse

This paper explores the present situation of the complex and changing role that the English language is now playing in Denmark as a whole, with a specific focus on Danish Higher Education. The self-conscious 'internationalisation' of Danish Higher Education has been a complex process, and has been the focus of a four-year research project at Roskilde University called CALPIU (Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University). The talk will begin by sketching the general context and its inbuilt linguistic complexities, and then move to discuss a more focused study which examined attitudes towards different forms of English, as expressed in qualitative interviews conducted with four students at an international study program in Denmark. The students belong to a so-called transient multilingual community in which historically-accrued language ideologies cannot necessarily be assumed to be shared by all members. Our analysis suggests that the students see competence and effectiveness as important parameters in their evaluation of different forms of English in the university context, irrespective of the provenance of the speaker, but they also subscribe to familiar language ideologies that favour ‘native’ English varieties and accents over other kinds of English, although these also get remade in the particular contexts the students operate in. This could be seen as a contradiction between ideologies, but we argue that the contradiction is only apparent.

Talk based on material co-authored with Janus Mortensen

Periode	27 mar. 2015
Sted for afholdelse	Unknown external organisation