Lecturing in one’s first language or in English as a lingua franca: The Communication of authenticity

The demand for internationalization puts pressure on Danish universities
to use English as the language of instruction instead of or in addition to
the local language(s). The purpose of this study – though proceeding
from the belief that true internationalization seeks to exploit all linguistic
and communicative resources available within the institution – is to offer
potential directions in the search for the “best practice” of Danish and
other non-native English-speaking university teachers who have lately
had to switch to English in transmitting their academic expertise to
students of the multicultural and multilingual classroom. This case study
concerns Danish university teachers’ spoken discourse and interaction
with students in a Danish-language versus English-language classroom.
The data are video recordings of classroom interaction at the University
of Roskilde, Denmark. The focus is on the relationship between
linguistic-pragmatic performance and academic authenticity for university
teachers teaching courses in both English and Danish, based on recent
sociolinguistic concepts such as “persona,” “stylization,” and “authenticity.”
The analysis suggests that it is crucial for teachers’ ability to
authenticate themselves through appropriate communicative strategies that
teacher and students share some relevant cultural frames of reference,
and that limitations in teachers’ use of appropriate communicative
strategies may impede their authenticity, affecting their academic
authority.