Anna Kristina Hultgren | Department of Applied Linguistics and English Language, The Open University
Jacob Thøgersen | Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen
This article draws attention to a widening and unproductive disconnect between two sets of scholarly activities seeking to understand the Englishization of Nordic universities, and, more generally, the effects of globalization on language. While these scholarly activities are not internally homogenous, we shall refer to them here as “policy and practice.” Contrasting examples drawn from policy documents and linguistic practices in the context of Englishized Nordic universities, we show that the level of policy assumes a monolithic and essentialized understanding of language whereas the level of practice also incorporates elements of constructionism and hybridity. We then go on to argue that the difference between the two levels is by no means clear as participants on the practice level also appear to orient to monolithic and essentialized understandings of language as they are construed for policy purposes. We finish by arguing that scholarly activities at each level — policy and practice — need to a greater extent to recognize the relevance of both levels in order to advance sociolinguistic theory in a holistic manner.
Airey, J. (2009). Science, language and literacy case studies of learning in Swedish university physics. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Uppsala.
Airey, J. & Linder, C. (2011). Bilingual scientific literacy. In C. Linder, L. Östman, D. Roberts, P.-O. Wickman, G. Ericksen, & A. MacKinnon (Eds.), Exploring the landscape of scientific literacy(pp. 106–124). London: Routledge.
Altbach, P.G. & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3/4), 290–305.
Beinhoff, B. (2013). Establishing identity through accent: Attitudes of non-native speakers towards foreign accents of English. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Björkman, B. (2008). English as the lingua franca of engineering: The morphosyntax of academic speech events. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 7(3), 103–122.
Blackledge, A. & Creese, A. (Eds.). (2014). Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy. London: Springer
Blommaert, J. (2001). Review. Linguistic genocide in education - or worldwide diversity and human rights? T. Skutnabb-Kangas. Applied Linguistics, 22(4), 539–542. .
Bolton, K. & Kuteeva, M. (2012). English as an academic language at a Swedish university: parallel language use and the “threat” of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 331, 429–447.
Cameron, D. (2012[1995]). Verbal hygiene. London: Routledge.
Coleman, J.A. (2006). English-medium teaching in European higher education. Language Teaching, 391, 1–14.
Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A Pedagogy for learning and teaching?The Modern Language Journal, 941, 103–115.
Dalton-Puffer, C., Kaltenboeck, G. & Smit, U. (1997). Learner attitudes and L2 pronunciation in Austria. World Englishes, 16(1), 115–128
Danish Government (2008). Sprog til tiden [Language in time]. Copenhagen: Danish Ministry of Culture.
Davidsen-Nielsen, N. (2005). Debat: Fagsprog skal assimileres [Debate: Domain-specific language should be assimmilated]. Berlingske Tidende, 19May.
Derwing, T.M. & Munro, M.J. (1997) Accent, intelligibility, and comprehension. Evidence from four L1s. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 201, 1–16.
Dimova, S., Hultgren, A.K., & Jensen C. (Eds.). (2015). English-medium instruction in European higher education. Berlin: Mouton.
Duchêne, A. & Heller, M. (Eds.). (2007). Discourses of endangerment: Ideology and interest in the defence of languages. London: Continuum
Evans, N. (2010). Dying words: Endangered languages and what they have to tell us. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Fayer, J.M. & Krasinski, E. (1987). Native and non-native judgements of intelligibility and irritation. Language Learning, 37(3), 313–327
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Oxford: Wiley.
Godenhjelm, S., Saarinen, T. & Östman, J.-O. (2014). Landrapport Finland: Utgångspunkter för en fungerande parallelspråkighet [Country report Finland: The basis for a functional parallellingualism]. In F. Gregersen (Ed.), Hvor parallelt: Om parallellspråkighet på Nordens universitet [How parallel: On parallellingualism at Nordic universities] (pp. 323–422). TemaNord 2014:535. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. url: [URL].
Gürüz, K. (2008). Higher education and international student mobility in the global knowledge economy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Haberland, H., Lønsmann, D., & Preisler, B. (2013). Language alternation, language choice and language encounter in international tertiary education. Dordrecht: Springer
Harder, P. (1980). Discourse as self-expression – On the reduced personality of the second-language learner. Applied Linguistics, 11, 262–270
Hazel, S. & Mortensen, J. (2013). Kitchen talk – Exploring linguistic practices in liminal institutional interactions in a multilingual university setting. In H. Haberland, D. Lønsmann, & B. Preisler (Eds.), Language alternation, language choice and language encounter in international tertiary education (pp. 3–30). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hazelkorn, E. (2011). Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for world-class excellence. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Hultgren, A.K. (2014). Parallelsproglighed på danske universiteter: en statusrapport 2013. [Parallellingualism at Danish universities: a status report 2013]. In F. Gregersen (Ed.), Hvor parallelt: Om parallellspråkighet på Nordens universitet [How parallel: On parallellingualism at Nordic universities] (pp. 117–196). TemaNord 2014:535. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. url: [URL].
Jaspers, J. (2011). Talking like a “zerolingual”: Ambiguous linguistic caricatures at an urban secondary school. Journal of Pragmatics, 431, 1264–1278.
Jenkins, J., Cogo, A. & Dewey, M. (2011). Review of developments in research into English as a Lingua Franca. Language Teaching, 44(3), 281–315.
Jensen, C., Denver, L., Mees, I.M., Werther, C. (2013). Students’ attitudes to lecturers’ English in English-medium higher education in Denmark. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 12(1), 87–112.
Jensen, C. & Thøgersen, J. (2011). University lecturers’ attitudes towards English as the medium of instruction. Iberica, 221, 13–33.
Jørgensen, J.N. (2008). Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism, 5(3), 161–176.
Kiil, L.E. (2011). Danish university students’ use of codeswitching during English-medium instruction: A case study of two English-medium courses at The Faculty of Fife Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.
Kirchmeier-Andersen, S. (2008). Lov til dansk? The Danish national newspaper. Politiken, 7, April.
Kramsch, C. (2012). Imposture: A late modern notion in poststructuralist SLA research. Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 483–502. .
Kristiansen, T. & Gregersen, F. (2012). Dansk skabspurisme og norsk skabsliberalisme: holdninger til påvirkningen fra engelsk. In U. Røyneland & H.-O. Enger (Eds.), Fra holtijar til holting: språkhistoriske og språksosiologiske artikler til Arne Torp på 70-årsdagen. (pp. 123–139). Oslo: Novus.
Kristinsson, A.P. & Bernharðsson, H. (2014). Landerapport Island: Islandsk eller engelsk i islandsk universitetsvirksomhed? [Country report Iceland: Icelandic or English at Icelandic Universities?]. In F. Gregersen (Ed.), Hvor parallelt: Om parallellspråkighet på Nordens universitet [How parallel: On parallellingualism at Nordic universities] (pp. 427–486). TemaNord 2014:535. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. url: [URL].
Kristoffersen, G., Kristiansen, M. & Røyneland, U. (2014). Landrapport Norge: Internasjonalisering og parallellspråkighet ved norske universitet og høyskoler [Country report Norway: Internationalization and parallellingualism at Norwegian univeristies and colleges]. In F. Gregersen, (Ed.), Hvor parallelt: Om parallellspråkighet på Nordens universitet [How parallel: On parallellingualism at Nordic universities] (pp. 197–259). TemaNord 2014:535. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. url: [URL].
Ljosland, R. (2008). Lingua franca, prestisjespråk og forestilt fellesskap: om engelsk som akademisk språk I Norge [Lingua franca, prestige language and imagined community: On English as an academic language in Norway]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Makihara, M. & Schieffelin, B.B. (2007). Consequences of contact: Language ideologies and sociocultural transformations in Pacific societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
May, S. (2012). Contesting hegemonic and monolithic constructions of language rights ‘discourse’. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 7(1), 21–27.
McCambridge, L. & Saarinen, T. (2015). “I know that the natives must suffer every now and then”: Native / non-native- indexing language ideologies in Finnish higher education. In S. Dimova, A.K. Hultgren & C. Jensen, (Eds.), English-medium instruction in European higher education. Berlin: Mouton.
Munro, M.J. & Derwing, T.M. (1995a). Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 451, 73–97
Munro, M.J. & Derwing, T.M. (1995b). Processing time, accent, and comprehensibility in the perception of native and foreign-accented speech. Language and Speech, 381, 289–306.
Nettle, D. & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nordic Council (2007). Declaration on Nordic language policy. Copenhagen: Nordic Council.
Norwegian Government (2008). Mål og meining – ein heilskapleg norsk språkpolitikk [Tongue and Opinion: A comprehensive Norwegian Language Policy]. Oslo: Norwegian Department of Cultural and Ecclesiastic Affairs.
Östman, J.-O. & Thøgersen, J. (2010). Language attitudes and the ideology of the Nordic. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2041, 97–127. .
Otsuji, E., & Pennycook, A. (2010). Metrolingualism: Fixity, fluidity and language in flux. International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(3), 240–254.
Phillipson, R. & Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2013). Review of The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism. TESOL Quarterly, 471, 657–659.
Phillipson, R. (2008). Lingua franca or lingua frankensteinia? English in European integration and globalisation. World Englishes, 27(2), 250–267.
Phillipson, R. (2006). English, a cuckoo in the European higher education nest of languages?European Journal of English Studies, 10(1), 13–32.
Preisler, B. (2009). Complementary languages: The national language and English as working languages in European universities. In P. Harder (Ed.), English in Denmark: Language policy, internationalization and university teaching (pp. 10–28). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Rampton, B. (2009). Interaction ritual and not just artful performance in crossing and stylization. Language in Society, 38(2), 149–176. .
Saarinen, T. & Nikula, T. (2012). Implicit policy, invisible language: policies and practices of international degree programmes in Finnish higher education. In A. Doiz, D. Lasagabaster & J.M. Sierra (Eds.), English-medium instruction at universities: Global challenges (pp. 131–150). Clevendon: Multilingual Matters.
Salö, L. & Josephson, O. (2014). Landrapport Sverige: Parallellspråkighet vid svenska universitet och högskolor [Country report Sweden: Parallellingualism at Swedish universities and colleges]. In F. Gregersen (Ed.), Hvor parallelt: Om parallellspråkighet på Nordens universitet [How parallel: On parallellingualism at Nordic universities] (pp. 261–322). TemaNord 2014:535. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. url: [URL].
Seidlhofer, B. (2011). Understanding English as a lingua franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Söderlundh, H. (2013). Language choice and linguistic variation in classes nominally taught in English. In H. Haberland, D. Lønsmann & B. Preisler (Eds.), Language alternation, language choice and language encounter in international tertiary education (pp. 85–102). Dordrecht: Springer
Spivak, G.C. (1988). Subaltern studies: Deconstructing historiography. In R. Guha & G.C. Spivak (Eds.), Selected subaltern studies (pp. 3–32). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spolsky, B. (Ed.) (2012). The Cambridge handbook of language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Swedish Government (2002). Mål i mun – Förslag till handlingsprogram för svenska språket [Keep Your Tongue – Proposition for an action plan for the Swedish language]. Stockholm: Swedish Department of Culture.
Vertovec, S. (2006). The emergence of super-diversity in Britain. Oxford University: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Working Papers, 25.
Thøgersen, J. (2013). Stylistic and pedagogical consequences of university teaching in English in Europe. InH. Haberland, D. Lønsmann & B. Preisler (Eds.), Language alternation, language choice, and language encounter in international education (pp. 181–193). Dordrecht: Springer.
Thøgersen, J. & Airey, J. (2011). Lecturing undergraduate science in Danish and in English: A comparison of speaking rate and rhetorical style, English for Specific Purposes, 301, 209–221.
Cited by (9)
Cited by nine other publications
Karakaş, Ali
2023. Translanguaging in content-based EMI classes through the lens of Turkish students: Self-reported practices, functions and orientations. Linguistics and Education 77 ► pp. 101221 ff.
Karakaş, Ali & Jennifer Jenkins
2022. Academic English Language Policies and Practices of English-Medium Instruction Universities in Turkey from Policy Actors’ Eyes. In English as the Medium of Instruction in Turkish Higher Education [Multilingual Education, 40], ► pp. 3 ff.
Gabriëls, René & Robert Wilkinson
2021. Two types of reflections about English as a medium of instruction. European Journal of Language Policy 13:2 ► pp. 161 ff.
Kirilova, Marta & Dorte Lønsmann
2020. Dansk – nøglen til arbejde? Ideologier om sprogbrug og sproglæring i to arbejdskontekster i Danmark. Nordand 15:1 ► pp. 37 ff.
Soler, Josep
2020. University language policy in Estonia and Catalonia. Is there a north-south divide in European higher education?
. Sociolinguistica 34:1 ► pp. 57 ff.
Goodman, Bridget A.
2019. Text, talk, and stance: Nigerian and Ukrainian student presentations in English-medium classes at a Ukrainian university. Linguistics and Education 53 ► pp. 100757 ff.
Gurney, Laura
2018. Academic English and EMI in the Asia Pacific: Complexities, Opportunities and Outcomes. In Multilingual Education Yearbook 2018 [Multilingual Education Yearbook, ], ► pp. 73 ff.
2017. Introduction. In The Sociolinguistics of Academic Publishing, ► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.