Plurilingualism, multilingualism and internationalisation in the European Higher Education Area: Challenges and perspectives at a Swiss University
Abstract The relationships between the internationalisation of higher education and language are still poorly understood. We foreground the perspective of students in order to advance our understanding of these interrelations in the context of the consolidation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Accordingly, we propose gathering answers to the questions: What, from students' perspectives, are their experiences and perceptions of pluri- and multilingualism in the context of the internationalisation of higher education? And how are they dealing with these experiences and perceptions? Existing studies confirm that local specificities pertaining to languages and education systems impact substantially on the answers to these emerging questions. Thus, an overall picture of the interactions between language and internationalisation that shape the EHEA require the integration of findings from localised investigations that bring to light these particularities. Here we present an overview of findings from a mixed methods study in a medium-sized, historically German-language university in multilingual Switzerland. Our findings confirm that students are making considerable efforts to ensure that their plurilingualism extends beyond English. Notwithstanding attempts by the university to respond to their needs, students however still struggle with the tensions between what they can actually do, what they report they would like to do, and what they perceive is expected of them concerning language competencies during their studies and after. On the basis of these reflections, lecturers at the Language Centre developed a four-language course Communication training in multilingual settings that uses French, Italian, English, and German. This course is briefly introduced as an example of a language training intervention which seeks to move beyond the persistent constraints of a compartmentalised approach to pluri- and multilingualism in higher education.
English in the social sciences
Let us first praise English, not for its intrinsic virtues, but for the simple fact that it has become the true world language of science, technology, media and business. There now is a language that allows to reach each and everyone who counts in the field of the natural sciences, advanced technology, mass entertainment and corporate affairs. Of course, it would have been nice if this global language had been Latin, or Chinese, or French, or for that matter Dutch. But it is not. It happens to be English. None of this has anything to do with the immanent qualities of English. Linguists — for lack of any adequate criterion — consider all languages equally worthy by default. Some sociolinguists believe that the present hegemony of English is the result of a determined conspiracy by the British Council or a host of US foundations and agencies to goad people especially in the Third World into learning English, even if it might go squarely against their wishes or their interests. Of course, English language publishers, language institutes and other peddlers of English have made a strenuous
Capital et marché linguistiques
Modelisation des contraintes sociales sur l'usage des variantes linguistiques : ces contraintes sont concues comme resultant de l'application des lois d'un marche ou les valeurs correspondent a la consideration sociale