English in Nordic universities: ideologies and practices
It is by now a well-documented fact that English is being used to a much greater extent at Nordic universities than was the case a couple of decades ago. With the proviso that cross-country comparisons are difficult because of differences in educational systems and methods of measurements, the propo...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | unknown |
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John Benjamins
2014
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| Online Access: | https://oro.open.ac.uk/40728/ https://oro.open.ac.uk/40728/1/EnglishInNordicUniversitiesIntroduction.pdf https://oro.open.ac.uk/40728/8/HultgrenGregersenThoegersen2014.pdf https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/wlp.5/main https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.5.01hul |
| Summary: | It is by now a well-documented fact that English is being used to a much greater extent at Nordic universities than was the case a couple of decades ago. With the proviso that cross-country comparisons are difficult because of differences in educational systems and methods of measurements, the proportion of academic articles which are published in English at Nordic universities is in the order of 70 to 95%; for doctoral dissertations, the order is 80–90%. The use of English as a medium of instruction differs at undergraduate and graduate level; at the former level some 10–25% of programmes are taught in English and at the latter the range is some 20–40%. The proportion of non-Nordic students is around 5–15%, though for all these areas, there are considerable differences between the disciplines, with the technical and natural sciences typically exhibiting a much greater degree of Englishization (Godenhjelm, Saarinen & Östman, 2013; Hultgren, 2013; Kristoffersen, Kristiansen & Røyneland, 2013; Kristinsson & Bernharðsson, 2013; Salö & Josephson, 2013). Universities in the Nordic countries, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, may be seen as being on the forefront in this process of Englishization, but we believe that the trend is universal and that the causes and consequences of the development are therefore relevant far beyond the region. It is against this backdrop of greater English language usage in key university activities that the present volume is set. The purpose of this volume is to explore and contrast the ideologies and practices associated with the Englishization of Nordic universities. By ideologies we understand the ways in which English at Nordic universities is explicitly or implicitly talked and written about in the Nordic debate. By practices we understand the ways in which the phenomenon of language choice unfolds on the ground in the situated interactions of the social actors directly involved in it, i.e. primarily those who conduct their daily working lives at Nordic ... |
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