Signs of Plurilingualism. Current Plurilingual Countermoves in Danish Higher Education

TY - JOUR

T1 - Signs of Plurilingualism. Current Plurilingual Countermoves in Danish Higher Education

AU - Daryai-Hansen, Petra

AU - Kirilova, Marta

PY - 2019/6

Y1 - 2019/6

N2 - During the last decade, Danish universities – like universities worldwide – have gradually become more internationalized. From a predominantly national, monolingual educational system, universities have increasingly advanced to a post-national paradigm with Danish and English as so-called parallel languages. However, the present reality is even more multifaceted, raising the question as to whether universities’ internationalization efforts can be limited to the use of only English and the national language. The article discusses the results of two plurilingual language strategies that have recently been implemented in Danish higher education: the Language Profiles at Roskilde University and More Languages for More Students at the University of Copenhagen. The article focuses on signs of plurilingualism, how they can be conceptualized and why the promotion of plurilingualism is central to universities’ internationalization efforts. We present a preliminary model that tries to describe the plurilingual countermoves and the quantitative data that has been collected in order to investigate students’ language needs and teachers’ language needs, competences and practices. Our findings reveal an elaborate picture of language needs among students and language competences, practices and needs among university staff and problematize the perception of English and Danish as sufficient languages for academia.

AB - During the last decade, Danish universities – like universities worldwide – have gradually become more internationalized. From a predominantly national, monolingual educational system, universities have increasingly advanced to a post-national paradigm with Danish and English as so-called parallel languages. However, the present reality is even more multifaceted, raising the question as to whether universities’ internationalization efforts can be limited to the use of only English and the national language. The article discusses the results of two plurilingual language strategies that have recently been implemented in Danish higher education: the Language Profiles at Roskilde University and More Languages for More Students at the University of Copenhagen. The article focuses on signs of plurilingualism, how they can be conceptualized and why the promotion of plurilingualism is central to universities’ internationalization efforts. We present a preliminary model that tries to describe the plurilingual countermoves and the quantitative data that has been collected in order to investigate students’ language needs and teachers’ language needs, competences and practices. Our findings reveal an elaborate picture of language needs among students and language competences, practices and needs among university staff and problematize the perception of English and Danish as sufficient languages for academia.

UR - https://www.igi-global.com/article/signs-of-plurilingualism/231473

U2 - 10.4018/IJBIDE.2019070104

DO - 10.4018/IJBIDE.2019070104

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2379-7363

VL - 4

SP - 43—58

JO - International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education

JF - International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education

IS - 2

M1 - 4

ER -