Language of knowledge and knowledge of language. Towards plurilingual sciences?

ABSTRACT

Academic globalisation and the internationalisation of scientific knowledge currently place higher education between two forces: global competitiveness and innovation on the one hand, local attractiveness and diversity on the other. In view of this double requirement, this paper aims to examine language policy and analyse its impact on language choice and language knowledge requirements in Higher Education Institution curricula. For this purpose, language policy documents of three French-speaking Swiss universities will be compared so as to shed light on their reasons for enhancing plurilingual sciences or hindering academic multilingualism. The study brochures of different disciplines and faculties will be perused and discussed with reference to language needs and language proficiency requirements. It appears that if an explicit and institutionalised language policy is desirable for a coherent and productive teaching and learning outcome on the vertical scale, the influence of the nature of the disciplines on the relation they have with language is a substantial factor in determining language choices. A clear overview of the relationships between factors will contribute to a successful top-down decision.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalisation
• higher education
• scientific cultures
• knowledge diversity management
• disciplinary curricula
• language of instruction

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation for the research grant provided. In particular, my gratitude goes to the Ecole de langue et de civilisation françaises (ELCF, University of Geneva) for its invaluable support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Patchareerat Yanaprasart, PhD, works at the École de langue et de civilisation françaises and La Maison des Langues, University of Geneva, and also teaches at the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences. Among her research interests and domains of expertise are: language learning and teaching, linguistic integration and migration, language diversity and cross-cultural management in higher education and multinational corporations, intercultural communication and multilingual leadership. Currently, she co-edited a volume entitled Managing plurilingual and intercultural practices in the workplace. The case of multilingual Switzerland (John Benjamins, 2016), a thematic issue Overcoming barriers, bridging boundaries and deconstructing borders in multilingual professional settings: une perspective comparative (vals-asla, 2017), and a special issue Plurilingual expatriate teachers in Higher Education: roles and impacts (EJHE, 2019)

Notes

1 Swiss National Science Fund Grant 100015147315/1, 2013–2015.

2 Ecole de langue et de civilisation françaises Grant, 2017.