Welcome to The 5th Annual Nordic⁶6 Educational Conversation!
The Conversation will be held virtually on Zoom.
Time: November 20th 2024, 2-4 p.m. CET.
Title: The function of English in teaching and research in Scandinavia
You are hereby invited to participate in an exciting educational conversation (free of charge). Please, click here to register.
Agenda:
14.00 – 14.10
Welcome and some practical matters (Michael Dal & Herner Saeverot).
14.10 – 14.30
The function of English in teaching and research in the Nordic countries/ Michael Dal
14.30 – 15.00
Breakout session 1: Discussions
15.00 – 15.05
A little technical pause establishing breakout rooms
15.05 – 15.35
Breakout session 2: Further discussions
15.35 – 15.50
Plenum discussion
15.50 – 16.00
Thank you for today and closure.
Rationale
The purpose of this year’s conversation is to discuss the position of the Nordic languages and English in teaching and educational research in the Nordic countries.
In the beginning of the 20th century, it was common and a demand that Scandinavian academics could read and write in German and preferably in French. English was rarely used as a transnational language but though known and used by some academics. The new in the situation today is that since the 1990’ties the requirements of internationalization / globalization in education have been satisfied by only using one language – English – which is a living first language in a big part of the world. That means that globalization is linked to the use of one – and only one – language (Haberland, 2009). One can claim that this statement has developed into a general discourse. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why young people in Scandinavia choose to speak English when meeting peers from other Scandinavian countries. Speaking another language than English would – so to speak – be understood as a violation of the code of the general discourse (Dal, 2016; Peterson & Fägersten, 2024). In other words, as an integrated part of the general internationalisation of the educational system in the Nordic area, English has during the last decades taken a more dominant position both in teaching and research at most universities. English is, of course, used in those cases where foreign students are a part of a class, Also, Ph.D. students today are in most cases urged to write their final thesis in English, which is often a prerequisite for finding opponents from other countries.
The question is: Does this influence the educational system as a whole?
Firstly, one can question what kind of English is used when teaching. Even though English among many is looked upon as a global language, the Nordic area does not belong to the first inner circle where the use of English is the first language (as it is e.g. in England, New Zealand and the US). Nor does Scandinavia or the other Nordic countries belong to the second circle where English is a second language (e.g. India and Singapore). On the contrary Scandinavia belongs to the growing surrounding third circle where English is understood as a foreign language (Crystal, 1997; Kachru, 1992; Mežek & Björkman, 2024). Thus, English in most cases does not in the Scandinavian countries have the same position as a possible mother tongue, which is the case for other languages brought in with refugees and migrants from other part of the world (e.g. Turkish, Persian etc.). In those cases, we have a clear example of a multilingual condition, where language users have a choice between shifting between their original mother tongue and their new ‘mother tongue’ or second language e.g. Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. English for many refugees and migrants is not always a suitable language. English is in other words still a foreign language in all the Nordic countries and using English in e.g. teaching can be difficult for both students and teachers (Simensen, 2010).
The question is: what is the quality of the teaching performed in English?
Secondly, research shows that using English can influence the Scandinavian linguistic domains. Pia Jarvad (2001) examined the use of English in six domains in Denmark, in business, culture, administration and EU policy, consumption, science and education. Already in 2001, Jarvad reported that back in 1990 31 % of the scientific articles written at the theological, humanistic, and sociological faculties at the University of Copenhagen were written in English. A look at natural science and medicine the same year reveals that 82 – 84 % of scientific articles were written in English. These figures are quite different today as scientific articles written in English at the humanistic and sociological faculties today have been increasing quite a bit (79 % – 83 %) and almost 99 % of the articles within natural science and medicine is today written in English. In other words, English is today an obvious language in the field science and in the field of educational research.
If this is the case, what does it mean for distributing research results to e.g. teachers in primary and secondary schools?
References
Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dal, M. (2016). Neighbor Languages in Scandinavia in a multilingual world. In L. Peer & G. Reid (Eds.), Multilingualism, literacy and dyslexia (2nd edition ed., pp. 242-252). London: Routledge.
Haberland, H. (2009). English – the language of globalism? Rask. Internationalt tidsskrift for sprog og kommunikation, 17-45.
Jarvad, P. (2001). Det danske sprogs status i 1990’erne med særlig henblik på domænetabe University of Copenhagen: Dansk sprognævn.
Kachru, B. B. (1992). The other tongue : English across cultures (2. ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Mežek, Š., & Björkman, B. (2024). English-medium instruction in higher education in Scandinavia. London: Routledge.
Peterson, E., & Fägersten, K. B. (Eds.). (2024). English in the Nordic countries – connections, tensions, and everyday realities. London: Routledge
Simensen, A. M. (2010). English in Scandinavia. In D. Wyse, R. Andrews, & J. Hoffman (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of English, Language and Literacy Teaching. London: Routledge.
Presenter: Michael Dal, docent at University of Iceland.
We hope to see you and discuss with you in November!
Best regards,
Michael and Herner
