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Article published In:
Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes
Vol. 1:2 (2020) ► pp.120–142
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‘We cannot abandon the two worlds, we have to be in both’

Chilean scholars’ views on publishing in English and Spanish

ORCID logo | University of Technology Sydney
This study investigates how the importance of English in academia has impacted the academic life of fourteen researchers in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) at one university in Chile and uses semi-structured interviews focussing on scholarly publication. The study intends to discover, firstly, what the national and the university policies are regarding publishing in Spanish and English in Chile; secondly, how important it is to publish in English and Spanish, with respect to the researchers’ disciplines; and, thirdly, whether researchers with expertise in English are better off in terms of publication than those who lack this expertise. Findings suggest that these researchers write more publications in Spanish than in English, but favour publishing in both languages, counterbalancing the spread of English as the dominant language of publication in academia because Spanish and English can co-exist without threatening the scholarly cultural traditions of Spanish scholars. These scholars also recognise that publishing in English assists them to attain a wider readership, and to gain greater monetary rewards for publication in high impact journals, usually in English, as a result of increased grants and promotions. Finally, the paper suggests considering practices for teaching English for Research Publication Purposes.
Keywords: international visibility, university policy, impact factor journals, publishing in English, publishing in Spanish, translation into English, Chilean researchers, monetary incentives, language competency, regional focus
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Literature review
    • 1.2Internationalisation of tertiary education in Chile
  • 2.Methods
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Research question 1: What national and university policies influence these scholars’ publishing practice in Spanish and/or English?
      • 3.1.1Influence of policy-making: IF journals
      • 3.1.2Internationalisation by learning and publishing in English
    • 3.2Research question 2: How important is it to publish in English and Spanish, with respect to scholars’ discipline, and age and institutional status of professors?
      • 3.2.1Language choice and research publication in HSS
    • 3.3Research question 3: To what extent do the interviewees see the benefits of writing their research in English or translating their own L1 texts into English?
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jerpp.19016.she
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