Debate / Debate / Debatte / Debato
Languages in public policy, and constraints in academia
The article explores evidence of public policy ignoring scholarly recommendations, and describes instances of this
in the field of language policy at both supranational and national levels. One significant contemporary influence is that
university autonomy and academic freedom are being constrained by neoliberal pressures. Evidence of this in the United Kingdom and
Denmark is described. These trends are connected to the wider context of the transition from the practices and ideology of
terra nullius to legitimate colonisation and global Europeanisation, and the concomitant dispossession of the
territories of others, to global Americanisation processes, the universalization of a cultura nullius in
commerce, the media, academia, and domestic life. This dovetails with the promotion and establishment of English as a
lingua nullius, a language that should be learned by all worldwide, as if it serves the interests of all
inhabitants of the globe, and is disconnected from the causal factors behind the expansion of the language. One speech by Winston
Churchill argues for the maintenance of university autonomy and historical awareness. Another pleads for Anglo-American global
dominance, including the promotion of English as a ‘world’ language. These competing pleas have had different outcomes: academic
freedom and traditions are currently at risk, whereas US dominance and the promotion and expansion of English have thrived. The
governments of the five Nordic countries have acted to ensure the maintenance of national languages as well as competence in
‘international languages’. This is exemplified by a description of how universities should assure parallel competence and thereby
a healthy balance between English and national languages. Soft power is never far from economic, political, and military power,
all of which entail language use. China and Chinese are well launched on a comparable trajectory to the expansion of English.
Article outline
- Public policy at universities
- The roles of a university
- From terra nullius to cultura nullius
- ‘World’ English the lingua nullius
- Micro level perspectives
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References
Amano, Tatsuya, Juan P. González-Varo, and William J. Sutherland
(
2016)
Languages are still a major barrier to global science.
PLoS Biol 14(12): e2000933.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, P.
(
1989)
La noblesse d’état. Grandes Écoles et esprit de corps. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boussebaa, Mehdi
(
2015)
Professional service firms, globalisation and the new imperialism. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 28(8), pp. 1217–1233.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boussebaa, Mehdi
(
2017)
Global professional service firms, transnational organizing, and core/periphery networks. In
Professional networks in global governance, ed.
L. Seabrooke and
L. Henriksen, 233–244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brooks, Richard
(
2018)
The financial scandal no-one is talking about,
The Guardian 1 June 2018
[URL]
Bunce, Pauline, Robert Phillipson, Vaughan Rapatahana, and Ruanni F. Tupas
(eds.) (
2016)
Why English? Confronting the Hydra. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Christensen, Jens Frøslev
(
2016)
Oprøret på CBS. Forandring, ledelse og modstand i en professional organization. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Collini, Stefan
(
2017)
Speaking of universities. London: Verso.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Debray, Régis
(
2017)
Civilisation. Comment nous sommes devenus américains. Paris: Gallimard.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enever, Janet and Eva Lindgren
(eds.) (
2017)
Early language learning. Complexity and mixed methods. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fekete, Liz
(
2018)
Europe’s fault lines. Racism and the rise of the right. London: Verso.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gazzola, Michele
(
2016)
European study for Multilingualism: Benefits and Costs.
European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee.
[URL]
Gil, Jeffrey
(
2017)
Soft power and the worldwide promotion of Chinese language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Graddol, David
(
2006)
English next: Why global English may mean the end of ‘English as a Foreign Language’. London: The British Council.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Graddol, David
(
2010)
English next India. London: British Council.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holroyd, Michael
(
1997)
Bernard Shaw. The one-volume definitive edition, London: Chatto and Windus.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hamelink, Cees
(
1994)
Trends in world communication: on disempowerment and self-empowerment. Penang: Southbound and Third World Network.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hinton, Leanne, Leena Huss, and Gerald Roche
(eds.) (
2018)
The Routledge Handbook of Revitalization. New York and London: Routledge.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holm, Erik
(
2001)
The European anarchy. Europe’s hard road into high politics. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hultgren, Anna Kristina, Frans Gregersen and Jacob Thøgersen
(eds.) (
2014)
English in Nordic universities. Ideologies and practices. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Judt, Tony
(
2010)
Ill fares the land: A treatise on our present discontents. London: Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kayman, Martin A
(
2004)
The state of English as a global language: communicating culture.
Textual practice 18/11, 1–22.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kenny, Michael and Nick Pearce
(
2018)
Shadows of Empire. The Anglosphere in British politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kristinsson, Ari Páll
(
2016)
English language as ‘fatal gadget’. In
Bunce et al., 118–128.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lainio, Jarmo, Moa Nordin and Sari Pesonen
(
2017)
Nationella Minoritetsspråk i skolan – förbättrade förudsättningar til undervisning och revitalisering. Betänkande av Utredningen förbättrade möjligheter för elever att utveckla sitt nationella minoritetsspråk. Statens Offentliga Utredningar.
SOU 2017: 911 (654 pages, Summary in English, pp. 333–43).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Locke, John
(
1988) (originally 1690)
Two treatises of government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McCarthy, Thomas
(
2009)
Race, empire, and the idea of human development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Municio-Larsson, Ingegerd
(
2000)
Science and policy. When does science matter?’. In
Phillipson, Robert (ed.),
Rights to language: equity, power and education. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 127–134.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nordic Council of Ministers
(
2018),
on behalf of Frans Gregersen et al. More parallel, please!: Best practice of parallel language use at Nordic Universities: 11 recommendations. København: Nordisk Ministerråd.
[URL]
Olthuis, Marja-Liisa, Suvi Kivelä and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
(
2013)
Revitalizing indigenous languages. How to recreate a lost generation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Patel, Raj and Jason W. Moore
(
2018)
A history of the world in seven cheap things. A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet. London: Verso.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Patten, Chris
(
2005)
Not quite the diplomat, Home truths about world affairs. London: Allen Lane/Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
1992)
Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
2003)
English-only Europe? Challenging language policy. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
2009)
Linguistic imperialism continued. New York & London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
2016a)
Linguistic imperialism of and in the European Union. In
Revisiting the European Union as an empire, ed.
Hartmut Behr and
Jannis Stivachtis, London: Routledge, 134–163.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
2016b)
Promoting English: Hydras old and new. In
Bunce et al., eds, 35–46.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Phillipson, Robert
(
2017)
Myths and realities of European Union language policy.
World Englishes, 36/31: 347–349, online 30 October 2017.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ritzer, George
(
2011)
The McDonaldization of society 6. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Roche, Gerald
(
2018)
Regional perspectives: Decolonizing and globalizing language revitalization. In
Hinton, Huss and
Roche (eds.), 275–277.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Salö, Linus, Natalia Ganuza, Christina Hedman, and Martha Sif Karrebæk
(
2018)
Mother tongue instruction in Denmark and Sweden. Language policy, cross-field effects, and linguistic exchange rates.
Language Policy 17/41, 591–610.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Saunders, Frances Stonor
(
1999)
Who paid the piper? The CIA and the cultural cold war. London: Granta.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove
(
1988)
Multilingualism and the education of minority children. In
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and
Jim Cummins (eds).
Minority education: from shame to struggle, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 9–44.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and Robert Phillipson
(eds) (
2017)
Language Rights.
Four
1 volumes. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Richard C.
2003a ‘General Introduction’ to Smith, R.C. (ed.),
Teaching English as a Foreign Language, 1912–36: Pioneers of ELT, Volume 11. London: Routledge, pp. xi–xxxix.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Richard C.
2003b ‘Introduction to Volume V’ (Introduction to Teaching English as a Foreign Language, 1912–36: Pioneers of ELT, Volume 5). London: Routledge, pp. xi–xxix.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Spooner, Marc and James McNinth
(eds.) (
2018)
Dissident knowledge in higher education. Regina, Canada: University of Regina Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Uzgalis, William
(
2017)
John Locke, slavery and Indian lands.
[URL]
Verstraete-Hansen, Lisbeth og Robert Phillipson
(red.) (
2008)
Fremmedsprog til fremtiden. Sprogpolitiske udfordringer for Danmark. København: Institut for Internationale Sprogstudier og Vidensteknologi, CBS.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Verstraete-Hansen, Lisbeth og Per Øhrgaard
(
2017)
Sprogløse verdensborgere. Om en uddannelsespolitik, der forsvandt. København: Djøf (Jurist- og Økonomernes Forlag).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wagnleitner, Reinhold
(
1994)
Coca-Colonization and the cold war. The cultural mission of the United States in Austria after the Second World War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wechsler, Alan
(
2017)
The International-School Surge.
The Atlantic,
June 5 2017
[URL]
Winand, Pascaline
(
1993)
Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the United States of Europe. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ye, Wei
(
2017)
Taking Chinese to the world. Language, culture and identity in Confucius Institute teachers. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Fang, Fan & Guangwei Hu
2022.
English medium instruction, identity construction and negotiation of Teochew-speaking learners of English.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.