Towards a translingual conceptualization of language policy for EMI universities

• This study is conducted against the background that universities around the world have been increasingly presented themselves to be international through according to space for English in their language policies (Doiz, Lasagabaster, & Sierra, 2012), and a widespread belief has been generated that internationalization of higher education means internationalization in English (e.g., Hadley, 2014; Phillipson, 2006). Our article, based on the multilingual/translingual realities, provides a critical review of the role that English has been playing in modern internationalized universities, especially the EMI universities, and accordingly, proposes an expanded view of lingua franca in EMI university contexts in terms of translingualism (Canagarajah, 2018; Li, 2018) to better situate English together with other co-existing resources for people to communicate. To illustrate how translingual practice functions as a lingua franca for international communication among multilingual students with different linguistic backgrounds, we draw upon the ethnographical data (participant observation, field notes, interviews, language portraits, policy documents, texts and photos) collected during a period of 20 months at an EMI transnational university in China. Employing nexus analysis (Hult, 2015) in concert with a multimodal biographic discourse analysis (Busch, 2012), we present the complex and multidimensional nature of lingua franca communication, drawing attention to its connection with and influence on individuals’ repertoire development, real-life communication conventions and university language policy. The findings of our study contribute to a discussion of EMI university language and internationalization policy making that focuses on providing institutional recognition and support for cultivating the existing linguistic resources among the student body and creating space for multilingual students to draw upon the full range of semiotic and spatial resources to achieve successful lingua franca communication and to develop personal repertoires.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Communication Studies (hsv//eng)

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