The title Language Matters in Higher Education Contexts has a dual meaning. It highlights the fact that language matters come in many forms and diverse areas of higher education, consequently, language matters for all involved in higher education. The aim of this book is to bring to the fore the weave of language threads that make up and affect every day work in academia. We do this by focusing on how language matters are prevalent in higher education: in policy, in teaching and learning, in administration, in research and in leadership. We would like to claim that languages affect the work for all of us in higher education no matter the role we play as teachers, students, researchers, administrators, or leaders.
This edited volume has emanated from the editors’ long interest in language matters in higher education. Apelgren has, as a language educator, but also in her different leadership roles, been involved in promoting languages across the university. She was one of the initiators for the establishment of a Unit for Academic Language at the University of Gothenburg and has served as a member of its steering committee. Eriksson, who has a background in academic writing, was appointed Director of the Unit for Academic Language at the University of Gothenburg in 2015 and has taken a leading role in setting an agenda for its operations regarding language and writing development across the university. She is involved in national and international projects concerning the centralising of writing centres and the professionalisation of advising and tutoring. Strömberg Jämsvi is senior lecturer of teaching and learning in higher education and her research focus is higher education policy and language policy as well as educational and professional development. As a coordinator for matters of diversity at the University of Borås, she has advocated the importance of taking language(s) into account in strategic work as well as in competence development for staff. Together, the three of us represent different perspectives, yet similar interests in the way and how languages shape the everyday life of people acting in higher education.
Through our respective networks, supervisory missions, examination duties, committee work, and through research collaborations and conferences, we became acquainted with and invited a number of European colleagues to contribute to a book focusing on language matters in higher education policy and practice. We were aiming to create a broad picture with a variety of perspectives that together would provide the readers of the book with a nuanced picture of the complex weave that languages in higher education make. Hence, the book is rare in comparison with many books on language policy and practice in that the authors represent a variety of research areas, such as language policy and ideology, applied linguistics, multilingualism, academic language, sociolinguistics, minority languages, higher education leadership and management, language teaching and learning (i.e., CLIL/EMI/EAP), with different underlying theories and methods. Material explored includes institutional policies and legal documents, interviews with teachers, researchers, students and administrative staff, university websites, and newspapers.
The volume is divided into three parts framed by an introductory chapter and a concluding reflection. In Part 1, the emphasis is on how internationalisation frames language matters in higher education policy texts. In Part 2, the focus is on how languages affect the academic life of teachers, students, and other staff. Part 3 concerns how the university acts or does not act to language-related issues in society.
As editors, we invite you, the reader, to share and engage with us and the authors in the plurality of higher education language issues in the following chapters. The context ranges from national, institutional to local levels, from legal texts to students’ and teachers’ stories across disciplines. We hope that this volume provides a useful picture for all those who work in the various fields of higher education and that it also stimulates a wider discussion of how and why language matters in higher education. Please, enjoy the meandering journey through language matters in higher education.