Student evaluations on English and local language(s) at five Nordic Universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7557/17.5915Keywords:
language policy, parallel language, epistemic injustice, higher education, English, local languages, student perspectiveAbstract
This article discusses how students experience and evaluate the language practices they meet during the course of their university education. The study focuses on the students’ experiences and assessments of the use and mastery of English and the local language(s) in their education. Firstly, I describe language policies at higher education institutions in the Nordic countries, where parallel language use is a preferred strategy. I then present a thematic analysis of students’ comments, collected through a survey distributed to students at five universities in three of the Nordic countries. Whereas students value the use of both English and the local language(s), they ask for more attention directed at how the different languages should be managed throughout the course of their education. The student comments show that it can be challenging to succeed with parallel language use. Some of the difficulties students face are connected to their own challenges with understanding and using other languages than their first language, while others thematise lecturers’ lack of language competence. These challenges are discussed in light of Fricker’s (2007) concept of epistemic injustice. Lastly, I argue that language policies should to a greater extent include acquisition planning, in addition to status planning.
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