Liaison Magazine - LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and ...

A multilingual Europe – ideal or reality
Multilingualism is a key concept in European policy, but Karen M. Lauridsen
questions how close we are to the target of mother tongue plus two foreign
languages for all Europeans.
viewpoint
Since the end of the 1980s,
more than one million students
have taken advantage of the
ERASMUS and other European Union
mobility programmes, and have spent
a semester or more at a university in
another European country.They have
thus immersed themselves in foreign
cultures and, more often than not, in
countries whose languages are
different from the students’ own first
language. From the very beginning, and
integrated into the student mobility
programmes, has been the idea that
students would learn the language of
their host country as part of the
experience.
Now, twenty years later, the reality is
clearly different from what was
originally intended.While many
students have studied and learned the
language of their host country, at least
to a certain level of competence,
others have preferred to go to
English-speaking countries in Europe
and beyond, or to universities that
have offered courses taught in English
rather than in the official language of
the university (and host country).This
is not least the case in the small
European countries whose languages
are less taught abroad.
The dominance of English
This situation should be seen within
the general socio-economic
developments in Europe and what has
become known as the globalisation
process.Technological advances that,
among other things, have facilitated
communication, trade and travel
across the world, have contributed to
the fact that English is today the
dominant language of international
business, trade, travel, research and –
to a very large extent also –
education.
Why have so many universities
changed their language of instruction
to English, at least for some of their
programmes and modules First of all,
the researchers are members of
scholarly communities that
communicate with each other and
publish in English. European
universities compete with each other,
and one of the benchmarks of a highquality
university is international
publication in peer reviewed journals
via internationally recognised
publishing houses – in English.The EU
student mobility programmes and the
Bologna process have enhanced
student exchanges. And in order to
attract national students, universities
must be able to offer them exchange
places abroad.That, in turn, is only
possible if the same universities can
attract a sufficient number of
exchange students from top
universities in other countries. And if
courses are then all taught in the less
widely taught languages, such as
Danish, most foreign students will go
elsewhere.Therefore, universities in
Liaison magazine • llas.ac.uk •25