Language Capabilities as a Leverage for Non-native English Scholars’ Career

Abstract

The aim of the study is to assess the role of English-language capabilities in leveraging career of a scholar whose first language is other than English and who faces challenges connected with contemporary expectations towards European scholars concerning publishing in top-tier English-language journals. The chapter discusses how scholars from Poland, as an example of a post-Soviet country, perceive the role of English language as a tool allowing them to meet the criteria of academic success understood now as productivity, membership in international teams and mobility. The study is qualitative and the informants are academic teachers working at public universities in Poland. They are all non-native speakers of English, mainly from the fields of humanities and social sciences, representing different positions (from research assistant to full professor) with IF publications extremes from 0 to 13 and age extremes from 27 to 70. Main study results concern good English speaking, writing and reading comprehension skills as factors positively contributing to non-native English scholar’s success.