The linguistic environment of world universities in the context of the internationalization of higher education

Abstract

Ethnically and linguistically heterogeneous universities with the aim to internationalize, face the situation of language inequality which arises for students who are being schooled not in their own language and are therefore put in less favorable conditions than students for whom the language of instruction is their mother tongue. Despite the de facto linguistic heterogeneity, that is the multilingualism of the university environment, monolingual beliefs are still strong, especially in the countries with a globally spoken language. The multilingual character of internationalizing universities is reflected to varying degrees in their language policies and practices. Thus, we can rank them on a scale from monolingualism to multilingualism by analyzing information about language requirements and policies on university sites, as well as by observation onsite and through in-depth interviews with university teachers and students. The conclusion is drawn that linguistic heterogeneity is not yet sufficiently reflected in the language policies of universities. In addition, the foreign language competence of students in some cases threatens to become the destiny of the elect. The results obtained provide the basis for the further development or correction of university policies to create an inclusive language environment.