English at the trilingual Free University of Bozen-Bolzano: exploring experiences and perceptions

Abstract

The increasing use of English in higher education around the world has prompted a large amount of research into the causes, effects and perceptions of this phenomenon, particularly relating to the introduction of English-medium instruction. While most previous research has focussed on institutions that have effectively ‘added’ English to existing teaching programmes, this paper investigates attitudes towards and experience of the presence and use of English in a somewhat different context: the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (unibz), which, since its creation in 1997, has offered teaching in English alongside the two local languages, German and Italian. This plurilingual approach, enshrined in the university statue, is explored through a thematic analysis of oral interviews with members of the unibz community (both staff and students). While some of the themes identified in the analysis mirror issues raised in studies of institutions elsewhere, a number of novel themes are also discussed and the overall picture to emerge is of a university whose language policy is relatively stable in terms of both acceptance and implementation, perhaps by virtue of the fact that a plurilingual approach has been adopted and supported since the university’s creation and has always been a key part of its identity.