Doing Language Policy: Teasing Out the Tensions for Transnational Scholars in Estonian and Danish Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper, we address the question of how to find a balance between the use and the role of a country’s national language and English at an internationalising university by analysing the examples of the University of Tartu in Estonia (UT) and the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in Denmark. The aim of the article is twofold: (1) to find out about the position of the national languages and other (foreign or minority) languages in the policy framework of each university respectively and (2) to find out about how transnational scholars adapt to the sociolinguistic realities at these universities. In order to do so, we conduct a qualitative content analysis of the written language policies of UT and UCPH supported by qualitative interviews with transnational scholars on their reported language practices. Language policies in both UT and UCPH protect the status of the respective national language, while also underlying the inevitable use of English. Despite the different mode of the language regulation at UT (legislative) and UCPH (laissez-faire), the reported language practices of the transnational scholars at these universities seem to be very similar and behave independently of written language policies. With this in mind, our analysis of transnational scholars’ linguistic practices enables us to broaden the insight into language issues in connection with the mobility of the academic staff.