Developing Institutional Language Policy

Abstract

Higher education institutions face challenges set by Bologna process, the implementation of which requires creating conditions for language learning and intercultural competence acquisition. Although higher educa-tion institutions in Lithuania maintain different and in a way promiscuous approaches to the role of HEI in the development of students' linguistic and intercultural competences, but a certain institutional policy with regard to language learning and teaching has inevitably been formed on the institutional level, though not always defined by normative documents. The aim of the research is to summarise the development of language policy in HEIs on the basis of the practice of European higher education institutions. The research applied the findings of ENLU (European Network for the Promotion of Language Learning among All Undergradu-ates) and MOLAN (Network for the Exchange of Information about Good Practices that Serve to Motivate Language Learners), performing comparative and content analysis. The descriptive statistics and analysis of research into the practical organisation of language learning and teaching provided at VMU served as the basis aiming to identify preconditions for institutional language policy formation.