Abstract

This book views the international university as a microcosm of a world where internationalization does not equate with across-the-board use of English, but rather with the practice of linguistic and cultural diversity, even in the face of Anglophone dominance. The globalization-localization continuum manifests itself in every university trying to adopt internationalization strategies. The many cases of language and learning issues presented in this book, from universities representing different parts of the world, are all manifestations of a multidimensional space encompassing local vs. global, diversification vs. Anglicization. The internationalization of universities represents a new cultural and linguistic hybridity with the potential to develop new forms of identities unfettered by traditional 'us-and-them' binary thinking, and a new open-mindedness about the roles of self and others, resulting in new patterns of communicative (educational and social) practices.

The editors are all affiliated with Roskilde University, Denmark, as well as the international research centre, 'Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University'?? (CALPIU). Bent Preisler is Professor of English Sociolinguistics, and founder and director of CALPIU. His main research includes works on the functions of English in an international context.

Ida Klitgård is Associate Professor in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Her work includes stylistics and rhetoric, currently focusing on the concept of plagiarism in student written assignments.

Anne H. Fabricius is Associate Professor of English. Her main research area is sociophonetics, with wider interests in quantitative sociolinguistics, sociolinguistic methodology and the analysis of spoken language.

This excellent volume critically examines the linguistic and cultural challenges faced by today’s internationalized universities from sociolinguistic, ethnographic, conversation- and culture-analytical perspectives. Given the ever-growing use of English as a means of instruction in many universities across the world, the papers in this volume manage to dispel the illusion of uniformity, revealing instead a healthy diversity of language learning and communication practices in many different settings.

Internationalization in higher education increasingly involves not only mobility toward the English inner circle, but also among the outer- and expanding-circle countries. This volume makes an important contribution toward answering the questions about language, ideology and intercultural contact which this trend raises. The twelve chapters examine salient issues across varied geographical contexts from a range of analytical perspectives. This book will be of interest to educators grappling with the complex implications of internationalization.