Education – Multilingualism in Society

Marine Fiora, Katharina Schwarck

Content

In this blog post, we will investigate multilingual education in the plurilingual country of Switzerland, what its policies and programmes are, and how and why they are implemented.

Keywords: bilingual education, Switzerland, territoriality, monolingual ideology, multilingualism

Switzerland is officially a quadrilingual country (Meune 2010) where the national languages are German, French, Italian and Romansh although many other minority languages are spoken as is the case with English, which is becoming increasingly important. Since Switzerland is a federation, the sovereign cantons define their official language (Paternostro 2016; Zimmermann 2019), according to the main language spoken by their inhabitants: this is called the principle of territoriality. It is customary to have only one official language in each different region. Switzerland is therefore, rather than a quadrilingual country, a mosaic of monolingual regions where the principle of territoriality creates a well-defined separation between the languages (Grin and Schwob 2002). The language borders are visible in the Figure 2 illustrates. However, the majority of Swiss people are far from quadrilingual. The notion of language borders is important for the understanding of the topic of multilingual education because it highlights the difference between societal bilingualism and personal bilingualism. Indeed, a country can be bilingual while the citizens are not necessarily (Grin and Schwob 2002). Of the 26 Swiss cantons, only three are officially bilingual (i.e. Valais/Wallis, Fribourg/Freiburg, Berne/Bern) and only one is trilingual (i.e. Graubünden/Grigioni/Grischun) (Grin and Schwob 2002). In order to improve understanding between language areas, it is obligatory for children to be taught a second national language at school. It is necessary to understand the language policies and their implementation in different cantons in order to maintain national cohesion in the country.

Figure 2: “Map Languages CH” © Marco Zanoli. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Multilingualism is a language ability which includes the use of several languages in our repertoires. However, in our current neo-liberal period, this faculty can be a great asset, whether cultural or economic. Having multiple language repertoires gives access to prestige languages and facilitates communication between people with different mother tongues. Moreover, with English becoming even more important and global throughout the years, learning it as foreign language has become increasingly common and almost required in order to use it as a lingua franca.

One way of learning a foreign language is bilingual education. As García (2009) explains, bilingual education is a mode of education in which the language studied is used as a means of communication and not as the target of study as is the case in traditional language classes. The aim of this approach is to immerse students in a different culture, language and way of thinking, enabling them to obtain intercultural skills. This method is called immersion teaching and has been practised all over the world since the 1960s to varying degrees. According to Lys and Gieruc (2005), the first study experiment of this type of teaching was conducted in bilingual Canada, where parents of English-speaking students had demanded a more effective type of French teaching, in order to improve their children’s socio-economic chances. Following this demand, an experimental programme was set up to verify the effectiveness of this type of learning. During these first immersion experiences, parents were concerned that learning another language could have cognitive repercussions on their children. The results of this evaluation were very positive and led Canadian political authorities to promote this type of teaching throughout the country. Shortly after Canada, many other countries moved to develop education in foreign languages, as for instance countries in Europe. This type of language teaching seems to be becoming more widespread in order to develop students’ socio-economic chances and intercultural communication (Lys and Gieruc 2005). Another way of learning a foreign language is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) which allows the learning of a language in non-linguistic focused courses. This means that some classes will be taught in the target language without being a grammar or vocabulary course. When not all classes are taught in the target language, but also in the pupils’ regional language, this structure is also called a dual immersion programme.

These modes of learning can be particularly useful and interesting in a multilingual country like Switzerland, where federalism allows Swiss cantons to choose their school curricula and how they approach language learning (Grin and Schwob 2002). In fact, Switzerland has always worked with the goal to promote the cohesion of its cantons. From the 1970s onwards, the study of a second national language in primary school was added to the study of the pupils’ native language (Paternostro, 2016). This raises the question of the implementation of bi/multilingual education in public schools in the Swiss cantons and the differences between them.

The Swiss Federation has been accepting several kinds of bilingual school courses since 1995 (Elmiger 2008), allowing the cantons to build up their own programme and promoting exchanges between the different language areas (Meune 2010). One notices that in regions of contact between two languages, bilingual programmes develop more naturally, and there are more possibilities for educating children which take into account their particular language situation when they are, for example, speakers of a national minority language. Evidently, measures and programmes are not restricted to native speakers of a national language, but do also extend to students’ whose parents’ might be migrants and whose home language might not be official Swiss. In officially monolingual regions the creation of a bilingual programme depends on the school and it aims to improve students’ skills and socio-economic chances (Elmiger 2008). Nevertheless, not all cantons have regulations on the design of bilingual courses in the secondary level, especially in smaller cantons or in those where only one or a few schools offer a bilingual curriculum. Where these programmes do exist, they are not always equally detailed.

In 2008, the cantons of Geneva and Zurich – the biggest and most international cantons – Berne/Bern and Fribourg/Freiburg, and monolingual Aargau and Vaud had developed detailed specifications for their bilingual programmes, often in order to promote them (Elmiger 2008). Typically, bilingual programmes exist sporadically in German-speaking Switzerland while in Vaud’s gymnases (the Swiss equivalent of High School), in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, such programmes are available to everybody in state schools. The bilingual programmes usually last three or four years and begin in the ninth or tenth year (ages 14 to 16) in the German-speaking part and in the tenth or eleventh year (15 to 17) in the French-speaking part (Elmiger 2008). Most programmes are based on high school students (ages 15 to 19) taking part in classes in the immersion language at their home school and a host school, where the target language is spoken (at least 600 classes in total for the whole programme). In other schools the immersion only takes place in a host school of the target language. According to Elmiger (2008), in 2008, about 10% of all Gymnasium/gymnase students in Switzerland completed a bilingual school course, 40% of all Gymnasien/gymnases offered bilingual education, and the number has not stopped growing since. The most frequently taught immersive subjects are History and Mathematics although the range of subjects found in the individual programmes is very broad (Elmiger 2008). The most immersive teaching takes place during the penultimate or the last year before the Matura or maturité. The total number of bilingual lessons varies: while some schools seem to teach fewer than the 600 periods prescribed by the canton, others even exceed the target substantially as some schools plan up to 1400 immersion lessons (Elmiger 2008). Since Switzerland’s cantons are sovereign regarding school policies, the decision regarding bilingual education is different in each of them.

To illustrate this, the French-speakers in Berne/Bern are a minority and are traditionally present in the Jura bernois. Meune (2010) shows a major distinction in this canton compared to the others. Indeed, the Bernese Constitution precisely associates either German or French with a given district based on territoriality. In the exceptional case of Bienne/Biel, every inhabitant can choose their own administrative language as well as the main language taught at school.

Meune (2010) highlights that in the city of Fribourg, the two languages are co-official but that it is very complicated to have a perfect balance between them at all levels. Fribourg is a French speaking town with a minority of German speakers who are entitled to administrative services and schooling in German. Moreover, the canton of Fribourg/Freiburg offers bilingual courses in its university and in several of its schools of tertiary education. The University of Fribourg, for instance, is fully bilingual and allows students to take courses in Fribourg as well as at the monolingual universities of Neuchâtel (Francophone) and Bern (Germanophone), allowing all curricula to be bilingual. The Fribourg School of education, for its part, provides administration and teaching in both German and French and encourages second language immersion for students, with the idea that all future teachers should have bilingual skills.

Figure 3: Sign at Fribourg/Freiburg Train Station “Quelque chose a changé, en notre…” © centvues. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Valais/Wallis was the first canton to declare itself bilingual, but it offers a much clearer linguistic separation than Berne/Bern and Fribourg/Freiburg (Meune 2010). In their study, Grin and Schwob (2002) compared two Valaisan/Walliser CLIL programmes: one which began in kindergarten and another that began in third grade. In both examples, part of the classes were given in the target language by a native speaker. The programmes have shown that pupils in their fourth year of primary school who have followed the bilingual path from kindergarten onwards had almost the same understanding in the target language as native speakers (10-20 percentage points less). They also highlight that bilingual education does not only give better results from the students but also much more enthusiasm towards foreign language acquisition (20% more satisfaction). The canton also offers the opportunity for each municipality to create a bilingual structure under certain conditions (Canton du Valais 2006). At Gymnasium/gymnase level – called collège and Kollegium respectively in Valais/Wallis – the canton offers bilingual German-French education in the Kollegium/collège of Brig and Sion, a bilingual English-French education in the collège of Saint-Maurice and a German-English education in the Kollegium of Brig. In this way, we can also observe an emergence of the importance of English, both in the German and on the French-speaking part. Furthermore, the school of education has two sites, one francophone, one germanophone. There, students start their studies in their native language but over the course of their diploma need to spend at least two semesters immersed in the other language on the other site (Brohy 2008).

Ticino is the only Italian-speaking canton in Switzerland. This canton has the particularity of making the learning of two other national languages at school as well as English compulsory. Since a change of policy where the students can choose the languages which they want to learn and French passes from compulsory to optional in upper secondary, we notice a decrease in the learning of French (-12% less students) (Paternostro, 2016). This can be explained by the prevalence of German in Switzerland. Indeed, many people in Ticino believe that German must be acquired in order to have a secure future (Zimmermann 2019).

The trilingual canton of Graubünden/Grigioni/Grischun – in which inhabitants speak German, Italian, and Romansh – highly promotes the two minority languages, Italian and Romansh, in order to keep them alive. Therefore, Italian- or Romansh-speaking students are encouraged in their use of their native language at school and the presence of these languages in schools is reinforced. The canton also offers courses partly in the students’ native languages, partly in a second national language, as well as it offers immersive phases for both.

In the year 2000, the monolingual canton of Vaud introduced le modèle mixte – the mixed model – of their maturité bilingue. This consists not only in a first year of schooling in a regular class, with pre-registration for a maturité bilingue but also in a period of language exchange in a German-speaking region. During this period, the students follow the classes of a host gymnase for either 10 to 12 weeks at the end of their first year, or for the entirety of their second year. Then the student is required to be part of a bilingual class in the second or third year, where subjects such as Mathematics and History are taught in German, if possible. Students also attend regular German classes. Following the introduction of this programme, various financial and organisational support measures were taken to help students and families. The greatest problem, however, was finding instructors who have the right qualification to teach a subject in German. (Lys and Gieruc 2005)

In Elmiger’s (2008) survey, the schools were asked why they offer a bilingual Matura course and the most important reason for bilingual high school education was parent or student demand, which is particularly high in bilingual cities, but also in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. The second important point was the opportunity for the school to distinguish itself through a bilingual education programme. This second reason is much more visible in the Gymnasien in German-speaking Switzerland while in the gymnases in French-speaking Switzerland this is far less the case (Elmiger 2008).

Thus, bi- and multilingual education is more widespread at secondary levels (Elmiger 2006) even though there are also bilingual curricula at kindergarten and primary school level, which are more common in private schools (Grin and Schwob 2002); in primary schools, some subjects are taught in the target language (Elmiger 2006). However, schools often depend on the availability of suitable teachers. Counterintuitively, bilingual cities present a great shortage in suitable teaching staff. Elmiger (2008) presumes that this reflects the strict cantonal requirements for teachers in order to allow the highest quality of teaching. Indeed, the teachers must have a university degree in the target language or equivalent (Grin and Schwob, 2002).

Meune (2010) examined the individual bilingualism of the officially bilingual cantons and found the following percentages: 39.2% of the French-speaking inhabitants of Fribourg/Freiburg consider themselves bilingual compared to 72.9% of the German-speaking citizens. In the canton of Bern, this percentage is similar in proportions: 58.8% of German-speakers are bilingual compared to 52.1% of French-speakers. The bilingual canton with the lowest percentage of bilingualism is the canton of Valais/Wallis: 21% for French-speakers and 42.6% for German-speakers. This low percentage among the Valaisans/Walliser can be explained by a much clearer language boundary. In fact, the famous Röstigraben divides the canton into two very distinct parts and the semi-cantons function as juxtaposing parts (Meune 2010).

This blog investigates the provision of bilingual education in Switzerland by comparing the demographic differences between the cantons and their school curricula. It can therefore be asserted that Switzerland, although multilingual, has a monolingual ideology (Zimmermann 2019; Zimmermann and Häfliger 2019). The majority of regions have one official language and the majority of Swiss speakers are fluent in only one national language. Cantons are sovereign regarding their education policies, supporting their creation of school curricula according to their needs. Nevertheless, cantons’ sovereignty also implies that some can make less effort to make the population multilingual. Globally, bilingual education has a growing demand, as parents and pupils believe it to grow one’s socio-economic chances. The schools also use it to differentiate themselves and the biggest impediment to bilingual classes is teachers’ availability. Most bilingual education in Switzerland consists of an immersion period in a different linguistic territory and content courses in the target language in the home school at Gymnasium/gymnase. However, universities as well as other schools at a tertiary level offer bilingual curricula, either through agreements with other universities, or exchange programmes with other associated sites, especially for teacher trainees. The results of bilingual education are outstanding: not only do the pupils achieve better academic outcomes, but they also manifest more enthusiasm for education overall.

Can Switzerland be considered as a model for multilingual education? Switzerland has the difficulty of needing to handle several languages while also having to ensure that linguistic minorities speaking a national or a migrant language are represented. Furthermore, the principle of territoriality can be both a disadvantage, because it does not allow language mixing easily, and a strength, as it gives way to cantonal freedom to shape schooling according to the population’s needs and differences. If education policies were federal and “one-size-fits-all”, the schooling system would suit the people concerned far less. Therefore, we believe that Swiss education is always adapting itself to the community’s needs, which can be considered as the most important factor when looking for a model for multilingual education. We therefore believe that the growing demand of bilingual education in Switzerland shows the importance of acquiring a second language in the eyes of the population. Many of the current programmes are optional but promoted. Despite their optional nature, their popularity is continually increasing among students. Although secondary and tertiary school programmes seem to be successful, one could implement even more bi-/multilingual programmes at a young age, especially in bilingual regions, in order to facilitate language acquisition and allow earlier interaction between different speakers. Moreover, it is important to mention the rise in popularity of English. English was taken up as a subject in schools because parents and students saw the need for English economically. Schools quickly adopted the learning of English into their curricula (Stotz 2006). Some German-speaking cantons, such as Zurich, have even decided to teach English to children from the first year of primary school (ages 6 to 7). English is thus taught before French. Therefore, Stotz (2006) wonders how Swiss education will look like in a few years: with more and more students requiring English before any national language, national languages might soon not be considered worth learning anymore.

A limitation of this paper is that most of the extensive data on this subject is over a decade old and offers only a glimpse into the current situation. We assume that many policies and programmes have changed and grown and that more and more schools have adopted the approach of a multilingual education. In addition, the place of English as a potential lingua franca may also have evolved and be more significant than described. It could therefore be interesting to investigate the learning of English to the detriment of the national languages and its increasing presence in Switzerland.

References:

Brohy, C. 2008. “Und dann fliesst es wie ein Fluss…“: l’enseignement bilingue au niveau tertiaire en Suisse. Synergies: pays germanophones. 1, 51-66.

Elmiger, D. 2006. Deux langues à l’école primaire: un défi pour l’école romande, avec la collaboration de Marie-Nicole Bossart. Neuchâtel: Institut de recherche et de documentation pédagogique.

Elmiger, D. 2008. Die zweisprachige Maturität in der Schweiz: die variantenreiche Umsetzung einer bildungspolitischen Innovation. Schriftenreihe SBF.

García, O. 2009. Bilingual education in the 21st century: a global perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Grin, F. and Schwob, I. 2002. Bilingual Education and Linguistic Governance: The Swiss experience. Intercultural Education, 13:4, 409-426.

Lys, I. and Gieruc G. 2005. Etude de la maturité bilingue dans le canton de Vaud: Enjeux, outils d’évaluation et niveaux de compétence. Lausanne: Unité de recherche pour le pilotage des systèmes pédagogiques. 1-176.

Meune, M. 2010. La mosaïque suisse: les représentations de la territorialité et du plurilinguisme dans les cantons bilingues. Politique et Sociétés 29.1, 115–143.

Paternostro, R. 2016. Enseigner les langues dans des contextes plurilingues: réflexions socio-didactiques sur le français en Suisse italienne. Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française. DOI: https://doi.10.1051/shsconf/20162707012

Stotz, D. 2006. Breaching the Peace: Struggles around Multilingualism in Switzerland. Language Policy. https://doi.10.1007/s10993-006-9025-4

Zimmermann, M. 2019. Prophesying success in the higher education system of multilingual Switzerland. Multilingua2020; 39.3, 299–320

Zimmermann, M. and Häfliger, A. 2019. Between the plurilingual paradigm and monolingual ideologies in the compulsory education system of multilingual Switzerland. Sección Monográfica. Lenguaje y Textos, 49, 55-66

Websites:

Canton du Valais, Kanton Wallis. 2006. Concept cantonal de l’enseignement des langues pour la pré-scolarité et la scolarité obligatoire. Département de l’éducation, de la culture et du sport, service de l’enseignement, Department für Erziehung, Kultur und Sport, Dienstelle für Unterrichtswesen. Available at: https://www.vs.ch/documents/212242/1231591/Concept+cantonal+de+l%27enseignement+des+langues.pdf/c8928ad0-678f-42f6-977c-43e1e4a1d07e. Accessed on: 13.12.2020.

Canton du Valais/Kanton Wallis. 2016. Le collège: la porte ouverte à toutes les professions du niveau supérieur. Available at: https://www.colleges-valaisans.ch/data/documents/Colleges-Valaisans/brochure_maturite_gymnasiale.pdf. Accessed on: 13.12.2020.

Etat de Fribourg/Staat Freiburg. 2020. Bilinguisme dans les écoles du secondaire supérieur et échanges linguistiques. Available at: https://www.fr.ch/formation-et-ecoles/ecoles-secondaires-superieures/bilinguisme-dans-les-ecoles-du-secondaire-superieur-et-echanges-linguistiques. Accessed on: 13.12.2020.

Illustrations:

Figure 1: White B. 2017. Ben White Photography. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/qDY9ahp0Mto. Accessed on: 20.12.2020.

Figure 2: Zanoli, M. 2006. Map Languages CH. Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Accessed on: 20.12.2020.

Figure 3: centvues. 2012. Quelque chose a changé, en notre… Available at: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/ce8d781e-d05b-4598-b7e3-5b4acfc80c0c. Accessed on: 22.12.2020.

Figure 4: Serge1958. 2020. Switzerland trilingual and bilingual. Available at https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/94de9b9d-1e99-4f20-b5fa-8d1663ab4622. Accessed on: 22.12.2020.

Further Resources:

Elmiger D. 2020. Inventar des zweisprachigen Unterrichts in der Schweiz / Inventaire de l’enseignement bilingue en Suisse. Université de Genève.

Gohard-Radenkovic A. 2013. Radiographie de l’immersion dans l’enseignement supérieur en Suisse et à l’Université de Fribourg: les pré-requis nécessaires. French immersion at the University level. Vol. 6, 3-19

Langfocus. 2016. Languages of Switzerland – A Polyglot Paradise? Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8GgX_hWyA. Accessed on: 20.12.2020

Le Pape Racine C., & Ross K. (2015). Code-Switching als Kommunikationsstrategie im reziprok-immersiven Unterricht an der Filière bilingue (FiBi) in Biel/Bienne (Schweiz) und didaktische Empfehlungen. Journal of Elementary Education, 8(1/2), 93-112.

Schoch, B. 2007. Lernen von den Eidgenossen? Die Schweiz – Vorbild oder Sonderfall? Osteuropa, 57, 27-46

International Education: What makes a Language Prestigious?

Valentina Mikhina & Nadia Bauer

This blog entry investigates processes of valorisation of languages in private international schools. The reviewed studies will shed light on the construction of social prestige of certain languages in this context.

Keywords: Multilingualism ⎯ International Education ⎯ Elite Education ⎯ Multinational Companies ⎯ Social Prestige

If you live in the region of Lausanne, you are probably aware that a lot of multinational companies (MNCs) have their headquarters in and around the city, such as Nestlé, Philip Morris or Tetra Pak. These MNCs welcome a lot of expats from all around the world who come to Switzerland with their families. Philip Morris, for instance, apparently has an agreement that guarantees a place in the ISL (International School of Lausanne) for each expat child. This choice of an international education by expatriate parents do not only occur in Switzerland. A lot of expatriate families, and an increasing number of local families, also send their children to International Schools around the world. But what does exactly an ‘international’ education mean and what are the linguistic implications behind this label? Unfortunately, there are not many studies that investigate this social reality in regard to language.

Main entrance of Philip Morris International’s headquarters. Photo taken by Valentina Mikhina.

The aim of this blog entry is to explore the social processes that establish hierarchies between languages in International Schools in Europe. What are the languages taught in International Schools? What languages are, in such contexts of prestige, chosen and favoured as vehicular languages and how do they justify the ‘international’ dimension of such an education? In order to investigate this, we will review a range of relevant literature that has been written on this subject. This will allow us to unveil processes of valorisation or de-valorisation of languages with their social implications.

International education

In the past, the international education system was only available for diplomats’ families who wanted to provide an international education to their children due to their frequent mobility. Throughout the 1990s bilingual education grew in popularity. Europe has become a place where the need for foreign language learning has been present especially in the countries such as Sweden, Finland, Spain and Switzerland. It initially focused on elite bilingualism and bilingual education programmes. The demand for bilingual education has risen after Sweden’s entry into the European Community (de Mejìa 2002).

In the 21^st century, the sector of International Schools has greatly flourished. There are over 850 International Schools all over the world (de Mejìa 2002). Most of the schools are bilingual. Moreover, the majority of International Schools offer not only a day student education but a boarding school education as well. International Schools can be classified as monolingual, bilingual or multilingual. In some, there are students of plenty nationalities in International Schools, but there is only one official language in the school. Other International Schools who offer a “bilingual education have dual pack programme” (de Mejìa 2002) which becomes popular in multilingual societies. Education thus becomes considered as international.

The number of International Schools is continuing to grow because of the globalisation processes and related mobility. However, it is commonly thought that International Schools are more qualified, especially in terms of language learning, than state schools. Hence, the international education is now defined as fulfilling the need for multilingual societies in which speakers communicate in three or more languages. These facts explain the success of English-medium schools and International diplomas that are recognised worldwide. However, our society is still not conscious enough of the topic of International Schools because the research was not narrowed down.

International Schools provide the elite status of a country as well as economic growth. They are well-known for their extremely high fees. The most prestigious International Schools are located in multilingual countries such as Switzerland and also in the United Kingdom. International Schools market themselves as offering a lot of opportunities in the future. They are considered to be elite schools that give their pupils prestige. A prestige that can have an impact for accessing into different universities and getting a job later on due to the multilingual and worldwide network communication. This is the main reason why parents choose International Schools for their children. According to de Mejìa (2002), students who are native speakers of vehicular languages can show an interest in learning other languages.

The proficiency in two or more languages is becoming more useful in international communication, especially in business schools as well as in MNCs.

Difficulties of cross-cultural communication are thus presented as a challenge, an appreciation of the relatively of cultural practices is seen as an opportunity for successful business entreprises in multinational companies. Linguistic diversity and multiculturalism are recognised as advantages in today’s business ethos rather than as threats to company or national loyalty (De Mejìa 2002:69).

The English language as Business Lingua Franca

A study of the linguistic landscape was presented recently by Kankaanranta (2015), which distinguished the English language as Business Lingua Franca (BELF), a language which is used for business communication between people who do not share a native language in Multinational Companies’ specifically in the domains of marketing, finances, accounting and management. The study has shown that the increase of the MNCs in the late 90s provoked the development of BELF as a result of increased globalization of the companies. During the 21st century, as business platforms emerged online as forms of social media BELF reinforced English as a main language in the global business.

The use of English ‘has become everyday practice in MNCs, and it has been investigated in three disciplines applied linguistics, international management and corporate communication’ (Kankaanranta 2015:14). Despite this emphasis on communicating in English, individuals still use their respective mother tongue and foreign languages to best navigate and express themselves in multilingual environments. Multicultural competence is created as a result of effective navigation of complicated communicative situations with a variety of cultures and languages involved. BELF prioritises being understood by the other party more than achieving grammatical correctness. It became more important to have a better pronunciation as well as being capable of implying effective paraphrasing skills. Hence, efficient communication is at the core of the global business environment to best achieve the goals and growth of the organisation.

Learning languages: a Swedish case

Another study by of Jonson (2013) discussed in an International School in Sweden involved interviews with six students residing in a Swedish boarding school. This study examines the personal experience of learning new languages, identities as well as both academic and social discriminatory practices in the school. The focus was on teachers’ practices in regard to multilingual adolescents. The Swedish International School employs a bilingual education system using English and Swedish. The school environment’s multilingualism is attributed to the diverse nationalities of its students, which contribute to the school’s social identity. In the interviews, some students identified as bilingual while others considered themselves multilingual. The school has thus adapted an integrated bilingual method of education. Moreover, most of the students feel comfortable with switching languages.

Students are aware of the regulations and norms of their International School. In class they should avoid translanguaging (mixing and switching languages) in formal conversations even though they feel much more comfortable with code switching (‘the use of more than one language in the course of a single communicative episode’ according to Heller 1998) when they are amongst their friends and family. The study shows that, linguistically speaking, the use of the translanguaging does not aid to create distinct separations between the languages during conversations. The result of mixing different languages is a vivid linguistic repertoire.

However, it is important to learn languages by having everyday practice. Consequently, it is important to create specific learning plans, notably to learn through everyday practice during real conversations. The study further proved that students should learn to separate the linguistic repertoire to understand the nuances of both languages and use them to benefit their future employment opportunities. An additional interesting point is that despite the bilingual education, English is usually a dominant choice of students in some aspects as in the education and social life. For example, many students prefer to read novels in English rather than Swedish. This is also apparent in their online social life Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) where their texts can greatly improve the international nature of the school.

Prestigious languages in Catalonian International Schools

Sunyol also examined in her PhD thesis the use of prestige languages, especially English, in International Schools, however with a focus on their role within the educational system. She studied two International Schools in Catalonia, Spain. Her ethnographic study concluded that becoming international for these schools was a way of maintaining themselves after the 2008 crisis (2019:284). After the crisis, being an international became a characteristic of elites. Internationalisation now provides an instrument for class reproduction for the upper classes, as well as a tool for the middle classes to be able to circulate freely around the world in educational and working domains. The role that languages play in these processes of elitisation is capital.

Sunyol remarked that the introduction of English as a language of teaching in these schools allowed them to label themselves as ‘international’. Furthermore, English also allowed the schools to present themselves as distinctive from state education, differentiating themselves in regard to the skills provided and therefore justifying their price. Language practices in such schools are therefore hierarchised and strict policies regulate them. It is believed that having an excellent oral English is key to be successful in the labour market and that it maximises opportunities (2019:286). If this language ideology (i.e., myths and beliefs on what language is, how it works and how it is used) and similar policies also operate in the Swedish International school that Jonson (2013) studied, they could explain why students choose English over Swedish in certain situations.

In International Schools in Catalonia, due to the belief that a good English helps on the job market, the language practices of the students are severely framed to resemble those of global multilingual elites. In one of the schools, this mean having the students speak with a British accent. In another school this involves ‘passing as a native’ (Sunyol 2019:286). The idea behind these policies is to turn the students into efficient neoliberal workers (i.e., workers that will be successful in the current globalised economy) thanks to their linguistic skills.

Codó and Sunyol (2019) focused on how languages are valorised in one of those private schools in Catalonia. This time, they investigated the valorisation of Mandarin Chinese within the school programme. They concluded that, just like English, Mandarin is promoted for economic reasons. It is used by the school to distinguish itself from state schools, similarly to English (Sunyol 2019:285), but also to make a difference in the market of private schools (Codó and Sunyol 2019:441). The Mandarin programme therefore allows the school to attract more clients (i.e., parents willing to pay for an expensive education) and make more profit. Codó and Sunyol observed that this desire to stay ahead of other International Schools is relevant to a context in which elite education must constantly work on itself to secure and justify its position. The uniqueness of this Mandarin programme allows the school to perform its elitism and to defend it (Codó and Suyol 2019:441).

The Mandarin programme is also used to promote the internationality of the school on a symbolic level, praising the benefits of the pupils’ open-mindedness it encourages. The other justifications given are the cognitive advantages of learning Mandarin from a young age brings (Codó and Sunyol 2019:444). But despite all of these justifications, the Mandarin programme is mostly motivated by economic aspects. The students who carry on with it after the age of twelve (after which it becomes optional), do so not because of interest for the country and culture. They continue it because they want to stay ahead of sudden socio-economic changes that would propel China as the world’s most powerful country (Codó and Sunyol 2019:448). In the school, Chinese Mandarin therefore has an economic value. First, it serves to promote the school on the education market, and second, it is supposed to help future jobseekers. This last value, however, according to Codó and Sunyol cannot be proved, as well as the open-mindedness and culture-awareness value, which is only symbolic (2019:449). Sunyol, in her thesis, also highlights this believed symbolic value of English as a means to promote intercultural competence. She also claims that this belief cannot not be ascertained. The predominant motivation behind the teaching of English is still the economic value it brings to the schools and the students (Sunyol 2019:287).

Why choose an International School in Switzerland?

In Switzerland, Beretta conducted a study on what motivates parents to place their children in International Schools. She studied a bilingual English-Italian International School in Ticino. Similarly to Sunyol (2019) and Codó and Sunyol (2019), she underlined the importance of the economic and symbolic worth of languages. Italian for instance, is not seen as having an economic value, but only a symbolic one as well as being useful for everyday communication in Ticino. It is therefore only valued by local families or families that intend to stay for a long time in Ticino. German is also esteemed by families who intend to settle in Switzerland, since it is considered to be an economic resource ‘within national borders’ (Beretta 2019:55). Foreign mobile families do not consider these two languages useful and see them as a waste of time and energy.

The acquisition of English, on the other hand, is highly praised. It is associated with social prestige and believed to be the most necessary tool for communication in our globalised world. Its mastery is supposed to reward the students with a direct access to prestigious academic, professional and social spheres all around the world (Beretta 2019:55). Sunyol made similar observations in her study concerning the advantage English is supposed to provide to future jobseekers (2019:286). Together with Codó, they linked the assets of Mandarin Chinese (as taught in a private school in Catalonia) to the same belief (2019:448). Prestigious languages, especially English, are therefore considered to provide a substantial economic capital (i.e., value) to their speakers. Beretta precises that these languages however have to be of an ‘excellent level’ (2019:54). As mentioned above, Sunyol observed that students in one of the international schools she studied have to speak an English that allows them to ‘pass as a native’ (2019:285). This could be linked to the monolingual standard Swedish international students are subject to according to Jonson (2013). Their language practices are therefore also constrained, but in a slightly different way.

Something that neither Codó nor Sunyol observed, but that Beretta witnessed in Ticino, is that parents think that English will also provide their children with American culture models, such as ‘neoliberal skills of interaction, participation, problem-solving and risk-taking’ (2019:54). These skills, similarly to languages, are also considered useful in the job market.

The linguistic ideologies present in the school that Beretta studied are therefore mostly profit discourses on the usefulness of the of languages in the market. For the parents there also is a symbolic motivation which is the search of an international community that will raise the child’s awareness of cultural differences, which is however not elaborated upon. The ideologies (i.e., systems of ideas and beliefs) that motivate the parents are therefore neoliberal ideas (i.e., ideas related to the form of liberalism advocating for a free, self-regulating market and workers that governs the global market nowadays) that consider prestigious languages as central for competitiveness and distinction in the job market (2019:55). English is of great importance to them.

Thus, international education presents itself as a mechanism through which to engage in the ‘fierce global competition imposed by neoliberal rationalities’ (Sunyol 2019:287) for dominant social groups. De Mejía (2002) also underlines how International Schools are built to provide social prestige and easy access to high-status jobs to their pupils. Therefore, such mechanisms inform us on how power is produced and reproduced to create social inequalities. Language being central to social differences, it plays a consistent role in such practices, justifying processes of class formation (Sunyol 2019:289).

To bear in mind: the power of prestigious languages

The mechanisms that establish hierarchies between languages in International Schools are closely linked to economic ideologies. Kankanraanta (2015) for instance analysed the growing number of MNCs in relation to the emergence of English as BELF and explained why its emergence allowed to develop international businesses faster. The languages chosen in International Schools are therefore taught because of their believed usefulness and value in the job market. Sunyol (2019), Codó and Sunyol (2019) and Beretta (2019) concluded that languages are mostly promoted and hierarchised in relation to the economic capital they represent. Obviously, because of its role as BELF, English is considered to be key in order to success on the global labour market. It therefore a winner in International Schools as a means of communication between the students (Jonson 2013) and as a vehicular language for teaching. It serves to promote both the school on the education market and to provide its students with elite linguistic repertoires. These repertoires are supposed to help their pupils as future jobseekers. The teaching of Mandarin follows the same logic. It is used to promote the special skills the school sells. It is also supposed to provide its students with a future-hypothetical elite language.

All of the schools mentioned in this entry also promote the languages they teach as ways to open children to different cultures, however, without any proof of it being efficient. Thus, prestige languages are what allows schools to label themselves as ‘international’. Internationality is therefore not about ‘a peaceful world fraternalism’ (Sunyol 2019:287), but rather a means for the elite to secure its privileged position, a means in which languages play an important role.

References

Beretta, L., 2019. Language and mobilities in a private international school in Ticino. MA Thesis, Université de Lausanne.

Codó E. & Sunyol A., 2019. ‘A plus for our students’: The construction of Mandarin Chinese as an elite language in an international school in Barcelona. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development., 40.5, 436-452.

De Mejìa, A., 2002. Power Prestige and Bilingualism: International perspectives on elite Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Jonson C., 2013. Translanguaging and multilingual literacies: Diary-based case studies of adolescents in an international school. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 224, 85-117.

Kankaanranta A., Louhiala-Salminen L & Karhunen P, 2015. English in Multinational Companies: Implications for Teaching “English” at an International Business School. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca. 4.1, 125-148.

Sunyol Garcia-Moreno, A, 2019. Multilingualism, elitism and ideologies of globalism in international schools in Catalonia: An ethnographic study. Doctoral dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Further resources

Bunnell, T., Fertig M. and James C., 2016. What is international about international Schools? An institutional legitimacy perspective. Oxford Review of Education. 42.4, 408-423.

Hayden, M., Levy, J., & Thompson, J., 2016. The SAGE handbook of research in international education (Second ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

English-medium education in East Asian universities

Julien Fleischmann & Andreia Abreu Remigio

This article is a short introduction to English-medium instruction in higher education in several East Asian countries, the role of governments, the economic aspect of and students’ attitude towards EMI.

Keywords: Asia, university, English, EMI, government, globalisation

Introduction

If you are reading this, chances are you are a student. And what kind of student does not want to know more about education? I know, I know, but please bear with us. Bilingual education is all the rage at the moment. Bilingual programs are multiplying before our very eyes. European countries are competing against each other. Who has the most attractive programs? Switzerland is no exception to the rule, with more and more disciplines being taught in English, instead of one of the four national languages. A second language is finally considered to be a resource, rather than a problem, as it was the case from WWI to the 1970s as European nation-states were deeply dependent on a common tongue, which was closely linked to national identity. During the 70s and 80s bilingualism came to be regarded as a right, with the multiple minorities’ movements gaining momentum (García 2009: 9). Bilingual education is good for everyone (yes, you too): you are not only learning the content of the syllabus, you are also learning the language that the teacher is teaching you in. This is a win-win situation that you will learn more about below.

Let us look more to the East now. A lot of countries such as the UK, the US and Australia/NZ are already anglophone and dominate the academic market. How are East Asian countries coping with the increasing Englishisation of higher education, then? They receive very few international students and see their own students leave and head west. A lot of money is being invested into English-medium instruction (EMI) programs, hoping that will in time help their position in the international market by offering more attractive career opportunities, sometimes at the expense of the local language. Ambitious new policies such as year-long pre-EMI intensive English courses cause the universities to struggle to attract enough qualified staff. The result is higher fees, blocking the access to higher education to working-class students and widening the class divides. In this entry, we will look into these EMI policies and their implementation, as well as their impact on the attitudes and motivations of students in EMI courses in higher education in Japan, China, South Korea and Vietnam.

Theoretical Framework

Bilingual education usually means teaching another language as a medium of instruction. According to García and Beardsmore, the perks of bilingual education are “provid[ing] a general education, teach[ing] in two or more languages, develop[ing] multiple understandings about languages and cultures, and foster[ing] appreciation for human diversity” (6). García and Beardsmore stress the fact that bilingual education is good for everyone, which has not been exactly a given, even though the concept has been around for thousands of years, like Greek-Latin education under the Roman Empire (though only for male elites)!

After the last world war, a Westernisation motivated by the cold war occurred. English and Western culture thus became even more present in societies. In Asia, the pressure of the English language is felt even more. Indeed, speaking English is a mark of success since it is connected to the academic world, but it also divides the social classes further (Tollefson and Tsui 2014: 200). Higher Education Institutes (HEI) to become international in the wake of the still ongoing globalisation. In Europe in the late 80s, students exchange programs such as Erasmus emerged, while in Asia similar programs have followed in the early 2000s. These changes had a bearing on the education and HEI started to implement English Medium Instruction (EMI) programs, which consist in teaching a non-language subject such as economy or mathematics in English. The main aim of EMI is to improve the students’ general level of English And therefore their employability on the international market (Galloway, Numajiri and Rees 2020: 397).

Previous Studies

Government policies: what are their intentions?

Governments have put some policies in place concerning EMI. They also created funding programs to support HEI financially and to motivate them to make those classes available to a broader audience. EMI classes enable HEI to attract more international and local students and to increase their price.

In Vietnam for instance, the government has ordered Vietnamese HEI “to identify high quality programs in strategic disciplines provided by high-ranking universities overseas and to start delivering [EMI] programs” (Tri and Moskovsky 2019: 1331). The goal is to improve the quality of local higher education. The switch from English as the enemy language (due to colonisation) to English as the modernisation language was quite effective. Tri and Moskovsky (2019) conducted a study based on policy documents, interviews and discussions. They see these policies as an onion: the first layer corresponds to the government stating the policies, the second layer to the institutional level where policies are implemented and the third to the interpersonal level (individuals). English serves as a multifaceted tool: a shortcut to original scientific knowledge; a gatekeeper for under-qualified students and staff; and linguistic capital (in a word, English helps you get better job opportunities).

For government officials, EMI is especially valued for “its ability to attract international students, international academic staff and researchers, as well as to raise Vietnamese universities’ standing in the global academe” (Tri and Moskovsky 2019: 1340).

However, the Vietnamese government does not look at all the disciplines the same way. The ones prestigious enough to be taught in English are the scientific (“hard applied”) disciplines, such as Economics, Science, Engineering, Medicine and Information Technology, prioritised in order to nurture the socio-economic development of the country. And before even dreaming of enrolling in these courses, you had better deserve it: one year-long pre-EMI intensive English courses are required to ensure you have all your chances to get your degree. And once you are there, you will have pretty much the same curriculum as your Anglo American counterparts. Cool? Not so much, Tri and Moskovsky (year) conclude that this borrowing without any adaptations might actually be counterproductive, since some parts are not adaptable such as Western contexts and point of views in soft applied disciplines. In addition, Galloway et al. (2020) explain that a large number of universities in Japan have actually made it mandatory for students to take one or several classes being taught in English in order to finish their degrees! While it is challenging for students to take a subject in English, it allows them to be more employable in the market and it improves their general level of English, or at least it is assumed by staff and students (Galloway, Numajiri and Rees 2020: 397). For HEI, EMI has a big attractive economical point: they can attract more foreign students, charge local students a higher price and get funded by the government.

Students: motivational factors and satisfaction levels

China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan seem to be the countries that make the most out of EMI. It also seems to be most popular in countries that used to be colonies of English-speaking powers! Singapore, for instance, has made English the official language of government, legislature and the legal system as well as the medium of the entire education system.

Asian students’ primary motivation is to improve their English, according to Le’s findings in her thesis (2016). In addition, students’ second motivation goes straight to the point: they believe English is more useful in the job market, sometimes going as far as saying they would like to work abroad, where English is the working language (which is exactly what East Asian governments are trying to avoid). The takeaway from this is that the lack of English proficiency is a valid reason to exclude someone from job opportunities (Hang as quoted by Le year: 102). But unfortunately for Asian governments, the majority of EMI students aim to use their proficiency elsewhere, where the conditions are better and the salaries higher. Regarding their English level, the majority feels it is good and is confident when using the language. Only 8% rated their English as poor, according to Le, and 17.7% rated their level as excellent.

In their article, Galloway et al. found that overall, students agree that EMI improved their level of English, while still being able to understand the subject of the lesson. However, they also think that the mother tongue usage should be permitted during EMI lessons. EMI will continue as English is increasingly the businesses’ lingua franca, but measures (financially, tutoring…) to support the staff as well as the students should be properly implemented.

Problems and downsides

Of course, putting EMI in place is not a piece of cake and has a lot of downsides, especially for the students. Usually, the group of students interviewed by reseachers (Le 2016: 38) who seemed unhappy about EMI in their universities were English-speaking students travelling east to improve their level of another language and that were met with courses mostly in English, which is totally understandable (Le: 41). This leads us to the following point: courses still taught in the local languages are neglected, financially notably, and the attitudes towards the local languages themselves are changing for the worse. One of the downsides of such a focus on English is the implied inferiority of the local languages in academic settings. Do they not have the adequate and necessary vocabulary? In the case of Vietnam, studies have even revealed distinctly discriminatory attitudes towards the traditional Vietnamese-medium instruction education from students and university staff. Researchers therefore recommend a controlled and limited use of alternative linguistic resources alongside English, such as code switching (switching languages in a single conversation) and/or translanguaging (using languages together in a single system) (Tri and Moskovsky 2019: 13). In practice, there is sometimes a lack of linguistic support, in cases where pre-EMI intensive courses did not succeed in preparing students meaning students naturally circle back to their mother tongue: lessons that are taught in English are often simplified and the students ask the teacher to code switch. In China, some students enrolled in English-medium courses audit the same lesson, but in the Chinese course, defying the main dual objective of the EMI classes. It is also hard to find qualified teachers who can teach their subjects in English (Galloway et al. year).

In his research paper, Park (2019) highlights that South Korean students are often anxious about language and in particular their English abilities. They feel behind in relation to other countries by their competency in English and language is often used to perpetuate the hierarchical order and positioning in society. South Korea came from a place of colonial Japanese rule to a free country (influenced by the United States which brought English). They became somewhat dependent on them, but also saw them as the ideal of modern and advanced society and thinking. In South Korea there is still a sense of “superiority” of the white native speaker, which the Koreans feel they cannot meet. Since the job market is changing and becoming more international, students and universities must adapt and think forward. Companies need workers who are multiskilled; therefore, students are encouraged to take a more active role in their language learning.

These EMI policies led South Korean universities to succeed in being ranked within the top global universities and are therefore able to attract more teachers and students from overseas (Park 2017: 87). As said previously, universities with more English usage in courses receive more funding by the government, because of their importance for socio-economic development. Furthermore, the state has introduced greater competition between universities, and so, many push for the developments which will help them get noticed. Unfortunately, this competition puts a lot of pressure on students and creates inequalities. English-medium lectures are now unavoidable, which can cut some students off from certain disciplines if their English is not good enough.

To sum up, EMI in Asia is still in its infancy and still faces quite severe challenges, including local lecturers’ and students’ (sometimes) low English competence, inadequate resources and facilities (such as support for students and enough qualified staff), and insufficient and/or selective funding.

Discussion and conclusion

We have looked at the advantages and disadvantages, the successes and failures of the implementation of EMI in East Asian universities. If we had to summarise it for you), we would say EMI attracts foreign students and teachers, and it seems to overall increase the level of English of local students efficiently. These two points are important, because they are exactly what governments aim at when developing and funding EMI policies. Unfortunately, many students see EMI as a shortcut to work abroad, which is the opposite of what governments intend. English as a gatekeeper for higher education has also revealed itself to be deepening class divides, preventing students with less linguistic capital to enrol, even with measures such as pre-EMI courses like in Vietnam. Additionally, EMI has not been adapted enough, with curricula from the US and the UK being basically copied and pasted to Asian settings. EMI courses have not been welcoming of every student’s discipline either, with only scientific disciplines being available in English (or at least they are prioritised in the Englishisation process). A considerable number of students and staff have also expressed the desire of not completely erasing the mother tongue in EMI programs, which tend to impose a monolingual rule.

Therefore, EMI initiatives are an excellent way to improve students’ level of English, but they should be carefully thought through before being put in place. Indeed, sometimes it feels that governments and schools care more about the potential money they could make from the EMI program, rather than the social investment. Students are often placed into a course in English, without a lot of support, resulting in an increase of drop-outs. They are also often confused about when they can use their mother tongue in an EMI class and when they should not, which leads students to participate less (Galloway, Numajiri and Rees 2020: 398). Furthermore, English should stop being seen as the superior language, as it increases the social gap and inequalities among students because English can be an obstacle to better paid jobs. Governments and schools should promote local languages and cultures as an economic and academic tool, in order to shift the current mindset. In addition, studies of EMI in a wider range of Asian countries should be conducted. EMI in Asian countries has been less studied than EMI in Europe and therefore conclusions can only be drawn from a few countries.

Bibliography

Galloway, N., Numajiri, T., and Rees, N. 2020. The ‘internationalisation,’ or ‘englishisation,’ of higher education in East Asia. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research 80.3, 395-414. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00486-1

García, O., Baetens Beardsmore H. 2009. Introducing Bilingual Education. In M. Malden (ed.), Bilingual Education in the 21st Century : a Global Perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 3-18.

Le, T.T.N. 2016. Exploring students’ experiences of English-medium instruction in Vietnamese universities MA Thesis, University of Newcastle.

Park, J. 2017. English as the Medium of Instruction in Korean Higher Education: Language and Subjectivity as Critical Perspective on Neoliberalism: Critical Studies in Sociolinguistics. In A. Del Percio and M. Flubacher (ed.), Language, Education and Neoliberalism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 82-100.

Tollefson, J., and Tsui, A. 2014. Language Diversity and Language Policy in Educational Access and Equity. Review of Research in Education 38, 189-214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732×13506846

Tri, D. H., Moskovsky, C. 2019. English-medium instruction in Vietnamese higher education: A ROAD-MAPPING perspective. Issues in Educational Research 29.4, 1330-1347. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2391969156?accountid=12006.

“USAID hosts SERVIR GIS training for Southeast Asian Students” by USAID Asia is licensed with CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/