Text 2-13. ENGLISH AS THE LINGUA FRANCA OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

(After Beyza Björkman, Royal Institute of Technology, Unit for Language and Communication, Stockholm University, Department of English)

Introduction

English is now the overwhelmingly dominant language in academia since academic communities use English as the default language, and there is a consequent development towards an increase in English-medium teaching in Europe, in general. The number of programs offered in English has tripled in the last five years in continental Europe (Wächter and Maiworm, 2008). Most countries have chosen to participate in the Bologna process, which has led to increased academic mobility and a number of student exchange programs. With visiting scholars and exchange students, European universities are becoming increasingly diverse linguistically. There are parts of academic communities in Europe now which operate predominantly in English, so English serves as a lingua franca (ELF), i.e. “a vehicular language spoken by people who do not share a native language” (Mauranen, 2003). Across Europe, the subject area in which English-taught programs are most frequently offered is engineering with 27 % (Wächter and Maiworn, 2008).

The Swedish academy is now international by nature and thus linguistically diverse as a consequence of increased academic mobility and student exchange programs, both aims of the Bologna Declaration. The transformation of the Swedish university from mostly monolingual to highly multilingual has required a common language for all involved. English has become that common language, being the most widely studied and the best known second language. So it is now the lingua franca of engineering education, i.e. the common language through which people from a large spectrum of first languages can communicate.

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Revision Concepts and Questions	\|	Background: English as the language of publication and instruction

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