EMOTIONS: UNDERSTANDING EMI CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A MULTICULTURAL SETTING
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EMOTIONS:
UNDERSTANDING EMI CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A
MULTICULTURAL SETTING
Robert Wilkinson
Maastricht University, Netherlands
Stockholm, 16 March 2018
DEFINITION OF ENGLISH-MEDIUM INSTRUCTION • “the use of English to teach academic subjects (other than English itself) in countries or jurisdictions in which the majority of the population’s first language is not English” (Dearden 2014)
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? • Emotional responses – language is emotional • Knowledge dissemination • Identity: who am I? Professional identity • EMI, educational democracy and linguistic justice • Positivity
EMI PROVOKES EMOTIONAL REACTION
Recent example (26 Jan 2018) from the
Dutch press (Trouw)
Street protest against more English in French
universities (courtesy New York Times)
EMOTIONAL RESPONSES • Should Swedish be used in higher education? • Should you allow any use of Swedish? • What about Swedish as a language of science? as instructional language? • What about domain knowledge in specific disciplines? • Do we need an international language? for scientific communication? for medicine? • How do you talk with patients (clients)? in English?
SMALL GROUP EXERCISE 1: EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
• Starters on languages, e.g.
• How many languages do you speak?
• 7 statements to discuss, e.g.
• I feel comfortable when I am teaching in my first language
◊COLLATING EMOTIONS ABOUT EMI
• Take an A3 sheet for your small
group. ang
accepta er
• Draw a line Positive – Negative.
nce
+ -
• Add emotions shared by the group:
• To indicate strength or emotions, use
colours, size, height above/below line,
etc.
Pin up your sheet ◊
• Du kan skriva på svenska below if possible!CHANGE PROVOKES EMOTIONS • People become emotional if there are societal changes. Witness the rise of popularism in many countries. • All systems need emotion (Martha Nussbaum). People need to feel emotionally attached to the (political) system. If you change the system, then people can lose their sense of stability.
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0
100
EU-28
Luxembourg
Finland
Romania
Slovakia
France
Estonia (²)
Slovenia
Czech Republic
Croatia
Belgium
schools (94% in EU28)
Latvia
Sweden
Cyprus
Bulgaria
Netherlands
2009
Poland
Malta (³)
Austria
2014
Germany (⁴)
Hungary
Denmark
Lithuania
Spain
Italy
Portugal
Ireland
United Kingdom
Greece
Liechtenstein (⁵)
Iceland
FYR of Macedonia (³)
Norway (²)
• Dominance of English as first foreign language in upper secondary
LANGUAGES IN SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES
do learn 2+FL (EU28)
Eurostat 2016 (figures 2014)
• But 51% of school-leaversUNIVERSITY ENTRANTS MEETING MT+2
Foreign languages spoken
• Example from Maastricht 45
40
• Arts & Soc. Sci. – sample 105/ca.140 35
30
(24 nationalities + 16 dual nat.; 15 25
20
15
bilingual) 10
5
• 78% report 2+ FL; 51% report 3+ FL 0
No FL 1 FL 2 FL 3 FL 4+ FL
First language of students
• 19/105 English NS incl 2 Bilingual
20
(8 no FL, plus 1 bilingual) 15
10
5
0
Gabriëls & Wilkinson (in preparation)ROBERT PLUTCHIK’S
MODEL OF EMOTIONS
• Eight basic emotions:
• Fear
• Anger
• Sadness
• Joy
• Disgust
• Surprise
• Trust
• Anticipation
Robert Plutchik 1980 and 2002GROUP EXERCISE 2: KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION
• Take an online quiz
• Go to http://socrative.com
• Go to student login
• Enter the room number: 332477
• For each item, choose the option that reflects your judgement:
4 = strongly agree; 3 = agree; 2 = disagree; 1 = strongly disagree
◊ITEM 1
• Students who will be
Students who will be employed in the Danish labour market
should be taught in Danish.
35
employed in the 30
Swedish labour market
25
20
should be taught in 15
10
Swedish. 5
0
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know
(Jensen & Thøgersen 2011)ITEM 2
• The use of English in
The use of English in teaching and research means that the
general population has less access to research results.
35
teaching and research 30
means that the general
25
20
population has less access 15
10
to research results. 5
0
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know
(Jensen & Thøgersen 2011)ITEM 3
• Researchers have an
Researchers have an obligation to disseminate their
research findings to Danish society in Danish.
50
obligation to disseminate 45
40
their research findings to 35
30
Swedish society in 25
20
Swedish.
15
10
5
0
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know
(Jensen & Thøgersen 2011)ITEM 4
• It is a societal problem
It is a societal problem if all specialized areas cannot be explained
in Danish.
35
if all specialized areas 30
cannot be explained in 25
20
Swedish. 15
10
Don’t log off – we have more 5
quizzes shortly! 0
Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know
(Jensen & Thøgersen 2011)PAIRWORK EXERCISE 3: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
• Modified Johari window
At home, Socially,
family with friends
At work, Professionally
with at congresses Joe Luft & Harrington
colleagues
Ingham 1955PAIRWORK EXERCISE 3: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
• Individual and in pairs:
• Who are you?
• Timeline task
• Pair discussion task ◊
• Join with another pair
• Discuss whether changing to EMI changes
your perceptions of who you are.
• Does it change how you feel?
◊LANGUAGE, IDENTITY, AND STABILITY • Language is linked to identity and security. • So if you give up using a language, ....
IDENTITY AND SELF
• Notions of “imagined identity” and “imagined community”
• “a desired community offers possibilities for an enhanced range of identity options in the
future”(Norton 2013, 3)
integrity
Forces impacting Forces impacting
on identity self
on identity
stable core
variability Rogers 1959
position in world identity identities potential positions Shavelson &
Bolus 1982
reconcile oneself to world Van Lier 2007EMI AND IDENTITY • EMI may threaten professional teaching identity (I’m a good teacher when I teach in Swedish, but I can’t teach like that in English) • Teaching through an additional language (English) can be seen as additive, not subtractive (I can teach in Swedish, and I can also teach in English – they don’t have to be the same)
SMALL GROUP EXERCISE 4: EDUCATIONAL DEMOCRACY AND LINGUISTIC JUSTICE • Another an online quiz (hopefully you are still online) • Go to http://socrative.com • Go to student login • Enter the room number: 332477 • For each item, choose the option that reflects your judgement: 5 = strongly agree; 4 = agree; 3 = neutral; 2 = disagree; 1 = strongly disagree
ITEMS: EDUCATIONAL DEMOCRACY • Because of EMI it’s difficult to adjust to the local culture • I have not experienced any negative consequences (stigma, etc.) because of my linguistic and cultural background
ITEMS: EDUCATIONAL DEMOCRACY • I do not get equal treatment in the EMI context because of my linguistic and cultural background • It’s irritating when students speak a language other than English in the classroom
PLURILINGUALISM, EMI & EDUCATIONAL
DEMOCRACY
Educational democracy perceptions
5
Item: I don’t get equal treatment
Item: I have not experienced because of my linguistic &
negative consequences because of
4,5
cultural background.
my4
linguistic & cultural background.
3,5
Item: Because of EMI, it’s 3 Item: It’s irritating
difficult to adjust to local2,5 when students speak
culture. a language other than
2
English in the
1,5 classroom.
1
DLOCAL DNEG DEQTREA DIRRIT
0 FL 1 FL 2 FL 3 FL 4+ FL
1 = strongly agree; 5 = strongly disagree Gabriëls & Wilkinson (in preparation)ITEMS: LINGUISTIC JUSTICE • Due to EMI other languages and cultures are marginalised • Having to use English in EMI is a disadvantage to some students
ITEMS: LINGUISTIC JUSTICE • EMI contributes to a level playing field for everyone, i.e. everyone starts with the same advantages and disadvantages • Having to use English in the EMI context gives advantages to some students
PLURILINGUALISM, EMI AND LINGUISTIC JUSTICE
Linguistic justice perceptions
4,5
Item: Having to
use English in EMI contributes to
4
EMI is a a level playing field
3,5 disadvantage for all.
for some
3
students.
Item: Due to EMI, other Item: Having to
languages and cultures 2,5 use English in
are marginalized. 2 EMI is an
advantage for
1,5
some students.
1
LMARG LDISAD LLVLPLY LADV
0 FL 1 FL 2 FL 3 FL 4+ FL
1 = strongly agree; 5 = strongly disagree Gabriëls & Wilkinson (in preparation)POWER AND DEMOCRACY
• Contested terms:
• the reference of these concepts is not always clear: what does an
author refer to?
• power and democracy have a normative character: they not only
describe a situation but also in what way it should be changed
• they are often used as weapons in political debates.
• And hence emotions underpin our interpretations.LANGUAGE, POWER AND DEMOCRACY • Language is a locus of struggle for power, because people implicitly or explicitly conceive a language (for its accent, style, code, etc.) as normal and legitimate, or not. (Bourdieu 1991) • Symbolic power is the use of language “to make people see and believe certain visions of the world rather than others.” (Bourdieu 1991) • “The problematic of language and power is fundamentally a question of democracy” (Norman Fairclough 1995) • A linguistic asymmetry is a situation in which agents do not have equal opportunities to communicate with each other, because of differences in language skills or the status of a language.
WHOLE GROUP EXERCISE 5: POSITIVITY
• EMI as positive
• 4 items on positive benefits of EMI (job advantage)
• By show of hands
• Strongly agree; agree; neutral; disagree; strongly disagree
(Lueg & Lueg 2015)
◊ITEMS: EMI AS JOB ADVANTAGE
• Teaching and studying in English increases future job security.
• Having studied in English makes one more qualified than
studying in my mother tongue
• Having studied in English increases the chances for a higher
salary
• Having studied in English is an advantage for job applications
◊ITEMS Preliminary results from Gabriëls & Wilkinson
(forthcoming); items adapted from Lueg & Lueg (2015).
Mean scores
• Students (n=105) 5
(strongly) agree that 4,5
EMI offers job 4
advantages 3,5
3
• Lueg & Lueg: students 2,5
who recognize 2
importance of English 1,5
to career choose EMI 1
JSECUR JQUAL JSALAR JJOBADV
SD SD SD SD
5 = strongly agree; 1 = strongly disagree 0.75 1.03 0.90 0,63EMI IS EMOTIONAL • English is neither positive nor negative in itself. It can be good or bad depending how it’s used. • Channel our emotions to direct change, ensure democratic and just outcomes for all.
THANK YOU
Tack så mycket
Robert Wilkinson
bob.wilkinson2010@gmail.comYou can also read
