Memoirs of a Dinosaur

Language and Internationalization at a

Danish University 1974-2013

Hartmut Haberland

3 October 2013

CIP Symposium

Kabul, June 24, 1924

“Om kvelden var det modtagelse i den

britiske legation, der jeg foruten tysk,

engelsk, fransk, italiensk og svensk

(med en halv svensk russer) også måtte

forsøke mig med persisk, pashto og

hindustani.” Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgenstierne’s diary

(Ringdal 2008, 331)

(Mortensen and Haberland 2012:192)

Differential language choice

Hamel (2008) distinguishes between language choice in

academic production (recherche scientifique),

dissemination (diffusion) and education (formation), but

leaves out administration.

In Denmark, academic language choice has varied

according to areas like textbooks, teaching and exams.

Danish came in first in research (C18) and Latin lasted

longest in exams (C19). (Mortensen and Haberland 2012,

180)

Language choice is also different between academic

disciplines (Kuteeva and Airey 2013 for Sweden).

(Rainer Enrique Hamel 2008, 196)

(Rainer Enrique Hamel 2008, 196)

(Rainer Enrique Hamel 2008, 196)

“The way we were”

(1974)

� my own language background in 1974

Altsprachliches Gymnasium in Germany:

Latin (8 years), English (actually only 3 years in

all), Classical Greek (6 years), French (3 years)

Afternoon or early morning classes on the basis

private initiatives of teachers: Modern Greek (1

year), Russian (2 years)

Self-taught: some Norwegian

At the university I had read:

L. L. Hammerich: “Introduktion til tysk grammatik”

(1935)

Hjelmslev: “Sproget”

Carl Hjalmar Borgstrøm “Innføring i

sprogvitenskap”

read (but hardly understood) Hjelmslev’s “Omkring

sprogteoriens grundlæggelse”

A philosophy professor made me read an Italian

book on Plato’s Gorgias

Colleagues (in German program)

Klaus (German, had lived in Sweden, spoke

German, Swedish and Danish and some English)

Karen (bilingual Dane from Flensburg)

Tamar (from Vienna, had lived in Norway and

Israel, spoke Danish, Norwegian and English)

Klaus (1975) (German, spoke French and English)

‘International’ colleagues (in other language

programs)

Robert (had taught in Algeria, spoke good German

and French, but preferred English)

Ulf (Swede, spoke good German, English and

Danish)

Team teaching with Ulf

Students: “Hartmut, det er jo flot at du taler dansk,

men agt dig for Ulfs svecismer. Der findes ikke

noget der hedder diskurs på dansk. Diskurs, det er

svensk. På dansk hedder det diskussion.”

(team-teaching, autumn 1974; class in grammar

for students of all language programs (Danish,

English, French, German))

Experience of Danish as a lingua franca

In 1975, I met Jacob Mey in Lugano at a course in Computational

Semantics organized by the (ISSCO) Fondazione dalle Molle in

Lugano. (This is when I was invited to be his co-Editor of the

Journal of Pragmatics.)

On the first evening, we were a group of eight people who used

Danish as a lingua franca:

A Dane from Southern Jutland working in Odense

A bilingual Swede/Dane from Copenhagen

A (French speaking) Belgian working in Odense

A Polish doctoral student from Odense

An Indian doctoral student from Odense

A German with links to Southern Jutland, and

A German working in Roskilde

A Dutchman/Norwegian working in Odense

Experience of Scandinavian receptive

multilingualism

‟Get three languages for the price of one.”

Summer courses (e.g. in Mullsjö)

Nordic Conferences of Linguistics

Rolig-papir series (from 1974)

A series of working papers is a better mirror of

actual language use and preferences than peer

reviewed channels.

Authors were “members of ROLIG”, but also

guests.

1974 de 1, dk 2

1975 dk 3

1976 dk 1, en(sv) 1

1977 en(sv) 1, en(de) 1, en 1, de 1, sv 2

1978 dk(dk/sv) 1, dk(de/dk) 1, sv 1, en(mult) 1, dk 1

1979 dk 1, en(de/sv/fi) 1

1980 en/de/dk 1, de 2, dk 1, en(sv/fi) 1

1981 dk 1, sv 1, dk(dk/sv) 1, dk/de(nl) 1

1983 dk/fr(da) 1, en(en/sv/fi) 1, dk 2

1984 de 1, no/da(de/nl) 1, en(de) 1, dk 3

1985 en(en/sv/fi) 1, en(de) 1, de 1, dk 1

1986 dk 1, en(dk) 1

1987 en(dk) 1

1988 en/dk 1, de 1

1989 en(en/sv/fi) 1, dk 1

1990 en/dk(en) 1

1991 dk 1, de 1, en(ee) 1

1992 en(no)

1993 en(dk) 2, en(it) 1

(L1 of author(s) in parentheses)

Rolig-papir: languages used 1974-1993

German 8

English 22

Danish 27

Swedish 4

French 1

Norwegian 1

Rolig-papir: languages 1974-1993 French (1) and Norwegian (1) only used by non-L1

writers, Swedish only used by one L1 writer

German, English and Danish used by both L1 and

L2 writers (but a preference for English)

ROLIG-papers: front/back matter

“*udsolgt/out of print” (from the start)

Front page mixes Danish and English

Ordering information in English and Danish

“International Cultural Studies”

(1989)

International Cultural Studies

Original program draft: 50% English, 25 %

French, 25 % German

Course work very soon only in English

Project work increasingly so

Student project work: language choice

1989-2007

(Mortensen and Haberland 2012, 188)

International Cultural Studies

Teacher’s group:

Local teaching staff

International guest teachers often e.g. Italians

teaching in French or English

Students from Southern Europe working in

German and French

Since end-90s mainstreaming into English

“Fully institutionalized

internationalization”

(2012)

Internationalization projects

Local students: preparation for

individual internationalization

Staff: multilingualism, multiculturalism

Administration obliged to keep

benchmarks and observe balance

between incoming and outgoing

students

Were we different in 1974?

Exceptions are also part of the whole (Tove Bull

2012)

“If we want to understand the sociolinguistics of

globalization, we cannot be satisfied with analyzing

general tendencies alone. We also have to look at

exceptions, contradictions and oppositions to what

is considered normal, mainstream, and

unmarked.” (Bull 2012: 56)

Why the transition from

the national language and the other

languages

to

the national language, « l’anglais et des

autres langues » (Hamel 2008, 200)

at the universities, and why exactly then

(end of C20)?

The changed role of English at the

universities should not be considered as

‘natural’ or ‘obvious’ in any way, but

something that needs explanation.

Language change in academia

Der Sprachenwechsel ist nie, auch nicht in den

Wissenschaften, ein bloßer Austausch eines

arbiträren Zeichensystems gegen ein anderes. . . .

Für die Wissenschaften des 18. Jahrhunderts war

der Sprachenwechsel auch mit einem

Funktionswandel der Universität und einer

Neubewertung wissenschaftlicher Inhalte

verbunden. (Schiewe 2000: 91–92)

[Language change is never, not even in academia, a

mere replacement of one arbitrary sign system by

another. . . . For scholarship in the 18th century,

language change was related to a transformation of

the function of the university and a reassessment

of academic content.]

Explanatory models

Linguistic imperialism (Phillipson)

Hegemonic projects (Haberland 2009)

Hegemony

Hegemony is not a way of succumbing to

outer pressures. It is the way in which

“common sense” frames the existing social

world and its practices as “natural” and “self-

evident” (Antonio Gramsci), or

a way in which persuasion outweighs

coercion in the organization of dominance

(Ranajit Guha)

“English is currently expanding in

Europe in hegemonic ways, as a result

of internal and external pressures, but

in each western European country,

whether this amounts to linguistic

imperialism is an empirical question

that probably would be answered in the

negative.” (Phillipson 1997: 238)

Language diversity has often been seen

both as an unavoidable reality and

(theoretically) as an asset, but also as a

nuisance.

– witness the search for an ideal

language and attempts at defying Babel

(« L’homme qui a défié Babel », Centassi

and Masson on Zamenhof).

Market thinking (commodification and

competitiveness of university studies,

globalism (Manfred Steger, Ulrich Beck))

seems to demand the use of one

international language.

A view from the administration

“English-language study programmes

attract the best foreign teaching staff and

students and create a unique international

research and study environment which will

help kickstart an international career for

our students.” (ASB Dean Børge Obel,

quoted in Bak 2007).

Having one language for

internationalisation and one for local

uses has its clear advantages ….

but … « constituer la langue légitime,

c’est constituer toutes les autres

langues comme des patois » (Bourdieu

2012)

Have we come to the point that Danish

universities only recognize two « langues

légitimes », Danish and English?

References

Bak, Hanne Frank 2007. Kickstart your English. Interview with

Dean, Børge Obel, Aarhus School of Business.

http://www.asb.dk/omos/institutter/erhvervsoekonomiskinstitut/n

yheder/nyhed/artikel/kickstart_your_english/ (accessed February

10, 2012); in Danish

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/aktuelt/nyhede

r/nyhed/artikel/kickstart-your-english/ (accessed September 21,

2013)

Bourdieu, Pierre 2012. Sur l’Etat. Cours au Collège de France, 1989-

1992. Paris: Seuil (http://www.monde-

diplomatique.fr/2012/01/Bourdieu/47168) (accessed October 20,

2012)

Bull, Tove 2012. Against the mainstream: universities with an

alternative language policy. International Journal of the Sociology of

Language 216: 55-73

Guha, Ranajit 1997. Dominance without hegemony. History and

power in colonial India. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Haberland, Hartmut 2009. English – the language of globalism? Rask

30:17-45

Haberland, Hartmut 2012. Bokmelding av Ringdal 2008. Rask 36:103-

111

Hamel, Rainer Enrique 2008. Les langues des sciences et de

l’enseignement supérieur: état actuel et perspectives d’avenir.

Séminaire international sur la méthodologie d’observation de la langue

française. Paris, du 12 au 14 juin 2008. Synthèse des ateliers et

contributions écrites, 193-203,

http://esperantic.org/dosieroj/file/hamel-langues.pdf

Kuteeva, Maria and John Airey 2013. Disciplinary differences in the

use of English in higher education: reflections on recent policy

developments. Higher Education. DOI 10.1007/s10734-013-9660-6.

Lakoff, Robin Tolmach 1989. The Way We Were; or, the real actual

truth about Generative Semantics: A memoir. Journal of Pragmatics

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Mortensen, Janus and Hartmut Haberland 2012. English – the new

Latin of academia? Danish universities as a case. International Journal

of the Sociology of Language 216: 175-197

Phillipson, Robert 1997. Realities and myths of linguistic imperialism.

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18(3): 238-247

Ringdal, Nils Johan 2008. Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgen-

stiernes forunderlige liv og reiser. Oslo: Aschehoug.

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Englisch. Gründe und Folgen des Wechsels von Wissenschafts-

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