The Privileging of English Language Use in Academia: Critical Reflections from an International Doctoral Seminar

Abstract

In this article, we, a Canadian team of doctoral researchers, reflected on our journey during an International Doctoral Research Seminar held in Beijing in 2015. As five doctoral students and two academics, we met with our doctoral colleagues from academic institutions in Brisbane (Australia) and Beijing (China). Although we did not discuss or negotiate which language we would be using in China, we were confronted with our assumption that English would be used, and that some the participants had a lower level of English competency than expected. It was apparent that this assumption of English language use privileged some (i.e., Canadian and Australian teams) while disadvantaging others (i.e., Chinese team). This confrontation brought up questions and concerns about equity in participation. As a result, this article chronicles the Canadian team reflecting on the International Doctoral Research Seminar including our privilege of using English, and coming to the position of wanting to create a more inclusive space for all participants to engage equitably in this international collaboration. As such, our reflections in this article focused on the domination of English as a lingua franca in academic spaces, in addition to how we decided to facilitate a transcultural space for all participants to be included.

Foreign language education in rural schools: Struggles and initiatives among generalist teachers teaching English in Mexico

“…These reforms are promoting state-sanctioned educational policies that favor the learning of English in public education in countries where English is neither the native nor the official language (Crystal, 2012). Despite the establishment of the English language in the form of linguistic imperialism, the learning of English constitutes a major curricular change in countries that see in this language a benefit for international interaction and economic growth (Woodend et al, 2019). Nonetheless, in many parts of the world, the teaching of English and the attainment of the L2 curricular goals in public elementary and secondary schools face many challenges (Coelho & Henze, 2014;Giannikas, 2011;Izquierdo et al, 2016;Lightbown & Spada, 2020;Ramos Holguín & Aguirre Morales, 2016;Roldán & Peláez, 2017).…”

“…In many countries, English language learning in public education has become state-mandated despite a heated debate on the linguistic, economic, social and cultural benefits and drawbacks of this policy (Crystal, 2012;Roldán & Peláez, 2017). As a result, in higher education, many universities offer undergraduate and graduate programs that privilege English as a second/foreign language (L2) instruction over other languages or promote content and English language integrated learning (Arias & Izquierdo, 2015;Woodend et al, 2019). As for elementary and middle school education, many countries have sanctioned English as an L2 learning through various layers of public education and established specific language attainment goals, instructional guidelines and evaluation criteria under the Common European Framework (Kihlstedt, 2019).…”

Toward Engaging Difference in a Globalized World

“…How would this exercise differ if we engaged Mandarin? (see Woodend et. al., 2019 for a bigger discussion).…”