Where they’re coming from:

roles for English textbooks

where lectures are in foreign
languages.

Philip Shaw, Špela Mežek, Diane Pecorari

and Hans Malmström

BALEAP 2015
Blommaert, Collins, & Slembrouck (2005):
space, not place
“Entering such spaces involves the imposition of the sets of norms
and rules [about] …
(a) what people can or cannot do (it legitimizes some forms of
behavior while disqualifying or constraining other forms);
(b) the value and function of their sociolinguistic repertoires;
(c) their identities, both self-constructed (inhabited) and ascribed
by others.”

(p. 203)
 Theme

• A scale difference between:

o state-scale contexts/language regimes
o international-scale contexts/language regimes

• The language of instruction does not determine the scale of the

context.

• International-scale teaching  rethinking the official language

regime of the context.
Blommaert, Collins, & Slembrouck (2005):
Scale
”State-level activities, for instance, such as policies in education,
are responsive both to influences from higher-level,
transnational scales (consider the growing concern with English
in almost every education system in the world) as well as from
lower-level, intranational scales (the national and regional
political dynamics, minority issues...).”

(p. 202, formatting added)

 Three HE language contexts worldwide

1. State-level monolingual
 lectures in national language, reading in national language;
 monolingual situation naturalized, other L1s obscured, national
language only onstage.
2. State-level bilingual
 A: lectures/interaction in national language, reading in English;
 B: CLIL: lectures/interaction in English, reading in English,
bilingual situation naturalized, L1 and English sometimes both
onstage.
3. International English-only
 Multilingual situation obscured;
 Onstage language English, frequently confused with 2B especially
by administrators.
 Data

• Recordings of 15 BA lectures in Swedish

– Biology and Engineering lectures
– the EVA project

• Online questionnaires to HE teachers on purposes of English-

medium literature (Pecorari et al., 2011a)

• Paper (post-lecture) questionnaire to students on their reading

practices (Pecorari et al., 2011b)

• Interviews with students on their reading habits (Mežek, 2013)

Two levels of aims of teachers in Sweden

• Teachers expect that students will:

 learn content
AND
 improve English (state-level aim)
 become socialized into the international scale
(international-level aim)

(Pecorari et al., 2011a)

English as desirable but indeterminate

(Pecorari et al., 2011a)

 State-level biliteracy is
normalized and stabilized
• Reading English should not be a problem:

A lot of fantasy is in English, so that I have to

read in the language it was written in. But my
whole- the rest of it is in Swedish. It’s [the
languages I read in] kind of fifty-fifty.

(Mežek, 2013, p. 173)

 But not entirely normalized

• Would you choose a textbook in English if the choice were

free?

44% - no
28% - depends on the course
14% - makes no difference
13% - yes

(Pecorari et al., 2011b)

 Context 2: Explicit bilingualism

Det här är i alla fall en kromosom och det blir en hel del
begrepp nu som jag kommer nämna och jag kommer nämna
dem på svenska även om de står på engelska.
[…]
När ni går in på eran kursgenetik introduktionssidan så finns
en ordlista som är ganska lång. Ni kan söka på ett ord där
och ni kan få förklaringen från engelska till svenska och så
vidare på alla olika begrepp, vad de betyder. Så använd den
där ordlistan flitigt och gå in så fort ni inte kan, eller kommer
ihåg vad ett ord betyder, så gå till ordlistan då och kika sen.

(Bio 2 Lec 2 recording)

 Context 2: Explicit bilingualism

Anyway, this is a chromosome and there will be plenty of

concepts that I’m going to mention and I am going to give you
the terms in Swedish even if they’re in English [on the screen]
[…]
When you go into the introduction page for your genetics
course there’ll be a pretty long word list . You can do a search
on a word there and get the explanation from English to
Swedish and so forth for the all the various terms, what they
mean. So use that list regularly and go into it as soon as you
don’t know, or can’t remember what a term means, just go to
the list and have a look.

(Bio 2 Lec 2 recording)

 Context 2: Role of slides and
national-language material

Sen har vi då en bok […] Det är den här och det är den som
läsanvisningarna är till. Och den kan ni köpa. … Den är på
engelska så om ni tycker det är jättejobbigt så finns det en bok
på svenska men den är inte lika grundlig men den kanske kan
hjälpa till lite för förståelsen. […] Jag kommer skriva mycket på
tavlan och visa overheads från er bok.

(Bio 2 Lec 1 recording)

 Context 2: Role of slides and
national-language material

And then we have a book […] It’s this one and it’s what your
reading instructions refer to. It’s the one you can buy. … It’s in
English but if you think that’s a real drag there’s a book in
Swedish, it’s not as thorough but it could help a bit with
understanding. […] I’m going to write a lot on the board and
show overheads from your book.

(Bio 2 Lec 1 recording)

Context 2: Policing the language boundaries:
Keeping the languages apart

och sedan har vi då rectifying section eller rectifyer. Eller

förstärkare. </point> Man ska dock inte säga amplifier då. Det
brukar inte vara vanligt. Varför ska man inte säga det. Vad är
amplifier för något? Mera elektronik förstärkare då. Det ska
man inte säga. <point> Men förstärkare funkar bra på svenska.
Context 2: Policing the language boundaries:
Keeping the languages apart

and then we have the rectifying section or rectifier. Or

förstärkare. </point> But you shouldn’t say amplifier. That’s not
usual. Why not? What’s an amplifier ? More of an electronic
förstärkare, isn’t it. So don’t call this by that name. <point> But
förstärkare works well in Swedish.

’Rectifier’ (chemical engineering)

förstärkare
’Amplifier’(electronics)
 The type 2 state-scale HE classroom…

… is like a (fairly modern) bilingual secondary-school classroom:

 Language differences are highlighted where necessary;

 Biliteracy is normal;

 Lesson accomplishment = sole goal

 Making use of the resources necessary (translanguaging)
 Transition to international level

• Increase in number of non-local students (globally):

English-medium classrooms used as international-level

forums;
Implications for teaching (e.g. in Sweden).
 Implications of the international level
in Sweden
• Much teaching in ELF;

• Caution about using local metaphors (etc.) in translation;

• Avoidance of local examples;

• Explicit discussion of Swedishness of particular issues.

 The international scale is like a
state-scale multilingual secondary classroom
• The aim = ’accomplish the lesson’:
o achieve successful ’deep’ learning
o socialize the learners into the appropriate language regime
(i.e. make sure they know the national language in an
accepted way)

• Schools often (used to) discourage use of vernaculars, even

offstage.

… As in the international-level HE classroom.

Socialization and language policing on the
international level
An example:
Teachers sometimes try to break up groups with similar L1 and
discourage use of L1, even offstage, to encourage socialization
and language learning.
BUT
• Students resist  it interferes with learning effectively (by
’deep’ interaction constructing knowledge)

? Students themselves should be able to balance the aims

against each other;
? The multilingualism should become visible as in state-level
bilingual HE.
 When the national language and the
vernacular are both English
In the UK:
the majority population
the state level the same language (English)
the international level

However…
• The register of lecture is more colloquial than that of books
(MICASE; e.g. Biber, 2006).
• Is the ’language’ of lectures at the state level appropriate at the
international level?
 When the national language and the
vernacular are both English
• How do British lecturers adapt to the international level?

• Is the state/international distinction clear when there is no

language difference?

• Should it be?
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Slides on academia.edu