Innovation in Language Learning

Growing use of English and national languages’ domain loss are subject to intense debates in Finland and in the Nordic countries. Some authors even conceptualize this as a paradox, that university is becoming more multicultural and more monolingual at the same time (e.g. Lindström & Sylvin, 2014: 163). Higher education language policy, among other things, is featuring institutional approaches towards international students and scholars, their language learning and societal integration. The discussion ranges from language speaking and learning in the neoliberal sense, as a form of human capital, which makes it solely an individual responsibility (see, e.g. Kubota, 2016) to the understanding of the institutional politics as advancement of English. The question of how to manage the linguistic situation on the institutional level involves organizational approaches and individual efforts, which are in focus of my research. Looking at the documents, public discussions, and interviews, I describe a multilayered picture of the field and symbolic power of languages (Bourdieu, 2003) in relation to the integration of foreign students and researchers in university community. I overview concrete instruments of language learning and use, university policies as well as individual responses to these arrangements. In conclusion, I also discuss policy futures. While acknowledging the claims brought up by the critical theorists of the spread of English, I could also contextualize within other aspects of the academic and institutional developments – power balances in internationalization, national interests in marketization of education, as well as normative and ethical dimensions. Changing perspectives on the social aspects of language could be extended to the other languages as well. For instance, the fluidity of language (Jenkins, 2011) and functionality aspects, rather than norms (Cogo, Dewey, 2012) could advance the discussion on the learning of the national languages by the students and scholars from abroad.