1. Frans Gregersen, University of Copenhagen The Nordic Region
KU Leuven
4th of May 2018

2. A Nordic language policy?
Overview:
The Nordic region
The work of the Nordic group on Parallel Language Policies
Challenges for everyone: Lingua receptiva as an example

3. The Nordic countries as a region

4. Framework
The Nordic states have cooperated since the Helsinki treaty (1962)
Nordic cooperation is based on the fact that the five member states will benefit from it
The Nordic member states are: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark
Finland, Sweden and Denmark are members of the EU, Iceland and Norway are not
In which sense do these five states make up a region?

5. THE NORDIC STATES as part of a larger REGION
Geographically:
Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland: The Far North or the North Atlantic
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, (Scandinavia) + Finland
The Baltic states,
North West Russia

6. The NORDIC REGION Historico-culturally:
Scandinavia, the Faroe Islands and Iceland: historical common background
Finland has historically been tied both to Sweden and Russia
Greenland was once
a Danish colony

7. From a linguistic point of view
The Faroe Islands, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden and Swedish-speaking Finland make up a special Nordic branch of Germanic
Finnish is not Indo-European but belongs with Estonian (and Hungarian) to the Fenno-Ugric family
Greenlandic forms part
of the Eskimo family

8. What does this mean in practice?
Only Danes, Norwegians and Swedes may practice the idea of
SPEAKING YOUR OWN LANGUAGE BUT UNDERSTANDING THAT OF THE OTHERS
Icelanders have to speak and understand Danish; the same goes for Faroese and Greenlandic members of the Nordic Speech Community
Finnish members have to able to speak and understand Swedish

9. The new (urban) reality
In all the Scandinavian countries, urban centres include many immigrants
The immigrants do not necessarily understand the ‘neighbouring (Scandinavian) languages, even though they (have) acquire(d) mastery of one of them as an L2
Many of these immigrant groups include upwardly mobile youngsters of intrinsic interest to universities

10. Conclusion
Linguistically Scandinavia, Iceland and the Faroe Islands form a unit; Finland is the odd man out and Greenland is peripheral both geographically and linguistically
The idea of speaking your own language and understanding that of the others does not work for everybody; it has to be supported by educational efforts
There is a challenge for all the Nordic countries, but in particular for the Scandinavian ones, as to the inclusion of immigrants in the Nordic speech community

11. Some themes in the work of the NMR group on Parallel Language Use

12. Parallel language policy
The notion of language policy: curbing the market forces
Parallel? How many languages?
The Nordic perspective
Revealing the reality
Studying best practice examples
Giving recommendations

13. If you want to read yourself…
Here are the links to the reports:
English version (with a Swedish summary):
Scandinavian version:

14. The Work of the NMR Group
Indicators for Inter-Nordic comparisons
comparisons are difficult as of now; nevertheless: English is rapidly gaining ground, biannual measures may be the right way to gauge how quickly
baseline information once and for all: Language policies or only internationalization policies
Biannual reports:
Masters’ theses, PhD theses and scientific output by staff (English or Nordic) in English or Nordic?
Educational matters: Numbers of exchange students and full degree students; BA/BS, MA/MS and PhD educational programmes taught in English (as announced)
international staff hired in the year reported on

15. The work of the NMR group
Survey of best practices:
language policies in place and clear anchoring at the university
monitoring systems and non-dogmatic follow up: a democratic process perspective
differences between traditions within the university as to internationalization: one size does not fit all
language support of various kinds offered to students, scientific staff and administrative personnel: parallel languaging taken seriously; the role of language centers
focus on the role of universities in ‘their’ local societies: the plight of the university varies a lot from university to university
integration of language perspectives in internationalization policy and quality monitoring policies: hiring the best is not enough, we need to keep the very best (and their families)
reformation of language courses! (CLIL? EMI? International classroom!)
the need to welcome international students, including our ‘own’ internationals, not only as internationals and not only as students but as a learning resource

16. LINGUA RECEPTIVA Why is it so hard?

17. Why try at all?
If we simply let market forces decide, ENGLISH will soon become the ONLY international language at universities, but that would be tantamount to having no language policy at all
It would mean that universities were lost as a domain or a sector - and that would have severe repercussions, I submit, for the position of universities in their local national communities: Tax payers would pay for a university they are not able to understand
This is the reason why parallel language policies have been brought to bear in the first place
A special version of a parallel language policy is the so-called LINGUA RECEPTIVA model

18. LINGUA RECEPTIVA
LINGUA RECEPTIVA means a conscious and concerted effort by the relevant university authorities to
teach internationals, whether full degree students or teachers/researchers, to master comprehension of the local Nordic language while not teaching them production
teach local Nordic students and researchers/teachers to understand English (or other lingua francae) well enough for them to participate in interaction with internationals

19. Why is it so hard?
Teaching spoken language comprehension instead of written language
Teaching academically useful and discipline specific genres, discourse and lexis (terminology)
Teaching academically useful interaction: e.g. lecturing, taking questions, supervising, exams
Maybe it is hard to practice for simple interactional (politeness) reasons
Or maybe it isn’t hard at all?

20. The alternative?
The alternative to English as the European lingua franca might be a conscious effort to promote a regionally divided Europe with a number of related languages based on the concept of receptive bi- or multilingualism:
German: Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland, but could that include also: Dutch: The Netherlands, (the Flemish part of) Belgium and what about Luxemburg?
’Romance’: France, the French speaking part of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, parts of Switzerland, Roumania
English: United Kingdom, Ireland
’Slavic’: Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria; RUSSIA?!