{"id":150250,"date":"2023-04-27T14:43:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T12:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/?p=150250"},"modified":"2023-05-01T11:22:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T09:22:45","slug":"ucphs-language-policy-contradicts-research-based-education-objectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/ucphs-language-policy-contradicts-research-based-education-objectives\/","title":{"rendered":"UCPH’s language policy contradicts research-based education objectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been following the University of Copenhagen’s (UCPH) language policy debate in the University Post, including Alberte Ritchie Green\u2019s study<\/a> of the consequences of the policy for international staff, and Sif H\u00f8g’s opinion piece<\/a> describing the policy as nationalist gesture politics. To the latter, deputy director for communication Jasper Steen Winkel replied<\/a> that \u00bbwe do, actually, have a language policy at UCPH that is quite international\u00ab.<\/p>\n

I think the language policy is quite the opposite of that. It is alienating and threatening for international employees and job candidates. It is damaging for the international reputation of the university. And it is misaligned with research-based education and internationalization objectives, because the language of research for most subjects is English.<\/p>\n

A direct threat to internationals<\/h3>\n

The policy states that \u00bbin general, it is expected that tenure-track assistant professors, associate professors and professors are able to contribute to teaching in Danish after 3-6 years, including grading and supervising students \u2013 at a level of skills that corresponds to the teaching they are to undertake.\u00ab<\/p>\n

\n

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The deputy director argues that \u00bbcontributing to teaching in Danish\u00ab is something distinct from and less demanding than \u00bbteaching in Danish\u00ab. In my role as head of section, I have participated in numerous discussions of the policy with the higher management and witnessed presentation of the policy to job candidates and employees.<\/p>\n

In my experience no one in the management can tell the difference between \u00bbcontributing to teaching\u00ab and \u00bbteaching\u00ab. But even more crucially, job candidates and employees cannot rely on policy interpretations, because today they may be lenient, and tomorrow they may get strict. Therefore, it makes no sense to debate interpretations of the policy. As long as the expectation is in the policy, it is a direct threat to all international job candidates and employees.<\/p>\n

No one in the management can tell the difference between \u00bbcontributing to teaching\u00ab and \u00bbteaching\u00ab<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am not sure whether our management, which predominantly consists of native-speaking Danish nationals, can truly relate to the threat the policy represents to international job candidates and employees. For most internationals, it is infeasible to learn Danish up to the level required for teaching within three to six years and keep up with their research, teaching, and other duties at the same time. And if they do not live up to the expectations, they may be at risk of losing their job \u2013 especially at the tenure-track level, where inability to secure promotion to tenure is equivalent to being fired. And if they lose their job, they lose their residence permit and get kicked out of the country together with their family.<\/p>\n

A contradiction to research-based education ambitions<\/h3>\n

Almost no international staff will ever reach the same academic proficiency in Danish as they have in English. Not only because they start learning it later in life, but also because most of the university research is in English. Even my Danish colleagues prefer English over Danish for academic communication and teaching, because English is the language of science.<\/p>\n

So, if the university is true to its research-based education ambitions, what is the point of expecting internationals to contribute to teaching in Danish? Would we like them to deliver high-quality education in English and improve the academic English level among students, or would we like them to struggle with expressing themselves in Danish, and the students to struggle with understanding their Danish?<\/p>\n

Not within the university\u2019s authority to enforce integration<\/h3>\n

Jasper Steen Winkel also writes that \u00bbwe no longer tell incoming researchers that they can easily make do with English \u2014 as this is a truth that needs modifying. They can, probably. But if they want to thrive, it means something if they get to know the local language.\u00ab<\/p>\n

While I fully agree that it is beneficial to learn the local language, and I praise the university’s initiatives to help with that, it should be stressed that it is not within the university’s authority to enforce integration into society.<\/p>\n

If at some point in life a person would decide to apply for Danish citizenship, there are other state authorities that are responsible for setting the necessary integration standards and checking on them. But otherwise any person is free to not integrate.<\/p>\n

The university management lacks international diversity<\/h3>\n

Jasper Steen Winkel continues with writing: \u00bbIn this way, they can better participate in and contribute to social and academic contexts at UCPH \u2013 and in society in general, for example through the dissemination of research.\u00ab<\/p>\n

While I agree that Danish is important for the interaction with society, I see no reason why a lack of Danish skills should be a barrier to \u00bbcontribute to social and academic contexts at UCPH\u00ab.<\/p>\n

I commend our department (DIKU) for making it possible for all employees regardless of their Danish skills to equally contribute to social and academic life. And I see no reason why this should not be the case for the rest of the university. International employees constitute a significant part of UCPH academic workforce at all levels, but they are highly underrepresented in the management. If the university is true to its diversity goals, I think it should reflect on this.<\/p>\n

I believe that a stronger international representation in the management would have spared us from the troublesome language policy we need to fix now.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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requirements","text":"For most subjects at the university, the language of research is English. If the university is true to its research-based education ambitions, it makes no sense to have a university-wide language policy that expects internationals to teach in Danish.","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>I have been following the University of Copenhagen’s (UCPH) language policy debate in the University Post, including <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/academics-lose-status-when-they-teach-with-an-accent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alberte Ritchie Green\u2019s study<\/a> of the consequences of the policy for international staff, and <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/the-ucph-language-requirements-are-just-nationalist-gesture-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sif H\u00f8g’s opinion piece<\/a> describing the policy as nationalist gesture politics. To the latter, deputy director for communication <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/we-do-actually-have-a-language-policy-at-ucph-that-is-quite-international\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jasper Steen Winkel replied<\/a> that \u00bbwe do, actually, have a language policy at UCPH that is quite international\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p>I think the language policy is quite the opposite of that. It is alienating and threatening for international employees and job candidates. It is damaging for the international reputation of the university. And it is misaligned with research-based education and internationalization objectives, because the language of research for most subjects is English.<\/p>\n<h3>A direct threat to internationals<\/h3>\n<p>The policy states that \u00bbin general, it is expected that tenure-track assistant professors, associate professors and professors are able to contribute to teaching in Danish after 3-6 years, including grading and supervising students \u2013 at a level of skills that corresponds to the teaching they are to undertake.\u00ab<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">OPINION ON THE UNIVERSITY POST<\/p>\n<p>This is a featured comment\/opinion piece. It expresses the author\u2019s own opinion.<\/p>\n<p>We encourage everyone to read the whole piece before commenting on social media, so that we only get constructive contributions.<\/p>\n<p>Disagreement is good, but remember to uphold a civil and respectful tone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The deputy director argues that \u00bbcontributing to teaching in Danish\u00ab is something distinct from and less demanding than \u00bbteaching in Danish\u00ab. In my role as head of section, I have participated in numerous discussions of the policy with the higher management and witnessed presentation of the policy to job candidates and employees.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience no one in the management can tell the difference between \u00bbcontributing to teaching\u00ab and \u00bbteaching\u00ab. But even more crucially, job candidates and employees cannot rely on policy interpretations, because today they may be lenient, and tomorrow they may get strict. Therefore, it makes no sense to debate interpretations of the policy. As long as the expectation is in the policy, it is a direct threat to all international job candidates and employees.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No one in the management can tell the difference between \u00bbcontributing to teaching\u00ab and \u00bbteaching\u00ab<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I am not sure whether our management, which predominantly consists of native-speaking Danish nationals, can truly relate to the threat the policy represents to international job candidates and employees. For most internationals, it is infeasible to learn Danish up to the level required for teaching within three to six years and keep up with their research, teaching, and other duties at the same time. And if they do not live up to the expectations, they may be at risk of losing their job \u2013 especially at the tenure-track level, where inability to secure promotion to tenure is equivalent to being fired. And if they lose their job, they lose their residence permit and get kicked out of the country together with their family.<\/p>\n<h3>A contradiction to research-based education ambitions<\/h3>\n<p>Almost no international staff will ever reach the same academic proficiency in Danish as they have in English. Not only because they start learning it later in life, but also because most of the university research is in English. Even my Danish colleagues prefer English over Danish for academic communication and teaching, because English is the language of science.<\/p>\n<p>So, if the university is true to its research-based education ambitions, what is the point of expecting internationals to contribute to teaching in Danish? Would we like them to deliver high-quality education in English and improve the academic English level among students, or would we like them to struggle with expressing themselves in Danish, and the students to struggle with understanding their Danish?<\/p>\n<h3>Not within the university\u2019s authority to enforce integration<\/h3>\n<p>Jasper Steen Winkel also writes that \u00bbwe no longer tell incoming researchers that they can easily make do with English \u2014 as this is a truth that needs modifying. They can, probably. But if they want to thrive, it means something if they get to know the local language.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>While I fully agree that it is beneficial to learn the local language, and I praise the university’s initiatives to help with that, it should be stressed that it is not within the university’s authority to enforce integration into society.<\/p>\n<p>If at some point in life a person would decide to apply for Danish citizenship, there are other state authorities that are responsible for setting the necessary integration standards and checking on them. But otherwise any person is free to not integrate.<\/p>\n<h3>The university management lacks international diversity<\/h3>\n<p>Jasper Steen Winkel continues with writing: \u00bbIn this way, they can better participate in and contribute to social and academic contexts at UCPH \u2013 and in society in general, for example through the dissemination of research.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>While I agree that Danish is important for the interaction with society, I see no reason why a lack of Danish skills should be a barrier to \u00bbcontribute to social and academic contexts at UCPH\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p>I commend our department (DIKU) for making it possible for all employees regardless of their Danish skills to equally contribute to social and academic life. And I see no reason why this should not be the case for the rest of the university. International employees constitute a significant part of UCPH academic workforce at all levels, but they are highly underrepresented in the management. If the university is true to its diversity goals, I think it should reflect on this.<\/p>\n<p>I believe that a stronger international representation in the management would have spared us from the troublesome language policy we need to fix now.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with our top stories","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":true,"references":[{"reference":{"ID":149377,"post_author":"5","post_date":"2023-04-11 07:00:28","post_date_gmt":"2023-04-11 05:00:28","post_content":"<span class=\"dropcap\">\u00bbD<\/span>enmark is one of the world's most intolerant language communities,\u00ab the linguist Jens Normann J\u00f8rgensen once said. The late Prince Henrik, husband of the present Danish Queen Margrethe, knew it, as he was ridiculed throughout his life for his French accent, even though he spoke excellent Danish as a second language.\r\n\r\n\u00bbDanes have a first language ideal associated with the communication,\u00ab says Alberte Ritchie Green. Danish should preferably sound exactly as it normally does, if there is to be a seamless exchange.\r\n\r\n27-year-old Alberte Ritchie Green got her MA In Danish at the end of 2022 and now teaches highly-educated non-Danes in Danish at a language school. Her students say that when they go about their lives and speak to Danes using the phrases they have just learned, Danes automatically switch into English.\r\n\r\nNative speakers of one of the larger world languages, like say English, are accustomed to hearing their language spoken in a multitude of different levels and ways, often with strong accents. In Denmark, however, people are not accustomed to hearing their language as a second, third or fifth language.\r\n\r\nWhen the baker responds in English when a customer orders coffee and cinnamon buns in Danish with a strong accent, it is an attempt to ease the interaction and avoid having one of the sides losing face in the language interaction. Even though the pastry normally ends up with the customer, it is demotivating for them when they want to practice their language.\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\nEveryday phrases are one thing. Teaching at an academic level is completely different. The University of Copenhagen expects international researchers to be able to contribute actively to teaching in Danish after three to six years.\r\n\r\nThis was what Alberte Ritchie Green's master\u2019s thesis was about on the Danish degree programme. It turned out that the language requirement is seen as a major burden for a number of international teaching staff who move from a status as academic expert to a language novice.\r\n<h3>New language policy, new requirements<\/h3>\r\nThe University of Copenhagen has had a language policy since 2008. At first, a parallel language policy was introduced between Danish and English, and the primary objective of the policy was that all employees should be able to teach in academic English.\r\n\r\nAt that time, there were no requirements for international employees to have Danish skills, but this changed in the next decade:\r\n\r\n\u00bbThe political focus shifted, and there was a feeling that Danish should not lose status in universities,\u00ab says Alberte Ritchie Green when the University Post met her in the old university library.\r\n\r\nThe proportion of international staff at the University of Copenhagen has risen dramatically in recent decades, and 40 per cent of all researchers had a non-Danish background in 2020. This trend put Danish researchers under more pressure to teach, because the teaching on most bachelor's degree programmes is in Danish.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">Parallel language use<\/p>\r\n<strong>Internationalization and globalization<\/strong> have meant that both staff and students increasingly have to function in both English and Danish and sometimes also in other languages in their daily work at the university. In order to support its employees and students in meeting these challenges, the University of Copenhagen has had parallel language use as a theme in its strategic objectives since 2008, when it set up the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP).\r\n\r\n<em>www.cip.ku.dk<\/em>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn January 2021, the Board tried to solve this problem with a new language policy that contains this sentence:\r\n\r\n\u00bbIn general, it is expected that [international] tenure track assistant professors, associate professors, and professors can contribute to teaching in Danish after 3-6 years, including grading and supervising students.\u00ab\r\n\r\nWhen the language requirement was introduced, Alberte Ritchie Green was working as a student assistant at CIP, the University of Copenhagen's Centre for internationalisation and Parallel Language Use on South Campus, where international staff take on the challenge of learning Danish.\r\n\r\nWhen the news of the Danish requirement broke on the university's intranet KUnet, it set off<a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/researchers-not-happy-with-tough-new-danish-language-policy-draft\/\"> a torrent of critical comments<\/a> from staff with international backgrounds. They feared that it would slow down their career in the competition with their colleagues who have Danish as their first language.\r\n\r\nThe critics also feared that it would place the University of Copenhagen at a disadvantage in the competition for the most talented researchers. Why go to a tiny country which requires that you learn a difficult language, when you can choose a university where you can teach in English or another language that you already master?\r\n\r\nWhen the University Post interviewed John Renner Hansen, who led the committee that formulated the new language policy in 2020, he said:\r\n\r\n\u00bbThere won\u2019t be a big threatening head of department at the end of this time period saying \u2018you will be fired if you don\u2019t live up to this policy\u2019. It should be seen as guidance, so that heads of department together with associate professors and professors can work out individual plans and possibly a reduction of international researchers\u2019 workload in the period where they are to take Danish-language courses.\u00ab\r\n<h3>More Danish than the Danes<\/h3>\r\nThe use of Danish as a second language among the highly educated is something that has not been researched extensively, says Alberte Ritchie Green.\r\n\r\nAs a CIP employee, she had access to lists of participants from previous courses, but it was no easy task to find people allowing her to observe their teaching.\r\n\r\n\u00bbMost people found it intimidating to have me inside with my recording equipment, even though I emphasised that I would observe the interaction, but not assess their Danish skills.\u00ab\n<!-- end of module 2 -->\nAlberte Ritchie Green was in contact with 50 international employees before she managed to get ten people to agree to be interviewed. She was also allowed to observe four of them at work as teachers and supervisors. The employees had been in Denmark between three and 22 years, had all received Danish instruction, and most of them had begun to teach in Danish.\r\n\r\nBoth in the teaching situations and in the in-depth interviews, Green noticed that there is a prevalent language norm that assesses Danish as a second language considerably worse than Danish as a first language. This is both among the Danish students and among the international staff themselves.\r\n\r\n\u00bbTheir position as academic experts is challenged by their status as a language novice when they start to teach in Danish.\u00ab\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">HEr thesis:<\/p>\r\nAlberte Ritchie Green\u2019s master's thesis title is <em>\u00bbYou become more Danish than the Danish teachers\u00ab \u2013 an investigation into Danish as a second language among international academic staff at UCPH.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nAlberte Ritchie Green has both seen and heard staff lose face and authority when they teach in Danish.\r\n\r\n\u00bbMy examples show that the academic staff get into a difficult and uncomfortable situation when they have to ask the students for help.\u00ab\r\n\r\nThe power relationship is shifted when the teaching staff fall short and have to appeal to the students to find the right word, concept, or pronunciation. And suddenly the students have the role of experts.\r\n\r\nThis leads to an asymmetry, says Alberte Ritchie Green, and it is something that international staff are acutely aware of, and handle in different ways.\r\n\r\nThe master\u2019s thesis has borrowed its title \u00bbYou become more Danish than the Danish teachers\u00ab from a Dutch academic who is proud of teaching in Danish. He also gauges his own success with reference to the first language ideal, says Alberte Ritchie Green:\r\n\r\n\u00bbHe translates all concepts into Danish, for example, when he prepares the teaching. A native speaker would not do this, and many of the concepts that he uses are all English loanwords, but he cannot know this. An English loanword that works and is used in Danish like \u2018feedback\u2019, for example, he translated into \u2018tilbagekoblinger\u2019 \u2013 and from a communicative perspective this won\u2019t work well, even though the intentions were good.\u00ab\r\n<h3>Cat or tails<\/h3>\r\nAll the staff that Alberte Ritchie Green have spoken to, are striving to get up to par with their Danish colleagues. But this can be an arduous process for some of them. In her master's thesis, she also discusses how this path can also be unnecessarily lonely.\r\n\r\n\u00bbThey all speak English, and even though it is a language they share with the students, they still prefer not to use it as a staging point \u2013 they want to speak Danish and only Danish. This actually contradicts the original language policy's goal of parallel language use,\u00ab Alberte Ritchie Green notes.\n<!-- end of module 3 -->\nIn the thesis, there is an example from teaching in an advanced statistics programme. A student uses the term \u2018plat eller krone\u2019 or \u2018heads or tails\u2019 in a statistical, flipping a coin, context. The instructor is not familiar with the idiom. And even though another student offers the English \u2018heads or tails\u2019 translation, the instructor continues with the Danish expression. It gets a minor, but crucial, semantic twist along the way however, as in the instructor's rendering it turns into \u2018kat eller krone\u2019 or \u2018cat or tails\u2019.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/bad-accent-is-considered-bad-teaching\/\"><em> Bad accent is considered bad teaching<\/em><\/a>\r\n\r\nAll of the instructors have had poor evaluations the first time they teach in Danish.\r\n\r\n\u00bbThis is really problematic,\u00ab says Alberte Ritchie Green. \u00bbOne thing is that the employees have to live with the way they lose face in the classroom. But they are also criticised for their accents in the student evaluations. They are simply being rated as poor teachers, and this is not exactly something that increases their motivation.\u00ab\r\n\r\nOne of the contributors has said that the international teaching staff find that it is, in particular, the weakest students who find it difficult to abstract themselves from the language complications that arise in the course of the teaching.\r\n<h3>Thirty-something vowel sounds<\/h3>\r\nAll the people Alberte Ritchie Green interviewed express negative opinions about the UCPH language requirements.\r\n\r\n\u00bbNone of them resist it. But they find it incredibly tough. Several of them say that they did not know in advance that this was an obligatory requirement. They only realized it after arrival. Suddenly, after six months, there is a manager that asks you whether you are not taking any Danish lessons, and makes it sound like this is something that you just do.\u00ab\r\n\r\nFor international employees with a Danish personal identification CPR number, getting teaching in Danish at publicly-funded language schools is free for the first five years after arrival in Denmark.\r\n\r\n<em>Does Alberte Ritchie Green reckon it is at all possible to learn the Danish language, with its thirty-something vowel sounds, within the time frame set by the university?<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00bbThere are, of course, differences between Scandinavians, Germans and, say, people from Asia who are accustomed to completely different linguistic structures. Most people will be able to pass the study exam within three years, but they would not be able to do research and all the other things in parallel. And the university can't employ people and then keep them from doing their academic assignments, even though this would be best if you were only looking at it from a language perspective.\u00ab\r\n\r\nThe time spent on learning Danish to a level that satisfies both them and their students is putting foreign staff at a disadvantage in the academic career race if you are to believe the master\u2019s thesis.\r\n\r\nWhile the language requirement was partly motivated by the need for the Danish academic staff to be relieved from extra obligations, Green\u2019s interviewees say that it is now the careers of the international researchers that are impaired by the language requirement and the taken-for-granted first language ideal.\r\n\r\n\u00bbThe time they spend perfecting their Danish, after all, is taken from doing other things. And still the positions go to the Danes if they apply for them in direct competition with a person who has Danish as their first language, they say. My interviewees also find it difficult to find their way into leading positions, boards of studies and collegial bodies because of the language barrier,\u00ab says Green.\r\n<h3>High expectations<\/h3>\r\nFrom her own CIP experience, Alberte Ritchie Green knows that several language teachers note that their participants not only need to learn Danish on their courses, but also need a space where they can talk openly about how they perceive expectations, as many people feel pressured by the language requirements.\r\n\r\n\u00bbThey have made a life for themselves here and brought their family with them. And they are afraid that they can be fired or thrown out of the country if they do not live up to the requirements.\u00ab\r\n\r\nNone of the academic staff in Green\u2019s thesis have been threatened with dismissal, something that the head of the original language policy committee John Renner Hansen also denied would happen.\r\n\r\n\u00bbOnly one of them has faced an explicit language requirement. The others have faced vague recommendations, but most of them have already sought out language instruction at an early stage themselves.\u00ab\r\n\r\nIn her thesis, Alberte Ritchie Green concludes that both international staff and Danish students could benefit from what she calls \u00bba more active language policy\u00ab with a clear alignment of expectations based on the UCPH language policy.\r\n\r\n\u00bbIt is a lot to demand of teaching staff that they themselves have to defend their speaking Danish as a second language to the students. I think it would be better if, say, an academic manager stood forward and said, <em>\u2018you have this instructor who speaks Danish as a second language. She has been hired on the basis of her academic skills, and she has not chosen the language of instruction herself. If the language is causing you problems, please come to me, and we will find a solution\u2019<\/em>.\u00ab\n<!-- end of module 4 -->\nAccording to Alberte Ritchie Green, language policy work should start already during the hiring process. It needs to be transparent what the university expects and what kind of help it can offer.\r\n\r\n\u00bbIn my investigation, it varies from department to department and faculty to faculty, how the language policy is administered. There are international employees who do not even know that UCPH has a language centre that offers courses that fit their requirements.\r\n\r\nThey get a huge benefit giving each other feedback \u2013 also across faculties and academic interests \u2013 instead of each of them having to wrestle with the language requirement on their own.\u00ab\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/lecturer-provoked-by-poor-english-evaluation\/\">Lecturer provoked by poor English evaluation<\/a><\/em>\r\n\r\nIt hurts to get bad evaluations on your teaching when it is actually the accent that the students are grading. One of the academic staff interviewed for Alberte Ritchie Green\u2019s thesis formulates the first language ideal in the following way:\r\n\r\n\u00bbYou want to avoid your own expectations being below the expectations of the students, so you deliberately demand a lot of yourself.\u00ab\r\n\r\n\u00bbYou don't want to look like someone talking gibberish.\u00ab\n<!-- end of module 5 -->\n","post_title":"Academics lose status when they teach Danish with an accent","post_excerpt":"International researchers have to teach in Danish after three to six years at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). But the Danish students give them poor evaluations because they speak Danish as a second language. Alberte Ritchie Green has investigated what it feels like to go from being an academic expert to being a language novice.\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"academics-lose-status-when-they-teach-with-an-accent","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-04-11 10:49:06","post_modified_gmt":"2023-04-11 08:49:06","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/man-vil-ikke-fremstaa-som-nogen-der-sludrer-med-sproget\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"reference":{"ID":149826,"post_author":"100","post_date":"2023-04-17 08:16:46","post_date_gmt":"2023-04-17 06:16:46","post_content":"It is purely gesture politics \u2014 the student Sif H\u00f8g <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/the-ucph-language-requirements-are-just-nationalist-gesture-politics\/\">writes in an opinion piece in the University Post<\/a> \u2014 when the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) expects that, after only a few years in Denmark, international researchers should teach in Danish. The language policy reflects a 'nationalist gesture politics', where the university is under the influence of the Danish People's Party, she says.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/the-ucph-language-requirements-are-just-nationalist-gesture-politics\/\">The UCPH language requirements are just nationalist gesture politics<\/a><\/em>\r\n\r\nThe readers might think that this sounds like an overstatement. And it is, of course.\r\n<h3>Quite an international language policy<\/h3>\r\nI had the pleasure of heading a secretariat that served three committees with wide cross-faculty representation, where students, researchers, and administrative staff drafted the UCPH language policy. Following a consultation that included all academic councils, the university\u2019s Board adopted the language policy in 2021.\r\n<blockquote>We no longer tell incoming researchers that they can easily make do with English \u2014 as this is a truth that needs modifying<\/blockquote>\r\nLanguage policy is quite internationally oriented. It emphasizes that UCPH should have as an objective that it offers more study programmes and courses in English, and has more international students. Just like UCPH should exploit the fact that up to half of the teaching on Danish-language programmes can take place in English.\r\n\r\nHowever, the committees also took note of the fact that more than 40 per cent of the researchers at the University of Copenhagen come from abroad and therefore do not have Danish as their native language. This number is increasing. For this reason, we formulated an objective that researchers from abroad can be included in teaching in Danish after three to six years.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em>Academics lose status when they teach Danish with an accent<\/em>\r\n<h3>Breaks into two<\/h3>\r\nWhy? This was to prevent the teaching environments from being broken up into two halves: a Danish one and an international one. The risk is that international researchers and teaching staff who are not able to speak Danish cannot help prepare exam questions in Danish, cannot sit on boards of studies, academic councils or collaboration committees, may not be heads of studies or heads of department, and cannot participate in committees in ministries or research councils. The list goes on.\r\n\r\nParallel language is still the objective of UCPH. When Sif H\u00f8g and others write that there is \u00bba requirement\u00ab that international researchers should \u00bbteach in Danish\u00ab, they omit important details: That international academic staff are expected to be able to \u00bbcontribute to the teaching in Danish\u00ab, as formulated in the language policy.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">OPINION ON THE UNIVERSITY POST<\/p>\r\nThis is a featured comment\/opinion piece.\u00a0 It expresses the author\u2019s own opinion.\r\n\r\nWe encourage everyone to read the whole piece before commenting on social media, so that we only get constructive contributions.\r\n\r\nDisagreement is good, but remember to uphold a civil and respectful tone.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nContributing to teaching in Danish means, for example, that international academic staff can understand Danish-speaking students' questions \u2013 and then answer in Danish or English. It may also mean that the international academic staff can provide guidance or read and assess written assignments written in Danish. However, they may choose to provide written or oral feedback in English or in a combination of Danish and English.\r\n<h3>Important for the working environment<\/h3>\r\nPlease note that all surveys \u2013 including workplace assessments \u2013 indicate that UCPH has not yet been sufficiently successful in the integration and inclusion of international employees. A large part of this is due to the language barrier. But maybe it's about to change.\r\n\r\nWe no longer tell incoming researchers that they can easily make do with English \u2014 as this is a truth that needs modifying. They can, probably. But if they want to thrive, it means something if they get to know the local language. In this way, they can better participate in and contribute to social and academic contexts at UCPH \u2013 and in society in general, for example through the dissemination of research.\r\n\r\nThis debate should therefore not be either black or white. And the language policy stands in no way in the way of researchers being able to publish in English, participate in international research teams, or profile UCPH internationally. A number of departments and centres at the UCPH actually have English as the dominant working language.\r\n<h3>Both the wish and the intent<\/h3>\r\nUCPH has now taken on the task of contributing to supporting international researchers' Danish language development. It is no longer the sole responsibility of the individual employee to find a language school and to learn Danish after normal working hours. This is a very positive development.\r\n\r\nIn 2022, and in 2023 so far, all newly arrived academic staff have accepted a UCPH offer of a tailor-made Danish course for UCPH employees. This testifies to the fact that international staff both have the wish and the intent to become proficient in Danish as a second language when UCPH supports the learning process with this attractive offer.\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n","post_title":"We do, actually, have a language policy at UCPH that is quite international","post_excerpt":"The University of Copenhagen's (UCPH) language policy is criticised for lowering teaching quality, ruining the image of the university internationally, and even being influenced by the Danish People\u2019s Party. But this is a misunderstanding.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"we-do-actually-have-a-language-policy-at-ucph-that-is-quite-international","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-04-17 10:56:45","post_modified_gmt":"2023-04-17 08:56:45","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/vi-har-faktisk-en-ganske-international-sprogpolitik-paa-ku\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"reference":{"ID":149812,"post_author":"100","post_date":"2023-04-17 08:03:25","post_date_gmt":"2023-04-17 06:03:25","post_content":"Since 2021, new researchers have been<a href=\"https:\/\/cip.ku.dk\/english\/about_cip\/about_parallel_language_use\/UPCH_Language_policy_2021_web.pdf\"> required to learn Danish<\/a> so that they can teach in the language after three to six years of employment. This means that the academics we employ at the University of Copenhagen have to spend a lot of time learning Danish instead of what we hired them to do: To teach and do research.\r\n\r\nThe University Post has just described how <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/academics-lose-status-when-they-teach-with-an-accent\/\">big a burden<\/a> it can be for non-Danish speaking researchers to be employed at UCPH and then suddenly have to learn Danish at a high level within a short period of time. They are reduced to language novices, face humiliating experiences, and get poorer student evaluations.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/academics-lose-status-when-they-teach-with-an-accent\/\">Academics lose status when they teach Danish with an accent<\/a><\/em>\r\n<h3>Missing out on important insights<\/h3>\r\nUCPH has the privilege of being able to employ talented world-class researchers. It is an opportunity to increase the diversity of teaching and to strengthen the students\u2019 skillset, who can be instructed by teachers from multiple backgrounds. This is the gift that we will lose when we move our academic instructors back to the school bench and away from the students in the auditorium.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">OPINION ON THE UNIVERSITY POST<\/p>\r\nThis is a featured comment\/opinion piece.\u00a0 It expresses the author\u2019s own opinion.\r\n\r\nWe encourage everyone to read the whole piece before commenting on social media, so that we only get constructive contributions.\r\n\r\nDisagreement is good, but remember to uphold a civil and respectful tone.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIt is not just the teaching that would be better, however, if we gave international researchers more time for academic work. The research would also be more sophisticated. When different researchers from different backgrounds meet, the research take on a different nuance, with insights that a group of purely Danish researchers with their own backgrounds would never have achieved.\r\n\r\nOrganisations with a high level of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/diversity-and-inclusion\/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters\">diversity have a proven ability to perform better<\/a> financially. We have to assume that something similar applies to academic performance.\r\n\r\nAt a time when universities are under political and financial pressure, we need to use the resources where they benefit the most. In other words, where they strengthen the university, improve the teaching and improve the research. If that is not the university's most important task, I do not know what it is.\r\n<h3>A suspicious political shift<\/h3>\r\nOf course, a Danish university also has to accept that many students find it difficult to be taught in English at the beginning of their study programmes. It may make sense here to teach new students in Danish until they have become more confident in academic English.\r\n\r\nBut this is not an argument for all academic teaching staff to have to be able to teach in Danish. There are a lot of researchers who do not teach first-year students, but who, for example, only teach at the master's level or in elective subjects. Why should they all fall under the same rigid language requirements?\r\n<blockquote>There are a lot of benefits to be had from making one, simple, change<\/blockquote>\r\nAs is also evident from the aforementioned article, the political focus changed in the 2010's, and there was a feeling that Danish should not lose its status as a language at the universities. In 2008, the guiding principle for the UCPH language policy was parallel language use between Danish and English \u2013 but since then there has been a political shift.\r\n\r\nAnd I believe it is a result of the [right wing, ed.] Danish People's Party's progress in parliament during the same period. Because the language policy also expresses a nationalist gesture politics that excludes foreign researchers and harms the international research environment at UCPH.\r\n<h3>Reintroduce the parallel language policy<\/h3>\r\nSo dear management: Should we not take another look at language policy? Let us reintroduce the 2008 parallel language policy between Danish and English. We can then accommodate the students who still need to get used to academic English, by possibly retaining the Danish language requirement for staff who teach first-year students.\r\n\r\nBut for all the others, we can improve diversity by re-introducing an inclusive language policy that takes care of our international researchers. Let us improve the teaching, improve the research, and give ourselves a better international profile. There are a lot of benefits to be had from making one simple change.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ MANAGEMENT'S RESPONSE HERE:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/we-do-actually-have-a-language-policy-at-ucph-that-is-quite-international\/\">We do, actually, have a language policy at UCPH that is quite international<\/a><\/em>\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n","post_title":"The UCPH language requirements are just nationalist gesture politics","post_excerpt":"Dropping the Danish-language teaching requirement for international researchers should be an open-and-shut case. As this is not happening, you may realize that this is all about gesture politics.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"the-ucph-language-requirements-are-just-nationalist-gesture-politics","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-04-17 10:55:09","post_modified_gmt":"2023-04-17 08:55:09","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/universitetets-sprogkrav-er-udtryk-for-nationalistisk-symbolpolitik\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":47,"name":"Opinion","slug":"opinion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":47,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":333,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":3182,"name":"English","slug":"english","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3182,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":851,"name":"International","slug":"international","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":851,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":4028,"name":"language policy","slug":"language-policy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":4028,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":400,"name":"research","slug":"research","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":400,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":27,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":16,"name":"Opinion","slug":"opinion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":2040,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[{"term_id":5468,"name":"Optional","slug":"optional-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5468,"taxonomy":"translation_priority","description":"","parent":0,"count":671,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/yevgenyseldin2_bw-1280x853.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150250"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150793,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150250\/revisions\/150793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}