English is becoming increasingly common in Swedish higher education and research, also in the humanities and social sciences.
"The results from the study were both expected and surprising. We expected to see a general increase in the use of English but were surprised to see how large it was in certain areas ", says Hans Malmström, professor at Chalmers, who is one of the authors of the Language Council of Sweden report "Språkval och internationalisering" ("Language choice and internationalization").
The report shows that as much as 64 percent of all program education at the advanced level in Sweden today is offered in English, and 53 percent of the courses. Ten years ago, the corresponding figures were 57 and 40 percent, respectively.
The increase is taking place in all subject areas, even where Swedish has previously had a strong position, such as the humanities and social sciences. The report also shows that English is becoming increasingly important in undergraduate courses, even when Swedish is the official language of instruction.
"When we examined the compulsory literature in Swedish-language basic level courses at ten higher education institutions, we found that in 65 percent of those courses there was at least some text in English that the students had to read. In 24 percent of the courses, no Swedish literature was used at all", says Hans Malmström, who is a professor at the Department of Communication and Learning in Science at Chalmers University of Technology.
The report also shows that English is being used as a publishing language to an increasing extent. Ninety three percent of all journal articles and doctoral dissertations were written in English in 2019 – an increase of seven percentage points over the past decade. As with language of instruction, certain subject areas account for particularly large increases. For example, the proportion of English-language journal articles and doctoral dissertations in the humanities has increased by 20-25 percentage points in just ten years.
Internationalization vs. preservation
"A consequence of an ever-increasing proportion of English is, of course, a smaller proportion of Swedish. In fact, we are at the same crossroads as ten years ago. If we continue on the 'internationalization path', which many believe is inevitable, then English will become even more common in the future, at the expense of Swedish. If we instead choose the 'preservation path', there is much to suggest that the preservation of Swedish has negative consequences for the higher education institutions' internationalization ambitions", says Hans Malmström.
If English is not used in teaching, international students and teachers will be excluded, and without publication in English it will be much more difficult for researchers to reach out with their research results and have an international impact.
Parallel language is not an easy solution
"Some claim that there is a third way, parallel language use. But in the last ten years, no country that has seen the linguistic consequences of internationalization, has also provided a good recipe for how such parallel language use should be realized in practice", says Hans Malmström.
He hopes that the new report can create an understanding of what the language landscape in higher education looks like and contribute to an informed and well-founded language policy in this area.
More about the report
The research was conducted by Chalmers professor Hans Malmström together with Professor Diane Pecorari at the Department of English at the City University of Hong Kong. They have collaborated on issues concerning the use of English in higher education and research since 2009. The report is published by the Language Council of Sweden (Språkrådet) a department within the Institute of Language and Folklore.
Here you find the report (in Swedish only)
For more information
- Assistant Head of Department, Communication and Learning in Science