Everybody knows English? Language use in the world of learning

Abstract

This article will focus on the use of English as a global means of communication in higher education (HE) and research. The use of English is taken for granted as a global means of communication in the academic world. Therefore language issues are rarely problematized in science-policy contexts. This article will try to make the language issue visible by addressing aspects of a use of a lingua franca from a historical and pragmatic perspective and discuss its effects on everyday university life in non-Englishspeaking countries.

Keywords

• global English
• internationalization of HE and research
• invisibility of language
• differences between natural sciences and social sciences
• ethical aspects.