Academic writing centres in multilingual settings [Elektronisk resurs] Intermediary agents of higher education language policy?

• Academic writing centres in non-Anglophone countries navigate language policies that encourage the development of local languages and English within multilingual university settings. These policies entail diverging language ideologies that connect language use to diversification and standardisation aims. Although writing centres are stakeholders in academic language development and therefore participants in the policy process, their role and agency in this process has been neglected. The study explores how writing centre staff perceive their work in relation to university language policies and aims. Data were collected via a nation-wide survey of centres in Sweden and seven focus groups. The results demonstrate that the staff claim agency as language brokers. Institutional ideologies of monolingualism and assessment regimes that value the text product over the learning process provide limitations. The reported practices illuminate the special status of Swedish for English text production, and opportunities for grassroots agency as intermediaries between students, lecturers and policies. 

Ämnesord

Humanities and the Arts  (hsv)

Languages and Literature  (hsv)

Specific Languages  (hsv)

Humaniora och konst  (hsv)

Språk och litteratur  (hsv)

Studier av enskilda språk  (hsv)

utbildningsvetenskap med inriktning mot språk och språkutveckling  (su)

Education in Languages and Language Development  (su)

Genre

government publication  (marcgt)

Indexterm och SAB-rubrik

Language ideology

Writing centres

Writing consultation

Multilingualism

Agency

Higher education