Tension-Filled English at the Multilingual University

Book excerpt: This book begins with the idea that English in the multilingual university is filled with and surrounded by tensions, from the renegotiation and bending of language norms to the emotional strain of the increasing use of English. It explores how these tensions are experienced by those who find themselves in multilingual university settings outside the anglophone world and use English in their research or education. The author examines the use of English in multiple domains in Swedish universities, progressing from macro perspectives on language policies to in-depth qualitative studies of individuals. The book presents both a synthesis of recent scholarship on the use of language in multilingual universities and the author’s own empirical findings, which are situated in a theoretical framework based on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The book offers the reader a novel way of tracing the links between language perceptions and practices on the ground, and the forces and processes which govern these practices.