ENG: Engelsk valgfag 2: Multilingualism, migration, and mobilities med Mundtlig kommunikation på engelsk

When there are over 7000 languages in the world, what is so special about English? During this course, we will return to the key recurring question: what roles does English have in a world whose populations are multilingual and where mobility and migration are everyday realities for people and key topics for media and politics.

In this course we will introduce you to the basic concepts of multilingualism in both individuals and society. We will look at English as a global language and lingua franca in a multilingual world and world Englishes in specific multilingual contexts. Colonialism, then and now, and the implications for multilingualism will be a focus considering globalization and internationalization including the various roles of English. We will examine cases from different multilingual geographical contexts and discuss topics such as language and work, education, language and integration policies, as well as heritage languages and language revitalisation. We will consider contexts of both forced and voluntary migration and mobility, as well as the inverse: situations of immobility.  Multilingualism in the digital sphere, especially considering the dominance of English in the age of AI, will be examined alongside language attitudes and ideologies towards multilingual practices.

You will be introduced to some of the key concepts and theories in multilingualism, as well as methods that researchers use to study multilingualism in theory and practice. We will encourage you to engage reflexively with the course, considering your own experiences, and relating them critically to English in the multilingual world.

For the Mundtlig kommunikation på engelsk course, we will invite you to learn about academic oral communication in English in relation to the theme of multilingualism, migration and mobilities. Through targeted seminars, you will learn about and train in academic presentation techniques, as well as the use of idiomatic and academically correct language use, e.g. meaning nuances in words and concepts as well as the importance of adapting one’s style and voice to different audiences. The oral communication course is integrated with the content topics covered in Multilingualism, migration, and mobilities. You will be introduced to a mix of methods in the course with a focus on oral communication and presentations.