The Role of English in Globalization of Education from a Student's Perspective
The English language has undeniably become the lingua franca of the 21st century with over 1.1 billion speakers worldwide (not exclusively native speakers — Chinese is the language with most native speakers). It is not only the language of business or politics, but also that of research, academics, and education. 92.5% of SCIE papers published between 1900 and 2015 were published in English [1].
The role English plays in education is not merely academical, but purely practical as-well. English can bring more opportunities for learners, be it in terms of education or jobs, eases social mobility and potential networking [2]. Students, or educators, from different linguistic backgrounds can find common ground in English, relying on the (second) language which they have in common, to help them bridge the gap in their communication. English is also necessary if one wishes to broaden their knowledge, because MOOCs and SOOCs are primarily offered in English. The knowledge of the English language can also broaden the array of jobs available, because international postings can also apply to an individual.
I would like to speak from the perspective of a non-natively English speaking university student now. Knowledge of the English language has definitely eased my whole academic career, and enabled me to take advantage of international opportunities presented to me without a second thought. In my experience, materials presented to the students are seldom in Czech, unless they specifically concern the Czech republic or language. Even then, in the effort to insert the Czech perspective into the international perspective, materials can be in English. I have seen my classmates struggle with academic papers in English, try to understand them sufficiently with Google Translate, but fail to grasp the basic concepts even then.
At university, I have attended four different courses of mandatory English. However, I think that none of them addressed the key competence of a university student, and that is, I think, reading research and academic papers. We have been taught how to write an opinion piece, how to properly maintain eye contact during a presentation, even how to debate in real time (all of which I treasure to this day). But going painstakingly through research papers on a weekly basis is something I sorely missed during my first years at university. Despite my, or more-less universal, lack of knowledge, it is expected of students to orient themselves in English academic texts even though it is not a pre-existing requirement of university studies. Lecturers also tend to dismiss this issue, citing the previously mentioned translation engines as a way to read and understand papers.
Overall, I am trying to raise the awareness of the drastically varying English language competencies among university students. I fear that not even compulsory language courses can level the playing field, or that students obtain the language skills necessary for today's English-centric research. If students do not primarily understand how to read academic papers, how can it be expected of them to write them?
Works Cited
LIU, Weishu. The changing role of non-English papers in scholarly communication: Evidence from Web of Science’s three journal citation indexes. Learned Publishing [online]. 2017, 30(2), 115–123 [cit. 2023–05–11]. ISSN 09531513. Dostupné z: doi:10.1002/leap.1089.
The role of English in Education. In: Cambridge University Press & Assessment [online] [cit. 10.05.2023]. Available: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/insights/the-role-of-english-in-education.
Preparation for lecture no. 10.
