Invitation to a talk by Professor Jennifer Jenkins entitled ‘Internationalisation on campus – or is it?’, London

This talk is part of the 50th Anniversary series at Birkbeck College, London.

Speaker: Professor Jennifer Jenkins

Time: 18 March, 2015, 18:00-19:00

Venue: Birkbeck College, University of London (room information will be sent in an email after you have registered)

How to book: Free entry; but booking required. Please go to the following website at:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/internationalisation-on-campus-or-is-it-tickets-15632258506?aff=rss

Abstract:

Universities often claim to welcome diversity on their campuses, and there is much talk of notions such as ‘global citizenship’ and ‘internationalising the curriculum’, although still considerable vagueness as to how such notions translate into practice. But how international are ‘international’ universities when it comes to language? Not least to English, the (usual) lingua franca and medium of instruction on campuses that recruit international students from around the world? Is this aspect of university life – one that has such tremendous impact on non-native English students’ academic experiences, from the gatekeeping English language entry tests through to final degree classification – seen as trivial by those who make the rules? Or is it simply taken as a given that standard native English (whatever that is) should be the campus norm everywhere? In my talk, which draws on the findings of a two year research project, I will explore these and related questions in relation to global higher education, and then go on to consider what kinds of measures might realistically be taken to make UK campuses specifically more international from a language perspective.

About the speaker:

Jennifer Jenkins is Professor of Global Englishes and founding Director of the Centre for Global Englishes at the University of Southampton. She is the author of many books and articles on Global Englishes in general, and English as a Lingua Franca more specifically, including The Phonology of English as an International Language (2000), English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity (2007) and English as a Lingua Franca in the International University (Routledge 2014). Her university coursebook, World Englishes (Routledge), was published in 3rd edition as Global Englishes in August 2014. She is also founding editor of the De Gruyter Mouton book series, Developments in English as a Lingua Franca.

This talk by Professor Jennifer Jenkins is running as part of a series of talks celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck, University of London. Information about forthcoming events in the Anniversary seminar series can be found at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/linguistics/