Multilingual meetings at Dutch universities

As a result of internationalization over the past decades, the English language has become increasingly pervasive within universities in the Netherlands. In recent years, the Dutch government has sought to mitigate the effects of internationalization and resulting Englishization of universities through various legislative proposals. While the language of educational instruction is a primary focus, it is also important to consider language use outside the classroom. English is commonly used as a lingua franca in, for example, meetings where international students and employees are present. Rather than choosing one language over the other, universities could opt for a multilingual approach. 

A multilingual approach to communication could especially be useful in meetings of participatory bodies, where Dutch and international students and employees are elected to represent their peers and speak up on important issues. At the same time, there must be arrangements made so that people who are less proficient in either Dutch or English are still able to participate. Receptive multilingualism is a possible solution. This means that Dutch speakers can communicate in Dutch and non-Dutch speakers can communicate in English, while understanding each other’s languages receptively. In practice, this approach can be challenging when speakers of one language lack enough receptive proficiency in the other language to understand and respond sufficiently. This challenge prompts an investigation into how receptive multilingualism can successfully function in meetings of participatory bodies when there are participants with diverse language backgrounds. The aim of sub-project 1 is to answer the following question: 

“How is receptive multilingualism used effectively in multilingual meetings in academic settings?” 

[Click here for Dutch webpage / Klik hier voor Nederlandse webpagina]

Analysis 1 – Role of Chairperson in multilingual meetings

The first analysis investigates the role of the chairperson in maintaining a receptive multilingual language policy through a reconstruction of the underlying discourse structures in participatory body meetings. It assesses how the chairperson intervenes within the question/answer speech action pattern when international council members ask questions in English and receive responses in Dutch. The chairperson’s interventions illustrate the concurrence of institutional and multilingual discourse structures.   

Analysis 2 – Interactive planning in multilingual meetings

The second analysis investigates how participants in two different meeting groups use inclusive multilingual modes. In particular, it looks at how participants achieve mutual understanding and exercise their discursive capacities when engaged in interactive planning.

This research is still ongoing. Preliminary results suggest that the primary working language and institutional structures of a meeting result in different forms of multilingualism being realized, even when most participants can speak Dutch.

Get to know the researcher

The first subproject is conducted by Madison Steele (m.a.steele@uu.nl). She graduated from Utrecht University with a Master of Arts in Intercultural Communication.