Challenging the monolingual habitus in contemporary internationalised academia

Abstract

This article explores the linguistic habitus of academic practice within the context of contemporary internationalised universities. It argues that there is currently a strong monolingual habitus in many aspects of academic work, which is supported by national and institutional internationalisation policies that emphasise the adoption of the language and academic practices of the English-speaking world and ignore the role of language in the construction and presentation of knowledge and the importance of academic traditions. The article draws on experiences of multilingual research to highlight the importance of a multilingual habitus in all aspects of academic work and examines an example of research collaboration in which a strongly multilingual language policy was adopted rather than using a single working language. It examines what such a working method can contribute to contemporary academic practice and how such multilingualism can lead to a deeper and more reflective research practice.