Foreign Language skills as a resource in University Governance: A quantitative case study on the University of Hamburg

Author(s):

Tobias Schroedler(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 04 D, Governance, Diversity & Inclusion

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-J104

Chair:

Rosemary Deem

Contribution

Research in education economics shows an increasing popularity of analysing and discussing the value of language skills. Language skills are frequently depicted as an important resource on the job market and in multinational organisations both in the public and private sector. Broadly applying human capital theory as a research paradigm, it has been established that acquiring languages can increase the human capital embodied in the individual and, moreover, that multilingual employees are an important resource in any company or organisation (Chiswick and Miller 1995, Grin 2002, 2003). Analysing and establishing the potential value of foreign language skills and applying this to a particular organisation gives rise to questions of ideal language management and language policy issues. In this context, a great deal of recent research has identified the theme of ‘Efficiency and Fairness’ in multilingual communication of bigger organisations and in the assessment of their respective language policies (Grin 2015, Grin and Gazzola 2013).

Taking the University of Hamburg as a case study, a team of researchers is exploring the potential of multilingualism among the university staff. This is a particularly interesting endeavour considering the historically strictly-monolingual practices of state funded German universities. In this context, there are two important phenomena, which hypothetically make the university a more multilingual organisation than one may assume. The first one is concerned with external realities of multilingualism. Just like a lot of other metropolitan European cities, Hamburg is a highly multilingual environment. While it is unknown how many languages exactly are spoken in Hamburg, data shows that migrants from approximately 190 countries live and work in the city (Gogolin et al. 2015). The proportion of people living in Hamburg with migrant backgrounds is approximately 30% (Federal Statistical Office for Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, 2015). Based on this, it is important to uncover the multilingual realities of the university as a workplace. Secondly, just like many other higher education institutions, there is an ever increasing trend for internationalisation of the University of Hamburg. This means, among other things, that the university attracts an increasing amount of foreign students, some of whom do not speak German. Moreover, figures show that more and more courses are taught through languages other than German and that the number of international researchers hired by the university is higher than ever.

We hypothesise that the two above-mentioned phenomena have a number of important implications for the institution’s governance. The project, therefore, aims to address the following research questions: What is the multilingual repertoire of the university’s employees? Where and how are foreign language skills used in the daily working context? In which communication scenarios is it beneficial or even necessary to speak languages other than German? How are foreign language skills valued and used in the university’s governance?

Method

Given the very strict data protection regulations in the German public sector and the complete absence of comparable research in the area, the project’s data collection is rather explorative in nature. A partially programmable online questionnaire tool has been designed to collect information from the approximately 2400 members of non-scientific staff in technical and administrative roles. In its 40 items, the questionnaire is designed to collect data, which helps in answering the above-mentioned research questions. In order to assess the multilingual repertoire and the quantitative distribution of skills in languages other than German, data from each participant on her/his language skills is collected. This is done by using a self-assessment grid broadly based on the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe 2001), asking for information on each of the participants’ languages divided into the five language competences. The questionnaire then addresses questions concerning the usage of languages other than German in the daily working routine of the participants. Here, it is important that the participants provide information regarding their communication with co-workers, with research and scientific staff of the university, with students and with guests of the university in four separate sections. In the penultimate part of the questionnaire, issues of efficiency and fairness are addressed. The participants are asked about their levels of confidence and satisfaction with regard to multilingual communication in the workplace. Further items in this section ask the participants as actors in academic governance whether and where they see room for improvement when communicating in languages other than German. The final section of the questionnaire is designed to collect the relevant personal information of each participant.

Expected Outcomes

The currently ongoing data collection phase of this project (January-March 2016) does not yet allow the authors to draw any conclusions. The sample size of over 2400 potential informants who are invited to participate in this study, however, appears highly promising to gain wide-ranging insights into the multilingual practices of the university’s governing body. In the full paper and for presentation purposes, we will apply multilevel analysis procedures to provide all relevant descriptive statistics. This will enable us to provide a comprehensive picture of the role and value of foreign language skills in the governance of one of Europe’s biggest higher education institutions. The study will not only help to explain how multilingual communication is organised in the present-day context, but it will also help in the understanding of how language policies and practices in this institution can be improved in the future. Once the multilingual resources have been identified, the analysis of the potential improvements will account for the gains of both the individual and the institution under the general criteria of fairness (for the individual) and efficiency (for the institution). In a final step, it will be interesting to assess the university’s linguistic resources through the lens of sustainability aspects. It is part of the mission of this research project to identify ways of how multilingualism can be fostered and catered for in a sustainable, future-oriented manner, which will be discussed in the final part of this talk.

References

Chiswick, B. R. and P. W. Miller, 1995. The endogeneity between language and earnings: International analyses, Journal of Labor Economics 13, pp: 246-88. Council of Europe, 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Federal Statistical Office for Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, 2015. Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund in den Hamburger Stadtteilen. Online source: https://www.statistik-nord.de/daten/bevoelkerung-und-gebiet/familienstand-ehe-einbuergerungen/dokumentenansicht/bevoelkerung-mit-migrationshintergrund-in-den-hamburger-stadtteilen-ende-2012/. Accessed 30 December 2015. Gogolin, I., J. Duarte, A. Hansen and S. McMonagle, 2015. Multilingualism in Hamburg. London: London School of Economics and Political Science / The Languages Company. Grin, F., 2002. Using Language Economics and Education Economics in Language Education Policy. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Grin, F., 2003. Language planning and economics, Current Issues in Language Planning 4, pp: 1-66. Grin, F., 2015. Managing languages in academia: Pointers from education economics and language economics, in G. Stickel and C. Robustelli (eds), Language Use in University Teaching and Research. Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol 109. Frankfurt, New York and Oxford: Peter Lang. Grin, F. and M. Gazzola, 2013. Assessing efficiency and fairness in multilingual communication: Theory and application through indicators, in A.-C. Berthoud, F. Grin and Georges Lüdi (eds), Exploring the Dynamics of Multilingualsm, pp: 365-86. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Author Information

Tobias Schroedler (presenting / submitting)

University of Hamburg

Faculty of Education

Hamburg

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