CAREERS
or communication with coworkers. But
requiring the use of English in common
areas is more likely to be deemed dis-
criminatory, Burton adds. “ Yo u can’t
prohibit people during their free time
and on their breaks from speaking in
another language.”
When any language-related poli-
cies are instituted, it’s important for a
supervisor to make expectations and
the reasons for those policies clear to
everyone so that individuals don’t feel
singled out, Burton says. English-only
policies also benefit from flexibility, Ben-
mamoun adds. If students slip into their
native language because they’re unsure
of how to express a thought in English,
the professor could use this as a learning
opportunity, taking the student aside to
tell her the phrase she needs rather than
admonishing her, he suggests.
From Liu’s perspective, though,
mandating that English be spoken in
the first place is “usually not as produc-
tive as it seems,” she says. “When people
communicate with each other and kind
of work things out organically, it usually
works better.”
Natalie Mullen, director of the
Institute for Cross-Cultural Training
at Wheaton College in Illinois, has
researched how multilingual interna-
tional students use language on campus.
She says she agrees that it’s unnecessary
for lab heads to set such an expecta-
tion. “From my research, the [interna-
tional] students... were hyperaware
of not making the monolingual English
speakers uncomfortable with not being
able to understand,” she says. “We have
to ask ourselves... Who thinks that it’s
a good idea that there should be a lan-
guage policy in the lab and w hy, and
who’s going to benefit from an English-
only language policy?” Restricting lan-
guage use wouldn’t benefit the research
being done, she argues, “because you
want people in a lab to be able to com-
municate with each other as best as pos-
sible about the work at hand.”Benmamoun emphasizes that lan-
guage-related practices are also just one
piece of the puzzle in ensuring that inter-
national students, along with everyone
else, feel fully included in the workplace.
(See “All Welcome,” The Scientist, June
2019.) At the beginning of the fall 2019
semester, for example, he ran a workshop
for faculty whose classes include a large
proportion of international students. For
many of those students, “English is not
their first language,” Benmamoun says.
“They probably grew up with a different
education system, different expectations
of the teacher and of the students, and
all those things.”
A “Best Practices for Inclusive Assess-
ment” document that his office recently
developed recommends providing a
variety of ways for students to partici-
pate in classroom discourse—including
avenues of communication to accom-
modate non-native English speak-
ers, as well as people with English as a
first language who might not be com-
fortable speaking up. The overall idea,
Benmamoun says, is “basically mak-
ing [language] part of what we mean
by having an inclusive lab, an inclusive
classroom, an inclusive learning and
research space.” gGOING ALL-IN ON ENGLISH
The US is far from the only country to grapple with language issues brought about by the internationalization of academia. In the Netherlands,
for instance, a burgeoning number of English-only degree programs has sparked debate. As of the end of last year, three-quarters of mas-
ter’s degree programs and 28 percent of bachelor’s degree programs are taught entirely in English. The organization Beter Onderwijs Nederland
(Better Education Netherlands, or BON) filed a lawsuit last year to halt what Annette de Groot, a linguist at the University of Amsterdam and
advisor to BON, considers a rush to anglicization.
BON lost its suit, but continues efforts to slow or reverse the English tide, de Groot says. While she’s in favor of bilingual higher edu-
cation, she has concerns about the trend toward English-only programs. “The difference in expressibility, in comprehensibility between
the second language—even though it is strongly developed—and your native language... it’s very noticeable,” she says. “That means that
when the second language... becomes the language of instruction, instruction suffers.” Furthermore, she says, Dutch-speaking students
entering all-English programs “will not develop the Dutch language to [an] academic level.” As a result, “Dutch as a language of science
and culture will in the end disappear.”
On the flip side, offering English-only degree programs has enabled Dutch universities to attract international students—a positive phe-
nomenon, argues Association of Universities in the Netherlands spokesperson Bart Pierik. “Dutch universities are really very high up in inter-
national rankings. For example, all our universities are in the top 250 from the Times Higher Education index,” he says. Many Dutch students
are also drawn to English-only programs because they believe a strong grasp of the language will help further their careers, he says. His asso-
ciation is working to help universities mitigate downsides, by recommending, for example, that instructors have a certain level of English profi-
ciency in order to teach in the language. Overall, Pierik says, “it’s an enduring challenge for us to strike the right balance between being inter-
nationally relevant, competitive, and being rooted in [Dutch] society.”We thought, okay, we proba-
bly should have a discussion,
at least to raise awareness
about the complex ity of lan-
guage use in social and pro-
fessional context.
—Abbas Benma moun, Duke University