As políticas linguísticas para o uso do inglês no contexto da internacionalização do ensino superior brasileiro

Abstract

The interest in internationalizing higher education has become increasingly evident in the context of Brazilian universities. Despite the complexity of defining the phenomenon of internationalization, actions have been implemented in higher education institutions based on different perceptions and interests of the academic community. Considering the importance of languages for the implementation of this process, one of the strategies used by institutions is the adoption of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI). The interest in using English and EMI has been growing due to the language's status as the language of science and as a global lingua franca. However, one of the factors that seems to hinder the use of English and the implementation of EMI in universities is the language barrier, considering that the proficiency level of teachers and students is often insufficient or below the expected standard. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the role of English and EMI in the internationalization process of Brazilian public universities and discuss some of the ideologies regarding the use of the language and the implementation of EMI. To achieve this goal, official documents from institutions of different natures containing language policies related to internationalization were selected. These documents are from different regions of Brazil. To underpin our analysis, we relied on Spolsky's (2004, 2009, 2021) reflections on beliefs and Knight's (2004, 2005, 2014) notions and discussions on internationalization, Jenkins' (2014, 2018) research on English as a lingua franca, and Baumvol's (2016), Dearden's (2014), and Gimenez et al.'s (2021) studies on EMI. We framed this investigation within the interpretive paradigm (LIN, 2015) as we also aimed to describe the voice of higher education institutions. We conducted a thematic analysis, following the steps proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006), and established two categories of analysis: Perceptions about the adoption of English and EMI and Strategies/actions for the use of the English language and the implementation of EMI. The results indicated that the recurring perceptions for the use of English and the implementation of EMI in Brazilian higher education are: attracting foreign teachers and students, seeking academic excellence, achieving a prominent position in global education rankings, promoting greater integration between institutions from different nations and cultures, among others. Regarding actions for language use and EMI implementation, we identified: offering courses in a foreign language, establishing language centers, writing institutional documents in a foreign language, translating university websites, writing undergraduate and graduate theses, etc. These results demonstrate the privileged position occupied by the English language as the chosen language in the internationalization process of higher education, reinforcing language ideologies that overvalue English at the expense of promoting linguistic diversity.