The Englishization of European education: Foreword

The global dominance of English (Crystal 2003; de Swaan 2001; Graddol 2006) continues to counter the EU's 2+1 vision of multilingualism that all Europeans should speak two languages in addition to their first. This is no less true for the domain of education, the focus of this special issue. We will refer to the ever-growing use of English as 'Englishization', a term originally used to refer to the adaptation towards English on a number of linguistic levels: 'phonology, grammar, lexis, discourse, registers, styles, and genres' (McArthur 1992: 360). For the purposes of this special issue, we extend its meaning to include the increasing presence, importance and status of English at all levels in the educational domain. The breadth of the term is meant to cover three facets of Englishization in education:

1. 1. the growing use of English as a medium of instruction (Coleman 2006; Hultgren et al. 2015; Wächter and Maiworm 2014);

2. 2. the granting of English a more prominent role as a taught subject in the school curriculum (Eurydice 2012; Eurostat 2016);

3. 3. 1) and 2) in combination, exemplified in pedagogical models such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and immersion programmes, which, while not explicitly being run in English, in practice often are (Coyle et al. 2010; Dalton-Puffer 2011; Dalton-Puffer et al. 2010).

Acronymically speaking, then, we are concerned with Englishization in terms of EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction), EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and CLIL. A fourth, and often less conspicuous form of Englishization in education, is the knock-on effects on staffing, timetabling, material selection and programme design.

The starting point for this special issue, then, is that Englishization happens in many different guises and at all levels of the educational system across Europe. At tertiary level, the rise of English is embedded in processes of internationalisation, globalisation and European standardisation, with the consequence that English is being used increasingly as a medium of instruction (Coleman 2006; Hultgren 2014; Wächter and Maiworm 2014). Just over 8,000 degree programmes at BA and MA level in EU countries which do not have English as an official language were offered in English in 2014, a 239% increase in the seven years since 2007 (Wächter and Maiworm 2014), making English the language of higher education par excellence (Doiz et al. 2012a: 1). However, of particular relevance to this special issue, which includes contributions from across Europe, it is worth noting that there are vast national differences, with Northern and Central Europe being significantly more penetrated by English than Southern and Eastern Europe (Hultgren et al. 2015; Wächter and Maiworm 2014). Notwithstanding this, interactional practices on the ground are often a lot more multilingual than official EMI policies would have us believe, of which ethnographic research from Scandinavia has been a particularly helpful reminder (Ljosland 2014; Mortensen 2014; Söderlundh 2012). The spread of English has led to a reduction in the learning of other foreign languages across Europe (Busse 2017; Lanvers 2014). English is by far the most taught foreign language in schools in Europe, a trend that has significantly increased in recent years (Eurydice 2012; Eurostat 2016). In 2016, the percentage of students learning English at secondary level was 94%, which should be seen against a sharp drop in the learning of other languages, such as French and German. Less than one quarter (23%) of students study French at school level, yet, after English, it is the second most taught language in Europe, followed by German (Eurostat 2016). The age from which English is taught is constantly being lowered, now typically beginning at primary and sometimes even at pre-school level (Eurostat 2016; Eurydice 2012; Enever 2011; Rixon 2013). In many Eastern European countries, Russian, once a compulsory subject, has yielded to English (Eurostat 2016). One reason for the decline in the learning of languages other than English is the cuts in educational spending, forcing curricular de- and re-prioritisations (Kramsch 2014). In a self-perpetuating dynamic, the dominance of English is likely to be continually strengthened, in that the...