This paper focuses on the English language support practices at a Canadian university. It highlights findings related to the processes that shape interdisciplinary collaborations for the purpose of developing discipline-specific language and literacy support at the curricular core and discusses the study’s implications for language policies in Anglo-dominant university settings.
The internationalization of higher education (HE) has changed the linguistic landscape of post-secondary institutions. Key stakeholders have responded to this linguistically and culturally diverse academic environment by enacting various language policies (Riciento, 2006; Shohamy, 2006) at the macro, meso and micro levels. Spolsky (2004) has identified three components that comprise the language policies of a speech community – planning, beliefs and practices - allowing for an expanded understanding of the complex language dynamics within today’s HE institutions. This paper focuses on the practices enacted at the micro level at an Anglo-dominant Canadian university with a multilingual student body in response to the call from faculty at the meso level for “a fundamental and significant shift in the English language services and support…[wherein these] supports…move from the periphery to the curricular core…” (Faculty of Education Proposal, 2011, p.5). It reports on findings related to the processes that shape interdisciplinary collaborations between applied linguists and content faculty as they work together to develop discipline-specific language and literacy models of support at the curricular core (Llinares & Morton, 2017; Murray, 2015). Jacobs’ (2007) “unfolding model” illustrating the numerous factors influencing collaborative partnerships, and Spolsky’s (2004, 2009, 2012) work on critical language policy are integrated into the theoretical framework to analyze the characteristics of these partnerships and discuss how this analysis can inform language policy. Data consist of audio recorded professional development meetings with applied linguists, semi-structured individual interviews of applied linguists and content faculty, university policy documents, and project agreements. Preliminary findings suggest that the nature of the relationships, issues of power, the negotiation of roles and responsibilities, and institutional constraints influence the characteristics of these interdisciplinary collaborations at the micro and meso level. The paper will conclude with ideas on the study’s implications for macro level university policies in Anglo-dominant university settings.
