Language diversity in academia: doctoral students' Estonian as L1
Submitted by:
Peep Nemvalts
Abstract:
The Englishisation of HE has become widely discussed in non-Anglophone European countries (Wilkinson, Gabriels 2021). HE educators communicate internationally in English, simultaneously belonging to their local research culture, tradition, and language, facing challenges of integration (Berry, 1997). Across academic communities, L1 carriers may experience a sense of displacement and increasing discomfort in using L1 ‒ resulting, like in Estonia, in decreasing usage of academic L1 altogether (Roosmaa et al. 2014).
This paper reveals the extent of this drop in Estonian usage in academic writing and the experiences of doctoral students in integrating into academic communities that do not value L1.
We surveyed doctoral students' opinions of academic language choice and their challenges with reading and writing in Estonian as L1 in 2012 (n=240) and in 2022 (n=101). It appears that doctoral students of social sciences and humanities (SH), quite like those of natural sciences and technical disciplines (NT), experience finding appropriate terms in L1 as troublesome. When writing in L1, most NT students encounter difficulties: 58% in 2012 and 73% in 2022, with an increasing share claiming they often cannot find a proper term in Estonian. However, the share of SH doctoral students who often cannot find a suitable term in L1 diminished in 10 years from 57% to 48%.
Among the key challenges, "translating a term" emerged acutely (n=23). Some respondents argued that a uniform and univocal LSP vocabulary existed in English (n=25), while others considered Estonian terminology deficient, hard to find, and lacking uniformity (n=36). In this light, the paper discusses the initial results of a study of Estonian terms in doctoral theses in 2022, analysing the linguistic aspects of these terms and their terminological appropriateness in designating a consistent concept system of a domain.
Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5−68.
Roosmaa, E-L., Roosalu, T., & Nemvalts, P. (2014). Doktorantide teadustöö keele valikutest. Ülikool ja keelevahetus. Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi XLII, 37−52
Wilkinson, R., Gabriëls, R. (eds.) (2021). The Englishization of Higher Education in Europe. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv21ptzkn