Ursula Lanvers

• PhD
• Professor at University of York

This Element addresses the following three questions: can Global English unequivocally be framed as a 'killer' language for learning LOTEs (languages other than English)? If so, under what premises? (Section 1); what are the rationales and justifications for learning LOTE in the age of Global English? (Section 2); and what are the pedagogical and p...

For centuries, Ukraine has been a site of conflicts over language rights. During 70 years of Soviet leadership, Ukraine experienced’relentless Russification’ (Reznik in Language of conflict: discourses of the Ukrainian crisis (pp. 169–191). Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2020 p. 170). After breaking from Soviet rule, the Ukrainian language became a...

The European Union’s (EU) high regard for multilingualism and linguistic diversity is expressed through its language education policy (LEP), a policy adopted by the European Parliament, which represents all EU member states. However, as education falls within the remit of the member states, EU LEP has an advisory function only. Support for the LEP...

Ukraine has been a site of cyclical conflict over language rights and policies for decades. Similar to Eastern bloc countries, Ukraine in the post-Soviet era saw tensions between the then lingua franca, Russian, and the national language, Ukrainian. Already before its independence in 1991, Ukraine launched initiatives to revitalize and modernise th...

With the UK entering its fourth decade of this crisis with no end in sight, it is timely to ask how current policy directions for language learning beyond the compulsory phase (currently age 14 in all 4 UK nations) align with learners’ psychological needs in relation to language learning. After a review of these psychological needs within motivatio...

his article seeks to explore personal and socio-contextual factors that supported or hindered the wellbeing of 13 late-career language teachers from Austria and the UK. Data were generated through in-depth life-history interviews, and analysed following a Grounded Theory approach (Charmaz, 2006). Findings revealed the interplay of various personal...

Englishization in German education is progressing rapidly, driven both by top-down and bottom-up forces (Lanvers & Hultgren, 2018). HE institutions are under pressure to be internationally attractive to fee-paying foreign students, but also need to offer high quality HE for home students. In the rapid move towards 'englishizing' German HE instituti...

The introduction of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has changed higher education enormously in many European countries. This development is increasingly encapsulated under the term Englishization, that is, the increasing dispersion of English as a means of communication in non-Anglophone contexts. Englishization is not undisputed: legal ch...

The introduction of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has changed higher education enormously in many European countries. This development is increasingly encapsulated under the term Englishization , that is, the increasing dispersion of English as a means of communication in non-Anglophone contexts. Englishization is not undisputed: legal c...

A>Introduction As the popularity of English as global lingua franca is increasing steadily, the disinterest, in Anglophone countries, in learning any foreign languages is rising, both in formal school education and beyond (Lanvers, 2017a). Consequently, in many Anglophone countries, we observe students leaving education with poor language competenc...

This chapter offers both a systematic overview and critical evaluation of current MFL policy developments in all four UK nations, in view of their very different demarches, in particular concerning differences between England and other UK nations. After presenting current MFL policies both for the Primary and Secondary sector in all four nations, d...

The goals of this book are twofold: (1) to map out the current language learning crises in Anglophone countries, both at school level (Parts I) and in Higher Education (Part II); and (2) to illustrate positive ways forward to address the crisis, via Immersion and Lifelong Learning (Part III), Online and Virtual activities (Part IV), and Plurilingua...

Anglophone learners (English as an L1) in a variety of settings share similar underlying challenges when it comes to learning languages other than English (LOTEs). In this volume, we identify and analyse these challenges, and compare them to those of learners of English. The global success of English has led to language learning crises in Anglophon...

This chapter reports on the uptake of language study in upper secondary schools (age 13/14) in England, when language study becomes optional. Against a backdrop of continuous decline of language study past the compulsory phase over the last three decades, many secondary schools in England face the problem that they would like to increase the uptake...

This edited book focuses on the state of language learning in Anglophone countries and brings together international research from a wide range of educational settings. Taking a contextual perspective on the language learning crisis currently facing Anglophone countries, the authors examine systemic challenges, real-world practices, and broader cul...

In the context of the UK language learning crisis, several studies have aimed to influence student attitude towards languages via school interventions, with mixed results. A six-session tacking diverse metalinguistic issues (e.g. cognitive benefits of language learning, world languages) was carried out in three secondary schools in England, using b...

Like other anglophone countries, the UK is experiencing a language ‘crisis’, in that fewer and fewer students opt to study a foreign language (FL) beyond the compulsory phase, and that the UK’s language skills do not match its economic needs. Despite strong statements of commitments to increase FL uptake, decline in FL uptake in the UK’s four natio...

The increase in teaching via English as medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) settings, where English is not the normal institutional language, has led to concerns over possible negative effects of EMI, and the lack of staff training to prepare lecturers for EMI. The scant evidence on existing staff training programmes suggests a foc...

This is a proposal for a Special Issue on the Englishization of European education to the European Journal of Language Policy. To be published in 2018.

Debates about the future of UK language learning in the context of Brexit intensified as soon as the referendum outcome was announced. This politicization of language learning, evidenced recently also in the United States and France, falls upon an already difficult context of the United Kingdom in a ‘language learning crisis,’ and an increasing soc...

This paper investigates the relationship between the decisions made by school leaders in England concerning their school policy for teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) post-14, and student motivation for MFL. Seventy head teachers, 119 heads of modern languages and 666 students aged 14–15 from schools in England took part in the questionnaire-b...

Despite increasing evidence of the UK language learning crisis, and the social divide between those opting for language study, or not, we know little about the language policies of individual schools might contribute to these phenomena. Little evidence exists on schools’ stakeholders’ views (senior management, language teachers, students) on the pu...

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 ‘Engl...

Germany has embraced the "craze for English" relatively readily (Wächter and Maiworm 2014), increasing the use of English in education in all forms: as a foreign language, as medium of instruction, and in content and language integrated learning: a phenomenon described as Englishization. However, much controversy remains over the pace, manner and d...

Britain's already poor record for language learning might be exacerbated by the Global English phenomenon, in that utilitarian reasons for learning languages other than English are increasingly undermined (Lanvers, 2014; Lo Bianco, 2014). This article offers a state-of-the-art review of UK research on second language (L2) learning motivation and at...

With English as an undisputed global lingua franca, there is long-standing concern in anglophone countries over the lack of interest in language learning. In the UK, significant changes in language education policy, a mentality of insularity and the global spread of English have all contributed to a drop in language learning uptake beyond the compu...

This article develops a new language learning motivation model, which is, like the currently dominant model by D€ornyei, based on Higgins’ (1987) Self Discrepancy Theory. Increasing evidence of ‘non-fit’ of D€ornyei’s model, especially (but not solely) from language learners with English as a first language, let to the author revisiting Higgins’ or...

The unparalleled rise of English has led native speakers (L1) to becoming increasingly outnumbered by L2 speakers; English as global commodity has stimulated much research into the learning and teaching of English. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer L1 English speakers are choosing to learn languages; a phenomenon which has received less attention. This ar...

SPEAKGLOBAL: The SPEAKGLOBAL programme is designed to raise awareness of multilingualism in the world, and cognitive benefits of speaking several languages. The programme is free to use for any UK Modern Languages teacher. It is targeted at Key Stages 3 and 4 and consists of 2 sessions of about 40-45 minutes each, suitable for all abilities and stu...

The unparalleled rise of English has led native speakers (L1) to becoming increasingly outnumbered by L2 speakers; English as global commodity has stimulated much research into the learning and teaching of English. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer L1 English speakers are choosing to learn languages; a phenomenon which has received less attention. This ar...

SPEAKGLOBAL: The SPEAKGLOBAL programme is designed to raise awareness of multilingualism in the world, and cognitive benefits of speaking several languages. The programme is free to use for any UK Modern Languages teacher. It is targeted at Key Stages 3 and 4 and consists of 2 sessions of about 40-45 minutes each, suitable for all abilities and stu...

Exploring the popular explanation that the global spread of English may demotivate students with English as their first language to learn other languages, this study investigates relations between student motivation and perception of Global English and tests for differences between traditional ‘campus’ and distance university students with respect...

Low levels of foreign language learning in the United Kingdom have been attributed to a lack of interest and motivation which, it is claimed, is partly fostered by the media. The present study examines 90 UK newspaper articles that contributed to the public debate on the language learning crisis in the UK between February 2010 and February 2012. Ar...

The decline of language learning in the UK – a concern for academics, linguists and educators alike – has been rationalised by the demotivating effect of Global English: as many UK learners have English, arguably the most powerful global language to date, as a first language, they may lack motivations to learn other languages. However, to this day,...

This paper offers a critical review of language education policies and the state of language education in England over the last decade (2000-2010), which has been characterised by a bewildering array of initiatives to promote language learning, year-on-year improved grades of school exams, and language education policies showing little coherence. C...

This literature review on gender differences in child-parent interaction links two types of research bodies gathered over the last decades, on the one hand early between-child and within-child differences, and, on the other hand, parental discourse differences with children. Relevant individual studies, as well as two meta-analyses investigating ge...

This study sought to develop a profile of rape cases within a Constabulary in the South West of England, and identity factors associated with attrition. All cases of rape or attempted rape of a female or male over the age of 16 from 1996 to 2000 were identified. Quantitative and qualitative data on 379 cases was collected using the CIS and question...

This article reports on an investigation into the motivation of secondary school students in the South-west of England to learn foreign languages. A questionnaire was constructed based on a model derived from the motivation literature to examine students' responses on 16 constructs related to motivation. This was administered to 228 students in yea...

Taking as its starting-point the total lack of data on infant code switching, this anonymously peer-reviewed article tackles three aspects of the question: methodological problems in the identification and analysis of infant switching incidences; the need for a qualitative, contextualised approach; and the provision of comprehensive new data. Caref...

This study approaches switching in bilingual infants from a developmental perspective , using a micro-focus of conversation-a nalysis. Early switching data of two bilingual children (age 1;6 to 2;11) is analyzed in terms of pragmatic choices and constraints, and it is argued that, whilst some adult-like socially-determined switching could be observ...

This article gives a detailed account of the lexical growth in a bilingual child (German and English) and discusses its theoretical implications. Evaluating the 'Principle of Contrast' (Clark, 1987, 1988) in bilingual acquisition, it is concluded that evidence of lexical equivalent learning and usage of equivalents can contribute to the debate on l...