The Case for English (original) (raw)
English's role as political science's lingua franca should inspire reflection but not alarm. Greater multilingualism would undercut academic exchange and provide only a mirage of linguistic equality. The profession should nonetheless recognize and work to mitigate advantages held by native speakers. T he questions posed by André Blais at the ECPR symposium, regarding whether English should be the dominant language of political science, provoke needed debate on the predominance of a single language-and the choice of English as that language-in our discipline. In practice, these are decided questions: English is the dominant language of political science. Nonetheless , it remains valuable to consider the impact of the dominance of English on the profession. The use of a single language, and English as that language, shapes key tasks in our discipline from teaching to research and publication. Even as the US struggles with many challenges , English has continued to grow steadily in strength, partly due to the continued attractiveness of higher education and research opportunities at English-language universities. This growth in power and influence has rendered English more than merely the leading language , with fluency in English moving from being an asset to a requirement. Increasingly , English bestrides the scholarly world like a colossus in ways that virtually demand reflection.
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