As Dutch is the main language of administration in most universities in the Netherlands, the language barrier in Dutch can hold internationals back from participation not only in education but also in meetings of participatory bodies. As a result, the perspective of international students and staff is not or to a lesser extent considered in policy making, which makes them less included than their Dutch peers. Receptive multilingualism (also known as Intercomprehension or Lingua Receptiva) (Backus et al., 2013; Ten Thije 2019) might offer solutions for diverse language situations, as many internationals do not need to develop advanced proficiency in productive (spoken and written) Dutch to communicate effectively. They can develop receptive proficiency in Dutch and use their productive proficiency in English. In other words, local students and staff can speak/write in Dutch, while internationals can speak/write in English. Therefore, our research project aims to explore to what extent a receptive (English/Dutch) approach in foreign language learning and use can improve the communicative effectiveness in receptive multilingual settings. Hence, this research contributes to knowledge about receptive multilingual communication and how this can be learned effectively and used in the language acquisition process of highly educated learners. Based on evidence that a receptive educational approach can save time and effort, these results have been used for developing language learning methods and help institutions with creating a more inclusive international environment.
Changing a language policy does not immediately solve all problems in communication. In order to use Lingua Receptiva during university council meetings, both Dutch and international members should have sufficient listening and reading skills in all the languages involved (in our case Dutch and English). In order to lower the language barrier for international students and staff we have developed a course on Receptive Dutch for Participation in university bodies. We will give an overview of the course design, implementation and evaluation (Utrecht University 2022).
Using a receptive multilingual approach implies more than only receptive skills, but it also needs awareness of the (im)possibilities of using multilingual debates and intercultural differences. To help raise this awareness we developed a workshop and a toolkit multilingual meetings. The toolkit includes a demo-video on multilingual meetings and animated knowledge clips with critical incidents that provoke reflection. Furthermore, the workshop provides interactive role-play games and concise theory. In this way, employees learn to apply strategies to accommodate as speaker, hearer and active bystander in a meeting with co-workers who have different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
During our presentation, we will also pay attention to the relevance of a participatory body program for a receptive multilingual approach in teaching and learning.
References
Backus, A., Gorter, D., Knapp, K., Schjerve-Rindler, R., Swanenberg, J., ten Thije, J.D., & Vetter, E. (2013). Inclusive Multilingualism: Concept, modes, and implications. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 179-215.
Ten Thije, J.D. (2019). Receptive multilingualism. In D. Singleton & L. Aronin (Eds.) Twelve Lectures on Multilingualism (pp. 327-363). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Utrecht University (2022). Multilingualism in employee and student representation. Utrecht University.
