Taming Tyrannosaurus rex: English use in the research and publication practices of humanities scholars in Sweden

Abstract

AbstractWe investigate the current position of English in the language ecology of Swedish academia, with a special focus on the humanities. Semi-structured interviews with 15 informants from the fields of Anthropology, General Linguistics and History were carried out to explore how non-native speakers of English experience using academic English in their research. In contrast to other recent findings, our study shows that while some differences along disciplinary lines emerged, on the whole, English does not pose a significant challenge for scholars when writing for publication. Furthermore, our informants do not perceive themselves to be disadvantaged by their non-native status. The study casts some doubt on Swales’ well-known dinosaur metaphor; while English does indeed dominate in the sphere of international publication in terms of production, multilingual research practices are evident within the research and publication process.