‘We cannot abandon the two worlds, we have to be in both’

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates how the importance of English in academia has impacted the academic life of fourteen researchers in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) at one university in Chile and uses semi-structured interviews focussing on scholarly publication. The study intends to discover, firstly, what the national and the university policies are regarding publishing in Spanish and English in Chile; secondly, how important it is to publish in English and Spanish, with respect to the researchers’ disciplines; and, thirdly, whether researchers with expertise in English are better off in terms of publication than those who lack this expertise. Findings suggest that these researchers write more publications in Spanish than in English, but favour publishing in both languages, counterbalancing the spread of English as the dominant language of publication in academia because Spanish and English can co-exist without threatening the scholarly cultural traditions of Spanish scholars. These scholars also recognise that publishing in English assists them to attain a wider readership, and to gain greater monetary rewards for publication in high impact journals, usually in English, as a result of increased grants and promotions. Finally, the paper suggests considering practices for teaching English for Research Publication Purposes.