More than a lingua franca: Functions of English in a globalised educational language policy

The Swedish educational policy for upper secondary English, which took effect in 2011 and adopts a globalised perspective on language, is explored with respect to how skills and awareness related to local, national, and international roles of English are represented in policy documents. A discourse analytic approach to language policy is used to offer a critical reading of the national syllabus for English, the accompanying guide and commentary on the syllabus, and the general upper secondary curriculum. Analysis, informed by the work of Robert Phillipson, shows how English is represented with respect to the specific functions it serves as a lingua cultura (a language indexing socially situated value systems), a lingua emotiva (a language of popular culture and entertainment), a lingua academica (a language of research, teaching, and learning), a lingua economica (a language of market forces and globalisation), and a lingua tyrannosaura (a language of power or threat). The findings show that sociocultural and sociopolitical dimensions are identified in the syllabus for English to a greater extent than academic and professional/vocational dimensions of English which are treated in more detail in the general upper secondary curriculum and that the relationship between plurilingualism and English is minimally addressed but nascent.