Results from the MUST project can inform decisions about language initiatives in higher education
Between 2020 and 2023, the project Models for teaching language as an additional competence (MUST) lead by associate professor Sanne Larsen has gained knowledge about how teaching language as an additional competence can be organised in higher education. Language as an additional competence entails focus on language skills that are relevant for study and career for students outside language programmes. The project has produced two publications containing recommendations, experiences and descriptions of development cases that are freely available on the National Centre for Foreign Language’s website.
The recommendations produced by this project can with great advantage be used to inform any decisions regarding initiatives within language as an additional competence in higher education.
Recommendations
To improve students' language skills, we recommend that you work at the institutional and subject level:
- identify language needs as a study skill - both students and subject teachers should be involved here
- identify language needs for prospective careers - career counsellors, alumni, employers and current students should be involved here
- assess the impact of language on recruitment and dropout in non-language programmes
- further develop relevant language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, domain-specific language, everyday language, translation skills, information search skills, critical use of AI, etc.)
- create a framework for planning which language skills should be included and have these evaluated by both language teachers and subject teachers
- develop methods to evaluate the language skills both when they are part of the competence profile and as a stand-alone element
- finance the language teacher's salary, for example via a central pool at each educational institution
Examples of how these recommendations may be put into practice can be found in the publications:
Eksempler på, hvordan anbefalingerne kan udmøntes i praksis, findes i udgivelserne:
- How do we develop language as an additional competence – Recommendations and experiences from a cross-institutional development project (in Danish) and
- Models for teaching language as an additional competence (MUST) (in Danish)
The project highlights that an increased focus on study and career relevant language skills across all higher education is important. Language skills is an obvious advantage at international workplaces both here in Denmark as well as in other countries – and in some professions it is a necessity. To prepare the students for that reality, it is important to enhance their language skills as part of their education.
If your programme needs sparring regarding development of courses or teaching language as an additional competence, you are welcome to contact CIP at cip@hum.ku.dk.
Topics
The MUST project was funded by the National Centre for Foreign Languages (NCFF)
Contact
The project was completed by the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use. Inquiries about the project can be sent either to principal investigator Sanne Larsen or to cip@hum.ku.dk.