Emplacing English as lingua franca in international higher education: A spatial perspective on linguistic diversity

Within higher education, internationalisation is increasingly important for students andacademics alike. In this context, English as thelingua francahas gained prominence. Theostensible ubiquity of English rests on a particular rendering of the language as unitary,fixed, and undifferentiated. In this paper, we challenge this notion of English and use aspatial approach to explore the multiplicity of Englishes on display within the highereducation context. Increasingly, within higher education outside Anglophone countries,English Medium Instruction (EMI) is seen as a crucial indicator of internationalisation: theterm‘international programmes' is often used as a proxy for programmes taught inEnglish. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the role of English in internationalisationof higher education, and to show how a spatial approach can illuminate what Englishmeans and how it is experienced in its multiple and shifting forms. We examine Danishhigher education to explore the multiple usages of English amongst so‐called‘native' and‘nonnative' speakers and show the spatial and hierarchical complexity of language. Wesuggest that a spatial perspective on English in the context of international highereducation can help nuance debates about internationalisation and language in importantways–there is not one, but multiple forms of English, displayed at different times and indifferent places, with differing effects in the creation of spatial hierarchies