Language policy at universities in the process of internationalisation: Vilnius university students’ views

ENIn the processes of internationalisation, universities face the need to develop their institutional language policies in order to define the use of language(s) in all areas of university life: studies, research, community and governance. However, before a university language policy can be drawn up, there are many factors that should be taken into consideration starting with the state language policy and its harmonisation with the stakeholders’ expectations and needs. This article therefore has several objectives: to identify the necessity of an institutional language policy in the process of internationalisation at Vilnius University (VU), to give an overview of the preparatory stages for the development of the VU Language Policy, and to present findings of the research into VU students’ viewpoints on one of the aspects of language policy – teaching and learning languages at university. The methodology of the research was based on the experience of universities in the LERU Association (Kortmann 2019). The research instrument consisted of questions about subject-specific Lithuanian and English language courses, and possibilities of other language studies. The results of the students’ viewpoints revealed a rather positive evaluation of the VU Language Policy and provided some insights into its improvement. Key words: internationalisation, university, language policy, teaching and learning languages, students’ viewpoints. [From the publication]