English has become increasingly more important in the field of academics due to the rapid development of global internationalisation. In the Netherlands, English has become the primary medium of...Show moreEnglish has become increasingly more important in the field of academics due to the rapid development of global internationalisation. In the Netherlands, English has become the primary medium of instruction in many postgraduate courses. This study was conducted to investigate the use of spoken Dutch within two postgraduate courses with English as primary medium of instruction (EMI classrooms). It’s aim was provide an insight into the situation and aid in understanding the co-existence of Dutch and English. This research investigated three questions: 1) Is Dutch used in the EMI classroom? 2)What is the function of the use of Dutch and 3) How is the use of language perceived by the students? For this project, data were collected through the observation of lectures and interviews with students. The findings showed that Dutch was used by both lecturers and students, in many different situations (for example, mostly outside of the lecturers and in breaks) and served many different functions (for example as an unofficial medium of instruction, or to appeal for assistance when knowledge was lacked in English) This means that even though English is the primary medium of instruction, this does not mean that is not the only language that is being used. The language situation has become similar to a diglossic situation, in which Dutch and English rather comfortably co-exist.Show less
