The sustainability of Catalan in research at the “international” Catalan university: a case study

Mobility between universities is a central action in the internationalisation strategy of many universities in Europe. Universities in Catalonia are also increasingly challenged to meet the requirements of internationalisation, which puts pressure on them to facilitate transnational exchanges of people as well as communication exchanges. Studies on the impact that this has on language use in university research are very scarce. In addition, most existing studies focus on formal scientific communication, such as publications and other academic dissemination. Although research is a key area for universities, as it is often taken as a measure of the quality and competitiveness of the institution, the official language policy documents of Catalan universities make little reference to linguistic use in research, or refer to it superficially. In this case study, we show how two research groups located in a Catalan university face the internationalisation of research in terms of their language policy: language management, language practices and beliefs about language.