Internationalizing Higher Education: English Language Policy and Practice

Abstract

Although global educational mobility often requires fluency in a foreign language, this fluency may be insufficient for academic tasks, and institutions may provide insufficient opportunities for further linguistic progress. This chapter examines higher education practices for the assessment of English language skills and continued development of English language proficiency for international students. Implications indicate that although institutions view international students as critical to strategic planning and feel these students need increased English language proficiency, institutions generally have not considered innovative approaches. The results support the viability of the proposed framework to guide institutions through a thorough examination of current practices and identification of future direction for research.