English as a medium of instruction in a non-English speaking context

English is increasingly being used as a language of instruction in a non-English speaking environment. That is, lecturers as well as students are native speakers of languages other than English. this also implies that different varieties of English are brought into the classroom, some of which have more prestige than others. The context of the current research is higher education in Europe after the 1999 Bologna Declaration and the ensuing construction of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA, 2010). The irony is that, while Bologna stresses the diversity of languages and cultures1, English has clearly become dominant, which may be regarded as an unintended side-effect of Bologna. Yet it may be obvious that the internationalization of higher education goes hand in hand with its commercialization (that is, education is increasingly seen as a commodity) and the concomitant marketization of English (‘English sells’).Een colloquium over universitair taalvaardigheidonderwijs gehouden op 8 & 9 juni 2012 Universiteit Leiden, the complete issue can be found at: http://hdl.handle.net/1887/21789Vakpublicati