Negotiating Language Choice in a Multilingual University: The Interplay Between Formal Policies and Language Policy as Practice

The chapter presents a study of language regulation in a multilingual Finnish university. The analysis focuses on the regulation of language choice in administrative texts (degree programme curricula), where the languages available for text production were Finnish, Swedish and English. The texts were produced collaboratively by administrators, teachers and translators and published on the university’s website. The analysis tracks what kind of practiced language policies emerge during the writing process, how actors rationalise their decisions and how formal policies interact with policies as practice. The data includes formal policy texts, curriculum texts and interviews with university staff. The analysis illustrates how the concept of practiced language policy can be utilised in the analysis of multilingual writing practices.