German universities’ teaching in English is unavoidably flawed

In recent years, German universities have begun to offer ever-increasing numbers of courses in English. This aim is clearly to compete for international students who speak no German – or not enough to study in the language. Yet there are several reasons for concern.

The most basic – though very underestimated – worry relates to the linguistic skills of teachers. Some German professors and lecturers have lived or studied in English-speaking countries for a considerable period of time, so their English is excellent (although not necessarily without errors). Yet many German academics who speak good English in day-to-day situations struggle to explain complex material in, for example, economics or mathematics.

I know from my own experience as an English-speaking academic in Germany that teaching in your second language can affect quality and clarity. My German is at near-native fluency, but I can still teach far more easily in English.

For many years, I have been offering conference training in Germany. Almost no presentation that I have heard – mainly from doctoral students but also from academics – has really been good enough. In my experience, most German (and other non-native-speaking) academics make five to 10 pronunciation errors in a 15- to 20-minute presentation in English (some of which, of course, are repeated). Among other problems, this can result in an apparent conflict between what lecturers say and what they write in their PowerPoint slides.

This isn’t just my outsider’s view. During one training trip to a university in southern Germany, the whole group said precisely the same thing to me at the end of the sessions.

This doesn’t go unnoticed by undergraduates, either. In the response section to an article about precisely this issue on Bavarian Radio’s home page, one student described seeing visiting native English speakers “collapsing with mirth” and “falling out of the tree laughing” at “the German accent in the university”. A certain Hans from Munich added that while he did not relish the prospect of lectures in English, if they had to happen, it would be better to “fly in native speakers to do the job properly”.

Yet not all students have a good level of English, as another commenter notes. Many produce poor work in English – but still pass because “the lecturers just cannot be bothered to deal with the problem. The result is that ever higher grades are awarded for ever worse work.”

I had similar experiences with foreign students as a lecturer in New Zealand: academically, they were just fine, but many could not deliver adequate work in English.

Despite all these problems, there is, to the best of my knowledge, little training for or monitoring of German universities’ teaching in English. The right initiatives could improve the situation substantially.

However, deeper concerns also exist about the burgeoning use of English. The identity of a country and its culture are closely associated with language – and universities are major carriers and conveyers of national culture. This has led to considerable resentment among academics and students about an alleged sell-out of the German language, which may also put German students at an academic disadvantage. People who wish to study in Germany, they argue, need to adapt and learn German. One cynical commenter on the Bavarian Radio website asked rhetorically: “Are there master’s courses in the US in German?”

As a result of this sentiment, we may see a backlash in Germany against teaching in English. This has already been witnessed in the Netherlands, where there are concerted attempts to stop what one Dutch academic described as “the unbridled anglicisation of higher education”. The furore ultimately led to the imposition of a legal duty on Dutch universities to improve international students’ Dutch language skills (though original proposals to force them to take part of their courses in Dutch were defeated).

There is no denying the financial advantages for German universities of offering courses in English, while international students gain greater access to them and potentially improve their English along the way. But surely there are indeed limits to how much university teaching should be in a foreign language, even in the international language of English. And the significant practical and quality issues that teaching in English introduces should not be ignored.

That said, they probably will be. The prevailing situation may be an unsatisfactory compromise between internationalisation, pursuit of revenue and protection of national culture and identity, but it is not obvious which of those factors could realistically be disregarded. Perhaps, to quote the title of a well-known German book, this is just one more example of “the globalisation trap”.

Brian Bloch is a journalist, academic editor and lecturer in English for academic research at the University of Münster. He has taught a wide range of economic and business-related subjects, including cross-cultural management.