----- Original Message -----
From: "Mona Baker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 10:29 AM
Subject: [Translation] Urgent Message from Professor Juliane House
Dear Colleagues,
Below is an appeal for support from Professor Juliane House, University of
Hamburg. Please send letters of support if you can, as early as you can.
Mona Baker
-----Original Message-----
From: Juliane House [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
This is an urgent appeal for help!!
Our subject "Applied Linguistics" is seriously threatened: as early as
January 2004 the President of the university wants to "kill it off", the
pretext being the formation of larger units(Faculties), and the smaller
courses of study are to be sacrificed.
Please send a letter of support urgently. See below for more info. And
please do it soon!!
Juliane House
Institut für Allg. und Angew. Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Hamburg
von-Melle-Park 6
20146 Hamburg
Tel.+49-(0) 40-42838 5394/5383
Fax +49 (0)40-42838 5391
Dear xyz,
In a letter dated 5th December, and made accessible to staff outside of the
administration over two weeks later -i.e. just before the Christmas recess -
Mr. Holger Weidner, a non-academic member of the university administration
concerned with 'University Development', wrote to several heads of
department, saying that further financial savings were necessary, as a
prelude to grouping different departments/faculties together as a new
'Supra-faculty'. This letter then went to broadcast the instruction (the
German modal verb used is SOLLEN) that the discipline Sprachlehrforschung
should be discontinued, no further students accepted as from the winter term
2004, and that professorial and other positions in that discipline be
annulled as and when they become vacant. No grounds or arguments are adduced
as to why Applied Linguistics as opposed to some other resources are to be
capped.
The purpose of this letter is to ask for your support in protesting against
this proposal. Such a protest should focus on the relevance and status of
our work inside and outside Germany. It is important that the subject be
supported, and that it be stressed that you don't find it much elsewhere in
Germany. If you find it appropriate to say something positive about our
work, this would clearly not go amiss!
Letters should if possible be on officially-headed paper. This may mean that
both e-mail and snail mail are appropriate. Therefore I give both addresses
below. Some people in the university of Hamburg will be trying to push this
through early in the new year, so it's an urgent matter of life or death. I
presume to attach a 'draft' of the sort of thing(s) you might find
appropriate to say. If you can canvass support from further colleagues,
please do!
Our own faculty (language, literature and media) has come down on our side,
when we have been faced with previous threats of this kind, but this one is
crucial. The wording of the letter from Weidner is blunt and decisive, and
many colleagues will see themselves faced with two options: either suggest
chopping their own or somebody else's positions instead of ours, or do
nothing, such that the President will then take the planned course of action
himself. Your help in seeking to avert this loss of our department, and
indeed discipline the only one of its kind in Germany, would be much
appreciated.
Please send your letters by January 5th 2004 to
Senator für Wissenschaft und Forschung
Herrn Dr. Jörg Dräger
Behörde für Wissenschaft und Forschung
Hamburger Str. 37
22083 Hamburg
Germany
(E-mail: [log in to unmask])
FAX: +49-40-42863-3722
Der Präsident der Universität Hamburg
Herrn Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Lüthje
Edmund-Siemens Allee 1
D-20146 Hamburg
Germany
(Email: <[log in to unmask]>)
FAX: +49-40-428386799
Der Dekan
des Fachbereichs 07
Professor Dr. K. Hickethier,
Rothenbaumchaussee 67/69
D-20148 Hamburg
Germany
(E-mail <[log in to unmask]>)
FAX: +49-40-42838-5977
Sketch of a letter - with options/alternatives.
Suggested schema:
A. Protest
B. Research profile
C. Status of the subject internationally (and in Germany)
D. Reference to personal /professional links/cooperation/contacts
E. Peroration
Dear Dr. Dräger/ Dr. Luethje/ Professor Hickethier:
A.I have heard of your intention to discontinue the subject Applied
Linguistics (Sprachlehrforschung, Language Teaching and Learning Research)
at your university, such that it will cease to be a study option, and no
longer function as a centre of research when the staff currently employed
there retire. I wish to strongly protest against this incomprehensible and
short-sighted decision.
B: The excellent work done in Sprachlehrforschung in Hamburg is very
well-known, and highly regarded internationally, it includes
interdisciplinary research in the fields of discourse analysis, contrastive
pragmatics, intercultural communication, bilingualism, multilingualism,
English as a lingua franca, German as a second and foreign language,
translation and interpreting). If you have had students from us, maybe say
so. There exists no other German institution with a similar profile.
C: The work in Hamburg is to be located inside the European Applied
Linguistics tradition, while also embracing relevant aspects of Second
Language Acquisition Research. These are two fields which are
internationally recognized as important interdisciplinary subjects of high
practical relevance. That they are little known inside the German university
scene, makes it all the more necessary to fight for the continued existence
of the discipline of Sprachlehrforschung in the university of Hamburg.
D: Comment re cooperation/contacts between your own Department and Hamburg.
Translation Studies , Intercultural Communication, Contrastive Pragmatics
E: Given the increased relevance of multilingualism in our world, it seems
particularly inappropriate that your university should intend to discontinue
a scientific subject researching precisely this field, embracing its
linguistic, psychological, political and pedagogical aspects, and with an
outstanding track record.
I urge you to rethink your misguided decision!
Yours sincerely,
xyz (plus titles, offices held)
Add rhetoric as you see fit!
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