Identities at odds: embedded and implicit language policing in the internationalized workplace

Spencer Hazel

doi:10.1080/14708477.2014.985311

Abstract

This study offers an interaction analytic account of how linguistic identities in internationalized workplaces in Denmark are indexed against members' institutional positions in particular interactional contexts. Where language policy may not be explicitly articulated between members, it is still embedded in how participants micro-manage their interactions and implicit in how members display orientations to deviance, in the case of encountering others in the workplace whose language repertoires or preferences do not meet with expectation pertaining to the institutional position they hold. The study uses recordings of naturally occurring interaction in different international workplace settings and argues for greater attention to be paid to the actual language-policy practices in international workplace settings, as an entry point into developing a more nuanced understanding of the practices through which professional identities are brought about, affirmed or contested, and the linguistic considerations that are implicated in this.

Highlights

Workplaces around the world have increasingly come to be constituted as communities of transnationally mobile staff and clientele, and the resulting cultural and linguistic diversity to which this gives rise
Drawing on Conversation Analysis (Goodwin & Heritage, 1990, hereafter CA) and Membership Categorization Analysis (Hester & Eglin, 1997, hereafter MCA), the study demonstrates how members topicalize linguistic identities that go against normative expectations, implicitly engaging in language policing at a praxeological level, and treating members of the workplace community who do not meet with expectations regarding language repertoires as deviant or even sanctionable
Individual members may hold entrenched ideological positions of their own pertaining to the relative value of the use of particular languages within a setting, or to language requirements relating to institutional positions within a particular workforce

Summary

Introduction – overview

Workplaces around the world have increasingly come to be constituted as communities of transnationally mobile staff and clientele, and the resulting cultural and linguistic diversity to which this gives rise. A growing number of institutions have moved to adopt formal policies pertaining to language practices - including that at the level of language choice - in the workplace (e.g., Nekvapil & Nekula, 2006; Lønsmann, 2011; Neeley, 2013; Angouri & Miglbauer, 2014; Gunnarsson, 2014; Hultgren, 2014) Such explicit language policing may be introduced to respond to the changing demands that result from increased globalisation, including the internationalized make-up of a particular institutional community, be it for example a company operating across borders or with greater numbers of migrant professionals, foreign-based clients or partners in other parts of the world, at popular tourist attractions, or at particular institutional programmes within tertiary-level education. At the incipient stage where people move from co-presence-in-space to being co-participants-in-interaction, we are able to distil from the sequential organization of social actions - including that at the level of language choice - who and what people are expected to be - institutionally, professionally - in these settings (see Hazel & Mortensen, 2014; Mortensen & Hazel, 2014)

Methodological approach

Language policing – situated language policies in practice

Implicit language policing

Institutional identity and orientations to deviance in language repertoire

Coda: Adopting strategies for avoiding explicit medium repair

Discussion & Conclusion