Abstract
AbstractThis article explores the information desk of a city library as a site for language learning. Using a linguistic ethnographic approach, the interactions between a customer experience and information assistant and the many library users who approach her information desk were analysed. Findings are that, in addition to providing information about library resources, information desks are sites at which bits and pieces of different languages are taught and learned. Such language teaching and learning episodes created interactions of inclusion and welcome that went far beyond purely transactional information. Rather, language‐related episodes created moments of human contact and engagement, which were upheld through the translanguaging practices of interactants, the disposition and workplace competence of library staff, and the spatial ecology of the information desk. Furthermore, the article contributes to ongoing theoretical debates about translanguaging by noting that normativity and pressure toward uniformity are as much a part of languaging processes as creativity and flexibility. Our definition of translanguaging recognises the opposing pull of centrifugal and centripetal forces. The article ends by asking what schools, and language education, might learn from public libraries in creating arenas that maintain communitarianism, diversity of expression, and the development of civic skills.
Highlights
LIBRARIES HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED AS meeting places (Audunson, 2004) where people from across the social spectrum encounter one another, exposing them to the diversity of the city
We argue that language teaching and learning episodes function as speech events of welcome, performed through a supportive disposition, professional competence, and material and spatial repertoires
The remaining sections of the article analyse interviews, field notes, and audio recordings to reveal how Winnie’s translanguaging practices, disposition, and competences set up learning possibilities of benefit to migrant library users
Summary
We characterise our research approach as linguistic ethnography, in which we look in depth at the situated discourses and social practices of key participants. Learning to speak and understand English in the library, and at the information desk, was highlighted by Winnie as a corollary of her work experience: And for me like a frontline worker, you have to deal with so many inquiries, even just say, where is the toilet, you have to direct them, and tell them where the toilets are, on which floor, turn left, turn right and things like that, day in and day out, and all year long, just, it just helped. Because it functioned as a place of first response, it was a space that could be extended to meet additional needs, as staff moved away from the desk into other library spaces to find specific information This was made possible by staffing schedules.
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