Assembling Talk: Social Alignments in the Workplace

Multilingualism in the Workplace

“…Using an ethnographic approach, studies have focused on individual workers and analyzed their experiences of workplace multilingualism by means of interviews, observations, recorded narratives, or survey data. Some researchers have described how the immigrant successfully learns how to cope with work-related interaction (e.g., Andersson, 2010;Kleifgen, 2001: D. Li, 2000Nelson, 2010), while others have given a more critical, sociological perspective on multilingualism at work, thus discussing their findings in relation to diversity issues, hierarchies, power, and prejudices (e.g., Campbell & Roberts, 2007;Goldstein, 1997;Matheux-Pelletier, 2007;Roberts, 2010Roberts, , 2011Shih, 2002).…”

The Embodied Turn in Research on Language and Social Interaction

“…Practising what she described as "culturally contexted conversation analysis" (p. 278), by combining ethnography and conversation analysis, Brun-Cottan considered the various technologies through which operators' interaction was mediated and accomplished, on the basis that "[n]either conversation analysis, nor our attentions to the participants' activities are confined to talk" (p. 294). Allowing for different forms of data and analytic method, we can also notice how embodiment features in single articles on areas to which later researchers would give increasing or more systematic attention-for example, on audience/recipient (Streeck, 1994), caregiving (Leppanen, 1998;Yingling, 1990), children's play (M. H. Sheldon, 1996), disability (C. Sweidel, 1991), facial expression (Chovil, 1991), instruction (Weeks, 1996), collaborative work (Ford, 1999;Kleifgen, 2001;, participation (Egbert, 1997;Rae, 2001), and structuring activity (Berducci, 2001). Lastly, in 1993 ROLSI presented an early 1980s interview with Erving Goffman (Verhoeven, 1993a(Verhoeven, , 1993b, covering some influences and characteristics of his studies and including his comment that "the dimensions or extensions of our gestural language, our gestural behavior, has not been mapped much" (Verhoeven, 1993b, pp.…”

“…One approach is to present multiple images, ordered in a series to show embodiment change over time (Alby & Zucchermaglio, 2007;Arnold, 2012;Kidwell, 2005;Llewellyn & Butler, 2011;Luff & Heath, 2002;Sidnell, 2006;Streeck, 1994Streeck, , 2008. Occasionally authors provide clock timings or a timeline, for example, at the left margin perhaps, instead of line numbers (Kleifgen, 2001;Tutt & Hindmarsh, 2011). For transcriptions, many authors indicate within the stream of talk the exact moments of embodiment's occurrence, especially onset, linking to images and descriptions with inserted arrows, lines, figure numbers, or symbols (e.g., like ↑ this; like Fig.1 this; like #this).…”

“…Descriptions often draw on grammatical form to represent embodiment's timing, continuity, duration, etc. (e.g., "looking," "nodding," "pointing," "smiling," "waving"), or use phrasing like "through the utterance," or "while asking," so suggesting but not specifying embodiment's exact relation or cooccurrence with talk (M. H. Goodwin, 2001Kleifgen, 2001;Rhys, 2013;Roberts, 2004;Szczepek Reed et al, 2013;Teas Gill, 2005;Zayts & Schnurr, 2011).…”

Coordinating talk and practical action

“…Therefore, the integrity of talk and practical action becomes essential for intensive teamwork that demands efficiently coordinated activity among a group of people. Thus, Kleifgen (2001) observes two Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. choosing alternative addressing forms of each other and timing their talk with machine-related bodily actions, in order to effectively fix a mechanical problem. Nevile (2004) also makes claims to the inseparability of talk and practical action by exploring how airplane pilots organize speech and embodied actions such as writing and touching displays when they prepare a flight for landing.…”