Linguistic diversity in the international workplace: Language ideologies and processes of exclusion

Abstract

This article draws on a study of language choice and language ideologies in an international company in Denmark. It focuses on the linguistic and social challenges that are related to the diversity of language competences among employees in the modern workplace. Research on multilingualism at work has shown that employees may be excluded from informal interactions and from access to power structures on the basis of language skills in the company's language(s). The data discussed here show that in the modern workplace, employees' linguistic competences are diverse; international employees often have competence in the company's lingua franca but lack skills in the local language while some 'local' employees lack competence in the corporate language (typically English). This can lead to the sociolinguistic exclusion of either group. In conclusion, the article relates these processes of exclusion to two language ideologies: one about an essential connection between language and nation and one about a hierarchy of English users.

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

“…The corrective offered here and similar work elsewhere (e.g., Day, 1994;Markaki et al, 2010), does not seek to underplay the insights generated by the types of study that investigate the interplay of linguistic and professional identities within international workplace settings, which have been conducted using other methodological tools, such as quantitative survey reports (e.g., Harzing & Pudelko, 2012), qualitative survey tools (e.g., Ehrenreich, 2010;Neeley, 2013;Mahili, 2014), ethnographic observation or mixed-method approaches that combine ethnographic fieldwork with survey tools (e.g., Lauring, 2008;Lønsmann, 2014). Rather, interaction analytic accounts such as the one presented here aim to contribute to this field of scholarship, by offering insight into the moment-by-moment enactment of social order, including at the level of identity negotiation.…”

“…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.…”

“…In linguistically dynamic environments where language choice is then not predetermined by formal institutional policy (for example relating to language use among technical support staff (Lønsmann, 2011) or in informal or liminal institutional settings (Hazel & Mortensen, 2013), selecting or negotiating a medium-of-interaction may become a relevant activity to which interlocutors need to attend (Auer, 1984;Torras, 1998). Within groups that enjoy a more or less stable membership, these practices can rely on prior experience and knowledge of other members' linguistic repertoires and preferences (Spolsky, 2007;Bonacina-Pugh, 2012).…”

“…Members can draw on experience of interacting with particular colleagues, clients or partners, in order to select the appropriate language to use with them, or which bilingual mode (Gafaranga & Torras, 2001) to adopt. In addition, they may switch to a designated corporate language when engaged in particular types of activities, such as team meetings (Lønsmann, 2011) or student project group activities (Mortensen, 2010). Here, where language policy may not be explicitly discussed between members, it is still embedded in how participants micro-manage their interactions.…”

Affordances and constraints: Second language learning in cleaning work

“…Lønsmann (2014) argues that employees can be excluded from informal interactions on the basis of language skills. Here, the clients did not know much about Kifibin, not even about his language repertoire.…”