Making meaning of multilingualism at work: from competence to conviviality

French and language ideologies in a multilingual European Union institution: Re-constructing the meaning of language choice at work

“…This study is part of a sociolinguistic project that investigates metalanguage in a multilingual terminology and communication unit of an EU institution in Luxembourg. Building on previous findings within the umbrella project (Lovrits, 2022; Lovrits and de Bres, 2021), our study investigates reflective metalinguistic stances, i.e., stances towards languages and speakerhood (Spotti and Blommaert, 2017). We trace how a culturally constructed preoccupation with refined language performance in the French cultural context (d’Iribarne, 2009; Siepmann, 2006) comes across in a convivial atmosphere of an international workplace of an EU institution that prioritises friendly relationships in multilingual exchanges (Lovrits, 2022).…”

“…Three staff members were interviewed twice and four trainees three times. A detailed report about the data gathering has been published in a previous report Lovrits, 2022.…”

“…This is particularly evident in multilingual work environments (Detzen and Loehlein, 2018; Langinier and Ehrhart, 2020) and teams employing English as a shared lingua franca (Nurmi and Koroma, 2020). Previous research within the unit under investigation highlighted that non-standard language use in internal communication was perceived as an integral aspect of life in the multilingual environment (Lovrits, 2022). Hence the importance of understanding the consequences of divergent language ideologies related to the use of French within a workplace culture that aligns with the language ideology of multilingualism (Barner-Rasmussen et al, 2023), favouring effective multilingualism over monolingual proficiency.…”

Book Review: Language Management: From Bricolage to Strategy in British Companies

“…The author highlights considerations of the phatic and hegemonic aspects of language, which have long been theorized by linguistic anthropology (Saville-Troike, 2003), accentuated by the emergence of empowerment paradigm (Cameron, 2001), just to become more recently a trending topic shared at the intersection of sociolinguistics, multilingual vocational education and education (Lovrits, 2022). The reviewed book now adds managerial studies to the concerned fields.…”

The development of a grades 5-12 world languages program: providing creative opportunities for all learners to develop multilingualism through interdisciplinary projects on learning

“…The goal of language learning is not only to be able to communicate with speakers of other languages, but also to understand them, their values, why and how they do what they do and why that may look different from how other communities live. Through these understandings and cultural competency, multilingual individuals can contribute to the interconnected world for successful personal and business collaborations (Lovrits, 2022). In a 2014 survey where over 2100 employers throughout the U.S. were included, 93% of the employers stated that they valued culturally competent employees (Damari, et al, 2017).…”