Workplace Learning through Human‐Machine Interaction in a Transient Multilingual Blue‐Collar Work Environment

Abstract

This article explores processes of jointly negotiating work practices (i.e., workplace learning) in a contemporary blue-collar work environment characterized by transience, language diversity, and limited opportunities for human-human interaction. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch-German borderland, where many employees have temporary contracts and diverse language backgrounds, and where many production tasks are delegated to machines. The article shows that human-machine interaction, combined with a newcomer's ability to observe and hypothesize, can fulfill vital functions for workplace learning processes, while the temporariness of work relations can demotivate employees to invest in these processes. Dieser Artikel untersucht Prozesse der gemeinsamen Gestaltung von Arbeitspraktiken (d.h. Lernen im Prozess der Arbeit, auch Workplace Learning) in einem aktuellen Blue-Collar-Arbeitsumfeld, welches von Kurzlebigkeit, Sprachenvielfalt und begrenzten M€ oglichkeiten der Mensch-Mensch-Interaktion gepr€ agt ist. Die Untersuchung st€ utzt sich auf linguistischethnographische Feldforschung in einer Metallgießerei im niederl€ andisch-deutschen Grenzgebiet, wo viele Mitarbeiter befristete Arbeitsvertr€ age und unterschiedliche Sprachhintergr€ unde haben, und viele Produktionsaufgaben an Maschinen delegiert werden. Der Artikel zeigt, dass die Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion in Verbindung mit der Beobachtungs-und Hypothesen-bildungsf€ ahigkeit eines Neuank€ ommlings zentrale Aufgaben f€ ur die Lernprozesse erf€ ullen kann. Die kurzlebige Natur der Arbeitsbeziehungen kann dagegen eine demotivierende Wirkung auf die Bereitschaft der Mitarbeiter haben, in diese Prozesse zu investieren. [workplace learning, human-machine interaction, community of practice, transience, blue-collar workplace] P ractices, or "those repeated social and material acts that have gained sufficient stability over time to reproduce themselves" (Pennycook 2018, 53), play an important role in any work environment. Work practices may have positive or negative consequences for areas such as productivity, workplace safety, and job satisfaction. The concept "community of practice" is typically used to refer to a group of people who have developed particular practices during a shared history of mutual engagement (Wenger 1998, 83; King 2014). This means that these practices are not

Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland

“…In addition, blue-collar work is typically regarded as physically demanding. With regard to language practices, many authors have observed that people in blue-collar workplaces often use other languages than the official or majority language of the nation-state in which they are working (Goldstein 1997;Gonçalves and Schluter 2017;Holm et al 2019;Hiss 2017;Hovens 2020;Kraft 2019;Piller and Lising 2014;Theodoropoulou 2019). Besides this, the ability to use English as a lingua franca cannot be taken for granted here (see, e.g., Lønsmann 2014).…”

Power dynamics at work

“…Overall, although there are some exceptions (Gherardi and Nicolini 2002;Hovens 2020;Kleifgen 2013), this overview of existing studies shows that non-human agency has generally not received much attention yet in this field. In other words, the dominant paradigm has been social constructionist rather than new materialist or posthumanist (Canagarajah 2020, 563-564).…”

“…The current article focuses on one work situation that was audiorecorded in the Core Shooting Department, and one work situation that was video-recorded in the Casting Department. Together with the Finishing Department (Hovens 2020), the Core Shooting Department stood out as an environment with a relatively large share of temporary workers (around 60%), and -related to that-a comparably large share of workers who spoke neither Dutch nor German nor Limburgish. In the Casting Department, on the other hand, almost half of the workers were temporary (48%), and all workers in this department could speak at least Dutch or German (often in addition to other languages such as Limburgish and Turkish).…”

“…Secondly, many studies have discussed the (implicit or explicit) constructions of in-groups and out-groups by blue-collar workers (Baxter and Wallace 2009;Daly et al 2004;Gherardi and Nicolini 2002;Holmes and Marra 2002;Holmes and Woodhams 2013;Hovens 2020;Lucas 2011). Most of these studies have analysed spoken-English discourse, and they have highlighted the use of out-group comparisons (Lucas 2011), out-group demonisation (Baxter and Wallace 2009), in-group swearing practices (Daly et al 2004), in-group humour (Holmes and Marra 2002), in-group jargon and interactional norms (Holmes and Woodhams 2013), in-group senses of workplace safety (Gherardi and Nicolini 2002), and in-group humanmachine interactions (Hovens 2020) as discursive means to construct particular blue-collar in-groups, or communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991;Wenger 1998).…”

“…In addition, blue-collar work is typically regarded as physically demanding. With regard to language practices, many authors have observed that people in blue-collar workplaces often use other languages than the official or majority language of the nation-state in which they are working (Dijkstra, Coler, and Redeker 2020;Goldstein 1997;Gonçalves and Schluter 2017;Holm et al 2019;Hiss 2017;Hovens 2020;Kraft 2019;Piller and Lising 2014;Theodoropoulou 2019). Besides this, the ability to use English as a lingua franca cannot be taken for granted here (see, e.g., Lønsmann 2014).…”