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

Abstract

This study offers an interaction analytic account of how linguistic identities in internationalized workplaces in Denmark are indexed against members' institutional positions in particular interactional contexts. Where language policy may not be explicitly articulated between members, it is still embedded in how participants micro-manage their interactions and implicit in how members display orientations to deviance, in the case of encountering others in the workplace whose language repertoires or preferences do not meet with expectation pertaining to the institutional position they hold. The study uses recordings of naturally occurring interaction in different international workplace settings and argues for greater attention to be paid to the actual language-policy practices in international workplace settings, as an entry point into developing a more nuanced understanding of the practices through which professional identities are brought about, affirmed or contested, and the linguistic considerations that are implicated in this.

Dit artikel beschrijft een interactie-analytische studie over taal identiteiten in geïnternationaliseerd bedrijven en universiteiten in Denemarken. Het onderzoek keek naar hoe verschillende taal identiteiten vergeleken werden met werknemers' institutionele functies, tijdens werkactiviteiten uitgevoerd samen met anderen. Waar een officiële taalbeleid niet expliciet kan worden gearticuleerd tussen de verschillende gespreksdeelnemers, is het nog steeds ingebed in de manier waarop zij organiseren hun ontmoetingen, en het is impliciet in de manier waarop ze reageren op afwijkend gedrag, van leden die niet voldoen aan de verwachtingen met betrekking tot taal gebruik en hun situatie-specifieke identiteit als werknemer. De studie maakt gebruik van opnames van natuurlijke interacties (niet- uitgelokt of experimenteel) in verschillende werkplekken in internationale organisaties, en concludeert dat meer aandacht moet worden besteed aan hoe taalbeleid is geïnstantieerd in internationale werkplekken, en hoe taalvaardigheid is gekoppeld aan professionele identiteit.

Keywords:

• linguistic identity
• language policy
• language choice
• institutional identity
• internationalization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Spencer Hazel is an Assistant Professor of Culture and Identity at Roskilde University. He has published widely in CA informed research on social conduct, including embodied actions in everyday and institutional interactions. His research interests include cultural encounters, multiculturalism and learning.

Notes

1. These data were collected as part of the Research Centre for Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University.

2. Carried out as part of the LINGCORP Research project.

3. Prior to the formal proceedings of the meeting commencing, as well as during breaks in the meetings, participants use other languages also.

4. Interestingly, Anna, who appears to be insisting on a right to use Danish with her Danish manager, is not herself a Dane, but is from Sweden (albeit someone who has lived in Denmark a number of years), and appears therefore to be claiming the right to use a different L2 than English.

5. A reviewer of the current article has pointed out that if these greeting tokens are produced with rising intonation, it is likely to be heard as a Danish hej rather than an English hi. This would definitely be the case for many settings. However, the data from this setting do not seem to bear this out, as there is a great deal of variation in how the L2 users of both English and Danish produce these tokens, including at the level of intonation contour. Participants are unable, then, to treat this as a reliable marker for the use of hej or hi.

6. See Woolard (1999) and Torras (1998) for discussion of bivalent utterances, tokens that could be heard as being from either one language or another, such as the Catalan and Spanish ‘hola’.