ERIC Number: EJ1336831
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-May
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0167-8507
EISSN: N/A
Translanguaging as a Resource for Meaning-Making at Multilingual Construction Sites
Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, v41 n3 p261-280 May 2022
In this article we investigate spoken professional interaction at construction sites in Sweden, where workers from Poland, Ukraine and Estonia are temporarily employed as carpenters, ground workers and kitchen installers. We study how the workers use resources associated with different languages and how these resources are mobilized along with embodied resources for meaning-making. The analysis aims at investigating what social space the workers construct by going between or beyond different linguistic structures, as defined in the theory of translanguaging. The study is based on Linguistic Ethnography and Conversation Analysis is used for close analysis. We focus on instances of translanguaging, such as Swedish-sounding institutionalized keywords, practices of receptive multilingualism and the search for communicative overlaps in repertoires. The findings from busy construction sites show that the stratifying aspect gives some workers a voice in the organization, while others remain silent. Hence, it is primarily professionals functioning as team leaders, who talk to different occupational categories and use resources associated with different languages. The data provide an opportunity to investigate the theory of translanguaging and its transformative power in relation to professional settings that are linguistically diverse, but also strictly hierarchical.
Descriptors: Code Switching (Language), Cross Cultural Studies, Ethnography, Discourse Analysis, Second Language Learning, Native Language, Language Usage, Swedish, Construction Industry, Employees, Linguistic Theory, Multilingualism, Polish, Ukrainian, Finno Ugric Languages, Employee Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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