This paper offers a historiographic and ethnographic analysis of how reflexivity, as a communicative practice and valued personality trait, has been understood, regulated, legitimised and used to control Chinese workers from the planned-economy era to the present. Using a Shanghai-based multinational company as a case study, I document how and…

Informed by critical data literacy efforts to promote social justice, this paper uses qualitative methods and data collected during two years of workplace ethnography to characterize the notion of critical novice data work. Specifically, we analyze everyday language used by novice data workers at DataWorks, an organization that trains and employs…

English teachers' professional development responds to individual needs and societal discourses about teaching, learning, and language use. This paper reports the findings of a case study that explored the factors that increased or limited the active and committed participation of nine Colombian teachers of English in professional development…

Under the influence of economic globalization, Chinese enterprises are seeking more international market shares, and Africa is one of their crucial markets. This calls for translators who are experienced in multilingual business communication, which brings a challenge for business translation education in Chinese universities. In this paper, a…

This paper investigated the language resources needed for communication in Vietnam's import/export services and the level of alignment with the associated English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. To examine the communicative practices used in this workplace, the study employed methods of semi-structured interviews and a collection of 48 emails…

The authors present three distinct cases of English-Spanish bilinguals on the U.S.-Mexico border to illustrate how legitimate and authentic language use functions as forms of symbolic capital (P. Bourdieu, 1991). Language practices in the occupational domain exemplify how varieties of English and Spanish come into contact, are negotiated, and…

This single-case study explored the experiences of a U.S. professional working in China by focusing on his discursive performance in negotiating a third space at work with people from the target culture. The results revealed that the foreign professional demonstrated a strong desire to creatively appropriate the target language as his own use,…

This ethnographic case study examines the factors that contribute to multilingual choices and the construction of identities in a linguistically diverse family within a linguistically diverse city, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on interviews with a female Emirati in her early thirties, the article examines this young woman's…

The aim of this study is to develop a reference model for intervention in the language processes applied to the transformation of language normalisation within organisations of a socio-economic nature. It is based on a case study of an experiment carried out over 10 years within a trade union confederation, and has pursued a strategy of a…

This paper presents profiles of eight multilinguals and examines the circumstances that determine their continued use, in addition to English, of at least two of their "home" languages. I attempt to identify in which domains this occurs, whether there are established patterns of domain-specific language use and whether these patterns are…

This paper is based on research conducted in banks in the international banking centre of Luxembourg. Operating in the globalised context of international banking and multilingual Luxembourg, financial institutions are an ideal focal point for investigating policy and practices in complex multilingual and transnational work spaces. Two theoretical…

This article aims to clarify where and how Christian privilege occurs, what its effects are, and how to overturn it. The study of Christian privilege and how it impacts public education on an institutional and pedagogical level is important work and an essential building block in dismantling religious oppression (both of and by religious groups).…

Immigrants' multiple identities are sources of contention as they strive in the English-speaking workplace, where they need to meet job demands and demands from employers who expect them to conform to the culture of the management (Harper, Peirce, & Burnaby, 1996; Jacobson, 2003; Katz, 2000). With California having a significant immigrant…

This article describes the results of a six-month ethnographic case study of a French immigrant of Senegalese descent and how he recreates the culture of an American company's speech community. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and shadowing the participant at his place of employment. The transcribed interviews and field notes…

Examines language in the workplace, specifically the construction industry in Hong Kong. Provides detailed information on language use in a professional context at the time of Hong Kong's return to China and shows that written communication is mainly in English, while spoken language is predominately Cantonese. (Author/VWL)