This study investigates the impact of interpersonal communication competence, relational crafting, and language portfolio on job stress by examining both direct and mediating effects. Additionally, it explores whether these relationships differ between employees with below and above average experience levels through multi-group analysis. A…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Arabic Language Proficiency (ALP) and expatriate adjustment (EA), and job performance (JP) in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the moderating role of personal and environmental factors is investigated. This investigation employs a mixed-methods research design. The intended audience is…

The paper explores the "in situ" negotiation of in/exclusion in and through language in a multilingual professional setting, paying special attention to the relationship between language and space. We argue that multilingual practices and material space are co-constitutive; individuals enact group membership and professional roles…

This article analyses the discursive construction of mobile, multilingual humanitarian workers at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from a critical sociolinguistic perspective. In the light of fluctuating linguistic requirements and needs, I focus on the trajectories of ICRC delegates as a window onto the different values…

Purpose: This study aims to examine factors that affect the effectiveness of transfer of English language training to the workplace. It investigates the effect of trainee characteristics, training design and work climate on the training transfer to job performance in hospitals in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach: The quantitative method was…

This investigation uses conversation analysis (CA) to document, in very close detail, how participants-in-interaction manage and organize repair practices in moments when linguistic repair becomes conditionally relevant in conversational or 'chatting' phases of online dyadic L2-learning interactions between a tutor and tutee. Specifically, this…

Millions of customer services representatives are assessed each year by subject matter experts (e.g., recruiters, team leaders) in Asian contact centres to ensure good spoken communication skills when serving customers on the phones. In other workplace contexts, language experts are employed to do this work but in Asian contact centres, a…

This paper investigated the "be"-insertion phenomenon in L2 English. L2 learners often insert "be"-forms before thematic verbs, creating nontargetlike forms (e.g. "She is love ice cream"). Based on L2 data from learners of topic-prominent L1s, a group of researchers have claimed that such "be"-forms are…

Foreign language education primarily aims to cultivate learners' competence to communicate in an additional language. However, the meaning of communication competence is not entirely transparent, especially given the current neoliberal valorization of communication in the knowledge economy. The meaning of communication can be scrutinized in two…

Teaching languages in a company environment is a relatively new phenomenon which has appeared as a result of competition on a job market. Nowadays companies offer various fringe benefits to their best employees, free language courses among them. This is a completely new situation for language teachers who are faced with a challenge of working in a…

This conceptual paper advances the notion of "English as corporate language" in the multilingual reality of multinational companies (MNC) with novel insights from the English as lingua franca (ELF) paradigm of sociolinguistics. Inspired by Goffman, Erving. 1959. "The presentation of self in everyday life." New York: Doubleday.…

Translingual practice is an emergent theoretical perspective which emphasizes the capacity and disposition for meaning-making across linguistic boundaries. Following on studies of globalized workplaces that have focused on lingua franca English, this article explores translingual practice as represented in interview and blog narratives recounted…

The modern workplace is international and multilingual. Both white and blue collar employees are expected to be mobile, work increasingly in (virtual) teams (Gee et al. 1996) and to address complex organisational issues in a language that, often, is not their first language (L1). This results in a number of languages forming the ecosystem of…

This paper draws on the KINSA project (The Communicative Situation of Immigrants at Swedish Workplaces), which aimed to identify communicative factors that have a positive impact on the integration of second language speakers in the workplace and in their immediate work team. The focus here is on humour and swearing as strategies for doing…

This article looks at France's Loi Toubon, which mandates the use of French in private companies, to illustrate how macro-level language planning reaches a dead end if it fails to consider local contexts and involve micro-level agents. The motivations, limitations and contradictions of France's language policy in relation to companies are…