Translanguaging as a resource for meaning-making at multilingual construction sites

Bibliographic Data

ID11293185
AuthorsLinda Kahlin (0000-0002-1735-0598, Södertörn University, corresponding author), L Keevallik (0000-0003-2175-8710, Linköping University), Hedda Söderlundh (0000-0002-2254-3175, Södertörn University), Matylda Weidner (0000-0002-0522-6776, Department of English , Kazimierz Wielki University , Bydgoszcz , Poland)
Year2022
Volume41
Issue3
Pages261-280
Publication date2022-05-25
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMultilingua (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-8507 • E-ISSN: 1613-3684
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/multi-2021-0125
OpenAlexW4200534600
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited25

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

Conversation · Conversation analysis · Embodied cognition · Foregrounding · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Multilingualism · Pedagogy · Resource (disambiguation · Sociology · Transformative learning · Translanguaging · Communication · Computer Science · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology

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