Managing Plurilingual and Intercultural Practices in the Workplace

The case of multilingual Switzerland

Editors

Georges Lüdi | University of Basel

Katharina Höchle Meier | University of Basel

Patchareerat Yanaprasart | University of Lausanne

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027200587 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027266408 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

The contributions in this volume stem from different lines of research and represent both a continuation and an advancement of the European DYLAN project. The book addresses the meanings and implications of multilingualism and plurilingual repertoires as well as the ways in which cultural diversity is managed in companies and institutions in Switzerland. Characterised by official quadrilingualism, but also by new dimensions of multilingualism resulting from massive immigration, important workforce mobility and increasing globalisation, Switzerland offers an ideal laboratory for studying phenomena linked to multilingualism and cultural diversity.
On the one hand, a special focus is put on the best practices of diversity management and language regimes with particular attention paid to the interplay between official languages and English, and to ways of leveraging diversity awareness, fostering cultural inclusiveness and enhancing intercultural learning in vocational education and training.
On the other hand, the chapters examine at close range the way actors' plurilingual repertoires are developed and how their use is adapted to particular objectives and specific conditions. Being observed in several types of multilingual professional settings, the plurilingual strategies, including English as lingua franca, are particularly examined in terms of power relations and processes of inclusion or exclusion.

[Multilingualism and Diversity Management, 4] 2016. viii, 374 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 3 October 2016

https://doi.org/10.1075/mdm.4

Table of Contents

Preface

Anne-Claude Berthoud | pp. vii–viii

Chapter 1. Introduction

Georges Lüdi, Katharina Höchle Meier and Patchareerat Yanaprasart | pp. 1–28

Chapter 2. Power in the Implementation of Plurilingual Repertoires

Georges Lüdi, Katharina Höchle Meier, Fee Steinbach Kohler and Patchareerat Yanaprasart | pp. 29–68

Chapter 3. From language regimes to multilingual practices in different settings

Georges Lüdi | pp. 69–152

Interactional negotiation of linguistic heterogeneity: Accommodation practices in intercultural hotel service encounters

Stefano A. Losa and Peter Varga | pp. 85–100
Language regime in the Swiss armed forces between institutional multilingualism, the dominance of German, English and Situated Plurilanguaging

Georges Lüdi | pp. 100–118
The plurilingual challenges at the workplacefor Spanish-speaking migrant women

Linda Grimm-Pfefferli | pp. 118–138
“Doctor, are you plurilingual?” Communication in multilingual health settings

Georges Lüdi, Nathalie Asensio and Fabia Longhi | pp. 139–152

Chapter 4. Visual manifestations of institutional multilingualism: Diversity management on corporate websites

Patchareerat Yanaprasart | pp. 153–186

The semiotic landscape of a company between linguistic management and practice

Georges Lüdi

Chapter 5. The challenge of the management of diversity

Patchareerat Yanaprasart | pp. 187–234

Chapter 6. The perspective of professional training

Katharina Höchle Meier | pp. 235–312

PluriMobil meets dylan – Practical resources for supporting intercultural and plurilingual learning in vocational student mobility

Mirjam Egli Cuenat and Katharina Höchle Meier

Chapter 7. Conclusions

Georges Lüdi, Katharina Höchle Meier and Patchareerat Yanaprasart | pp. 313–324

References | pp. 325–360

Transcription conventions | pp. 361–362

Author Index | pp. 363–368

Subject Index | pp. 369–374

“This volume undoubtedly represents a major contribution to the understanding of plurilingual practices in the workplace. The book's preface clearly outlines and underscores the rationale for a volume of this nature, and the authors have successfully achieved the goals set for the publication of this book as it opens the way to new ways of acting, in terms not only of research but also of disseminating knowledge among institutional and political actors. [...] This edited volume is an asset to the field of professional communication to a wide range of subjects dealing with institutional multilingualism and intercultural practices.”

Zsuzsanna Zsubrinszky, Budapest Business School, on Linguist List 28.3843

“Overall this volume is very useful for researchers looking for empirical evidence of the actual (and complex) use of language in the multilingual workplace. Because of its focus on contexts where little previous sociolinguistic research has been conducted, such as the military, and because of its multimethod approach, this volume definitely adds to the growing body of work in the field.”

Lisa Fairbrother, Sophia University, Tokyo, in Slovo a slovesnost, 79, 2018

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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