Writing practices in the multilingual workplace: A case study of language brokering, by Anna Solin, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (online), 12 February 2024, 12 EET.
On Monday 12 Feb at 12:00 East European Time, Anna Solin (University of Helsinki, Finland) will give a talk titled ‘Writing practices in the multilingual workplace: A case study of language brokering’. The event will be live-streamed online with interactive Q&A after the talk. All are welcome to attend. Read the abstract and register here. Once you’re registered, you’ll be emailed the live stream info soon before the seminar.
Abstract: “In the talk, I will present a study of workplace writing, which focuses on administrative work in multilingual universities. While there is a wealth of research into institutional multilingualism, most studies on higher education have looked at teaching and research, and relatively little is known about the often invisible work of administrators. The study explores the collaborative writing practices of eight administrators who work at a Finnish university, drawing on interviews, meeting recordings and text histories. The analysis tracks the production of a genre which is central to local decision-making: the meeting agenda. Data collection took place during a period when a decision had just been made to begin publishing agendas in two languages (Finnish and English), in order to support the inclusion of international staff. The shift from monolingual to multilingual texts resulted in negotiation over both language choice and what kind of English is “appropriate” or “good enough” in meeting agendas. I will describe this negotiation from the perspective of language brokering, and particularly how different participants intervened in the writing process and the drafts being produced. The analysis focuses on questions such as who/what takes on or is given the role of broker, what kind of language features become targets of negotiation and what normative orientations are displayed in the administrators’ talk.”
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 