Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the Brazilian–American employer as well as the company’s Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employer’s legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. Employees’ resourcefulness and multicompetence – rather than quantifiable levels of English-language proficiency – determine the extent to which they rely on language brokering to facilitate communication with their customers, directly impacting their agency. The book contributes to current debates on extra-linguistic modes of communication in multilingual settings and thematic analyses of care work, migration, communication and the role of English.
Cuprins
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Advancing Methodology: Using a Mixed Methodological Approach within a Multilingual Cleaning Company
Chapter 3. Magda: The Personal and Professional Trajectory of Shine’s Owner
Chapter 4. The Interplay between Identity, Ideology and Capital that Strengthens Cultural Attachments: The Pull of Portuguese and the Portuguese-Centric Ironbound Community for Shine’s Hispanophone Employees
Chapter 5. Multicompetence as Essential and English-Language Proficiency as Secondary: Examining the Shape of Customer–Employee Interactions between Speakers who do not Share a Common Language
Chapter 6. Conclusion
References
Index
Despre autor
Anne Ambler Schluter is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Communication, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on the sociolinguistics of migration, discourse analysis, affective attachment/emotional labor, healthcare communication, and minority language and belonging.
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