The following references and links will enable you to read, watch and listen to documents dealing with our course on workplace linguistics. It will be updated on a weekly basis during the term, and you’ll find indications for extra work.

1&2. Introducing language in the workplace

Podcast. Sociolinguistics, a conversation with Janet Holmes

Video. Language at work, by Veronika Koller

Video. Master Chef Australia

Online article. “Developing intercultural commucation skills for the hybrid workplace”. The British Council, June 2022.

References for this chapter

(1) Gonçalves, Kellie & Anne Schluter. (2017). “Please do not leave any notes for the cleaning lady, as many do not speak English fluently”: Policy, power, and language brokering in a multilingual workplace. Language Policy 16(3), 241–265.

(2) Hazel, Spencer & Jan Svennevig. (2018). Multilingual workplaces — Interactional dynamics of the contemporary international workforce. Journal of Pragmatics 126, 1–9.

4. English as a Lingua Franca

Video. An introduction to ELF, by Kaisa Pietikäinen

Video. Will English always be the world language? by David Crystal

Link to the Vienna-Oxford international corpus of English (VOICE)

Link to the ELFA Corpus

References for this chapter

(1) Millot, Philippe. (2020). English as an empowering Lingua Franca in the French workplace: A case study of language competence in job performance. ILCEA 40 [Online].

(2) Crawford Camiciottoli, Belinda. (2020). Using English as a lingua franca to engage with investors: An analysis of Italian and Japanese companies’ investor relations communication policies. English for Specific Purposes 58, 90-101.

5. Approaches to professional communication

Video. Critical Genre Perspective on Electronically Mediated English for Professional Communication, by Vijay Bhatia

References for this chapter

(1) Bhatia, Vijay. (2014). Analysing discourse variation in professional contexts. In Bhatia, Vijay & Stephen Bremner (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication. Routledge, 3-12.

(2) Ladegaard, Hans J. (2018). Workplace narratives. In Vine, Bernadette (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language in the Workplace. Routledge, 242–257.

(3) Chan, Clarice S.C. (2019). Long-term workplace communication needs of business professionals: Stories from Hong Kong senior executives and their implications for ESP and higher education. English for Specific Purposes 56, 68-83.

(4) Lichterfeld, Katrin. (2024). A practitioner’s commentary on C. Chan (2019): Long-term workplace communication needs of business professionals. English for Specific Purposes 74, 1-8.

6. Professional discourse and professional identity

Video. Research writing: constructing community and negotiating identity, by Ken Hyland

References for this chapter

(1) Maier, Carmen Daniela. (2014). Stretching the multimodal boundaries of professional communication in multi-resources kits. In Bhatia, Vijay & Stephen Bremner (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication. Routledge, 40-49.

(2) Petit, Michel. (2010). Le discours spécialisé et le spécialisé du discours : repères pour l’analyse du discours en anglais de spécialité. E-rea 8(1).

(3) Tardy, Christine M. (2023). How epidemiologists exploit the emerging genres of twitter for public engagement. English for Specific Purposes 70, 4-16.

7. Language policies

References for this chapter

(1) Lønsmann, Dort & Kamilla Kraft. (2018). Language policy and practice in multilingual production workplaces. Multilingua 37(4), 403-427.