Interactive and ideological dimensions of receptive multilingualism in Luxembourg workplaces

Authors

  • Anne Franziskus STATEC (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg)
  • Julia de Bres Massey University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.34207

Keywords:

Cross-border workers, Language ideologies, Professional communication, Receptive multilingualism, Workplace discourse

Abstract

This article investigates the use and perception of receptive multilingualism (RM) as an everyday multilingual practice in linguistically diverse workplaces in Luxembourg. RM refers to speakers each using a different language to speak to each other, while understanding the language used by the other speaker. Previous research has identified this practice as most likely to occur among typologically related languages, in specific contexts and in circumstances of explicit language negotiation. Our data, comprising spontaneous workplace interactions and interviews with cross-border workers at a range of workplaces in Luxembourg, broadens this picture to show RM being used between speakers of quite different language varieties, in a wide range of workplace contexts and for a variety of relational and transactional purposes. Using a dual analytical approach combining interactional sociolinguistics and language ideology analysis, we investigate both interactional characteristics and ideological constructions of RM, and consider the relative influence of linguistic and extralinguistic factors on this everyday multilingual practice at work.

Author Biographies

  • Anne Franziskus, STATEC (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg)

    Anne Franziskus is a sociolinguist with research interests in multilingualism, linguistic ethnography and discourse analysis. She completed her PhD at the University of Luxembourg on the language practices, ideologies and norms of cross-border workers in Luxembourg. She now works as a researcher at Luxembourg’s National Statistics Institute (STATEC). Address for correspondence: STATEC (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg), 13 Rue Erasme, 1468 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

  • Julia de Bres, Massey University

    Julia de Bres is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. Her research focuses on minority languages in multilingual contexts, and language and minorities more generally. Address for correspondence: Massey University, Wellington, PO Box 756, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.

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Published

2020-11-27

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

License

Equinox Publishing Ltd.

How to Cite

Franziskus, A., & de Bres, J. (2020). Interactive and ideological dimensions of receptive multilingualism in Luxembourg workplaces. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 15(1), 24-45. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.34207

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