Beyond Language: Workplace Communication and the L2 Worker

Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 17:1 (2007), 83-03.

issn 0957-6851 / e-issn 1569-9838 © John Benjamins Publishing Company

Beyond Language

Workplace Communication and the L2 Worker

David Cooke, T. Pascal Brown and Yunxia Zhu

York University, Canada / Unitec New Zealand /

The University of Queensland, Australia

Drawing on data from three New Zealand worksites, an analysis of transcripts

suggests a pattern of regulation, compliance and resistance, in which small talk

aids the exercise of power. To consider the implications of workplace dialogues

for L2 workers, the study looks at recorded conversations in the light of Gee's

(1999) concept of "building tasks" in discourse analysis, revealing the importance

of "language and beyond" -- language that carries constant reference to

social realities, inside and outside worksites, that construct interactions among

workers. The paper derives conclusions for language instruction, language learners

and the personnel of workplaces, arguing that language instruction (e.g.,

teachers and curriculum developers) can benefit from an awareness of the above

issues and include attention to social realities in language courses. Despite debate

in the literature, the argument supports the analysis of authentic texts, "battered

texts", and the findings of linguistic analysis in L2 teaching, and proposes consciousness-

raising in workplaces.

Introduction

The position of second-language (L2) workers in workplace communication is increasingly

important for New Zealand as a multicultural and migrant society and

also as part of the Asian-Pacific Region. New Zealand society is becoming more

diverse; workplaces are changing as they employ more residents of various languages,

ethnicities and cultures; and education institutions are providing a variety

of language teaching programmes preparing for employment. Language teaching

has to make constant decisions about the nature and content of such courses. An

obvious question to consider then is whether and how documentation from workplaces

can inform language courses and programmes. This article argues that in

the workplace texts studied here, social factors and social content construct the

interactions among employees.

84 David Cooke, T. Pascal Brown and Yunxia Zhu

A question for language courses is whether they can usefully highlight characteristics

of workplaces by analysing authentic workplace texts. A relatively neglected

question of work dynamics is, What are the implications of workplace interactions

for the language education of second language speakers?

The data analysed here come from two workplaces in Auckland and one in

Wellington, New Zealand. The recorded interactions and interviews were collected

using lapel microphones by participants who volunteered to being taped.

The data are collected following the methodology of the Wellington-based project,

Language in the Workplace (Stubbe, 1998; Holmes, et al., 1999; Brown, 2000; Holmes,

1998, 2001). The second-language user, referred to in this discussion as the

"L2 worker", is typically a migrant who has moved to New Zealand as a high school

student or adult, whose English language skills may not be as fluent as a person

schooled in New Zealand.

Certain literature on L2 teaching for or in workplaces suggests that authentic

oral texts recorded verbatim in worksites can assist L2 migrants to function well

in a workplace (Burns, et al., 1996; Joyce, 1992; Mishan, 2004; Newton, 2004).

These authentic texts "enable learners to interact with the real language and content

rather than the form. Learners feel that they are learning a target language as

it is used outside the classroom" (Kilickaya, 2004, p. 4).

Similarly, Mishan (2004) argues that authentic texts are interesting and motivating

for L2 users:

The many advantages of using authentic rather than purpose written materials

of language learning, have by now been generally accepted by the teaching community

-- the richness of authentic texts in terms of their cultural and linguistic

content, the opportunity to select materials that are relevant, appropriate, and

interesting to particular groups of learners, the motivational aspects or learning

from authentic rather than didactic material, and so on. (p. 219)

And from the field of adult literacy, a recent research study concludes:

The results document that it is indeed beneficial, relative to the purposes of adult

literacy instruction, to incorporate materials and literacy activities in the instructional

program that reflect real-life texts and purposes for reading and writing

them