Plenary Speakers

Storytelling is an under-recognised but ubiquitous feature of professional talk. Exploring narratives as a discourse activity provides access to many important aspects of social interaction. Some narratives indicate how cultural norms influence the way stories are constructed; some provide information about the specific values to which different groups or individuals orient; and most contribute in some way to aspects of identity construction, including gender, ethnic and professional identity. Using illustrative excerpts I will provide evidence of effective communicators making use of the affordances of storytelling to balance potentially competing identities and to negotiate complex cultural contexts.

The data is drawn from material gathered by the long-established Wellington Language in the Workplace project team, which aims to investigate the communication patterns of effective communicators in New Zealand workplaces. Analysing audio and video recordings collected over the past two decades, I explore the insights that can be gained from examining the stories people tell in naturally-occurring workplace interaction as well as those elicited in interviews about workplace practices.

Acknowledging the growing diversity in workplaces requires us to question dominant ideologies that impact upon our interactions. Hegemonies encapsulated in the ‘culture order’, the ‘gender order’ and organisational hierarchies are always (covertly) relevant as systemic characteristics of interaction at work, subtly influencing people’s interpretations of what is considered appropriate. As the analysis will demonstrate, the challenge of enacting an acceptable identity that is different to “the norm” can be far from straightforward. Exploring successful identity construction in narratives offers the potential to identify strategies to counter negative societal perspectives as well as to challenge unhelpful social categories.

Legacies of colonialism often lead to the framing of racially marginalized populations’ linguistic practices as learning impediments, thereby scapegoating language as a primary cause of educational and broader societal problems. Such thinking relies on the assumption that assessments of linguistic practices and proficiencies are unbiased and objective, and that purported language (dis)abilities are self-evident signs of one’s broader life trajectory toward becoming a more or less desirable citizen-subject. Based on this logic, the accumulation of institutionally recognized linguistic skills through educational language learning is presented as a key intervention for communities and populations framed as communicatively deficient. In the US, language classifications such as English learner, Long-term English learner, and proficient English user serve as a population management structure that provides or restricts opportunities based on one’s hierarchical position. Violent US histories of linguistic dispossession, domination, elimination, policing, prohibition, stigmatization, and containment are part of broader legacies of indigenous genocide and African enslavement that founded and continue to organize the nation. This presentation draws on critical abolitionist and decolonial perspectives to understand historical and contemporary efforts to consolidate and contest borders delimiting languages, identities, and geographies. Such a reconceptualization points to opportunities for reckoning, redress, and reimagination that emerge when we approach racially marginalized communities not as communicatively deficient, but rather as dynamic linguistic contexts that unsettle conventional assumptions about knowledge, skills, and schooling. By situating linguistic struggles alongside broader political struggles, we can identify new strategies for connecting language learning projects to the imagination and creation of possible worlds.

Diversity is fundamental to the human condition, yet its complexity remains to be fully integrated into language research and teaching paradigms. This talk will review current developments in linguistics and related disciplines to unpack dimensions of diversity which are often rendered invisible in schools and society, focusing on social categories such as race and ethnicity which are “common sense” considers fixed, natural, and homogenous but which in fact are ideological and socially constructed. I support my argument with examples from my own research with Washington, D.C. Latinxs, an internally-diverse population in a highly diverse global city context. In particular, I draw attention to language’s role in signaling social sameness and difference and to tensions between fluid bilingual repertoires and traditional notions of language proficiency and correctness, as speakers of different Latinx backgrounds and immigrant generations use the rich range of language, dialect, and translanguaging resources at their disposal to construct linguistic identities in relationship to the lived and imagined social environment (Tseng 2018 and forthcoming). The talk underscores the fluid, constructed nature of identity and the diversity within minoritized groups which is erased by the imposition of hegemonic and essentialist perspectives (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005; De Fina, 2012; Irvine and Gal, 2009; Rosa and Flores, 2015, 2017). Importantly, it emphasizes the importance of understanding linguistic identities within their complex, multilevel contexts of production and social meaning. Finally, the talk also engages with current debates which similarly problematize named languages and related concepts such as language separation, linguistic purity, bilingualism, and native speakerism as ideological constructs (Erker, 2017; Garcia and Wei, 2014; Heller, 2007; Holliday, 2016). I conclude with a discussion of directions for theory and practice, drawing on current conversations in linguistics, education, and critical studies and considering their implications for research, teaching, and community outreach.