The Use of Multimodal Resources by Technical Managers and Their Peers in Meetings Using English as the Business Lingua Franca

2020

Background: Engineers increasingly work and advance their careers in international business settings. As technical managers, they need management and technical skills when working with different stakeholders with whom they may not share a common first language. Studies have revealed that informal oral communication skills are of prime importance for global engineers who face challenges in building shared meaning and formulating clear messages in meetings with non-native speakers of English. This article proposes that studying the use of multimodal resources (spoken language, gaze, gestures, and objects) in meetings can unpack how work tasks are accomplished in business through different com…

Translingual Practices in Global Business : A Longitudinal Study of a Professional Communicative Repertoire

2018

This chapter draws on a longitudinal ethnographic study of a Finnish engineer’s communicative repertoire that develops in the process of professional migration. The participant first works as a factory intern in Germany, then as a project engineer and project manager in Finland, and latterly as an operations manager in China. Here, repertoire is viewed through dynamic and flexible translingual practices, in which people follow, appropriate and invent norms, combine and shuttle between languages, ways of speaking, semiotic resources and modalities in the transnational work space in order to meet, interact, make meaning and build relationships and, ultimately, do their jobs. The data selected…

Discursive Identity Work and Interculturality during Blue-Collar Work Practice Abroad : Finnish Engineering Students as Language Learners and Users

2019

This chapter addresses foreign language learners’ and users’ discursive identity work and interculturality in the context of blue-collar work practice abroad. It focuses on Finnish engineering students who were working in Germany with the aim of learning about their field of study. The participants had learnt English as a foreign language at school but had little or no previous knowledge of the local language of the host country. The study aims to find out what discourses the students draw on, how they orient to sameness and difference and what identities they make relevant in these discursive processes. The data used for this study are interviews collected at the beginning and after the st…

Monikielisyys ja viestintätaidot : työelämään siirtyneet diplomi-insinöörit ja tekniikan alan korkeakouluopiskelijat kielten oppijoina ja käyttäjinä

2018

Miten tekniikan alan ammattilaisten tulisi osata viestiä työelämässä, ja mitä kieliä heidän tulisi osata? Millaista monikielisyyttä he todellisuudessa kohtaavat työssään? Tässä artikkelissa etsimme vastauksia näihin kysymyksiin raportoimalla haastattelututkimuksen tuloksista. Tutkimusta varten haastateltiin 18 joko vastavalmistunutta diplomi-insinööriä tai opintojen maisterivaiheessa olevaa tekniikan alan korkeakouluopiskelijaa, joista 16:lla oli oman alan työkokemusta. Tulokset kertovat, että vaikka haastateltavat ovat opiskelleet muitakin kieliä kuin englantia ja ovat kiinnostuneet oppimaan niitä lisää, kynnys puhua niitä on monella korkea ja niiden käyttö työelämässä on vielä verrattain …

Professional communicative repertoires and trajectories of socialization into global working life

2013

Finnish Engineers' Trajectories of Socialisation into Global Working Life : From Language Learners to BELF Users and the Emergence of a Finnish Way o…

2016

Cultural Knowledge as A Resource in BELF Interactions: A Longitudinal Ethnographic Study of Two Managers in Global Business

2019

This paper contributes to the growing field of research on English as a business lingua franca (BELF) and extends discussion on the role of culture and cultural knowledge in business interactions. It aims to provide insights into the relationship between cultural knowledge and professionals’ management of BELF interactions. The paper is based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of two Finnish professionals’ trajectories of socialization into global working life and their work as managers. It draws on interview data in which the research participants orient to Finnish and Chinese professional and everyday practices and differences between them and thereby display their cultural knowledge. T…

Tutkimustuloksia työelämän viestintätaidoista insinöörinäkökulmasta

2011

Tässäkin verkkolehdessä on pohdittu sitä, mitä työelämän kielitaito on ja millaisia haasteita työelämässä tapahtuneet muutokset asettavat työntekijän kielitaidolle. Lisäksi on kartoitettu työelämän kielitaitotarpeita ja sitä, mitä kaikkea työelämässä tarvittavat kielelliset taidot ovat. On hyödyllistä pohtia millaisista asioista ”kielitaito” koostuu erilaisissa autenttisissa työelämän tilanteissa, sekä sitä, millaisena yksilöt itse oman kielitaitonsa kokevat ja miten he kussakin tilanteessa kielellisellä repertuaarillaan, eli niin sanotulla kielivarannollaan, toimivat. nonPeerReviewed