| 1. |
- Hållsten, Stina, 1965-, et al.
(author)
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Individualization in vocational training for immigrants : Developing professionalism and language through feedback
- 2022
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In: Migration and Inclusion in Work Life. - Stockholm : Bokförlaget Atlas. - 9789174450231 ; , s. 267-306
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter addresses vocationally adjusted language courses in Swedish for adult immigrants. We focus on individualisation, which is stipulated in the curriculum and other syllabus documents, and argue that individually adapted feedback could be considered a tool (out of several potential tools) for “doing” individualisation in a pedagogical practice. We discuss different understandings of individualisation in policy documents and research literature, and define individualisation as an educational practice in teaching, carried through in dialogue. In an empirical study, we apply the definition by analysing feedback sequences in video recordings from two vocational courses (designed for outdoor maintenance workers and medical doctors, respectively) using the linguistic method of interaction analysis. We demonstrate (1) how individualisation in terms of feedback is managed in interaction involving teacher and students, and (2) the vocational and linguistic skills that materialise as important for the individual students in these feedback sequences. Our results demonstrate that feedback is a functional educational tool for individualisation, providing learning opportunities for both language acquisition and professional knowledge. However, this requires authentic assignments that are designed to promote opportunities for more developed dialogues. Another conclusion is that a professional experienced teacher who can provide feedback on both professional skills and language use is particularly important.
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| 2. |
- Johansson, Maria, 1989-
(author)
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I samtal med Kronofogden : Hur myndighetsservice görs i språkliga möten mellan inringare och kundservicehandläggare
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis explores the interaction between frontline service officials and clients in customer service calls to the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA), a national government agency working with debts. The aim is to shed light on these service calls as interactional, meaning-making encounters between callers and frontline service officials. A sub-aim is to gain an understanding of how the SEA’s mission and core values are interpreted, balanced and implemented in conversation. Drawing on the theoretical and methodological framework of Conversation Analysis (CA), the thesis investigates how communication between SEA frontline officials and clients unfolds, and how institutional regulations, norms and relationships are invoked and negotiated. The data consists of audio recordings of 113 naturally occurring phone calls to the SEA’s centralised customer service. The four analytical chapters explore different aspects of the interactional encounters. First, the openings of the encounters are analysed, focusing on how callers achieve service, and how the participants orient to serviceability and legitimacy. Secondly, the analysis addresses how factual information from the SEA’s institutional records is accessed, handled and responded to by the participants. In this way, the analysis illustrates how the participants display epistemic stances, and how the SEA’s mission to provide information, and to activate and educate clients, is translated into practice. Thirdly, frontline service officials’ explanations of a key SEA process are studied, revealing how the participants’ intersubjectivity is established, challenged and negotiated. Fourthly and finally, an analysis of how call takers recommend future courses of action to callers is presented, which demonstrates how the participants’ deontic rights to decide on future actions are allocated in the customer service calls. In sum, the thesis brings to light what happens in conversations between callers and frontline service officials at the SEA. More specifically, the thesis offers insights into how institutional remits shape frontline interaction, as well as how laws, guidelines and policies are talked into being. In addition to expanding our knowledge of language and social interaction in government agencies, the key findings of the thesis may have an impact on professional development within the SEA, thereby benefiting both frontline officials and clients.
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| 3. |
- Kahlin, Linda, 1975-, et al.
(author)
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Translanguaging as a resource for meaning-making at multilingual construction sites
- 2022
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In: Multilingua - Journal of Cross-cultural and Interlanguage Communication. - : De Gruyter Mouton. - 0167-8507 .- 1613-3684. ; 41:3, s. 261-280
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article we investigate spoken professional interaction at construction sites in Sweden, where workers from Poland, Ukraine and Estonia are temporarily employed as carpenters, ground workers and kitchen installers. We study how the workers use resources associated with different languages and how these resources are mobilized along with embodied resources for meaning-making. The analysis aims at investigating what social space the workers construct by going between or beyond different linguistic structures, as defined in the theory of translanguaging. The study is based on Linguistic Ethnography and Conversation Analysis is used for close analysis. We focus on instances of translanguaging, such as Swedish-sounding institutionalized keywords, practices of receptive multilingualism and the search for communicative overlaps in repertoires. The findings from busy construction sites show that the stratifying aspect gives some workers a voice in the organization, while others remain silent. Hence, it is primarily professionals functioning as team leaders, who talk to different occupational categories and use resources associated with different languages. The data provide an opportunity to investigate the theory of translanguaging and its transformative power in relation to professional settings that are linguistically diverse, but also strictly hierarchical.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Söderlundh, Hedda
(author)
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Applying transnational strategies locally : English as a medium of instruction in Swedish higher education
- 2013
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In: Nordic Journal of English Studies. - 1502-7694 .- 1654-6970. ; 12:1, s. 113-132
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Analysing student interaction at an international university in Sweden, this article investigates how the transnational strategy of using English as a medium of instruction can be (re)constructed by students in a local context. The analysis focuses on students’ expectations—or norms—for when it is appropriate to use English, and shows that English medium-instruction does not necessarily mean that students speak English all the time. The local language Swedish is used in connection to teaching and students establish local norms for when, how and with whom it is appropriate—or inappropriate—to speak English. A conclusion is that although language choice at the international university is influenced by global factors, it is still firmly a local construction.
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| 6. |
- Söderlundh, Hedda, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Arbetsmigration och flerspråkig interaktion på byggarbetsplatser
- 2020
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In: Nordand. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 0809-9227 .- 2535-3381. ; 4:2, s. 93-110
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Labour mobility within the EU is particularly extensive in the construction sector, with sociolinguistic consequences for those working abroad and for the place of reception. In this article we analyze chains of directives at construction sites in Sweden, where Ukrainian, Polish and Swedish craftsmen work. The data consist of ethnographic observations and video-recorded conversations from two multilingual workplaces of different sizes. Conversation analysis is used for the analysis of particular instances of chains, and our observations allow for the discussion of the main characteristics of an institutional order for language choice based on interactional patterns that recur across time and space. The results demonstrate how chains contribute to an organization in which not everyone needs to talk to everyone else and where multilingual team leaders function as language brokers between project managers and workers. Interestingly, the institutional order of language choice is similar at the two workplaces, notwithstanding differences in size, temporality and spatiality.
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| 7. |
- Söderlundh, Hedda, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Betydelsen av svenska, engelska och andra språk för hantverkare som reser till Sverige för att arbeta : En nexusanalys av språk och arbete på den flerspråkiga byggarbetsplatsen
- 2022
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In: Språk och stil. - : Adolf Noreen-sällskapet for Svensk Språk- och Stilforskning. - 1101-1165 .- 2002-4010. ; 32, s. 38-71
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article we investigate the linguistic working life of manual workers who commute from Estonia for installation work at a large construction site in Sweden. Language use is analysed from the perspective of nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004), including the installers’ historical body, interaction order and discourses in place. The findings show that the workers have extensive experience of construction work in several countries and that they carry out their work without knowledge of Swedish. They are part of a professional Estonian team but work mainly alone and get all necessary instructions from their team leader in Estonian. The team leader coordinates their work but also functions as a language broker in the interactional order, using English as a lingua franca. Installation work is considered “language marginal”, and the dominating discourse in place assigns a higher value to the workers’ craftmanship, flexibility and efficiency than their competence in a specific language. The fact that work is carried out in a country where Swedish is the main language does not have any practical significance, neither for access to work nor for carrying out the work. Based on these findings, we conclude that the wide-spread metaphor “Swedish language as key to the labour market” relies upon a simplified understanding of language and labour market.
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| 8. |
- Söderlundh, Hedda
(author)
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Global policies and local norms : sociolinguistic awareness and language choice at an international university
- 2012
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In: International Journal of the Sociology of Language. - : Walter de Gruyter. - 0165-2516 .- 1613-3668. ; 2012:216, s. 87-109
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As part of the internationalization of higher education, more and more European university courses are being taught in English. Exchanges between universities have grown, and students from different parts of the world now often study together. What does this international environment look like in linguistic terms? Do students and teaching staff speak only the course language English, or are other languages also used, and if so, in what situations and contexts? These questions are discussed on the basis of an ethnographic study of an English-medium university course in Sweden. Extended examples of interaction show that participants adapt their use of languages to place-bound needs and conditions, giving rise to local norms. The national language Swedish holds a special position, as the first language of the majority and the lecturer. The course language English is dominant as a de facto lingua franca, but local social and linguistic needs and conditions leave room for other languages as well. Overall, course participants orient to three competing principles of language use: (a) English as a lingua franca, (b) the speaker's orientation to her or his own language and (c) the special position of Swedish, as the first language of the majority and the lecturer.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Söderlundh, Hedda, 1981-
(author)
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Internationalisering i praktiken : Språkbruk i två svenska utbildningsmiljöer
- 2010
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In: Språkvård och språkpolitik. - Stockholm : Norstedts. - 9789113029986 ; , s. 252-268
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In Swedish language planning the position of English vis-à-vis Swedish is attracting attention. This is due to the concern that the growing use of English in certain domains may result in Swedish loosing ground. Surveys have shown that English is frequently used in fields with extensive international collaboration, such as higher education, business and politics. Yet, knowledge about actual language use and patterns of language choice in international contexts is poor and studies on how the involved parties themselves understand the situation are lacking. This paper draws on data from an ongoing PhD project on the use of Swedish in English medium university education and discusses students’ language choice patterns in two English medium lectures in Sweden: the one taken from a faculty of social sciences and the other from a faculty of science and technology. Findings show that the use of Swedish differs between the two lectures and that the usage can be characterized as spontaneous. Interestingly, students speak Swedish in a number of study activities associated with the lectures. Even though Swedish is seldom heard in class, it dominates in study activities outside class. The number of exchange students in combination with students’ and teachers’ attitudes impact on language choices. Existing local language plans, however, do not seem to influence actual language use.
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