Affordances and constraints : Second language learning in cleaning work
Strömmer, M. (2016). Affordances and constraints : Second language learning in cleaning work. Multilingua : Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 35(6), 697-721. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2014-0113
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Date
2016Copyright
© 2016 the Author & De Gruyter Mouton. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher.
This paper examines opportunities for language learning in a cleaning
job, which is a typical entry-level job for immigrants. An ethnographic case
study approach is taken to investigate examples of the conditions that allow or
prevent language learning for the focal participant, a sub-Saharan man who
works as a cleaner in Finland. This case illustrates on a micro-scale the impact
of the new economy on a worker in a company that has outsourced its cleaning
services. Theoretically and methodologically, the study applies van Lier’s (2004)
ecological approach to language learning and Scollon and Scollon’s (2004)
nexus analysis. The analysis of interaction order shows that within outsourced
cleaning services, the cleaner is isolated from the work community around him
and communication between him and clients is relayed through intermediaries.
Consequently, only occasional opportunities arise for interaction in L2 in the
workplace. Examples of work situations that offer affordances for linguistic
action are analysed in depth to find out how work-related language learning
could be supported. However, the pedagogical value of such affordances might
be rather low, and hence, as it often offers very limited opportunities for
developing second language skills, cleaning may be a dead-end job.
...


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De Gruyter MoutonISSN Search the Publication Forum
0167-8507Keywords
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