International Forum on Frontier Issues in Applied Linguistics (al2020)

44 / 2020-07-30 18:30:11

Englishization and Labor Making in Globalized China: Language Policy and Practices in a Multinational Company in Shanghai

language policy,global workplace,Englishization,language and labor,employment,multinational companies

Forum on Frontier Issues in Applied Linguistics > language-related policy and planning

My work argues that language policy and planning at global workplaces in contemporary China which takes “Englishization” (Neely 2012) as a guiding principle of current global capitalism, is not merely linguistic policing. Rather, it aims to discipline and regulate employees to produce international labor and further, to enhance companies’ productivity and competitiveness under the changing market conditions.

This argument is put forward through a critical ethnographic account of practices and routines documented in a multinational company XYYX Electronics in Shanghai, the biggest economic center in China. According to the language policy of “Englishization”, employees are asked to invest in English to cope with professional tasks which their company requests in daily work with international stakeholders. Level of English is viewed as the form of evidence for workers' capacity to flexibly adapt themselves to the target global market and therefore as a promise for access to promotion. This link between high English proficiency and professional advancement ends up with more tensions and anxieties between individuals and institutions. Through a thick description of the use of English and strategic linguistic policing within the documented company, my study also concerns the clashes and struggles broght by the categorization of Chinese workers who navigate English as the symbolic capital to pursue social mobility.