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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 895

Part of Session 104: Microlinguistics and language planning (Other abstracts in this session)

Friction and struggle over the use of official corporate language(s): Examples of micro-level language management in the Japanese workplace

Authors: Fairbrother, Lisa
Submitted by: Fairbrother, Lisa (Sophia University, Japan)

The relation between macro level language planning and the micro level implementation of those policies has been a central theme of research using the Language Management Theory (LMT), which specifically focuses on the noting, evaluation of and adjustments made towards language problems (Jernudd & Neustupný 1987). Indeed, it has been argued that “language planning should start with the consideration of language problems as they appear in discourse, and the planning process should not be considered complete until the removal of the problems is implemented in discourse” (Neustupný 1994:50). Recent research has attempted to shed more light on this “language management cycle” and the processes underlying it (Nekvapil & Nekula 2006, Nekvapil 2009, Kimura 2011). Although language planning is often associated with governments and state institutions, a great deal of language planning is also conducted by multinational corporations (Nekvapil & Nekula 2006) and the language management cycle can also be observed here. This is also the case in Tokyo, Japan where many multinational corporations also have offices, but which so far has received little attention.

Based on semi-structured interviews and interaction interviews (Neustupný 1994) with Japanese and non-Japanese employees working in the Tokyo offices of multinational corporations, I will use LMT to demonstrate how official corporate languages may be ignored, resisted and negotiated at the micro level. I will also show how even when the official corporate language is applied to some extent, there may be strong resistance to the application of non-Japanese “communicative” and “sociocultural” aspects of interaction (Neustupný 2004) and repercussions for those who choose to apply them. On the other hand, there seems to be a fair deal of acquiescence on the part of the corporations themselves who seem prepared to offer some amount of flexibility so long as the job gets done. In other words, the examples from this study demonstrate the dialectical relation between the macro and micro levels, whereby participants on the micro level not only reproduce social structures but also “contribute to the transformation of these structures” (Nekvapil & Nekula 2006:308).

References:

Jernudd, B.H. and Neustupný, J.V. (1987). Language planning: for whom? In L. Laforge (Ed.) Proceedings of the international colloquium on language planning. Quebec: Les Presses de L’Université Laval, 69-84.

Nekvapil, J. (2009). The integrative potential of Language Management Theory. In: Nekvapil, J. & T. Sherman (eds.) (2009). Language management in contact situations: perspectives from three continents,1-11. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Nekvapil, J. & Nekula, M. (2006). On Language Management in multinational companies in the Czech Republic. Current Issues in Language Planning, 7 (2)&(3), 307-327.

Neustupný, J.V.(1994). Problems of English contact discourse and language planning. In: T. Kandiah, and J. Kwan-Terry (Eds.), English and language planning: A Southeast Asian contribution. Singapore: Academic Press. 50-69.

Neustupný, J.V. (2004). A theory of contact situations and the study of academic interaction. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 14 (1), 3-31.