Domestic Workers Talk

Domestic Workers Talk

by Kellie Gonçalves and Anne Ambler Schluter
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 16/01/2024

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Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the Brazilian–American employer as well as the company’s Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employer’s legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. Employees’ resourcefulness and multicompetence – rather than quantifiable levels of English-language proficiency – determine the extent to which they rely on language brokering to facilitate communication with their customers, directly impacting their agency. The book contributes to current debates on extra-linguistic modes of communication in multilingual settings and thematic analyses of care work, migration, communication and the role of English.

ISBN:
9781800416772
9781800416772
Category:
linguistics
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
16-01-2024
Language:
English
Publisher:
Channel View Publications

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