CIP seminar: Charlotte Sun Jensen

CIP is proud to invite to the next presentation in the series of research-based CIP-seminars. This time with PhD in Linguistic Anthropology and second language learning, Charlotte Sun Jensen (DPU, 2024).

Three stages in navigating language policies: International employees´ second language socialisation in a Danish state administration

Abstract

This presentation is based on my PhD project, which is a linguistic ethnographic study of highly educated international employees in a workplace in the Danish Energy Agency. Due to the Agency's status as a state administration with close ties to the Danish central administration, it has a Danish language policy. As the workforce has traditionally consisted of native Danish-speakers since the Agency was established in 1976, working language was not in contention until recently. As a result of increased climate policy goals, global economic investments in renewable energy, and increased recruitment competition for talents, the Agency began recruiting international employees for their department, Global Cooperation, in 2017. For many of these employees, the Danish language policy in the workplace is associated with challenges and dilemmas, as several of the employees do not have any Danish language skills when they start.

The focus of my presentation is the employees´ second language socialisation (Duff 2012); paths to become participants, ways to create a professional identity in Danish, and how this process takes place in close interplay with the workplace. In particular, I will highlight my analyses of a pattern of three distinct stages in this process, which roughly correspond to the employees´ first three years of employment. On the basis of Henrik Vigh´s concept of social navigation (2009) I explore three aspects in this process: 1) investment in Danish language learning. 2) language use. 3) Performance of professional identity. The study demonstrates the many facets of what it means to know Danish in a specific work context, and how the paths to knowing Danish can take place.

Charlotte Sun Jensen holds a PhD in Linguistic Anthropology and second language learning from the Department of Educational Anthropology, DPU, Aarhus University. The motivation for her PhD project was developed in connection with her work as a teacher in Danish as a second langrEage at a language school, where she was teaching adults at the school and at their workplace. Charlotte is currently co-teaching a course in Linguistic Ethnography at NorS, University of Copenhagen, alongside her work as a development consultant at Studieskolen.

Registration not needed

Registration is not needed but there will be a limited number of seats available (35).