Interviews between employees and customers during a company restructuring process

This work is the result of the discursive research carried out at a company involved in a restructuring programme, aimed at implementing a series of changes following the awarding of a new contract for the management of the city’s water supply and sewerage system. This change in management from a public (the City Hall) to a semi-private enterprise resulted in a great deal of confusion among certain sectors of the population. As a result, employees found themselves having to deal with large numbers of complaints on a daily basis without having received any prior communicative training in order to help them resolve these situations. Our empirical data (audio taped data) consists of 16 interviews between company employees and citizens analysed from the methodology based on Interactional Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Our study focuses on conflicts caused by situations of interactional asymmetry between the discourse of employees and customers, the result of the social inequality that exists in terms of citizens’ access to institutional discourse. An analysis of all the interviews reveals that employees use two different strategies in order to mitigate conflicts. These strategies can be classed as personalising or depersonalising. Our analysis shows that the use of these strategies is not always appropriate, and that their success or failure depends on the type of customers and their discursive resources. The problem is also frequently made worse by the employees’ rather limited communicative repertory and their consequent inability to redress the asymmetrical imbalance associated with this type of discourse and provide an effective approach and response to the various types of customers visiting the company’s offices

Interviews between employees and customers during the process of restructuring a company

This article is the result of discursive research carried out at a company involved in a restructuring programme, aimed at implementing a series of changes following the awarding of a new contract to manage a city’s water supply and sewerage system. This change in management from a public (City Hall) to a semi-private enterprise resulted in a great deal of confusion among certain sectors of the population. As a result, employees found themselves having to deal with large numbers of complaints on a daily basis without having received any prior communicative training in order to help them resolve these situations. Our empirical (audio-taped) data consist of 16 interviews between company employees and citizens analysed using methodology based on Interactional Sociolinguistics, Ethnography of Communication, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Our study focuses on conflicts caused by situations of interactional asymmetry between the discourse of employees and customers, the result of the social inequality that exists in terms of citizens’ access to institutional discourse. Analysis of all the interviews reveals that employees use two different strategies in order to mitigate conflicts. These strategies can be classed as personalizing or depersonalizing. Our analysis shows that the use of these strategies is not always appropriate, and that their success or failure depends on the types of customers and their discursive resources. The problem is also frequently made worse by the employees’ rather limited communicative repertory and their consequent inability to redress the asymmetrical imbalance associated with this type of discourse and provide an effective approach and response to the various types of customers visiting the company’s offices

Procesos de agentividad y nuevos repertorios translingüísticos de los estudiantes de origen magrebí en Galicia

«Agency processes and the new translinguistic repertoire of students of Moroccan and Algerian origin in Galicia». This article analyzes how agency processes are crucial in the management of the new translinguistic repertoire of high school students of Moroccan and Algerian origin in Galicia. The data include a multimodal corpus with spoken and written interactions collected as part of a classroom research-action, whereby each student reconstructed their family and school language repertoire, as well as a WhatsApp group chat set up with the same young people. Our analysis indicates how this repertoire is deeply rooted in Moroccan Arabic as the family language and the incorporation of local languages, namely Spanish and Galician, and relies heavily on translingual multimodal practices, associated with transnational trajectories and the local schooling process of these young people.Este artículo analiza cómo los procesos de agentividad son cruciales en la gestión del nuevo repertorio translingüístico de los estudiantes de secundaria de origen marroquí y argelino en Galicia. Los datos que analizaremos se componen de un corpus multimodal que incluye: interacciones orales y escritas, un chat de WhatsApp y prácticas comunicativas diversas, recogidas en el marco de una investigación-acción en el aula basada en un enfoque sociolingüístico etnográfico Los resultados del análisis muestran que el repertorio translingüístico emergente presenta un fuerte arraigo del árabe marroquí como lengua familiar y la incorporación de las lenguas locales −el español y el gallego− y el uso de prácticas multimodales translingüísticas, conectadas con las trayectorias transnacionales y el proceso de escolarización local de estos jóvenes

Resenha: Luis Casteleiro Oliveros, La revolución en Lingüística (Ferdinand de Saussure)

Review: Luis Casteleiro Oliveros, La revolución en Lingüística (Ferdinand de Saussure), II Premio 'Dámaso Alonso' de Investigación Filolóxica, Santiago de Compostela, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2000, 212 pp.Reseña: Luis Casteleiro Oliveros, La revolución en Lingüística (Ferdinand de Saussure), II Premio 'Dámaso Alonso' de Investigación Filolóxica, Santiago de Compostela, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2000, 212 pp.Recensión: Luis Casteleiro Oliveros, La revolución en Lingüística (Ferdinand de Saussure), II Premio 'Dámaso Alonso' de Investigación Filolóxica, Santiago de Compostela, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2000, 212 pp.Resenha: Luis Casteleiro Oliveros, La revolución en Lingüística (Ferdinand de Saussure), II Premio 'Dámaso Alonso' de Investigación Filolóxica, Santiago de Compostela, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2000, 212 pp

The recycling of local discourses in the institutional talk: naturalization strategies, interactional control, and public local identities

In this article we will analyze how institutional and public discourse may be naturalized (Thompson, 1990) through the recycling of elements from daily local discourse. The process of discourse naturalization is one of transformation, making what is local, universal, what is partisan, neutral, and what is arbitrary, natural. Specifically, we will examine, as strategies for the naturalization of institutional discourse: the mobilization of traditional vo c a t ives; the use of local codes or of Galizan/Spanish code-switching; and the reference to local ¿discourse domains. Our data comes from a corpus of over twenty-five hours of audio recordings from public and institutional events that come from the area which encompasses the periurban of A Coruña city and the towns belonging to Bergantiños (Galicia). Methodologically, our focus is multidisciplinary. We selective ly make use of analytical tools from interactional sociolinguistics, conversational analysis, ethnography of communication, microsociology, and critical discourse analysis .Neste artigo analizamos como o discurso institucional e público pode ser naturalizado (Thompson, 1990) a través da reciclaxe de elementos procedentes do discurso local cotiá. O proceso da naturalización do discurso consiste nunha transformación do local en universal, do partidista en neutral e do arbitrario en natural. Concretamente, examinaremos como estratexias para a naturalización do discurso institucional: a mobilización dos vocativos tradicionais, o uso dos códigos locais ou da alternancia de códigos galego/español, e mais a referencia ós dominios do discurso local. Os nosos datos proceden dun corpus de arredor de vintecinco horas de gravacións audio en situacións públicas e institucionais na área que abrangue a zona periurbana da cidade da Coruña e as vilas da comarca de Bergantiños (Galicia). Metodoloxicamente, a nosa perspectiva é interdisciplinaria. Facemos un uso selectivo de ferramentas analíticas procedentes da sociolingüística interaccional, da análise da conversa, da etnografía da comunicación, da microsocioloxía e mais da análise crítica do discurs

La investigación socio-interaccional de la empresa aplicada a la formación comunicativa de sus empleados

L’objectiu d’aquest article és aportar pautes i recursos des de l’anàlisi del discurs que permetin als professionals de les empreses ampliar el repertori d’estratègies comunicatives, adquirir destreses per mobilitzar-les en la interacció i obtenir recursos per reflexionar sobre el procés comunicatiu. El sistema de formació proposat consisteix a ensenyar estratègies i recursos lingüístics basats en l’anàlisi sociodiscursiu del conflicte i de la resolució en pràctiques comunicatives reals de les empreses. Es tracta d’un mètode d’investigació-acció que comença en la recollida de dades i finalitza en l’elaboració de materials per a la formació dels empleats. Així, es mostra l’aplicació dels resultats de l’anàlisi a l’elaboració de diferents tipus de materials didàctics: repertori d’estratègies, informes i cartera comunicativa.The goal of this article is to present models and resources from discourse analysis that allow professionals in companies to broaden the repertoire of their communicative strategies, to acquire skills for activating and mobilizing these strategies, and to apply resources for reflecting on the communicative process. The training proposed consists in teaching strategies and linguistic resources based on the socio-discursive analysis of conflict and conflict resolution in real situations involving communicative practices. This research-action method starts with data collection and finishes with the production of materials for employee training. We apply the results of the analysis to the production of various types of teaching materials: repertoires of strategies, reports, and communicative portfolios.El objetivo de este artículo es aportar pautas y recursos desde el análisis del discurso que permitan a los profesionales de las empresas ampliar su repertorio de estrategias comunicativas, adquirir destrezas para movilizarlas en la interacción y obtener recursos para reflexionar sobre el proceso comunicativo. El sistema de formación propuesto consiste en enseñar estrategias y recursos lingüísticos basados en el análisis socio discursivo del conflicto y de su resolución en prácticas comunicativas reales de las empresas. Se trata de un método de investigación-acción que empieza en la recogida de datos y finaliza en la elaboración de materiales para la formación de los empleados. Así, se muestra la aplicación de los resultados del análisis a la elaboración de diferentes tipos de materiales didácticos: repertorio de estrategias, informes y portafolios comunicativo

"Code-switching" emergente y voces discursivas en el habla infantil

20 p.Este trabajo presenta un estudio de los usos incipientes de la alternancia lingüística gallego/español en edad temprana. Concretamente, analiza cómo los niños bilingües movilizan la yuxtaposición de lenguas gallego/español como recurso narrativo alrededor de los tres y cuatro años