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Couverture Cahier De L'ilsl 48 Cahiers de l‘ILSL 48, 2016, 53-77. ENGLISH IN THE WORKPLACE IN SWITZERLAND BETWEEN IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES Georges Lüdi University of Basel [email protected] Interviewer: Okay. Could you tell to us something about the meaning of the languages in the company? As well as you see this now? From your point of view. MM: Well, this is relatively easy, with us it is English only. (...) so who doesn't speak English, has no future here. Nowhere. (...) and, I'm now speaking about the Headquarter (...) so here it's English (...) there is a dominance of English almost up to arrogance (MM <Agro A>, translated from German) Abstract A widely shared opinion states that English in its international form is particularly suited for the economy. Consequently, a shift from national languages to English as corporate language has been observed in many countries. However, this choice is not based on the results of scientific research, but rather on ideologies. In many cases, the real practices can differ quite significantly from what people think and/or tell they do. This calls for empirical research. In this paper, we will analyse the demolinguistic situation of Switzerland with a special focus on English at work, have a look at the public debate about English and national languages at school and acknowledge the actual linguistic practices in several types of economic environments, in order to answer the question whether English and/or any other language dominates communication at work in Switzerland. Key-words Workplace, English, mixed teams, plurilingualism, language management, communication strategies, language ideologies, plurilingual speech, vocational training 1. THE 'DOXA' ABOUT ENGLISH AS GLOBAL LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS This quotation from an interview with a HR manager at a global agro-business company based in Switzerland seems to confirm the widely shared opinion that English in its international form is particularly suited for the economy. Consequently, a shift from national languages to English as corporate language has been observed in many countries as for example in the case of Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Aventis “in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors” (Neeley 2012). 54 Cahiers de l‘ILSL 48, 2016 This choice results from the international weight of the English language. In a widely quoted paper, Weber (1997) developed a formula that used six criteria to judge the worldwide significance of each language, i. e. number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries using the language, number of major areas of human activity in which the language is important, economic power of countries using the language, and socio-literary prestige of the language. In his ranking, English was by far the most influential before French, Spanish and Russian.1 Concerning the move toward “English only” as corporate language of the economy, three primary reasons are often invoked: Competitive pressure. (...) Companies that fail to devise a language strategy are essentially limiting their growth opportunities • Communicationto the markets where in theira lingua language franca is spoken learnt, asclearly a foreign putting language themselves may at a be disadvantage accompanied to by a lackcompetitors of emotiona that havel involvement adopted English (Fine-only 1996, policies. 494). • SpeakingGlobalization a FL of maytasks leadand resources. to less precise formulation and thus to a loss of information. Since the winter issue of the ACTFLLanguage Newsletter differenceseditor, can Geoffrey cause a bottleneckKingscott. The(...) articleBetter appearedlanguage undercomprehension gives employees more appeared reporting in a brief paragraphIchfirsthand a rederanking in info meinerof rmation, Sprachethe whichrubric anders, "Geolinguistics."is vital freier, to goodoffener, decision We selbstbewusster, decided making. to reprint Swiss sicherer. the food (...) giant Da gehenNestlé also saw wirklich great the world's "ten most influential languages,"vieleefficiency weIdeen have eigentlichimprovementsarticle verloren, in itspurchasing wenn entirety, man despite andsich hiringeinfach its length, thanks für becausedas to Englische its enforcement its den- entscheidet of English in einer as solchen a company repeatedly seen the same paragraph appearSituation,standard. in state weil dann nichtsity and alle its gleich, complexity sich gleich make wohlit difficult fühlen. to summarize (Maurice M., or Agro A) and local foreign language newsletters. WhileM[erger]&A[cquisition] the para- extract integration other than across in the nationalvery brief boundaries. form we have all graph cites some criteria used in theThe ranking, Nharmsegotiations itand has lossesregardingseen, caused a asmerger previously by "monolingualor acquisition indicated. are Wesolutions" complicated hope you were will enough find already it when mentioned everybody inspeaks section the 1. left us curious about the original article. After much interesting as well as be warned away from any sense same language. (...) that’s why when Germany’s Hoechst and France’s Rhône-Poulenc merged in 1998 searching we were able to find the British4. publicationPractices of security or smugness about the second place of Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec. 1997) andto thecreate specific Aventis, theFrench fifth afterlargest English. worldwide pharmaceutical company, the new firm chose English as article reprinted here, with the kind permissionits operating of the language over French or German to avoid playing favorites. An important part of the DYLAN-project consisted in a fine-grained examination of numerous interactions in business contexts in order to understand how the very diverse linguistic repertoires(Global of speakers Business operating Speaks English, in increasingly Tsedal, Harvard multilingual Business environments Review, May develop2012) and how TOPactors LANGUAGES make the best use of their repertoires and adapt them skilfully to different objectives and conditions. Careful observation of actors’ multilingual practices revealed finely tuned the ne hardly risks controversy with the statement ments make sense only if one looks at the world-wide that today English was a morecommunicational influential lan- strategiespicture, notdrawing just parochial on a wide bits of range it. of different languages, including Word's guage world-wide than Yanomami.national To languages, a child's minorityWhat does languages 'influential' and mean lingue in this franche context?. The Each aim was to understand which O 10 Most question why that should be communicative strategies are used inlanguage settings carrieswhere considerable several languages cul- are used that are not all so, the well-informed paren- tural, social, historical and psycho- spoken equally well by all the individuals concerned. Understanding these practices, both Influential tal brush-off would be that number of logical baggage. As anyone who has English had hundreds of mil- their meaningprimary and speakers their implications,ever helps had to to showlearn a in foreign what language way and under what conditions Languages (native or home speakers) lions of speakers while they are not merely1 just a response toknows, a problem, doing sobut in anmany asset ways in business,al- political, Yanomami could with diffi- ters one's attitudes and world view. educational,socio- scientific andnumber economic of contexts. culty scratch together literary 6 2 secondary To what extent, in what form and how by speakers 16,000. Really difficult and Oneprestige of the results of this research wasdeeply the disprovalsuch changes of actuallythe common mani- assumption that everyone well-informed off-spring could fest themselves in the individual George Weber economic number and then point out that in this speakspower of English. Participants adopt a widelearner range depends of strategies,on many factors, and they do so in an extremely population countries case, Chinese would be the variable and dynamic way,of countriesconstantlythe reassessing circumstances the that solutions have led chosen. to These strategies can using the most important language of using the the decision to learn the foreign lan- belanguage positioned5 on two axes.3 One axis contrasts “monolingual” strategies (“one language only” the world. At this point, the language guage, the learner's character, intel- [OLON] and “one language at a time” [OLAT]) with “multilingual” ones (“all the languages at experienced parent would 4 ligence, education and background. send the brat off to annoy the same numbertime” of [ majorALAST fields], sometimes calledTheories “all on lang this uagesubject at needall time” not [ALAT]), and the other someone else. one links(science, the “exolingual” diplomacy, etc) pole (greatlydetain asymmetrical us here. The repertoires)very discovery with the “endolingual” using the language Every language, including 1 one (participinternationallyants share the same repertoire).that one Thecan actuallyfollowing express graph the illustrates the diversity of Yanomami, is the most im- Factorssame thing which in different make a wordslanguage or look influential (Weber 1995/2003) portant language of the world FIG. solutions 1. Factors thatchosen, make athe language solution influential inside atthe something oval pointing in totally to different different ways forms of use of lingue - to its speakers. Rather
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