ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Uppsala Studies in Education No 139 Janne Kontio Auto Mechanics in English Language Use and Classroom Identity Work Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Bertil Hammer, 24:K104, von Kraemers Allé 1A, Uppsala, Thursday, 9 June 2016 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Helga Kotthoff (University of Freiburg). Abstract Kontio, J. 2016. Auto Mechanics in English. Language Use and Classroom Identity Work. Uppsala Studies in Education 139. 97 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9591-6. This is a compilation thesis consisting of three different articles with the purpose to explore the relationships between language practices, identity construction and learning in the context of the Vehicle Program, a vocational program in Swedish upper secondary schools. A feature of the particular setting studied here that sets it apart from the general education of auto mechanics in Sweden is that it was carried out in English. The study focuses on language practices within a community of practice where the norms for second language use, gender arrangements and identity work are negotiated in conversations between students and between students and teachers. The language practices are considered as talk-in-interaction, and identity construction and learning are understood as processes in socially situated activities. The study was conducted through an ethnographic approach, including observation, field notes, approximately 200 hours of video recorded interactions, and interviews with students and teachers. The recorded interactions were analysed using tools from conversational analysis and methods focusing on linguistic activities and interactional patterns. An eclectic approach combining linguistic ethnography, ethnometodological conversation analysis and socio-cultural theory of learning, in particular the concept of communities of practice, form the basis of the theoretical framework. The findings in study I highlight that language alternations are repeatedly used in the workshop as a meta-language to play around with language, which relates to emerging communicative strategies that also produces – and helps contest – local language norms. Study III suggests that teasing in students’ peer relations are not only disruptive, off-task behavior, thereby rendering them important only from a classroom management perspective. Teasing, this study proposes, should rather be seen as an organizing principle by which the students are able to position themselves in relation to an institutionally established language ideology. Study II focuses on how participants invoke and renegotiate conventional forms of masculinity tied to the ability of handling tools. Such micro-processes illuminate how gender is a constantly shifting social category that is done, redone and possibly undone. The findings suggest that new forms of auto mechanic student identities are formed that challenge current dominant discourses about what a mechanic should be. Keywords: Classroom Discourse, English Medium Instruction, Ethnomethodology, Identity Work, Linguistic Ethnography, Social Interaction, Vocational Education Janne Kontio, Department of Education, Box 2136, Uppsala University, SE-750 02 Uppsala, Sweden. © Janne Kontio 2016 ISSN 0347-1314 ISBN 978-91-554-9591-6 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-286859 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-286859) To Marie, Edith & Essi List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I Kontio, J., Sylvén, L-K. (2015) Language Alternation and Language Norm in Vocational Content and Language Integrated Learning. The Language Learning Journal, 43 (3): 271–285 II Kontio, J., Evaldsson, A-C. (2015) ‘Last year we used to call it a Man’s Hammer’ – (un)Making Gender and Materiality Relevant in Vocational Education. Norma, 10 (1): 20–38 III Kontio, J. (submitted) Making Fun of Language Use: Teasing Prac- tices and hybrid language forms in auto mechanic student peer inter- actions. Reprints were made with permission from the respective publishers. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction and aims .................................................................. 15 Men in blue ............................................................................................... 15 Studying language use and identity work in vocational education practices .................................................................................................... 17 Aims and research questions .................................................................... 19 A brief outline of the thesis ...................................................................... 21 Chapter 2 : Theoretical framework - language and identities in practice ..... 22 Social interactional approaches to identities and language use in practice ................................................................................................. 22 Linguistic Ethnography as an umbrella framework ................................. 24 Language ideologies and languaging ....................................................... 25 Ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approaches to identity work ......................................................................................... 27 Approaching everyday identity work in a gendered community of practice in vocational education ........................................................... 29 Chapter 3 : Vocational education in English ................................................. 33 Teaching in English in a Vehicle Program ............................................... 33 English as a global language of education ................................................ 35 Content and language integrated learning ................................................ 36 Research on CLIL classrooms .................................................................. 38 CLIL in a Swedish context ....................................................................... 39 Studies of language use and identity work in Vocational Education ....... 41 Chapter 4 : The Vehicle Program .................................................................. 44 The educational practice and its participants ............................................ 44 Everyday schooling practice: spatial and gender arrangements ............... 46 The use of English on a typical school day .............................................. 48 Chapter 5 : Video ethnography and data ....................................................... 51 Introducing the methodological framework ............................................. 51 Advantages and limitations of using video in ethnographic research ...... 52 The use of video in ethnomethodological research .................................. 53 Gaining access to the field ........................................................................ 55 Ethical considerations ............................................................................... 57 Members’ perspective versus the Analyst perspective ............................. 57 Analytical procedures ............................................................................... 59 Analysing video sequences using ethnographic knowledge ..................... 62 Chapter 6 : Summary of studies .................................................................... 67 Study I ....................................................................................................... 67 Study II ..................................................................................................... 68 Study III .................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 7 : Concluding discussion ................................................................ 71 Language ideology and language norms .................................................. 71 Gender arrangements and gender norms .................................................. 73 Language use and identity work as social practices ................................. 74 Contributions of this thesis ....................................................................... 75 Svensk sammanfattning ................................................................................. 77 Introduktion och syfte ............................................................................... 77 Teoretiska och metodologiska utgångspunkter ........................................ 79 Avhandlingens studier .............................................................................. 79 Studie I ...................................................................................................... 79 Studie II .................................................................................................... 80 Studie III ................................................................................................... 81 Avslutande diskussion .............................................................................. 82 References ..................................................................................................... 85 Appendix A) Transcription key ..................................................................... 97 Acknowledgements Jag är i skogen födder bland berg och sjöar blå. Sedan så blev jag nödder att bo vid Fyris å. Må kornet, rågen på slätten frodas än så