What's beyond language? Multimodal resources at work

The view of language within its spatial contexts has led to greater focus on the multimodal aspects of communication in a variety of contexts (Bucholtz & Hall, 2016; Norris, 2012; Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015; Blackledge & Creese,... [ view full abstract ]

The view of language within its spatial contexts has led to greater focus on the multimodal aspects of communication in a variety of contexts (Bucholtz & Hall, 2016; Norris, 2012; Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015; Blackledge & Creese, 2017). This colloquium examines how embodiment, language, and material objects operate as affordances for communication in workplace communication in a range of retail, business and service contexts. While a significant body of research has focused on workplace communication in which participants take part in communities of practice and use particular types of communication strategies (e.g., Ehrenreich, 2009; Holmes& Stubbe, 2015), researchers have not yet paid enough attention to the wider array of contexts in which communication is more fleeting, more translingual or multimodal. The study of multimodal interactions in brief service encounters as well as in workplace settings where employees have more enduring relationships will allow for a comparative understanding of how various semiotic affordances interact with language(s) among speakers with different degrees of familiarity with one another, and it will lead to a deeper understanding of “what’s beyond language” in communication, particularly among people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and in lingua franca settings. Starting with a spatial orientation, rather than language, we aim to understand how language works as part of a multimodal assemblage (Canagarajah, forthcoming; Deleuze & Guattari, 1974) in communication at work.