Pemberi pidato: Suresh Canagaraja(Applied Linguistics, English and Asian Studies at Penn State University)

Tanggal: 11, Mei, 2017 – Kamis

Waktu: 18:30-20:00

Tempat: Kamar 606, Perpustakaan, Kampus Hongkou

Bahasa: Inggris

Summary: In this presentation, I provide examples from my research with highly skilled migrants in English-dominant countries to demonstrate how they strategically use their local languages and English varieties in the transnational workplace. Such plurilingualism is possible because the global professional context is not homogeneous, constituting only native English speakers, even in traditionally English-dominant countries like UK, USA, or Australia. The global workplace is multinational and, therefore, plurilingual. There is evidence that even native English speakers in host communities are becoming comfortable with a linguistically plural workplace, prepared to negotiate different English dialects and diverse languages with their transnational colleagues. Such a practice goes against policy discourses that emphasize that skilled migrants must speak a single language (English) or a single variety of English (i.e., British or American English) for communicative and professional success. Skilled migrants seem to bring certain tacit skills that enable them to negotiate their difference effectively and resolve their identity conflicts. While the focus of policy makers in education, migration, and labor is on credentialized skills, we need to appreciate the tacit skills, dispositions, and values skilled migrants bring to the global workplace to facilitate language learning, knowledge circulation, and material development.

Speaker Biography: Suresh Canagarajah is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Applied Linguistics, English and Asian Studies at Penn State University. His recent publication Translingual Practice won AAAL’s inaugural best book award, in addition to the BAAL book prize and the MLA Shaughnessy Award. He is currently studying skilled migration in relation to neoliberal communicative policies and workplace practices. He is a former President of AAAL and editor of the TESOL Quarterly. Suresh had his education and started teaching in Sri Lanka, from where he was forced to flee the ethnic violence in 1994.