Communicative Practices at Work

Reviews / Votes

This book offers a view of the exquisite complexity of the linguistic and interactional activities that create the mundane world of everyday work. Kleifgen crafts her analysis of multilingualism and multimodality in a high-tech workplace with the same care, precision and creativity as her subjects craft their circuit boards. It will stand as a landmark study for the fields of language in the workplace, workplace ethnography, and informal learning. -- Charlotte Linde, NASA Ames Research Center, USA In this brilliant and engaging study, Kleifgen does what few scholars of language and learning have done: show us how multiple languages and modes interact within a technology production site. With an ethnographic perspective, she provides a penetrating analysis of communication adaptivity in the fast-paced production of technological products. -- Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University, USA Educators interested in getting a deeper sense of the challenges and the rich range of opportunities that a multicultural setting provides, as well as linguists with particular interest in mutlimodality in high tech environments, will find in this book an enlightening contribution. Kleiifgen's research, theoretical framework, and thought provoking contributions to discourse anaylisis theories invites the audience to reflect on their own institutional settings and how literacy practices and linguistic choices are managed towards better performances. -- Mariana Montaldo, Head of Special Projects Department at Plan Ceibal, Uruguay * Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 46.1 *