Open AccessWhen Local Meets Global: How Introducing English Destabilizes Translanguaging Practices in a Cross-Border Organization
Author(s) -
Hélène Langinier,
Sabine Ehrhart
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
management international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1918-9222
pISSN - 1206-1697
DOI - 10.7202/1072643ar
Subject(s) - translanguaging , multinational corporation , german , local language , hierarchy , vernacular , construct (python library) , linguistics , situated , sociology , business , multilingualism , foreign language , political science , computer science , artificial intelligence , pedagogy , philosophy , finance , law , programming language
Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach combining linguistics and International Business, we suggest that global and local dynamics interact to co-construct specific language practices in an MNC subsidiary situated in a cross-border territory. We show how introducing a foreign language can modify the benefits that these local multilingual practices generate. Employees revert to translanguaging: They combine all their language knowledge, French, German and local vernacular, to make themselves understood. These specific local language practices have an inclusive role that enables low-level employees in the hierarchy to play a linking role between the multinational company subsidiary and its headquarters in Germany.