The Management of Multilingualism in Institutional Sites

The object of the present investigation is to undertake ethnographic studies at three sites: a non-governmental organization dedicated to adult education, a public hospital, and a multinational company based in Spain. The specific objectives of this project are: a) to establish the multilingual practices (the distribution of languages) in each institution, b) to analyze and characterize multilingual interactions and the strategies adopted to negotiate meaning as well as language diversity; c) to study the role of English in a global world and in particular how it works as a lingua franca in the three sites; d) to propose a model to manage linguistic diversity; e) to contribute to improving knowledge about sociolinguistic changes in Spain. The object of this project is to make a theoretical contribution that will help us to better understand the role of language in the new economy of services. It seeks to provide an understanding how different ways of being and practicing multilingualism acquire value in the local linguistic markets