Students

LING3381 – Language and Culture in the Workplace

2022 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Maria Herke
maria.herke@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
40cps at 2000 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit focuses on three main topics: 1) intercultural communication and pragmatic understanding, 2) critical analysis of institutional discourse, and 3) ethnographic description of organisational structures and how linguistic evidence can inform an understanding of workplace/institutional culture. During this unit you will learn how to analyse spoken and written texts according to multiple theoretical frameworks of discourse analysis and develop the tools necessary to critically evaluate workplace structures and practices. The skills and knowledge gained in this unit are applicable in careers focused on solving communication problems between different cultures, or in researching and recommending communication strategies in organisations. Completing this unit will open your eyes to the way in which workplaces and other institutions propagate social inequalities, and provide you with the tools to challenge this.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Apply ethnographic methods and linguistic analysis to develop an understanding of how a workplace or other institution constructs an organisational culture.
  • ULO2: Critically evaluate discourses of power within institutional and organisational contexts.
  • ULO3: Develop organisational communication strategies that address social and cultural inequalities within a workplace or other institution.
  • ULO4: Communicate an analysis of workplace language and culture across written and spoken media.
  • ULO5: Use linguistic analysis of text and interaction to study cultural practice and identity within workplaces and other institutions.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Evaluation of communicative practices and strategies video presentation 20% No Week 9
Workplace Interaction Analysis Task 30% No Week 7
Lecture Engagement Activities 5% No Weekly
Workplace language and culture report 45% No Week 13

Evaluation of communicative practices and strategies video presentation

Assessment Type 1: Media presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 9
Weighting: 20%

 

You should choose a workplace or institution as the focus for this task. This should be your own workplace, or any institution with which you are familiar such as a university, a sports team or student society. Your objective is to develop a short (5 minute) presentation that evaluates the communicative practices and strategies used by the organisation you have chosen. The video presentation will be submitted online, and you will receive peer feedback on your video.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply ethnographic methods and linguistic analysis to develop an understanding of how a workplace or other institution constructs an organisational culture.
  • Develop organisational communication strategies that address social and cultural inequalities within a workplace or other institution.
  • Communicate an analysis of workplace language and culture across written and spoken media.
  • Use linguistic analysis of text and interaction to study cultural practice and identity within workplaces and other institutions.

Workplace Interaction Analysis Task

Assessment Type 1: Qualitative analysis task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 7
Weighting: 30%

 

For this assessment task, you will be provided with some workplace texts and spoken workplace interactions. You will choose either a text or an interaction to analyse. If you choose to analyse the interaction, you can use either a Conversational Analysis approach or an Interactional Sociolinguistics approach. If you choose the text, you will use a Critical Discourse Analysis Approach. More details about this task will be provided on iLearn.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Critically evaluate discourses of power within institutional and organisational contexts.
  • Communicate an analysis of workplace language and culture across written and spoken media.
  • Use linguistic analysis of text and interaction to study cultural practice and identity within workplaces and other institutions.

Lecture Engagement Activities

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 1.5 hours
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 5%

 

Embedded within the Echo360 slides accompanying each lecture are multiple-choice questions for you to answer which check your understanding of the content. The questions can be attempted multiple times and simply demonstrate that you have listened to the lecture and have understood the content.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Use linguistic analysis of text and interaction to study cultural practice and identity within workplaces and other institutions.

Workplace language and culture report

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 30 hours
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 45%

 

Building on the evaluation prepared in the video presentation, write a report on the workplace or institution you have chosen. You should focus on the way in which the language used in the workplace (as evidenced by textual artefacts) constructs a workplace culture contextualised by wider understandings of cultural and linguistic diversity.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply ethnographic methods and linguistic analysis to develop an understanding of how a workplace or other institution constructs an organisational culture.
  • Critically evaluate discourses of power within institutional and organisational contexts.
  • Develop organisational communication strategies that address social and cultural inequalities within a workplace or other institution.
  • Communicate an analysis of workplace language and culture across written and spoken media.
  • Use linguistic analysis of text and interaction to study cultural practice and identity within workplaces and other institutions.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Lectures and Seminars

This unit is taught by one pre-recorded lecture each week, uploaded to the iLearn page by Tuesday of each week, and one zoom seminar which takes place on a Wednesday (10-11am). The zoom seminar will begin in Week 2. Individual zoom appointments are also available thorughout the session (details on iLearn).

You should make sure you have viewed the lecture before coming to class. It will also contain participation quizzes for you to check your understanding. The completion of these counts towards your unit mark.

 

Required Textbook

Vine, Bernadette. (2020) Introducing Language in the Workplace. Cambridge: CUP.

Please buy a copy of this if you can. It is available as an e-book though amazon, but note that the library has been unable to source an electronic copy at the present time. All other readings will be made available via Leganto.

Unit Schedule

Provisional Schedule - note that this may be subject to change. Consult iLearn for the most up-to-date schedule.

Readings from the required textbook are listed.

Week

Recorded Lecture

Seminar

Textbook reading

1

Introduction to Language in the Workplace

Types of Workplace Talk

Ch.1 pp. 3-14

Ch. 2 pp. 15-21

2

Conversation Analysis & Interactional Sociolinguistics

Analysing Interaction

Ch2. pp. 22-44

3

Critical Discourse Studies & Multimodality

Analysing Discourse Critically

 

4

Directives and Requests at Work

Healthcare Discourse

Ch. 3 pp. 51-84

 

5

Humour and Narrative

Phatic Communion

Ch. 4 pp. 85-117

6

Conflict and Disagreement

Power and Identity

Ch. 5 pp. 119-156

7

Leadership and Organisational Structure

Leadership Emergence

Ch. 6 pp. 159-184

8

Gender

Challenging Gender Stereotypes

Ch. 7 pp. 185-209

9

Culture

Intercultural (mis)communication

Ch. 8 pp. 211-235

10

Taboo Language

The social (and institutional) functions of swearing

 

11

Video Presentations

Discussion of Video Presentations

 

12

Applications of Workplace Research

Working with workplaces

 

13

No class

No class

 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Changes since First Published

Date Description
20/02/2022 echo

Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook