Historical Body, Multimodality, Migrant Worker’s Language Learning, Accent, and Their Psychological Well-Being

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Historical Body, Multimodality, and Semiotic Perspectives (Table 17)

Abstract

This paper presents a case study on a participant from a large-scale ongoing ethnographic study. The paper explores Promi’s (pseudonym) language practices and interactions -a Muslim female migrant from Bangladesh working as a federal call centre agent in Western Canada. Promi’s non-native accent shapes her interactions with her callers and positions her as a non-legitimate speaker and incompetent agent, consequently blocking her access to participate in interactions and workplace communication with callers. This phenomenon shapes Promi’s language learning and her settlement experiences in Canada and affects her psychological well-being. Adopting the notion of historical body (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), I explore Promi’s ideologies and experiences and the multimodal practices that contributes to her construction of identity.

Author

• Shaila Shams, Simon Fraser University