The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the reflection carried out within the AILA2023 symposium devoted to shared languages, by elaborating on their three dimensions, namely "shared languages as tools and results of a negotiation process and the interplay between key drivers" and as "facilitators of communication and mutual learning to solve socially relevant problems" (Whitehouse et al. 2021: 12-14). Building on these dimensions, this proposal aims at developing perspectives for the study of professional fields in order to capture what Florence Mourlhon-Dallies has defined as "the logic of professions" (Mourlhon-Dallies 2008) through the analysis of professional narratives.
This approach implies that, in a professional specialized context, professional discourse and expertise are intrinsically intertwined, as professional discourse appears as a declination of professional skills and competence. French-speaking researchers in language sciences have tackled this issue by focusing on the "linguistic part of work" (Boutet 2001). Then this proposal will also be part of a broader reflection on the place of writing and literacy in the professional worlds (Lillis & McKinney 2013). Indeed professional writing is gaining prominence, due to the evolution of economic activities, with the development of digital activities and methods of monitoring and quality control (professional writing is indeed directly involved in the standardization and codification of professional discourse). Researchers in applied linguistics are therefore led to question the status of professional autoethnographic and autobiographical narratives: Are they relevant objects for research? Are the data we gather reliable to analyze professional worlds, especially as they take part in the discursive component of professional expertise (Wozniak 2019)?
In order to answer these questions, the analysis will be developed in three distinct points: the study of professional communities as discursive communities, related to specific professional specialized fields, that of the narratives themselves as scientific objects and finally, following a more reflexive point of view, the study of autobiographical and biographical narratives in professional identities' construction processes.
Boutet, Josiane. (2001). La part langagière du travail : bilan et évolutions. Langage et Société 98, 17–42.
Lillis, Theresa & Carolyn McKinney. (2013). The sociolinguistics of writing in a global context: Objects, lenses, consequences. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17(4), 425–439.
Mourlhon-Dallies, Florence. (2008). Enseigner une langue à des fins professionnelles. Les Éditions Didier.
Whitehouse, M., H. Rahm & S. Wozniak (ed.). (2021). Developing Shared Languages. The fundamentals of mutual learning and problem solving in transdisciplinary collaboration: Introduction. AILA Review 34(1), 1–18.
Wozniak, S. (2019). Approche ethnographique des langues spécialisées professionnelles. Peter Lang.
