Authors: Gabriela Meier & Esther Styger
In Switzerland, two thirds of young people choose a vocational programme (WBF, 2017) rather than academic-focussed education. In the neighbouring Duchy of Liechtenstein this is about half (Landesverwaltung Fürstentum Liechtenstein, 2021). From international research at management level and in the international trade, we know that multilingualism is often viewed as human capital and an asset, but has also found to act as a potential barrier regarding team work for instance. However, research also shows that we know very little about language development and use in technical trades - and vocational programmes are severely under-researched as far as languages are concerned (Coray & Duchêne 2017).
We have addressed this gap, by examining the linguistic socialisation of trade and technical apprentices enrolled in a vocational college in Eastern Switzerland, where German dialects are the predominant mode of communication. In order to learn more about this context, we collected 674 survey responses and conducted 11 interviews with apprentices in eleven technical professions, such as masons, electricians, mechanics, as well as hairdressers. They attend a Swiss college at the border to Liechtenstein, thus their work places are located on either side of this border. We interpreted insights on the learner perspective together with data collected during discussions and via a survey with academics, employers, teachers, apprentices and other stakeholders in vocational education.
In this talk we will present our quantitative and qualitative findings related to apprentices' perceptions and experiences regarding language learning and using, satisfaction with current language learning opportunities, experiences related to multilingualism and relationships at work, as well as attitudes to multilingualism at work.
Initial findings show that the participants in our study have 42 nationalities, and they can use 56 languages and varieties at different levels of proficiency, thus constituting a very international and multilingual group. Our findings further suggest that a majority of apprentices are interested in learning an additional language in the future, but that language learning opportunities at present (at college, at work and privately) are distributed rather unevenly. Those who are exposed to more than one language at work mediate and translate between languages to enable communication and social interaction. Alternatively, some say that they are not exposed to languages much and feel German, or dialect, is enough for their work. A small proportion feel language barriers can be related to potential exclusion at work.
Taking other stakeholder perspectives into consideration, we will unpack these results in our talk and draw conclusions for practice, policy and research.
Funder: m-voc project is co-funded by movetia, Berufs- und Weiterbildungszentrum Buchs Sargans, University of Exeter
website: https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/m-voc
References:
Corary, R. & Duchêne (2017). Mehrsprachigkeit und Arbeitswelt: Literaturübersicht. Wissenschaftliches Kompetenzzentrum für Mehrsprachigkeit, Universität Fribourg.
Landesverwaltung Fürstentum Liechtenstein (2021) Satistikportal: Bildungsverläufe https://www.statistikportal.li/de/themen/bildung/bildungsverlaeufe
WBF (2017). Förderung des Fremdsprachenerwerbs in der beruflichen Grundbildung. Eidgenössisches Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung WBF.
