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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 30:1 (2020) ► pp.80–103

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Telling stories and sharing cultures for constructing identity and solidarity

A case of informal communication at a workplace

 | Georgia State University
Published online: 10 March 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.18046.lee
Abstract
This study investigates how immigrant workers construct their identities and social relations by telling stories in multilingual work environments. My main interest lies in naturally occurring and interactionally achieved stories, from the participants’ day-to-day interaction at a workplace. Data were collected from the informal interaction among employees at a nursing home in Honolulu. Positioning itself against studies that focus on linguistic competence of workers and potential problems of miscommunication and exclusion, this study highlights how employees draw upon shared cultural resources for a more inclusive interaction.
The analysis of multi-party storytelling shows the dynamic nature of the multilingual interaction, and how the participants achieve their interactional goals in their specific spatial contexts. It shows how the multilingualism varies in the local realization and how the participants put their efforts into finding common ground for belonging, achieving social inclusion, and negotiating mutual understanding with respect to their languages and cultures.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Workplaces, languages, and social relations
  • 3.The narrating world and small stories
  • 4.This study
    • 4.1Method
    • 4.2Participants
  • 5.Data analysis
    • 5.1Seeking shared grounds
    • 5.2Shared cultural resources: The case of kimchi
    • Recycled story structure: The case of a telephone call
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
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