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A Kaleidoscope of Languages: When and How Non-Native English Speakers Shift between English and Their Native Language during Multilingual Teamwork

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Multilingual teams often include subgroups of members who share a native language different from the team's common language. Linguistic choices by members of these subgroups can have implications for information exchange at the team level. We reported a field study of language use in 3 multilingual teams, each of which consisted of some native English speakers (NS) and some non-native English speakers (NNS) who shared a native language with at least one other team member. We found that NNS often shifted between English and their native language. The way language shift happened differed for formal meetings, informal conversations, and instant messaging. Language variation was often associated with shifts in content, participants, and communication medium. Further analysis indicated that language shift had both benefits and costs for team communication, depending on the context in which it happened. Based on these findings, we outline suggestions for designing multilingual collaboration systems.

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  • (2022)Improving Non-Native Speakers' Participation with an Automatic Agent in Multilingual GroupsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35675627:GROUP(1-28)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
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  • (2022)Communication Analysis through Visual Analytics: Current Practices, Challenges, and New Frontiers2022 IEEE Visualization in Data Science (VDS)10.1109/VDS57266.2022.00006(6-16)Online publication date: Oct-2022
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  1. A Kaleidoscope of Languages: When and How Non-Native English Speakers Shift between English and Their Native Language during Multilingual Teamwork

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      May 2017
      7138 pages
      ISBN:9781450346559
      DOI:10.1145/3025453
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      Published: 02 May 2017

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      Author Tags

      1. computer-supported cooperative work (cscw)
      2. diverse team
      3. language shift
      4. multilingual communication

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      View all
      • (2022)Improving Non-Native Speakers' Participation with an Automatic Agent in Multilingual GroupsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35675627:GROUP(1-28)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
      • (2022)Home-Life and Work Rhythm Diversity in Distributed Teamwork: A Study with Information Workers during the COVID-19 PandemicProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129426:CSCW1(1-23)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
      • (2022)Communication Analysis through Visual Analytics: Current Practices, Challenges, and New Frontiers2022 IEEE Visualization in Data Science (VDS)10.1109/VDS57266.2022.00006(6-16)Online publication date: Oct-2022
      • (2021)Understanding and Identifying Design Opportunities for Facilitating Humorous Interactions in Multilingual Multicultural ContextsExtended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411763.3451668(1-6)Online publication date: 8-May-2021
      • (2018)Beyond Lingua FrancaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/32743032:CSCW(1-22)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
      • (2018)"Only if you use English you will get to more things"Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3173574.3174147(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2018
      • (2018)Come TogetherExtended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3170427.3188595(1-6)Online publication date: 20-Apr-2018

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