Task Instruction and Repair in Multilingual Communication on Construction Sites

Beschreibung

Drawing on a dataset of currently 9 hours of video recordings from four construction sites of a mid-sized steel construction company operating in Germany, this paper examines how foremen instruct workers in multilingual construction teams.
The preliminary inspection of the collected data aligns with previous research. It confirms that the interactions on construction sites are mostly task-related and material-driven, involving verbal language and gestures, pointing, and the handling of tools. Furthermore, directives are central components of construction work, as foremen must provide precise, sequenced instructions to ensure that the assembly work is done safely, on time, and in accordance with the contractual requirements (Lilja et al., 2024; Lilja et al., 2025; Urbanik, 2021; Urbanik, 2024). Additionally, linguistic asymmetries — particularly, limited German proficiency among some workers — can create challenges in achieving intersubjectivity.
Based on these observations, my paper examines how foremen instruct workers with limited or no German proficiency. I will use Multimodal Conversation Analysis (Mondada, 2019) to explore how foremen and workers mobilize verbal, embodied, and material resources to issue and respond to instructions. The analysis focuses on instances where repair practices or language brokering are necessary to resolve interactional trouble, and contrasts these with cases where mutual understanding seems to be achieved seamlessly.
By examining the interactional challenges linguistically diverse teams pose in blue-collar workplaces, the study contributes to research on intercultural professional communication (Kahlin et al., 2022; Svennevig, 2018; Theodoropoulou, 2020). It also adds to CA research by showing how multimodal resources, including material resources, support mutual understanding in multilingual workplace environments (Goodwin, 2017).
Keywords: workplace interaction, directives, multimodal conversation analysis, repair, language brokering, construction sites, blue-collar workplace, intercultural communication.

Zeitraum	4 Dez. 2025
Ereignistitel	Nordisco: ordic Interdisciplinary Conference on Discourse and Interaction
Veranstaltungstyp	Konferenz
Konferenznummer	8
Ort	Trondheim, NorwegenAuf Karte anzeigen
Bekanntheitsgrad	International