Second Language Socialization in Construction Engineering in Hong Kong: The Transition from Academic to Professional Contexts

Abstract

English is one of the two official languages in Hong Kong. The British colonial historical and socioeconomic context of Hong Kong means that English remains as the predominant language for communication in the workplace, particularly in relation to written communication. The ability to use English effectively in work-related communication is therefore vital for young professionals to succeed in the workplace.

The workplace is a context where newcomers often feel challenged when socializing into new discourse systems and work practices. In the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) context in Hong Kong, few studies have been conducted to record the socialization process of young professionals entering the workplace. This study aimed to investigate the English language socialization process of novice construction engineers in Hong Kong. The investigation focused on the workplace English language demands faced by engineering graduates and how they gradually developed English professional communicative skills in the workplace.

This study adopted a qualitative approach, using a multiple-case study design. Ten novice construction engineers who undertook an on-the-job training program (Scheme A) as well as two experienced engineer tutors assigned to the novice engineers were recruited in the study. Data were collected over a 12-month period through multiple sources including semi-structured interviews, written texts, and site observations.

The study deployed an integrated theoretical framework inspired by Artemeva’s (2008) study which includes Genre Theory (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993), Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987, 1999; Leontiev, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978) and theories of Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1990) to investigate the workplace learning processes of novice engineering graduates. The findings reported an overview of workplace activities and communicative events in which the informants engaged in the workplace. It also provided an in-depth multi-perspective analysis of a professional genre; namely, the Training Logbook Entry genre. This genre was produced by the informants during their training period, demonstrating English language use in their professional context. In addition, a comparison was made of the textual data produced by three focal informants, purposely selected from three stages of writing process (i.e., early, mid, and late). Interviews were subsequently conducted to examine the informants’ perceptions of the changes in their genre-writings throughout the training period. Finally, the findings elucidated the process of how the novice informants were socialized into the workplace over time.

This study observed that the language socialization process of novice informants was dependent on the dynamic interrelationships among a category of contextual factors. It further proposes a conceptual framework of the workplace language socialization process that comprises the interaction of three variables: (1) the affordances provided by the company; (2) the dynamics and interactions with the facilitator and the more experienced peers in the workplace; and (3) the personal disposition of the learner which includes investment in the learning activities and individual language literacy. Implications are drawn from this study and future pedagogical suggestions for both the professional institution and for academia are made.

Date of Award	12 Sept 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Christoph HAFNER (Supervisor)