Call for Papers: Language Policy issue on call centers

[Tariq Rahman]

                    ENGLISH IN THE CALL CENTRES OF PAKISTAN
  English is endowed with linguistic capital everywhere in Pakistan but not as much as in the transnational call centres of this country. Moreover, whereas in other jobs it is writing which is valued, in the call centres speaking skills have the highest marketability. Two types of accents are learned, the British and the American after a course specifically designed to teach them. Although this is called 'neutralization' of accent, it is actually a change of accent to hide one's foreign identity. Names too are changed for the same reason so that the young people working in these centres have Anglo-Saxon names generally in an abbreviated form. The study is carried out in the call centres of Islamabad though some call centres in Rawalpindi have also been studied. Questionnaires were filled out by the workers in the centres on the spot; managers and workers were interviewed and the researcher also  observed the taking and making of calls as well as the way English is taught in
 the call centres.
  TARIQ RAHMAN Ph.D
  Distinguished Professor
  Quaid-i-Azam University
  Islamabad
  Pakistan.
  Dear Professor King,
  My abstract is attached. The articlel will reach you before the deadline.
  Tariq Rahman

Kendall King <akk25 at georgetown.edu> wrote:
    CALL FOR PAPERS: LANGUAGE POLICY SPECIAL ISSUE
  

  Call centers: Language policy and language ideology in action
  

  The journal Language Policy (edited by Elana Shohamy and Kendall
  King) welcomes original research papers for an upcoming special issue
  of the journal on language policy, ideology, and interaction in call
  centers around the world. As international business, out-sourcing,
  and globalization have intensified in recent years, call centers have
  emerged as a major and dynamic sites of regulated talk. This special
  issue of Language Policy will explore how such talk is restricted,
  invented, and negotiated in the workplace and the broader
  implications for language policy, education and society. We welcome
  papers that document and analyze language policies in call centers
  and/or consider the wider implications of these phenomena for
  language policy, ideology, and use.
  

  Deadlines and dates:
  September 1, 2007: Submission of 250-word paper abstract (send to
  akk25 at georgetown.edu)
  January 1, 2008: Submission of full paper for regular, external peer
  review (submit online through website).
  

  Please contact the editors directly with any questions.
  Please see the journal website for more details about Language Policy.
  http://www.springer.com/west/home/generic/search/results?
  SGWID=4-40109-70-35756061-0
  

  PLEASE FORWARD TO ANY POTENTIALLY INTERESTED PARTIES. THANK YOU!
  

  *****************************************************
  Kendall King
  http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/akk25/
  ******************************************************
  

  




       
---------------------------------
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20070924/67cd125e/attachment.htm>