%0 Journal Article
%T ¡®Chicken and Duck Talk¡¯: Life and Death of Language Training at a Japanese Multinational in China
%A Chris Smith
%A Yu Zheng
%J Work, Employment and Society
%@ 1469-8722
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0950017017719008
%X This article examines social relations in language learning through a case study of two cohorts of Chinese workers in a Japanese multinational company (MNC). The two cohorts weigh learning Japanese in the context of internal and external opportunities, and pursue different strategies ¨C deliberative acquisition and deliberative opposition. Exploring the broader meanings of language learning beyond skill acquisition, the article suggests that language is more than an individual asset or a common code for workers to build collective power. Social reproduction of language is embedded in workers¡¯ choice of pathways for social mobility which was created in the social transition and has shifted over time in China. These findings make a contribution to the sociology of language training in work, by challenging structural and cultural theories that underplay the agency of workers in assessing language as a resource for labour power development
%K cohort analysis
%K cultural control
%K Japanese multinationals
%K labour agency
%K labour process
%K language training at work
%K skill training
%K social mobility in China
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017017719008