Navigating language policies:International employees´ second language socialisation in a Danish state administration

This PhD thesis is based on an ethnographic single case study of the second language socialisation of highly educated, international employees in a workplace in the Danish state administration, the Danish Energy Agency. Due to the Danish Energy Agency's status as a state administration with close ties to the Danish central administration, it has a Danish language policy. As the workforce has traditionally consisted of native Danish-speakers since the Danish Energy Agency was established in 1976, working language was never in contention until recently. As a result of increased climate policy goals, global economic investments in renewable energy, and increased recruitment competition for talents, the Danish Energy Agency began recruiting international employees for their department, Global Cooperation, in 2017. For many of these employees, the Danish language policy in the workplace is associated with challenges and dilemmas, as several of the employees do not have any Danish language skills when they start. The purpose of the study is to investigate the employees' paths to become legitimate participants, ways to create a professional identity in Danish, and how this process takes place in close interplay with the workplace. The study draws on theories of second language socialisation and is based on empirical material from a year of fieldwork. Through in situ observations and interviews, I analyse a pattern of three stages in the employees' linguistic socialisation process that correspond to their first three years of employment. These stages form the framework for my analysis. In the process of becoming professional employees in Danish, the thesis focuses on how the employees socially navigate the organisation's language policy and how the organisation, native Danish-speaking management and colleagues are navigating in relation to them. I explore three aspects in this process: 1) investment in Danish language learning. 2) language use. 3) Performance of professional identity. My study demonstrates the many facets of what it means to know Danish in a specific work context, and how the paths to knowing Danish can take place. It also uncovers second language socialisation as a comprehensive process, which is due to the fact that learning Danish is learning to speak many kinds of Danish as well as knowing and navigating implicit pragmatic contexts in order to achieve a Danish-speaking professional identity.