To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ‘Issues in Applied Linguistics’ series, which is run as part of the Graduate Diploma/MA and Structured PhD in Applied Linguistics, we’ve invited speakers from our very first ‘Issues in Applied Linguistics’ series in 2015 to present again ten years on. Where relevant, the speakers will focus on developments in the field during the ten years.
The webinar series will take place on Microsoft Teams over the next seven weeks:
- 29 January - The use of Linguistic Landscape in Language Education
- 7 February - Setting a Good Example
- 12 February - Investigating Classroom Discourse and Interaction in English-medium Instruction (EMI) Contexts
- 19 February - Authenticity in Language Learning Materials: Where are we now?
- 26 February - ‘Writing Upwards’ in Letters by the Poor and Desperate, c.1770-1840
- 5 March - Using Corpora to Inform Teaching and Materials Development: A look 10 years later
- 12 March - Creativity and Communication
Details about how to join each webinar are available in the individual listings below.
Language and Creativity in Workplace Discourse
Language and Creativity in Workplace Discourse - Prof. Almut Koester, Vienna University of Economics and Business
- When: 1pm, Wednesday 12 March
Abstract: Language and Creativity in Workplace Discourse
Creativity is highly valued not only in the arts, but also in business and other domains of professional practice. While in business studies, the focus is on the practical value of creativity, such as fostering innovation, an applied linguistics perspective is interested in creative uses of language and discourse without necessarily considering concrete outcomes. Drawing on both perspectives, this talk explores language and creativity in workplace discourse, addressing some of the following questions:
- What role does communication play in creativity?
- What methods can be used to explore workplace creativity?
- What is the relationship between linguistic creativity and workplace creativity?
- What role does creativity play in professional practice?
To answer these questions, I will draw on case studies from a range of workplaces and organisational settings, such as corporate settings, start-ups and the service sector, for example care homes for the elderly. These case studies show that creativity is different in each community of practice and that various factors and constraints can promote or hinder or creativity.
Biography - Prof. Almut Koester
Almut Koester is Full Professor of English Business Communication at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and, before that, was Senior Lecturer in English Language at the University of Birmingham in England. She is author of The Language of Work (2004), Investigating Workplace Discourse (2006), Workplace Discourse (2010), Language and Creativity at Work (2024). Her research focuses on spoken workplace discourse and business corpora, and her publications have examined genre, modality, relational language, vague language, idioms, conflict talk and creativity. She is interested in practical applications of research findings to teaching in the areas of Business Studies and Business English.
