Ethnic Categorization in Interviews in English As a Lingua Franca

The book looks into the in situ organization of ethnic and racial categorization in interviews in English as a lingua franca. It proposes the combined ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approach. The author shows that the negotiation of ethnic identity categories concerns stereotypes and evaluations included in ethnic categorization. She establishes that the ways of negotiating ethnic identity categories are largely systematic, which indicates that talk participants share the norms of construing ethnic identity categories and recognize preferred and dispreferred categorization. The book reveals that ambiguous categorial references are a special challenge for talk participants. Social types and groups are used not only to create but also to avoid prejudiced ethnic categorization.

Agnieszka Nowicka is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Her research focuses on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, communication in English as a lingua franca, English and Polish media discourse and teaching and learning English as a foreign language.