7 Working with NGOs
Linguistic Landscapes works with a variety of organisations, including NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and charities. In the last part of the interview, Gill talks about work she has done with such ‘third sector’ organisations.
Activity 7 Interview with Gill Ereaut part 3
Listen to the rest of the interview with Gill, where she talks about why her work benefits such organisations in particular. What makes linguistic analysis particularly powerful in the context of NGOs?
Discussion
Gill describes how charities and NGOs already tend to be aware of the power of language and often know that it can reveal assumptions and attitudes. They often require large-scale analyses of general language (discourse) around a particular topic in order to better gauge where society as a whole stands on an issue. In addition, they tend to have relatively small decision-making teams that are open to more innovative approaches.
In the interview, Gill gives the example of her work with a leading UK disabilities charity and the way in which she and her colleagues were able to find alternative and powerful ways of talking about disability, as exemplified in the Channel 4 comedy series The Last Leg. The first series ran in 2012, offering an alternative view of the Summer Paralympics. Ever since it has regularly aired as a weekly look at events in the news, with a humorous take.
OpenLearn - Language in professional life
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.