SECTION 1 Linguistic agency and justice
- The socio-political implications of using English as the lingua franca in therapy and counselling. These include power differentials, colonial legacies, linguistic privilege, linguistic agency and linguistic justice
The video for this section can be found at https://vimeo.com/469810073
DISCUSSION
Frankie is surprised at the violence of Malik’s image of tearing out his tongue. Have you ever heard a similar sentiment expressed by a foreign language speaker? What do you think of Malik’s reaction?
Malik talks specifically about his accent. Accents in English reveal a lot about a person such as where they are from, their social class and where they learned English. Accents can be an indicator of insider or outsider status. In 2019 Melissa Paquette-Smith conducted research into accents with children aged 5 and 6 years old. She found that the children tended to choose their friends according to how they spoke (if they had a shared accent for instance). Accents and our relationships with them are also highly personal. Addressing judgements and discrimination on the basis of accent is a sensitive and delicate business.
What about your accent in English? What does it say about you?
Frankie is surprised at the violence of Malik’s image of tearing out his tongue. Have you ever heard a similar sentiment expressed by a foreign language speaker? What do you think of Malik’s reaction?
Malik talks specifically about his accent. Accents in English reveal a lot about a person such as where they are from, their social class and where they learned English. Accents can be an indicator of insider or outsider status. In 2019 Melissa Paquette-Smith conducted research into accents with children aged 5 and 6 years old. She found that the children tended to choose their friends according to how they spoke (if they had a shared accent for instance). Accents and our relationships with them are also highly personal. Addressing judgements and discrimination on the basis of accent is a sensitive and delicate business.
What about your accent in English? What does it say about you?
Exercise
How might you address anxiety about accents with a client? If you don’t address the accent issue, can you explain why not and what the positive or negative outcomes of your decision might be?
I might need to check with you from time to time because I want to make sure I understand everything as fully as possible. What you are saying is important and I don’t want to miss it. How do you feel about that?
How could you improve on that response?
Malik says: I now have to do a special English class before I can submit my PhD.
Malik feels insulted and humiliated. Some people, whose English is not as good as Malik’s, might also feel infantilised by not having mastery of the language.
How might you address anxiety about accents with a client? If you don’t address the accent issue, can you explain why not and what the positive or negative outcomes of your decision might be?
- What might you say to a client who says: I hate the way I speak. I wish I could tear out my stupid foreign sounding tongue.
- What might you say if you could not understand a client, who is a fluent speaker of English as an additional language, because of their accent? Write out your answer and then compare it with the response below.
I might need to check with you from time to time because I want to make sure I understand everything as fully as possible. What you are saying is important and I don’t want to miss it. How do you feel about that?
How could you improve on that response?
Malik says: I now have to do a special English class before I can submit my PhD.
Malik feels insulted and humiliated. Some people, whose English is not as good as Malik’s, might also feel infantilised by not having mastery of the language.
Jean-Marc Dewaele is a Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London, UK. This is what he has to say about linguistic agency.
Since we present ourselves through language, it can be unsettling, delegitimising and disempowering to suddenly be reduced to do so in a partially mastered foreign language that does not allow us to project an accurate representation of our sophisticated thoughts and emotions.
1.What do you think about Jean-Marc’s statement?
2. How might this impact on how old a person might feel when they speak different languages?
3. What is the relevance of that to psychological therapy? Do you think you could ask a question like: “How old do you feel when you speak in language X?”
How might that be or not be a useful question?
4. What might you do differently in practice, as a result of this exercise?
Since we present ourselves through language, it can be unsettling, delegitimising and disempowering to suddenly be reduced to do so in a partially mastered foreign language that does not allow us to project an accurate representation of our sophisticated thoughts and emotions.
1.What do you think about Jean-Marc’s statement?
2. How might this impact on how old a person might feel when they speak different languages?
3. What is the relevance of that to psychological therapy? Do you think you could ask a question like: “How old do you feel when you speak in language X?”
How might that be or not be a useful question?
4. What might you do differently in practice, as a result of this exercise?
EXTENSION using Other Tongues
For more about linguistic agency, go to pages 12 to 14. What do you think about Khin’s assertion that “there is no word for perfectionism in her home language”?
For more about linguistic agency, go to pages 12 to 14. What do you think about Khin’s assertion that “there is no word for perfectionism in her home language”?
References
Dewaele, J.-M. (2018) Pragmatic challenges in the communication of emotions in intercultural couples. Intercultural Pragmatics, 15(1), 29–55.
Paquette-Smith, M., Buckler, H., White, K.S., Choi, J. and Johnson, E.K. (2019) ‘The Effect of Accent Exposure on Children’s Sociolinguistic Evaluation of Peers’, Developmental Psychology, 55(4), pp. 809-822. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000659
Dewaele, J.-M. (2018) Pragmatic challenges in the communication of emotions in intercultural couples. Intercultural Pragmatics, 15(1), 29–55.
Paquette-Smith, M., Buckler, H., White, K.S., Choi, J. and Johnson, E.K. (2019) ‘The Effect of Accent Exposure on Children’s Sociolinguistic Evaluation of Peers’, Developmental Psychology, 55(4), pp. 809-822. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000659
Last modified: Thursday, 28 January 2021, 1:16 PM