SECTION 4 Linguistic prejudice, privilege and power

  • Working with clients’ and practitioners’ experiences of linguistic prejudice, privilege and power

The film for this section can be found at https://vimeo.com/469803097

EXERCISE
In the film you have just watched, Frankie says: I have experience of lots of people with strong accents – and not just foreign accents either. But Scottish accents and Geordie accents. I can understand you as well as them.

  1. Is there any difference between the experience of someone who speaks English with a regional British accent and someone with a foreign accent?
  2. What do you think about this statement by someone with a foreign accent: I feel like I don’t have an automatic right to be understood?
  3. What do you think Malik means by “audio-racism”?
  4. Some commentators like David Crystal, talk about the global power of a language like English. How might linguistic privilege contribute to the power differentials experienced by Malik and ignored/dismissed by Frankie?
  5. What do you do with your own sense of privilege, as a therapist?
  6. What can you say to address the power imbalance specifically around language?
Here is a suggestion from a therapist. What do you think of it?  
“I like to try to acknowledge the power differential. I say something like: at the moment it will probably feel like you are making all the effort. You are speaking in my first language. I’m not speaking in yours. What does that feel like?

EXTENSION using Other Tongues
On p.25 you will see a list of practical suggestions for working therapeutically with multilingualism. Which of the listed prompts and questions might you incorporate into an assessment?
Reference
Crystal, D. (2003) English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486999

Last modified: Monday, 1 February 2021, 9:24 AM