33.3020, Calls: Sociolinguistics/Belgium
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LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3020. Tue Oct 04 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 33.3020, Calls: Sociolinguistics/Belgium
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Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2022 07:50:02
From: Marie Jacobs [m.jacobs at ugent.be]
Subject: Research involving languages you don’t speak: Reflections on ‘spaces of linguistic non-understanding’
Full Title: Research involving languages you don’t speak: Reflections on ‘spaces of linguistic non-understanding’
Date: 09-Jul-2023 - 14-Jul-2023
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Contact Person: Marie Jacobs
Meeting Email: m.jacobs at ugent.be
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Call Deadline: 01-Nov-2022
Meeting Description:
Colleagues are warmly welcome to submit abstracts for the panel described
below, to be held at the next IPrA conferences in Brussels, Belgium, 9-14 July
2023 (https://pragmatics.international/page/Brussels2023).
Research involving languages you don’t speak: Reflections on ‘spaces of
linguistic non-understanding’
In the current era of superdiversity, many sociolinguists and applied
linguists aim to study phenomena related to multilingualism and language
diversity. With this panel, we aim to encourage reflection regarding the
methodological/epistemological/ethical difficulties and opportunities of doing
qualitative research that involves languages the scholar does not have any (or
only limited) knowledge of.
To facilitate this discussion, we draw on the concept of “spaces of linguistic
non-understanding” (spaces of LNU), i.e. “instances in which the researcher,
while collecting and/or analysing data, encounters (stretches of) interaction
which unfold in languages outside their own repertoire” (van Hest & Jacobs,
forthcoming). This phenomenon concerns stretches of talk or text which the
researcher observes but cannot understand. The presence of such spaces of LNU
can be tangible during data collection (e.g. when conducting participant
observation of interpreter-mediated service encounters, when asking interview
questions with the help of an interpreter) and/or analysis (e.g. when
consulting a translator to help process data). Spaces of LNU are not
necessarily limited to speech, but can also take the shape of written
materials, such as signage in public spaces.
Although spaces of LNU are - in the first instance - incomprehensible, they do
shape the researcher’s understanding of the situation at hand. This is
challenging with regards to the status of the knowledge generated in the
research project: conducting research that involves spaces of LNU renders
researchers vulnerable to illusions of (mis)understanding. This panel is,
however, not only interested in the pitfalls of working with multilingual data
or in the measures taken to gain analytical control over such linguistic
sequences, but it also aims to explore the analytical opportunities which such
research projects entail. For example, it can be an insightful position from
which to approach the emic perspective of research participants with
linguistic repertoires similar to that of the researcher. We thus aim to
discuss questions such as: How to make sense of encounters which involve
locally incomprehensible stretches of talk? How to build rapport with research
participants you have no language in common with? How to ensure the accuracy
of our data when working with translated transcripts? How to deal justly with
information revealed only post-hoc and inaccessible in the moment of data
collection? And how do we theorise these spaces of LNU in a contextualised
manner that does not perpetuate existing, societal inequalities?
Our goal is to fuel the scholarly debate on how to conduct research in the
current age of globalisation. As many research settings are increasingly
characterised by the presence of multilingualism, researchers cannot shy away
from linguistically diverse realities but do need theoretical grounding and
methodological tools to capture and investigate everyday realities.
van Hest, E., & Jacobs, M. (forthcoming). Spaces of linguistic
non-understanding in linguistic ethnographic research: Analytical pitfalls and
opportunities. In M. Victoria (Ed.), Researching Transculturally:
Methodological Issues and Challenges. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Call for Papers:
We welcome submissions from sociolinguistics, interpreting studies,
(institutional) ethnography, (linguistic) anthropology, discourse analysis and
related fields. Panel contributions are expected to be oral presentations of
20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Upon abstract submission to
the IPrA website, please indicate the panel your submission is intended for.
Abstracts should be 250-500 words long. The deadline for abstract submission
is 1 November 2022.
Feel free to contact the organisers with questions or expressions of interest!
Marie Jacobs (Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent
University), m.jacobs at ugent.be
Ella van Hest (Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication,
Ghent University), ella.vanhest at ugent.be
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