Overheard in Therapy: An Analysis of a Language Aware Encounter

University of Eastern Finland DRDHum 2024 Conference Submission69 Authors

Keywords: Language Management Theory

TL;DR: Linguistic insecurity can be controlled through strategies like "language barrier management".

Abstract:

This paper analyses a one-time therapy session with a bilingual and a monolingual client, and the therapist
doubling as the interpreter. The data come from a publicly available recording. Given the nature of
therapeutic work, the therapist’s office should be a language aware environment by default. Drawing from
Conversation Analysis, the study focuses on mitigating the linguistic insecurity of the monolingual client.
Although the group agree on ground rules, the interaction reveals the difficulties of implementing an ideal
language aware encounter. Although promising in the beginning, the interaction soon ruptures, as the
monolingual participant finds themselves excluded. The rapture in communication leads to adjusting the
practice of interpreting from treating the recipient as a completely monolingual, passive and separated from
the source language message to engaging them to interact with the source language and co-create the
interpretation. Despite being relatively short, the therapy session offers versatile material to evaluate the
success of language aware practices. Since the participants make active efforts to make their conversation
inclusive, one may extract from their strategies universal tips and guidelines for addressing linguistic
asymmetry elsewhere.

Submission Number: 69