Brokering language, brokering identity: Language brokering and linguistic identity in Kurdish families

These slides were presented by Kate Ferguson, from Heriot-Watt University, at the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating 2024 (Word Springs) on 21 May 2024. For more information about the event, please visit https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco/events/springschool/

1. Brokering language, brokering identity
Language brokering and linguistic identity in Kurdish families
Kate Ferguson | CTISS | Heriot Watt University
UNESCO-RILA Spring School 2024: Word Springs
21 May 2024

2. Research focus
šLived experiences of
language brokering
šPerceptions of
linguistic identity

3. Language brokering
Translation & cultural mediation within the family
➾➾➾

4. Institutional settings
šmedical appointments
šhospitals
šasylum interviews
šschools
Everyday tasks
šfilling in forms
šanswering the telephone
štranslating letters
šshopping...
Language brokering

5. √
Translators without Borders (n.d.)

6. Kurdish in Turkey
DW, 2019
Bianet, 2022
Human Rights Watch, 2024

7. Brokering Kurdish
Limited studies providing insights into LB in Kurdish
šTURKEY
šFamily interpreters within the healthcare system (Ross, 2020; Schouten et al., 2012; DİTAM, 2012)
šMA thesis mentions brokering in everyday communication (Eroğlu, 2022)
šNew study on language brokering in ‘ethnic minority’ families in Turkey, includes one Kurdish
participant (Bayraktar-Özer, 2024)
šDIASPORA
šStudies that include Kurdish participants but limited or no discussion of language use
(Candappaand Igbinigie, 2003; Alexander et al., 2004; Green et al., 2005)
šStudies on LB with ‘Turkish-speaking’ participants but no mention of their ‘ethnic’ identity
(Cline et al., 2014; Bauer, 2017; Crafter et al., 2017)

8. Linguistic identity
šAffiliation to a particular language is not only limited to the
languages a person uses
Arabic is my language, but I don’t speak it
(Dabèneand Billiez, 1987, cited in Tabouret-Keller, 1997)

9. Linguistic identity
particular languages or ways of speaking can have
such strong emotional or linguistic-ideological
connotations that they are unavailable or only
partly available at particular moments. Our
repertoire is not determined solely by the linguistic
resources we have, but sometimes by those we do
not have; these can become noticeable in a given
situation as a gap, a threat or a desire.
(Busch, 2015)

10. Language portraits
heteroglossia.net

11. Classroom tool
odevelop awareness of
languages & multilingualism
Research tool
oto investigate lived
experience of language
BrigittaBusch / Heteroglossia
heteroglossia.netLanguage portraits

12. Busch, B. (2018)
Busch, B. (2018)
Language portraits

13. Kusters and De Meulder,2019
Language portraits

14. Singer, 2022 Language portraits

15. Anthonissen
, 2022
Language portraits

16. Futro
, personal communication
!
Language portraits

17. Now over to you!

18. oWhat would you
attribute to them?
oWhich part of the body
would you associate them
with?
oThink about the languages and
ways of speaking that are
important to you
There is no wrong way
to complete your
language portrait!
onow, in the past or
in the future
odifferent people or
places
oHow do you feel
about them?
Language portraits

19. References
šAlexander, C., Edwards, R., Temple, B., Kanani, U., Zhuang, L., Miah, M. and Sam, A. (2004) Access to services with interpreters: User views.York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
šAnthonissen, C. (2022) 'Profiles of multilingualism: an analysis of language biographies and linguistic repertoires of university students', inSpeaking subjects in multilingualism
research: biographical and speaker-centredapproaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
šBianet(2022) Dozens of Kurdish concerts, plays banned in Turkey in three years. Available at: https://bianet.org/haber/dozens-of-kurdish-concerts-plays-banned-in-turkey-in-three-years-262018.
šBayraktar-Özer, Ö. (2024) 'Child language brokering in Turkey: non-professional interpreting experiences from Kurdish, Arab, and Pomakethnic minorities', Journal of Multilingual
and Multicultural Development, pp. 1-15. Available at: 10.1080/01434632.2024.2351090
šBusch, B. (2015) 'Expanding the notion of the linguistic repertoire: on the concept of Spracherleben—the lived experience of language', Applied Linguistics.
šCandappa, M. and Igbinigie, I. (2003) 'Everyday worlds of young refugees in London', Feminist Review, 73(1), pp. 54-65.
šCrafter, S., Cline, T. and Prokopiou, E. (2017) 'Young adult language brokers’ and teachers’ views of the advantages and disadvantages of brokering in school', in Weisskirch, R.
S. (ed.) Language brokering in immigrant families: Theories and contexts. New York/London: Taylor & Francis, pp. 224-243.
šDİTAM (DicleToplumsalAraştırmalarMerkezi). (2012). Diyarbakır’dahasta-hekim-eczacıiletişimindedildenkaynaklanansorunlararaştırması. DİTAM.
šDW (2019) Violence, hate crimes toward Kurds in Turkey a 'disgrace'. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/kurds-in-turkey-increasingly-subject-to-violent-hate-crimes/a-50940046.
šEroğlu, L. (2022) Exploring the family language policy of the Kurdish families. MA thesis. Middle East Technical University.
šGreen, J., Free, C., Bhavnani, V. and Newman, T. (2005) 'Translators and mediators: Bilingual young people's accounts of their interpreting work in healthcare', Social Science &
Medicine, 60(9), pp. 2097-2110.
šHuman Rights Watch (2024) Türkiye: Kurdish politicians convicted in unjust mass trial. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/16/turkiye-kurdish-politicians-convicted-unjust-mass-trial.
šKusters, A. and De Meulder, M. (2019) 'Language portraits: investigating embodied multilingual and multimodal repertoires', Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20(3)
šNapier, J. (2021) Sign language brokering in deaf-hearing families. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
šRoss, J. M. (2020) ‘Chinese whispers in Turkish hospitals: Doctors’ views of non-professional interpreting in eastern Turkey’, Paralleles, 32(2), pp. 63-81.
šSchouten, B., Ross, J., Zendedel, R. and Meeuwesen, L. (2012) 'Informal interpreters in medical settings: A comparative socio-cultural study of the Netherlands and Turkey', The
Translator, 18(2), pp. 311-338.
šSinger, R. (2022) 'Linguistic biographies and language portraits as tools for developing shared understandings of multilingualism with an indigenous Australian community',
inSpeaking subjects in multilingualism research: biographical and speaker-centredapproaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
šTabouret-Keller, A. (1997) 'Language and identity', in F. Coulmas(ed.) The handbook of sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 315-326.

20. Spas
Teşekkürler
Thank you
Kate Ferguson | CTISS | Heriot Watt University
[email protected]