Adsorción de especies

As suggested in the earlier section, language brokering is a family practice in which young people contribute to families and wider society, in addition, three young people stated that they helped their parents to learn English. Language brokering therefore can be a considered as a way that young people contribute to the wellbeing and functioning of the family and society (Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 1995; Hall and Sham, 2007) and as a significant contribution to keep the family going ‘…as a healthy productive organism’ (Mayall,

2011:p.183). Through these actions, young people make significant contributions to the wellbeing and productivity of their parents.

109 Carlos said that his parents preferred him to interpret than a professional interpreter because he had a better understanding of the family situation than an external interpreter. This speaks to the significance of young people’s membership in the family, which may be a reason that persons LEP may ask familiar people to interpret. It also indicates that trust, familiarity and localised knowledge are significant parts of language brokering, in which the continuity of expected behaviour is assumed (Möllering, 2006). As parents and other actors must activate trust, and take a leap of faith or ‘suspension’ (Giddens, 1990) that the interpreter will convey their wishes and feelings in the expected way. However, family members were also said to use formal interpreters in addition to young people. Sean stated that if his family members were offered a formal interpreter they: ‘… should say yes cos I’m like wasting my time heh.

Like I could be somewhere else heh’

I have suggested that CLB is a co-construction between the child and various actors and have demonstrated that young people play an active role and in some cases exercise autonomy in their choice to language broker, as the findings demonstrated that the young people were able to decide whether or not to language broker. For Sara, language brokering was a choice and like the other young people with siblings, she shared language brokering with her brother. While Simran expresses family allegiance she indicates that there are limits to her agency; she knows which letters she should and shouldn’t open and will seek advice from adult members and use other means such as: google translate/dictionaries, if she is unsure about certain terminology or issues that require research. Sean demonstrates that CLB is a choice rather than an obligation. In the following quotation he presents a typical response in a situation when he doesn’t want to interpret:

S:…sometimes you … wanna go somewhere; out or something and they … [ask] if you can … translate for them heh and it’s just like ‘oh I’m busy right now… I can’t’

In a similar vein to Sean, when Carlos language brokered for his parents he indicated that this may impede his leisure time. This is depicted in his drawing of a language brokering

110 Figure 4: Carlos’s Drawing

When I asked Carlos to explain the drawing, he said the smaller figure was him, sat in between his mother on the left and a professional at the other end of the table. The speech bubbles indicate a typical interaction at the jobcentre, in which the professional asks: ‘What

do you need?’ Carlos says: ‘My mum needs the papers; are the papers OK?’ I asked Carlos

about the face at the top of the page; Carlos said it was because he was unhappy because it was: ‘…Saturday and I don’t want to go’. When I asked what he would rather be doing instead, Carlos answered: ‘sleep, chilling.’ This suggests that CLB was a disruption to Carlos’s preferred activities.

Beyond Carlos’ description, there are two points that I would like to add to interpret the drawing. First, the symbolic representation of Carlos’ small stature, between two larger figures could refer to his awareness as a young person in an adult space. It could also be associated with Sadie’s earlier reference of feeling: ‘stuck in the middle’. Second, the length of the table could be considered to symbolise the spatial distance between the three actors, as

111 Carlos is positioned closest to his mother, with the professional at the far end of the table. This may also symbolise the family unit. This supports the thesis, that language brokering is a family practice in which young people make a contribution to families and wider society.

6.6 The Nature and Function of Language

In this section, I build upon understandings about language and young people’s experiences of language brokering, in addition to their references to the medium of language itself.

Examination of the interview transcripts indicates the participants’ awareness of different types of English as the following three excerpts from Sean, Simran, and Sara indicate.

1. R: so when you [moved to England] did you speak a little English or no English

2. S: [yeah, like little just like I could

3. introduce myself and like say where I come from and that but like I didn’t understand

4. that much

5. R: so in five years you’ve learnt all of this English?

6. S: [yeah

7. S: yeah

8. R: that’s quite impressive

9. S: heh

10.R: so you’re pretty much fluent now in English

11.S: erm yeah a bit, no it’s not it’s not I’m not a really like fluently but I wanna learn

12.more like more English and like I wanna have like proper English accent and

13.everything heh

14.R: you sound to me like you’ve got like a Yorkshire accent now

15.S: [heh

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17.R: do you think so?

18.S: yeah

19.R: do any of your family tell you that?

20.S: like () I think we all got a bit the same heh heh like all m-my sisters and me. My

21.my brother he’s got like different accent to me he’s more like English like he’s got the

22.same accent as English cos he obviou like he’s got like English (friends) and that so

23.he … speaks like them and er I’ve got like a Yorkshire one

The following excerpt is taken from an interview with Sara, the excerpt relates to an experience of Sara translating for her father at the dentist.

R: [At the dentists] were there any questions or any words that you didn’t understand? S: yeah yeah, [the dentist] ask me like how this pain, but I didn’t get it, that

question…it was hard because she use different English like. I use English, like street English, like from outside, but she was like using different English and I didn’t… get it

The following excerpt is taken from an interview with Simran.

S:…if you didn’t know English and you only know Panjabi or Urdu, you’d be really stuck because not a lot of people understand [these languages]

R: OK, so what about your mum then, is she sometimes in a difficult situation? S: she doesn’t cos she doesn’t go out alone cos she goes with us lot [siblings, aunty, father] we’ve been teaching over the years: words, phrases; she gets sentences out.

In the first excerpt I applaud Sean’s command of English and point out that he has a

113 an attempt to establish rapport. In doing this, I inadvertently place a high value on the

Yorkshire dialect and thus imply that I have the capacity to recognise an authentic dialect. Sean refutes my flattery and expresses his aspiration to acquire a ‘proper English accent’. This encounter highlights the nature and function of language and belonging, namely that a person’s accent is a marker of group identity (Lippi-Green, 1997). Second, this illuminates ideas about the different intrinsic worth of languages, with some perceived to be more prestigious than others (Crystal, 1987; Bourdieu, 1991; Pugh, 1996) exemplified by the way in which he refers to his brother’s more authentic English.

In the second excerpt Sara positions herself as a non-native speaker; she juxtaposes her ‘street English’ from the ‘outside’ to the English of the dentist. In doing this, Sara alludes to the subtle connotations and conventions involved in speaking a particular style of English, which can be considered to be a prerequisite for belonging and group membership (Edwards, 1985; Lippi-Green, 1997; Baugh, 2003). This distinction is said to impede Sara’s understanding and moreover augments her own perception of her incomplete understanding. A number of researchers have shown how people use a technique referred to as ‘syleshifting’ (Baugh, 2003) to represent the way in which non-native speakers use language according to the demands of particular contexts. Sadie makes reference to an implicit expectation for

interaction in a particular form of English language at the dentist. In addition to Sara’s accent and English language proficiency, it is important not to overlook her age in relation to the medical and adult-dominant context, which may augment her anxiety to language broker.

In the third excerpt Simran indicates that English language faculty is associated with integration with the wider English-speaking community. When questioned whether her mother is in a difficult situation due to her limited English proficiency (as expressed by Simran in an earlier part of the interview) Simran refers to her mother’s improved English and states: ‘she’s OK now’. This appeals to the temporal nature of language proficiency and the intergenerational nature of ‘family work’; in particular the role that Simran and other family members assume to teach her mother English. In sum, the three excerpts demonstrate three ways that young people refer to the nature and function of language and dialect: i) as a gateway for effective communication, ii) as a signifier of group membership and belonging and iii) as a marker of difference.

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