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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?

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​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

This section intersects with the additional Welsh Language Supplement, Section 1, available here.

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Next... SECTION 5 Working with an interpreter (2)