Language and Discrimination

Celia Roberts, Evelyn Davies, Tom Jupp

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138464728
• eBook ISBN: 9781317869443
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Langauge and Discrimination provides a unique and authoritative study of the linguistic dimension of racial discrimination. Based upon extensive work carried out over many years by the Industrial Language Training Service in the U.K, this illuminating analysis argues that a real understanding of how language functions as a means of indirect racial discrimination must be founded on an expanded view of language which recognises the inseparability of language, culture and meaning.

After initially introducing the subject matter of the book and providing an overview of discrimination and language learning, the authors examine the relationship between theory and practice in four main areas: theories of interaction and their application; ethnographic and linguistic analysis of workplace settings; training in communication for white professionals; and language training for adult bilingual workers and job-seekers. Detailed case studies illustrate how theory can be turned into practice if appropriate information, research, development and training and co-ordinated in an integrated response to issues of multi-ethnic communication, discrimination and social justice.

1 Discrimination and language learning: an overview

1 Introduction

This book is based on work carried out in multi-ethnic workplaces during the 1970s and 1980s by the UK Industrial Language Training-Service, the aims and objectives of which are described in Appendix 1. The service started in 1970 as an initial response to the English-language needs of ethnic-minority^* workers with little or no English. At this time, although local education authorities recognised the need for the provision of English as a Second Language classes, the majority of ethnic-minority workers were unable to attend adult-education classes because of the nature of their work – for example, long working hours and changing shifts. At the same time, they were effectively cut off, both inside the workplace from management and unions, with little access to the white English-speaking culture and channels of communication, and outside from access to public and community services. In this context the workplace itself was the logical place in which to provide the opportunity to acquire and use English. In the event, it proved to be a strategic site for both educational action and research, covering not only language training for workers with little experience of English but also training for supervisors, union stewards and others to improve their skills as communicators with regard to relationships in multi-ethnic settings.

The aim of this book is to describe the practice of Industrial Language Training (ILT), to relate this practice to current theories in linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology, anthropology and social psychology which informed the practice, and to describe the ethnographic and linguistic analysis which both grew out of and fed into practice and theory. In these ways, the book is an account of the inter-relationship of theory and practice over a period of fifteen years. During this period ILT developed in a number of ways but always as a continuing critique of its initial objectives and its developing methods.

This chapter provides an overview of issues to do with language and culture, inter-ethnic communication and language learning which are dealt with in much greater depth in subsequent parts of the book. It also provides an introduction to the context in which these issues arose: the employment of ethnic-minority workers in British industry in the 1970s, their access or lack of access to public services, and their search for new training and for employment and promotion opportunities in the 1980s.

The chapter deals with four major topics:

(i) The expanded view of language which teachers and trainers developed in response to the workplace context and to the needs of minority and majority people working in this context.

(ii) An analysis of the structure of employment opportunities for many ethnic-minority workers, the social identity this creates for them and the role of white ‘gatekeepers’ in their access to wider rights and services.

(iii) An analysis of some of the issues arising for cross-cultural training and for English language learning and teaching.

(iv) The setting out of a framework for English language education which seeks to take account of the factors set out in (i), (ii) and (iii).

The chapter concludes with an outline of the approach to cross-cultural training and to English language teaching which was developed by the Industrial Language Training Service and a summary of the material contained in the chapters which make up the rest of this book. The developments described in this book were possible only because ILT was a national service, nationally coordinated. Small units, responsive to local need, were strengthened and supported by the National Centre for Industrial Language Training (see Appendix 2), which was able to draw on and disseminate good practice throughout the scheme.

This book is about multilingual and multi-ethnic workplaces, from the perspective of teaching English language and developing awareness about inter-ethnic communication in English. The ethnographic studies of workplaces, similarly, were carried out to identify the needs of workers, trade unionists and managers when communicating in English. The use of community languages other than English is a very important contextual factor, but this book is not about the use of those languages in the workplace; nor is it concerned with their maintenance and development. These are issues which fall outside the scope of this study, and ones which deserve research and analysis in their own right.

2 Facing reality

The facts of racial discrimination in employment and in access to services continue to be documented with shameful regularity. These facts, together with direct or indirect experience of racial abuse and harassment, form part of the structured experience of black^* people in Britain. However, these facts are not perceived as such, or are perceived very differently, by most white people. Many ILT staff were shocked when they started collecting data in workplaces and public services. On the one hand, they found themselves in the enviable position of being able to study their future students’ day-to-day language needs before designing training for them; on the other hand, they realised that the notions of language and of language teaching which they brought with them were far too limited to analyse and modify the reality they encountered. This reality is illustrated in the two examples which follow.

The first example (Data 1.1) is of audio-taped data collected in a woollen textile mill in West Yorkshire. The manager of the small factory calls in a South Asian worker and warns him that unless his work improves he will be sacked. A full transcript and analysis of this data is provided in Chapter 2.

The second example (Data 1.2) is extracted from videotaped data collected at a Jobcentre. This data is referred to later in this chapter and the full transcript is discussed in Chapter 3.

The first extract illustrates in a brutal way the reality of unequal power. While this should be absolutely clear to anyone, South Asian people and many English people are likely to interpret the way language is used in this data in rather different ways, particularly if they hear the actual recording. The second extract also raises issues of fairness and power, although in a much less explicit way, since the adviser never explains the purpose of her questions. The video from which this example is drawn was shown to groups of white and Asian professionals as part of a ‘ training course. Most white participants interpreted the adviser as being ‘kindly but somewhat ineffectual in her attempts to go through the routine interview procedure with someone unfamiliar with the type of questions asked and their underlying meanings. Most Asian participants evaluated her strategies as racist.

DATA 1.1 IN THE MILL [Data collected by Alison Slade, Calderdale ILT]

Manager:	Now I’m sick of it. You’re either going to do the job properly, or you’re going to get out.
H:	I am sorry. Next time =
Manager:	= There won’t he a next time.
H:	I ( ) I am sorry. Next time do it properly.
Manager:	Yes. Well, the next time that girl complains to me about your bad work I shall sack you. Is that clear? You’re going to an English class, do you understand what I just said?
H:	Yes, I… English…
Manager:	You understand. You know what I’m going to do?
H:	Next time… Sir.
Manager:	There won’t be a next time.
H:	I’m sorry =
Manager:	= because the next time that girl complains to me =
H:	= I’m sorry…
Manager:	It’s no good being sorry. You keep on making bad work over and over and over again.
H:	I am sorry. I am very sorry…
Manager:	It’s no use standing there like that saying you’re sorry, you’re sorry. You just keep on making bad work. Now I’m telling you the next time you make bad work like that , you’re finished.
H:	OK, sir. I’m sorry.
Manager:	(to Language Teacher) Did he understand? Do you think he understood?

DATA 1.2 JOBCENTRE INTERVIEW [Data collected by Roger Munns, Lancashire ILT]

E:	Good morning Mr Abdul, I’m Mrs Eastwood urn – now I see you’ve filled this form in to say that you’re out of work at the moment. I’d just like a little chat with you about the sort of work you’ve done and then, hopefully, you know, we can find you another job urn – where was your last job at? Where did you last work at?
A:	Last work – I’m working Rochdale.
E:	In Rochdale yeah. What was the name of the firm?
A:	T____Rochdale.
E:	T… right.
A:	T____ _____ ____
E:	Right. What sort of a firm were they?
A:	Spinners.
E:	Spinners, yeah and how long did you work there?
A:	Five years.
E:	Five years, yeah. And what was your job there?
A:	Spinning job.
E:	You were a spinner, yeah.
A:	Yes, spinner.
E:	Yeah, right. Can you just tell me a little bit about the job, what, were you doing?
A:	Well – er spinning job – machinery job – so I controlled my machine..
E:	Yeah – what did you actually do as a spinner – were you setting-machines?
A:	Yes, I’m setting machines. I operate machine.
E:	Yeah – what sort of machine?
A:	Just called spinning machines.
E:	They’ve no particular name – they’re just general spinning.
A:	General spinning.
E:	Yeah – how many machines did you run?
A:	Well – one hundred five bis spindle drilling.
E:	Mm, yeah.
A:	One side.
E:	Yeah.
A:	Five hundred five spindle.
E:	Sorry,
A:	One hundred five spindle.
E:	Right.
A:	Look after one parcel…

These two examples show why ILT staff quickly recognised the need for a view of language which went well beyond an analysis of form and function, connecting language both to the social contexts of culture and power and to the assumptions and expectations which individuals project into language use. Despite widespread acceptance of notions of communicative competence and communicative language teaching, there has been little discussion about the extent to which cultural and social knowledge should be explicitly developed or the extent to which the structured experiences of the learner enter in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• General Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Series List
• Transcription conventions
• 1 Discrimination and language learning: an overview
• 2 Mapping interaction: practice and theory
• 3 Cross-cultural training
• 4 Ethnographic and linguistic analysis in the workplace
• 5 Language teaching and learning
• 6 Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Industrial Language Training: its origin, aims and objectives
• Appendix 2: The role of the National Centre for Industrial Language Training (NCILT)
• Appendix 3: Race Relations Act 1976
• Bibliography
• Index
• Numerical Index of Training Material