Repertori retorici e negoziazione culturale nei racconti di vita di rifugiati: Lingua Franca e implicazioni ideologiche


Abstract


Abstract – This chapter analyses the storytelling performance of an asylum seeker speaking in English for an international audience and recorded on a video released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the rhetorical structuring of the narrative in an ethnopoetic perspective (Hymes 2003), and to identify the presence (or, even more significantly, marked absence) of dialogic signs of intercultural negotiation deployed in the process of conveying to a culturally diverse audience a highly culturally situated story embedded in a personal narrative of displacement. At the same time, the study also intends to contribute to the current debate on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) by addressing the issue of the inherently situated nature of ELF, and of the political and ideological implications of an ELF approach to intercultural communication in both asymmetric and (programmatically) symmetric power situations. The video selected for the analysis was retrieved from the UNHCR Youtube channel and is part of a series called Storytelling: through the eyes of Refugees designed to make refugees’ stories known to the wide public and to legitimise refugees as a category of people endowed with agentivity and self-determination, and with the power of contributing to the discursive construction of their own role and status. Because of their global outreach, these videos qualify as instances of ELF usage in a broad international context and are eminently suited to the investigation and discussion of ELF approaches to conventionally asymmetric institutional communication.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i22390359v16p111

Keywords: ELF; refugee storytelling; narrative theory; ethnopoetic approach; intercultural communication

References


Blommaert J. e Maryns K. 2000, Stylistic and Thematic Shifting as a Narrative Resource: Assessing Asylum Seekers’ Repertoires, in “Working Papers on Language, Power & Identity” 6, Stad Gent, Department of Education, Gent.

Blommaert J., Muyllaert N., Huysmans M. e Dyers, C. 2006, Peripheral Normativity: Literacy and the Production of Locality in a South African Township School, in “Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies” 36, King’s College, Londra.

Blommaert J. 2001, Investigating Narrative Inequality: African Asylum Seekers’ Stories in Belgium, in “Discourse and Society” 12 [4], pp. 413-449.

Blommaert J. 2006, Ethnopoietics as Functional Reconstruction: Dell Hymes’ Narrative View of the World, in “Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies” 32, King’s College, Londra.

Blommaert J. 2009, Ethnography and Democracy: Hymes’s Political Theory of Language, in “Text & Talk” 29 [3], pp. 257-276.

Blommaert J. 2007, Applied Ethnopoetics, in Bamberg Michael G.W. (a cura di), Narrative – State of the Art, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 215-224.

Blommaert J. 2011, Supervernaculars and their Dialects, in “Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies” 9, Babylon, Tilburg.

Blommaert J. e Rampton B. 2011, Language and Superdiversity, in “Diversities” 13 [2], pp. 1-21.

Böhringer H. 2007, The Sound of Silence: Silent and Filled Pauses in English as a Lingua Franca Business Interaction, MA thesis, University of Vienna, Vienna.

Bourdieu P. 1991, Language and Symbolic Power, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Breiteneder A. 2005, The Naturalness of English as a European Lingua Franca: The Case

of the “Third Person –s”, in “Views” 14 [2], pp. 3-26.

Briggs C. (a cura di) 1996, Disorderly Discourse: Narrative, Conflict and Inequality, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Briggs C. (a cura di) 1997, Conflict and Violence in Pragmatic Research, in “Pragmatics” 7 [4], pp. 451-633.

Canagarajah A.S. 2002, A Geopolitics of Academic Writing, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.

Canagarajah A.S. 2006, Negotiating the Local in English as a Lingua Franca, in “Annual Review of Applied Linguistics” 26, pp. 197-218.

Canagarajah A.S. 2007, Lingua Franca English, Multilingual Communities, and Language Acquisition, in “The Modern Language Journal” 91 [5], pp. 923-939.

Canagarajah A.S. 2012, Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations, Routledge, New York.

Cogo A. 2009, Accommodating Difference in ELF Conversations: A Study of Pragmatic Strategies, in Mauranen A. e Ranta E. (a cura di) English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and Findings, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 254-273.

Cogo A. 2012, English as Lingua Franca: Concepts, Use, and Implications, in “ELT Journal” 66 [1], pp. 97-105.

Cogo A. e Dewey M. 2006, Efficiency in ELF Communication: From Pragmatic Motives to Lexico-grammatical Innovation, in “Nordic Journal of English Studies” 5 [2], pp. 59-93.

Cogo A. e Dewey M. 2012, Analysing English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-driven Investigation, Continuum, Londra.

Cook-Gumperz J. e Gumperz, J.J. 2002, Narrative Accounts in Gatekeeping Interviews: Intercultural Differences or Common Misunderstandings?, in “Language and Intercultural Communication” 2 [1], pp. 25-36.

Corcoran C. 2004, A Critical Examination of the Use of Language Analysis Interviews in Asylum Proceedings: A Case Study of a West African Seeking Asylum in the Netherlands, in “Speech, Language and the Law” 11 [2], pp. 201-221.

De Fina A. 2003, Identity in Narrative. A Study of Immigrant Discourse, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.

De Fina A. 2008, Who Tells Which Story and Why? Micro and Macro Contexts in Narrative, in “Text & Talk” 28 [3], pp. 241-442.

Dewey M. 2007, English as a Lingua Franca: An Empirical Study of Innovation in Lexis and Grammar, Tesi di dottorato, King’s College, Londra.

Firth A. 1996, The Discursive Accomplishment of Normality: On “Lingua Franca” English and Conversation Analysis, in “Journal of Pragmatics” 26, pp. 237-259.

Firth A. 2009, Doing not Being a Foreign Language Learner: English as a Lingua Franca in the Workplace and (some) Implications for SLA, in “IRAL” 47, pp. 127-156.

Gallois C., Ogay T. e Howard, G. 2005, Communication Accommodation Theory. A Look Back and a Look Ahead, in Gudykunst William B. (a cura di), Theorizing About Intercultural Communication, SAGE, Londra, pp. 121-148.

Guido M.G. 2004, Cross-cultural Miscommunication in Welfare Officers’ Interrogations, in Candlin Chrstopher N. e Gotti M. (a cura di), Intercultural Aspects of Specialized Communication, Peter Lang, Berna, pp. 127-145.

Guido M.G. 2005, Context Misconstruction in Professioinal Entextualizations of “Asylum” Discourse, in Cortese G. e Duszak A. (a cura di), Identity, Community, Discourse, Peter Lang, Berna, pp. 183-207.

Guido M.G. 2012, ELF Authentication and Accommodation Strategies in Crosscultural Immigration Encounters, in “Journal of English Lingua Franca” 1 [2], pp. 219-240.

Hincks R. 2010, Speaking Rate and Information Content in English Lingua Franca Oral Presentations, in “English for Specific Purposes” 29 [1], pp. 4-18.

Horner B., Lu M.-Z., Jones Royster J. e Trimbur J. 2011, Language Difference in Writing: Toward a Translingual Approach, in “College English” 73 [3], pp. 303-321.

Howard G., Coupland N. e Coupland J. 1991, Accommodation Theory: Communication, Context, and Consequence, in Howard G., Coupland J. e Coupland N. (a cura di), Contexts of Accommodation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-68.

Hülmbauer C. 2007, “You moved, aren’t?” The Relationship between Lexicogrammatical correctness and Communicative Effectiveness in English as a Lingua Franca, in “VIEWS” 16 [2], pp. 3-35.

Hymes Dell H. 1981, In vain I tried to tell you: Essays in Native American ethnopoetics. Studies in Native American Literature 1, University of Pennsylvania publications in conduct and communication, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

Hymes D. 1996, Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice, Taylor and Francis, Londra.

Hymes D. 2003, Now I know Only So Far. Essays in Ethnopoetics, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE.

Hymes D. e Cazden C. 1980, Narrative Thinking and Storytelling Rights: A Folklorist’s Clue to a Critique of Education, in Hymes D. (a cura di), Language and Education: Ethnolinguistic Essay, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC, pp. 126-138.

Jaquemet M. 2000, Beyond the Speech Communit, 7th International Pragmatic Conference, Budapest, luglio 2000.

Jenkins J., Cogo A. e Dewey M. 2011, Review of Developments in Research into English as a Lingua Franca, in “Language Teaching” 44 [3], pp. 281-315.

Jenkins J. 2000, The Phonology of English as an International Language, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Klimpfinger T. 2009, “She’s mixing the two languages together” – Forms and Functions of Code-switching in English as a Lingua Franca, in Mauranen A. e Ranta E. (a cura di), English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and Findings, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 348-371.

Labov W. e Waletzki J. 1967, Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience, in Helms J. (a cura di), Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, University of Washington Press, Seattle, pp. 12-44.

Lichtkoppler J. 2007, “Male. Male” – “Male?” – “The Sex is Male”. The Role of Repetition in English as a Lingua Franca Conversations, in “VIEWS” 16 [1], pp. 36-61.

Maryns K. e Blommaert J. 2001, Stylistic and Thematic Shifting as a Narrative Resource: Assessing Asylum Seekers’ Repertoires, in “Multilingua” 20 [1], pp. 61-84.

Mauranen A. e Ranta E. (a cura di) 2009, English as a Lingua Franca: Studies and Findings, Cambridge Scholars Press, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Matras Y. 2000, Mixed Languages: A Functional Communicative Approach, in “Bilingualism: Language and Cognition” 3 [2], pp. 79-99.

Metsä-Ketelä M. 2012, Frequencies of Vague Expressions in English as an Academic Lingua Franca, in “Journal of English as a Lingua Franca” 1 [2], pp. 263-285.

Pitzl M.-L. 2005, Non-understanding in English as a Lingua Franca: Examples from a Business context, in “VIEWS” 14 [2], pp.50-71.

Quick C. 1999, Ethnopetics, in “Folklore Forum” 30 [1/2], pp. 95-105.

Rampton B. 1998, Speech Community, in Verschueren J., Östman J.-O., Blommaert J. e Bulcaen C. (a cura di), Handbook of Pragmatics, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 1-31.

Ranta E. 2006, The ‘Attractive’ Progressive – Why Use the –ing Form in English as a Lingua Franca?, in “Nordic Journal of English Studies” 5 [2], pp. 95-116.

Seidlhofer B. e Widdowson H.G. 2007, Idiomatic Variation and Change in English. The Idiom Principle and Its Realizations, in Smit U., Dollinger S., Hüttner J., Kaltenböck G. e Lutzky U. (a cura di), Tracing English Through Time. Explorations in Language Variation, in Austrian Studies in English 95, Braumüller, Vienna, pp. 359-374.

Sewell A. 2012, English as Lingua Franca: Ontology and Ideology, in “ELT Journal” 67 [1], pp. 3-10.

Sorgoni B. 2013, Chiedere asilo. Racconti, traduzioni, trascrizioni, in “Antropologia. Annuario XIII” 15, pp. 131-151.

Soukup B. e Kordon K. 2012, ELF in International Supervision: A Nexus Analysis Approach, in “Journal of English as a Lingua Franca” 1 [2], pp. 315-335.

Suviniitty J. 2012, Lectures in English as a Lingua Franca. Interactions Features, Tesi di dottorato, School of Chemical Technology, The Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University publication series SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY 19/2012

Tedlock D. 1972, Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuñi Indians, Dial Press, New York.

Tedlock D. 1983, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.


Full Text: pdf

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.