Being 'Proficient'and 'Competent': On 'Languaging', Field Identity and Power/Privilege Dynamics in Ethnographic Research

M Blackburn - Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic …, 2019 - books.google.com
Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic Research, 2019books.google.com
The acquisition of 'proficiency'is often assumed to solve a variety of problems when
conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a second language. Based on my experience of doing
fieldwork while 'proficient'in Russian, this chapter highlights the issues raised by 'fluency',
which complicate and deepen challenges common to ethnographic fieldwork in general.
Firstly, I consider how I was 'enlanguaged'by new contexts and activities, especially in
learning new cultural norms. Secondly, I examine the performative aspects of conducting …
The acquisition of ‘proficiency’is often assumed to solve a variety of problems when conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a second language. Based on my experience of doing fieldwork while ‘proficient’in Russian, this chapter highlights the issues raised by ‘fluency’, which complicate and deepen challenges common to ethnographic fieldwork in general. Firstly, I consider how I was ‘enlanguaged’by new contexts and activities, especially in learning new cultural norms. Secondly, I examine the performative aspects of conducting fieldwork in a foreign language, such as the pressure to ‘pass for a native’and the emergence of a ‘field identity’. Finally, I reflect on how being ‘fluent’impacts on issues of power, hierarchy and inequality in local Russian contexts. This chapter demonstrates how the emotional and ethical challenges of conducting ethnographic research in a foreign language do not end with ‘fluency’and encourages those doing fieldwork to consider what it means to be an effective ‘intercultural speaker’.
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