Abstract
This brief introduction describes the context of the research reported in this book and puts forward the issues dealt with in the various chapters: is trauma experienced and narrated in the same ways across languages and cultures? And are trauma experiences and narratives by people of different linguacultural backgrounds expressed in the same ways through English as a ‘lingua franca’ in intercultural communication? The chapter also sets the scene of the analysis of the unequal encounters between Western (Italian) experts in various specialized domains (from legal and medical to religious and cultural/recreational discourse domains) and non-Western (West African) migrants and asylum seekers affected by post-traumatic stress disorders due to past experiences of war and torture, as well as present upsetting events being experienced in the host country.
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Notes
- 1.
In this book, the term ‘Western’ is used extensively to refer to the part of the world that includes Europe as well as North America and Australasia—in these latter two cases, with reference to populations that are of European descent or heritage and traditionally share similar typological and linguacultural backgrounds. By contrast, the term ‘non-Western’ is here used for the rest of the world, which does not include the countries of Western Europe, Australasia, and North America, and whose populations do not share similar typological and linguacultural backgrounds with ‘Western’ populations.
- 2.
The choice of Italian settings for the ethnographic exploration of ELF interactions between Italian and West African subjects can be seen as illustrative of a research approach that can be extended to other migration contexts and to other interacting subjects.
- 3.
The case-study subjects of this research were: (a) Italian experts (legal advisors, welfare officers, medical consultants, intercultural mediators, mediation students, etc.) who collaborated with the author of this book in interviewing migrants and in transcribing the interactions, and (b) migrants and asylum seekers who consented that what they had said in the course of the interactions would be treated anonymously and only for the purpose of an academic research aimed at studying and understanding their African English variations, to be published in order to help scholars and experts that interact with African migrants and refugees to better comprehend what they need to communicate. Most of the migrants and refugees also collaborated in the transcription of the interactions. All the participants in the interactions over the years were very interested in participating in this research.
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Guido, M.G. (2018). Introduction: Setting the Scene. In: English as a Lingua Franca in Migrants' Trauma Narratives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58300-0_1
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