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“I'm Very Not About the Law Part”: Nonnative Speakers of English and the Miranda Warnings
Author(s) -
PAVLENKO ANETA
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00205.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , interrogation , competence (human resources) , psychology , language proficiency , criminal justice , linguistic competence , sociology , pedagogy , political science , law , criminology , social psychology , philosophy
This article presents a case study of a police interrogation of a nonnative speaker (NNS) of English. I show that the high linguistic and conceptual complexity of police cautions, such as the Miranda warnings, complicates understanding of these texts even by NNSs of English with a high level of interactional competence. I argue that the U.S. criminal justice system should accommodate NNSs of English at all proficiency levels by adopting a bilingual standard, that is, by offering the Miranda warnings in English and in a standardized translation into the speaker's native language. I also argue that common legal terms, concepts, and texts need to find a place in the adult ESL curriculum.