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Linguistic incompetence: Giving an account of researching multilingually
Author(s) -
Phipps Alison
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/ijal.12042
Subject(s) - performative utterance , sociology , narrative , ethnography , hospitality , linguistic competence , multilingualism , morality , linguistics , refugee , epistemology , situational ethics , competence (human resources) , psychology , pedagogy , social psychology , tourism , political science , law , anthropology , philosophy
This paper considers the place of linguistic competence and incompetence in the context of researching multilingually. It offers a critique of the concept of competence and explores the performative dimensions of multilingual research and its narration, through the philosophy of Judith Butler, and in particular her study Giving an account of oneself. It explores aspects of risk, justice, narrative limit and a morality of multilingualism in emergent multilingual research frameworks. These theoretical dimensions are explored through consideration of ‘linguistically incompetent’ ethnographic work with refugees and asylum seekers, in contexts of hospitality and in life long learning research in the Gaza Strip, and of early attempts to learn new languages. The paper offers a prospect of a relational approach to researching multilingually and affirms the vulnerability at the heart of linguistic hospitality.