Abstract
Ethnographic research is often multilingual, requiring the researcher to work in two or more different languages, if necessary with the assistance of an interpreter. Given this, surprisingly few ethnographers have attempted to discuss in detail how their own knowledge of different languages and their decisions to use interpreters and/or translators during fieldwork have affected the research they have conducted. Drawing on material from our own research, as well as from published accounts by other ethnographers, we aim in this article to dispel some of the ‘silence’ or ‘mystique’ surrounding such matters. More specifically, we argue for the importance of documenting and analysing not only the process of language learning in ethnographic research but also the ways in which levels of fluency in a second or additional language can affect the research process, including the writing of ethnographic fieldnotes and forms of self and other identification. We suggest that a heightened awareness of these issues can help researchers make more informed choices when carrying out and writing up ethnographic research using different languages.
Highlights
Ethnographic research is often multilingual, requiring the researcher to work in two or more different languages, if necessary with the assistance of an interpreter
The lack of attention to language-related issues in ethnographic research is not limited to the main question we have considered far, namely how researchers learn a second or additional language for fieldwork purposes; it encompasses the level of ‘fluency’ or ‘competence’ in this language they attain in practice, language choice in the context of fieldnote writing, and forms of self and other identification that may occur during the language learning process
Building on the work of scholars such as Temple (1997), Borchgrevink (2003), Tremlett (2009) and Rodgers (2012), we have sought in this article to dispel a little more of the ‘silence’ or ‘mystique’ that, in our view, continues to surround two key language-related issues in ethnographic research: language learning for fieldwork purposes and the possible effects on research practice of different levels of fluency in a second or additional language
Summary
Ethnographic research is often multilingual, requiring the researcher to work in two or more different languages, if necessary with the assistance of an interpreter.
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