Cultural Challenges for L2 Communication Among Persian Migrants in Australia

Abstract

This chapter addresses some of the challenges that Iranian migrants encounter in their L2 oral communication in Australia, and how they deal with them. The challenges addressed in this chapter include speakers’ reconstruction of identity, power dynamics, and critical thinking. Persian concepts such as zaher (appearance) and baten (inner self) (Beeman in Int J Sociol Lang 148: 31–57, 1986) as well as nationalistic attitude via concepts like ta’sob/ghairat ‘emotional prejudice’ that influence the above challenges are discussed. These concepts are analyzed in light of Bourdieu’s (Language and Symbolic Power. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991) linguistic capital and Foucault’s notion of power (1994), by employing Fairclough’s (Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984. Vol. 3, Power. Penguin, London, pp. 1–89, 2013) critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach which posits that linguistic choices exhibit cultural and political overtones, which entangled with power dynamics can either enable L2 communicators, or hamper their performance. The data analyzed come from 12 Iranian male-female migrants’ interview sessions about their lived experiences, including their settlement, migrant English classes, and workplace, in Australia. Results have revealed that many participants wished they had the expressive power in L2 to boast about Iran’s glorious past and Persian Empire. The data have further revealed the participant’s general agreeability to Australians’ open-mindedness that helped them build on their critical thinking in the new context.