Monolingual ideologies and multilingual practices in small claims court: the case of Spanish-speaking arbitrators

Abstract

This article explores the institutional policies and practices concerning multilingualism in small claims courts in New York City. Building on prior work that has investigated the language use of court interpreters and of the litigants for whom they translate, this study focuses on the analysis of institutional interactions in which all participants, including the arbitrators who decide the cases, are speakers of Spanish. Court interpreters are routinely used in such cases, though some hearings were conducted without them in Spanish. Comparing these two scenarios and analysing the participants' metalinguistic comments, this study explores the language ideologies that underlie the institutional policies about language choice and interpreter use and how they relate to broader issues about Spanish–English bilingualism in the USA more generally.