THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF LINGUISTIC JUSTICE IN MULTILINGUAL HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION: A CORPUS-BASED DISCOURSE STUDY

Abstract

Language is more than just a means of communication. Language can make the difference for patients in the healthcare industry by enabling them to grasp their diagnosis, treatment, and even their life. This paper examines the issue of language justice (the right of all people to be able to communicate in a language that they can fully comprehend) in the context of hospitals and clinics in Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. In these countries, there are significant numbers of immigrants (people from another country who live in this country) who do not speak English. Many of these immigrants were originally from Pakistan where they speak Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi. These patients end up having serious issues when they go to hospitals, since they have trouble communicating their issues with their doctors or nurses. This study adopts the corpus-based discourse analysis approach to real conversations and documents of the healthcare context. Twenty patient questionnaires were gathered and clinical interaction transcripts were analyzed. The results indicate that almost 60% of the patients whose LEP were limited were not able to communicate well without assistance. Patient satisfaction, trust and understanding were greatly enhanced by the use of professional interpreters. Less than half of those who required interpreters did get one however. The study draws from the perspective of Bourdieu's theory of linguistic capital in order to enlighten the processes of language inequality in the healthcare sector as not only a communication issue, but as a social justice issue. The paper culminates with convincing policy recommendations for a fair healthcare communication for all. This research aims at examining how language barriers affect healthcare communication among Pakistani immigrants and expatriates in the United States. This research is designed to investigate the language barriers and the impact on healthcare communication in the context of the Pakistani immigrants and expatriates living in the United States.