What is it about?
Testifying in court is an intimidating experience, even for people who are proficient in the language used in court and are usually eloquent speakers. This has to do with the highly charged courtroom atmosphere and use of language in the judicial process, which necessarily places lay participants at a disadvantage. The disadvantage can be exacerbated for witnesses testifying in a language of which they do not have a sufficient command.
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Why is it important?
This study demonstrates how Chinese witnesses struggle to understand counsel's questions and to express themselves adequately in English, without the assistance of a court interpreter, using authentic courtroom proceedings as the research data.
Perspectives
This paper shows how well-educated people like medical doctors in Hong Kong might have a problem communicating in a different genre, and in a language of which they do not have a native command.
Professor Eva N.S. Ng
University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Chapter 1. Linguistic disadvantage before the law, June 2020, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/btl.151.01ng.
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