ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 examines perceived instances of verbal aggression, conflict, rejection and denial by analysing the responses of 78 Mexican English-language users who were asked to recall personal experiences which they judged to be aggressive, intimidating or threatening. Whilst often ignored in the teaching and learning of a foreign language, antagonistic situations are an inevitable, albeit undesirable, aspect of real-life communication whether it be in one’s first or second language.
The different types of hostility occurring in a foreign language can be understood through pragmatic and discursive approaches that identify aggravating strategies, highlight racial prejudice and treat foreign-language users as linguistically inadequate. The foreign-language user needs to be able to identify the use of insults, innuendo and slurs and the propagation of pernicious generalisations and demeaning stereotypes. Linguistic discrimination involves experiencing injurious comments and slights not only from native speakers who see themselves as the arbiters of language standards and acceptable language use but also from fellow foreign-language users. Native speakers and other language users will often disparage, mock and sneer at the efforts of foreign-language users to communicate in the target language in an attempt to assert dominance, power and control.
