The Linguist

26 The Linguist Vol/60 No/5 2021 thelinguist.uberflip.com REVIEWS Linguistic Justice: Black Language, literacy, identity and pedagogy gives Black Language (BL) the power to take the floor. It speaks particularly to English teachers who are Black American, but should be read by teachers of any ethnic background with an interest in culture and justice. It is a groundbreaking approach to language teaching that advocates for Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, and against anti-Blackness, racial violence, linguistic oppression and white linguistic hegemony. The author's research is based on a study of Black students in Detroit, with similar themes to Ria Angelo's recent article 'Bias in Class' (TL60,3). Both writers identify the damage done by pedagogies with fixed criteria, and make a powerful case for valuing and harnessing the language environment of the students. April Baker-Bell uses her own upbringing, the role models in her family, and her love of Black language and culture to transform the self-awareness and motivations of Black high school students in her home city. She is speaking to her 22-year-old self, as a newly qualified teacher confronted by the richness of BL among her students versus the ingrained assumption that schools should equip them with White Mainstream English (WME) in order to ensure success in their future lives. She looks back at the slave roots of BL, revealing the ingenuity of slaves in combining elements of African languages with English to create new language, and showing how BL is a separate language with lexical, phonological and grammatical rules. This exposes the linguistic racism embedded within education, where Black students have internalised prejudice about the inferior status of BL compared to WME. Using critical language awareness, Baker-Bell raises the status of BL and explores literature by award-winning Black authors to engage students in developing their own competencies. The book unashamedly claims to be a manifesto, an educational theory and a practical pedagogy all in one. Initially, I felt the force of the manifesto style, but I warmed to Baker-Bell's passion and the deep personal commitment to her research, which brings us to her innovative teaching approach and her call for others to follow suit and change the world! The outcome is students who discover Black linguistic history and grow in stature as they realise its complexity, richness, flexibility and economy in expressing meaning, character and culture. They naturally progress to seeing BL and WME as equals, and themselves as bilingual speakers who can decide how to communicate in each setting. Although this is an academic work, the elements I enjoyed most were the students' insights – their warmth, observations and sharp humour. I wanted to follow their progress into adulthood. Baker-Bell writes like she speaks, which took me longer to read because I am white British, but elevated the words beyond a textbook. Code-switching gets a bad press and occasionally I felt that the adaptability of some students was underestimated. But this aside, all language teachers will be intrigued and stimulated by this book. Kate Trotman MCIL Linguistic Justice April Baker-Bell Routledge, 2020, 148pp, ISBN 9781138551022 Paperback, £27.99 In 1877, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli announced that he had observed darkish areas on Mars that he termed maria ('seas') and dark lines connecting them that he referred to as canali. His discoveries were soon reported in the English-speaking world, with the dark lines translated as 'canals'. This apparently unspectacular lexical decision set in motion a frenzy about the possible existence of life on Mars that has continued until this day. But what if canali had been translated using the equally valid option 'channels'? Schiaparelli himself was ambivalent on the subject of extraterrestrials, but in the public imagination, Mars had canals, so there must have been Martians to make them. This is one of many fascinating stories about the impact of translation on the course of history told in Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the balance of history. As a translator, interpreter and journalist herself, Anna Aslanyan is able to combine an insider's perspective with an eye for a good yarn. What is refreshing and original about her approach is that, rather than discussing translation from an academic or literary viewpoint, she focuses on the people actually doing the work. Translators and interpreters tend to be invisible; a job well done usually means going unnoticed. But Aslanyan places them under the spotlight. Accordingly, instead of just "Hitler's interpreter", we are told his name (Dr Paul Schmidt), background and insights into the job. We are introduced to the interpreters who, sometimes unexpectedly, Dancing on Ropes Anna Aslanyan Profile Books, 2021, 272pp, ISBN 9781788162630 Hardback, £16.99 ended up working for such relevant figures as Stalin, Khrushchev and Berlusconi. The book is meticulously researched drawing on the interpreters' own memoirs, which are a treasure-trove of diplomatic near- misses and hilarious incidents in which their linguistic talents and reflexes are tested to the limit. Aslanyan also finds space to discuss the more sombre aspects of interpreting and translating, and the dangers practitioners have frequently had to face – an issue which recent events in Afghanistan have once again brought to light. Ross Smith MCIL CL

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