Third Party Interaction in the Medical Context: Code-switching and Control

Area of Science:

• Sociolinguistics
• Medical Sociology
• Health Communication

Background:

• Medical consultations are crucial for patient care and understanding.
• The presence of a third party, like a family member, can influence communication dynamics.
• Language concordance is essential for effective patient-provider communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the micro-interactional co-construction of power in Spanish-English bilingual medical consultations in California.
• To investigate the role of a third-party family member in these consultations.
• To understand how power imbalances are created and maintained through language use.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of micro-interactions within medical consultations.
• Focus on Spanish language concordant settings with a third-party family member present.
• Examination of code-switching patterns and their impact on patient participation.

Main Results:

• Third parties frequently instigate code-switching to English by medical providers.
• This code-switching renders the patient, who does not understand English, a non-participant.
• Monolingual Spanish-speaking patients are disempowered, losing control in consultations.

Conclusions:

• Micro-level interactions in medical settings can reproduce societal power structures and ideologies.
• The findings highlight how language barriers, exacerbated by third parties, create significant power differentials.
• Further research is needed to explore policy implications and address these communication inequities.