Aneta Pavlenko

• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Language Proficiency as a Matter of Law: Judicial Reasoning on Miranda Waivers by Speakers with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique. ISSN 0952-8059. doi: 10.1007/s11196-023-10037-8. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Multilingual Ghost Signs: Dissonant Languages in the Landscape of Memory. In Pavlenko, Aneta (Eds.), Multilingualism and History. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009236256. p. 270–293. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Multilingualism and History. An Introduction. In Pavlenko, Aneta (Eds.), Multilingualism and History. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009236256. p. 1–49. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2021). Conrad. In Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne, B.A.S.S. (Eds.), Figures of Interpretation. Multilingual Matters. ISSN 9781788929400. doi: 10.21832/9781788929400-015. Full text in Research Archive
• Urbanik, Pawel & Pavlenko, Aneta (2021). Securing Understanding in a Second Language: Communication of rights in investigative interviews in the USA and Norway. In Blackwood, Robert & Røyneland, Unn (Ed.), Spaces of Multilingualism. Routledge. ISSN 9781003125839. p. 92–112. doi: 10.4324/9781003125839-5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The chapter compares the communication of rights in police investigative interviews with second language (L2) speakers in the US and in Norway. Differences between the two contexts involve specific rights and the mode of communication – in the US rights are scripted, while in Norway investigators deliver rights in their own words. The application of Conversation Analysis to four recorded interviews reveals that despite these differences, L2 speakers face similar challenges in both contexts, including a highly formal register and unfamiliar legal jargon. The authors also identify best practices to facilitate the comprehension of rights and offer recommendations for training police investigators who work with L2 speakers.

• Pavlenko, Aneta (2021). Feigned incompetence: The pitfalls of evaluating Miranda comprehension in non-native speakers of English. Linguagem e Direito. 8(1), p. 97–119. doi: 10.21747/21833745/lanlaw/8_1a6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In 1966 the US Supreme Court ruled that custodial suspects should be advised of their rights, including the right to silence and the right to an attorney, before questioning begins. If they waive their rights and the defense can prove that they did not do so voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently, their confession may be excluded from the evidence. Judges consider many factors in their decisions on motions to suppress, including expert testimony. In this paper, I discuss a case where two experts evaluated language proficiency of the same suspect and arrived at radically different conclusions regarding her ability to understand the warnings. I will show why one assessment was superior to the other, but the true significance of the case is in showing that a dialogic approach to delivery of the rights can reduce linguistic guesswork and help safeguard the integrity of the investigation and due process.

• Pavlenko, Aneta & Eades, Diana (2020). Transformando pesquisa em politicas: Novas diretrizes para comunicar direitos a falantes na nativos. In Almeida, Diane & Coulthard, Malcolm (Ed.), Perspectivas em Linguística Forense. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. ISSN 9786587175003. p. 249–266. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  O livro Perspectivas em Linguística Forense, editado por Dayane Celestino de Almeida, Malcolm Coulthard (um dos linguísticas responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento da Linguística Forense a nível mundial e que esteve envolvido no caso de Derek Bentley) e Rui Sousa-Silva (docente da FLUP – Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto e membro da APCF – Associação Portuguesa de Ciências Forenses) procura contribuir para aprofundar a investigação na área da Linguística Forense, com enfoque na língua portuguesa. O livro inclui 14 capítulos, que abrangem investigação nas áreas de linguagem jurídica, interpretação de leis, contratos, garantias e advertências em produtos de consumo, simplificação da linguagem jurídica (o “juridiquês”), investigação de “crimes de linguagem” (como calúnia, injúria, difamação, assédio, suborno, ameaça, extorsão, entre outros), investigação da relação entre a cronologia do crime e a redação do texto (para determinar se o crime ocorreu no momento em que o texto foi escrito, quando alguém o leu, ou quando o acusado leu), análise de interação em postos e esquadras policiais, com advogados e em tribunal, análise de mentiras, análise da interação (linguística) em casos de violação, identificação da voz do locutor (por exemplo, em chamadas anónimas), análise de autoria para identificação de autores de textos de diversos tipos (e.g. cartas, e-mails, mensagens de texto, tweets, publicações no Facebook, etc.) e análise de textos suspeitos de plágio.

• Pavlenko, Aneta; Hepford, Elizabeth; Tavella, Christina & Michalovic, Sherri (2020). Everyone has the right to understand: Teaching legal rights to ESL students. TESOL Journal (TJ). ISSN 1056-7941. 11(4). doi: 10.1002/tesj.570. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In recent years, English as a second language (ESL) educators have developed a variety of online resources for addressing legal issues. The problem is that the authors’ understanding of laws and police procedures varies greatly, and so does their familiarity with relevant research, the breadth of topical coverage, and the quality of police‐themed units, discussion questions, and lesson plans. The aim of this article is to offer a research‐based approach to the integration of legal topics in ESL curricula. This discussion draws on the authors’ collective experience with public advocacy (Communication of Rights Group, 2015), research on the Miranda rights (Pavlenko, 2008; Pavlenko, Hepford, & Jarvis, 2019), and teaching the Miranda rights and other legal topics to diverse ESL populations, ranging from international college students to middle school pupils.

• Pavlenko, Aneta; Hepford, Elizabeth & Jarvis, Scott (2019). An illusion of understanding: how native and non-native speakers of English understand (and misunderstand) their Miranda rights. International Journal of Speech Language and The Law. ISSN 1748-8885. 26(2), p. 181–207. doi: 10.1558/ijsll.39163. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The purpose of the Miranda rights in the USA is to ensure that suspects know their fundamental rights under the law, yet even native speakers of English do not always understand their rights (Rogers, Rogstad, Gillard, Drogin, Blackwood and Shuman, 2010; Rogers, Rogstad, Steadham and Drogin, 2011). To evaluate their understanding, Grisso (1998) developed Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (MRCI), normed with native speakers and widely accepted in the legal community. Comprehension by second language (L2) speakers of English, on the other hand, is inferred based on their L2 proficiency, but no studies to date offer the scientific basis for causal connections between L2 proficiency and understanding of the Miranda rights. The purpose of the present study was to compare understanding of the Miranda rights among native (n = 82) and advanced L2 speakers of English (n = 183) to determine whether standardised assessments of L2 proficiency can predict comprehension of the Miranda rights. Our results show that most of our L2 participants failed to understand their Miranda rights and displayed significant disadvantages in basic level processing in comparison to native speakers. Furthermore, they were unaware of the failure: using linguistic resources at their disposal these advanced L2 speakers constructed alternative meanings that created an illusion of understanding.

• Norton, Bonny & Pavlenko, Aneta (2019). Imagined Communities, Identity, and English Language Learning in a Multilingual World. In Gao, Xuesong (Eds.), Second Handbook of English Language Teaching. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783319585420. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-58542-0_34-1. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2018). Superdiversity and Why It Isn’t: Reflections on Terminological Innovation and Academic Branding. In Schmenk, Barbara; Breidbach, Stephan & Küster, Lutz (Ed.), Sloganization in Language Education Discourse. Conceptual Thinking in the Age of Academic Marketization. Multilingual Matters. ISSN 9781788921862. doi: 10.21832/9781788921879-009. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2017). Russian-friendly: how Russian became a commodity in Europe and beyond. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. ISSN 1367-0050. 20(4), p. 385–403. doi: 10.1080/13670050.2015.1115001. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2017). Do you wish to waive your rights? Affect and decision-making in multilingual speakers. Current Opinion in Psychology. ISSN 2352-250X. 17, p. 74–78. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper reviews recent developments in the study of multilingualism and affect, with the focus on two active areas: affective processing and decision-making. The converging pattern of findings suggests that foreign (FL) and second language (L2) processing do not engage affect to the same extent as processing in the first language (L1). This decreased reliance on affect has been linked to the systematic finding that speakers dealing with moral dilemmas and financial scenarios in a foreign language are less concerned about negative consequences and less averse to risk. This finding, termed the foreign language effect, may have important implications for language policies in multilingual contexts but first future studies need to link them conclusively to affective processing and identify mechanisms that give rise to these effects.

• Pavlenko, Aneta (2017). Linguistic landscapes and other sociolinguistic methods in the study of Russian language abroad. The Russian Journal of Linguistics. ISSN 2312-9182. p. 493–514. doi: 10.22363/2312%029182%022017%0221%023%02493%02514. Full text in Research Archive

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• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Multilingualism and History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009236256. 298 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Grosjean, François & Pavlenko, Aneta (2021). Life as a Bilingual. Knowing and Using Two or More Languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781108975490. 352 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Pavlenko, Aneta (2025). Second language users’ understanding of their rights. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Linguistic justice and moral ambiguity: Insights from court decisions on appeals from LEP speakers. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). Participation at the AAAL webinar "Language and the Law". Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2023). LEP speakers and Miranda rights. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De; Urbanik, Pawel Kazimierz; Pavlenko, Aneta; Valen-Sendstad, Ingvild Priyanka Badhwar; Lamb, Gavin Mitchell & Thingnes, Jorunn Simonsen [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). Multilingualism, politics, social justice and language activism. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2022). Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism? Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2022). Multilingualism in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: A tour behind the scenes. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2022). Second language speakers and social justice: A case study in theoretical and practical complexities. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2022). The paradoxes of multilingualism. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2021). Does multilingualism need a history? Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2020). Is joy the same in every language? [Internet]. National Geographic . Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2020). Damit wir uns richtig verstehen. [Journal]. Die Zeit. Full text in Research Archive
• Pavlenko, Aneta (2020). Trusselbrevet: Språkdetaljen politiet avslørte. Full text in Research Archive

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