6. How might conducting an assessment in an evaluee’s second language impact the process and outcome of the evaluation?
Speaking in a second language is a difficult task (Searight & Searight, 2009). The ability of speaking a second language alters within the patient/evaluee as the patient’s/evaluee’s clinical status changes. Patient’s/evaluee’s own description of internal and external experiences may be distorted when they speak in a second language. For example, the meaning of their external and internal experiences may be lost and hence distorted when they speak in a second language. Important information about a patient/evaluee may be lost because of the inability to express ideas from their first language into their second language when the patient/evaluee is assessed. This can…show more content… Hence, leading again to a clinically false picture (Searight & Searight, 2009). Some clinical significances of the second language are that one experiences differences in themselves, by having different perceptions of who they are in their first language versus their second language. They also have different societal roles, specifically gender and family roles, based on their first and second language. First and seconds languages provide distinctions in terms of time in one’s life and places in society. It is almost like the patient/evaluee has double worlds they live in (Searight & Searight, 2009). The first language is more intimate and expresses or communicates closeness. The first language also heightens emotional expressiveness (Searight & Searight, 2009). The second language introduces distance because it is more formal. The second language can heighten expressiveness for some patients/evaluees. The second language is harder to joke in. The second language may permit different behaviors because language establishes experiences. For example, a patient/evaluee
