Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin (LADO): an Investigative Study
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Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin (LADO): An Investigative Study Kim Wilson Master of Philosophy University of York Language and Linguistic Science February 2016 Abstract Language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO) has been used as part of the asylum process since 1993. A language analysis can be requested when the origin of an asylum claimant is unverified or unknown. In most cases, an analysis of the claimant’s speech is conducted in order to determine whether it shows the characteristics expected of a particular place of origin. Today there are five established commercial and government owned agencies based in Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as independent experts, that offer this service. Though it is now 23 years since LADO began, there is minimal research surrounding the use of such language analysis. Detailed information pertaining to the methodologies and practices of agencies who conduct this work remains largely unavailable to the public, direct empirical research on any aspect of the field is scarce, and yet governments throughout the world continue to utilise LADO regularly in problematic asylum cases. Public interest is also growing, with the media questioning the overall validity of the field and the professionalism of practitioners. The aim of this thesis is to take a detailed look at LADO, its history, the research surrounding it, and current issues. It also collates all readily available information on practices adopted by the aforementioned language analysis agencies. Finally, it puts forward suggestions and plans for future research that is desperately needed, both for the field to progress and for LADO to be validated as a worthy contribution to an asylum seeker’s case. 2 List of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 2 List of Tables ................................................................................................................. 5 List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................ 6 Author’s Declaration .................................................................................................... 7 1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 8 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 11 2.1 What is LADO? .................................................................................................. 11 2.2 Language analysis in UK asylum procedure ..................................................... 12 3 History of LADO ....................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Why was LADO introduced? ............................................................................. 17 3.2 Early criticisms .................................................................................................. 19 3.3 Swedish Migration Board evaluations .............................................................. 22 3.4 The beginning of academic research in LADO .................................................. 24 3.5 International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law – LADO Edition ........ 33 3.6 Summary ........................................................................................................... 49 4 The Guidelines ......................................................................................................... 51 4.1 Criticisms of the Guidelines .............................................................................. 55 4.2 The Minimal Requirements .............................................................................. 66 4.3 Summary ........................................................................................................... 68 5 The native speaker debate ...................................................................................... 69 5.1 Defining the native speaker ............................................................................. 70 5.2 The LADO analyst .............................................................................................. 73 5.3 Criticisms of the native speaker analyst ........................................................... 76 5.4 Empirical investigation ..................................................................................... 79 5.5 Working with native speakers in forensic linguistics ....................................... 90 5.6 Summary ........................................................................................................... 97 3 6 LADO in the present day ......................................................................................... 99 6.1 LINGUA ........................................................................................................... 100 6.2 IND .................................................................................................................. 104 6.3 De Taalstudio .................................................................................................. 107 6.4 Verified ........................................................................................................... 110 6.5 Sprakab ........................................................................................................... 113 6.6 Norwegian Immigration Administration ........................................................ 114 6.7 Discussion ....................................................................................................... 116 6.8 Problems faced by LADO today ...................................................................... 120 6.9 Summary ......................................................................................................... 125 7 Empirical Work ...................................................................................................... 127 7.1 Investigation of current practices .................................................................. 128 7.2 Further suggestions for future research ........................................................ 138 7.3 Call for research from the wider LADO community ....................................... 141 7.4 Summary ......................................................................................................... 145 8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 146 Appendices ............................................................................................................... 149 References ................................................................................................................ 158 4 List of Tables Table 4.1 Breakdown of the signatories of the Guidelines (LNOG 2004) 59 Results of eight LADO cases summarised from Cambier- Table 5.1 85 Langeveld (2010b, pp. 75-83) Breakdown of recordings provided by the IND for empirical Table 7.1 131 research in LADO 5 List of Illustrations Fig. 2.1 Key elements of the new asylum approach. (Home Fig. 2.1 Office Science: Migration Border Analysis, 2012 p.37 15 Fig. 5.1: Sample of phonetic information included in Fig. 5.1 Ghanaian training materials for Wilson (2009): Vowel 80 realisations. 6 Author’s Declaration The work in this thesis is my own has not been submitted for examination at the University of York or any other institution for another award. Some material within this thesis has been presented previously in the following publications from the author: Foulkes, P., French, P. & Wilson K. (submitted) LADO as forensic speaker profiling. To appear in P. Patrick, M. Schmid & K. Zwaan (eds.) Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin. Springer. Co-author of chapter discussing LADO as forensic speaker profiling. Contribution made to all LADO sub sections of the paper. Foulkes, P. & Wilson, K. (2011) Language analysis for the determination of origin: an empirical study. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong. Revised results of MSc dissertation, presented by Paul Foulkes (listed as first author solely because the conference required first authors to attend in person) and summarised in the conference proceedings. Wilson, K. & Foulkes, P. (2014) Borders, variation, and identity: language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO). In Watt, D. & Llamas, C. (eds.) Language, Borders and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 218-229. Lead author of chapter discussing the general topic of LADO, with a focus on the Guidelines and native speaker debate. Wilson, K. (2009) Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin: Native Speakers vs. Trained Linguists. MSc Dissertation. University of York. MSc dissertation containing empirical research on LADO, submitted September 2009. 7 1 Overview The aims of this thesis are threefold. The overarching aim is to take a detailed look at language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO), from its history to its current state, in a manner that has not yet been done. When language analysis was first introduced into the asylum procedure as a means of providing evidence for or against a claimed origin, little was known about the processes behind the analysis itself. Over recent years, discussion of the field has escalated drastically, though