“I'm Very Not About the Law Part”: Nonnative Speakers of English and the Miranda Warnings

This article presents a case study of a police interrogation of a nonnative speaker (NNS) of English. I show that the high linguistic and conceptual complexity of police cautions, such as the Miranda warnings, complicates understanding of these texts even by NNSs of English with a high level of interactional competence. I argue that the U.S. criminal justice system should accommodate NNSs of English at all proficiency levels by adopting a bilingual standard, that is, by offering the Miranda warnings in English and in a standardized translation into the speaker's native language. I also argue that common legal terms, concepts, and texts need to find a place in the adult ESL curriculum.