Multilingual service encounters in corona times: communication needs and practices in public service provision contexts
ID
MSCA-2020-Kerremans01
Supervisors
Project description
As a result of the corona situation, several initiatives have been set up worldwide at different levels (e.g. NGOs, governmental organisations and national governments) to make information on the COVID-19 virus (such as information on prevention and screening measures) available in several languages. An example in Belgium is the multilingual corona virus information site, available in more than thirty languages (including the Flemish sign language): https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/translation/. This is just one of many initiatives worldwide to provide corona information in multiple languages. The aim of this project is, on the one hand, to explore the extent to which such initiatives have been picked up by local governments and public organisations in communication between service providers and people speaking other languages and, on the other hand, to find out what experiences and insights result from these initiatives. On the other hand, the project aims at gaining insights into the way in which organisations in public sectors (such as education and health care) have (or have not) adapted their communication practices during corona times. The central questions in this project are a) whether the corona situation has strengthened the multilingual communication needs of these organisations, b) to what extent it has changed the multilingual communication practices (e.g. through the use of interpreters, through the use of multilingual communication technologies, etc.) and c) whether it has brought about a change in the organisation's multilingual language policy.
This project runs in parallel with two other projects within the Brussels Institute for Applied Linguistics (https://bial.research.vub.be/): 1) the AMICA project funded by the European AMIF- funds until June 2022 which investigates how information in the context of migration and asylum is tailored to applicants with a vulnerable linguistic profile (e.g. illiterate applicants) and 2) the MATCHeN project funded by the TETRA fund of VLAIO until November 2021, aimed at multilingual communication in the health sector. The MSCA project can be linked to the themes in these two projects, but can certainly also be approached from a broader perspective.
About the research Group
Brussels Institute for Applied Linguistics
The BIAL research group is concerned with research into multilingual and intercultural transfer. This transfer encompasses the phenomena of circulation, transformation and reinterpretation of linguistic practices and discourses in and across geo-cultural areas and societal contexts. BIAL is interdisciplinary at its core and aligns itself with current developments in Translation Studies, Interpreting Studies, Terminology, Cultural Transfer, Intercultural Communication and Language and Society.
In light of our focus on the transfer of cultural and linguistic codes, we look into – among other aspects – the modalities of this transfer, the contexts in which the transfer takes place, the underlying processes of the transfer, the instruments that are used, the linguistic objects that result from the transfer, and the actors that are part of the process. We examine the forms, functions and characteristics of translation, interpreting, multilingual practices and discourses from an intercultural perspective, and view them as phenomena that are firmly embedded in historical and/or current social contexts, taking the cultural reciprocity and multidirectionality of (re)transfer into account. This perspective also involves paying attention to the identification of marginal spaces and (networks of) minorities. As such, we wish to investigate the role of translation, interpreting and other communicative practices in the cultural transfer of ideas, ideologies, norms and values. This pursuit entails the recruiting of (historical) language and text criticism, cultural imagery, philosophical ideas, as well as the scientific paradigms within Translation Studies, Interpreting Studies, Terminology, Cultural Transfer, Intercultural Communication and Language and Society.