Analysis: discovery
Challenges facing non-english speaking scholars Vivek Mehra explains how the English language is dominating global communication and changing school structure
English is the dominant language – not just for global communication but also for disseminating scholarly works. For many educated in Western (primarily
American and British) institutions, structured communication and appropriate language is a given. But for the vast majority of global scholars, English presents a real barrier to dissemination. The barrier has evolved over time and
has large influences from the development of both pure and social sciences. From the late 19th century onwards, mankind made significant strides in innovation, product development and, as the industrial age developed fastest in the West, English became the dominant language of communicating these developments. Over the years, and especially with the
development of multi-lingual computers, there is an increase in the number of non-English research articles (in journals). Unfortunately, these aren’t treated on a par with English journals. They are generally bunched together as databases, and not all libraries prioritise access to them. It is almost like a fait accompli for research scholars to publish in English, and their karma to face up to challenges in disseminating their work. Here are the top three challenges they
face.
Grammar, syntax and nuances In almost all education systems outside of the USA and UK, English is taught as a second language. There exist a significant number of curricula where English is the primary medium of instructions. However, even here education is imparted by non-native English speakers. They are handicapped by not being taught phonetics and over the years the focus on core grammar has only diminished. The end result is a gap in understanding the nuances of the language that starts as early as nursery school (kindergarten).
The gap only widens as one progresses. By the time a native language educated individual becomes a scholar (research or
22 Research Information August/September 2019
“Even here education is imparted by non- native English speakers”
otherwise), the gap is more akin to a canyon! With the popularity of social media and communication becoming more informal, English is morphing into a new, perhaps unknown and definitely more confusing entity, for formal researchers. The most common problem faced
by such a writer is the readability of the scholarly text. This begins with basics such as sentence structure, followed by problems with grammar. Even before these are mastered, syntax and idioms pull the scholarly presentation out of the race to get recognition. While the scholar ‘does his best’ to record
his research, the end product for the reader is anything but a work that works.
Thinking vernacular, writing English A significant problem that has not been hitherto given due recognition is the issue of how a scholar thinks. There is an automatic assumption that
scholars across the globe think in a similar fashion, whereas research suggests otherwise. It is believed that humans use language as an aid to memory and think their primary language, even if they speak the same thought in a different language1. This then creates an additional hurdle
for disseminating scholarly research in a non-native language of the researcher. While it is easy for us to club all non-native English speakers as vernacular, practically they are an extremely heterogenous mix. Culture and informal communication, such as speaking at home, build foundations that are distinctly different from that of English as a language. This problem is larger than what is
currently believed. It manifests itself in manuscripts (book and article length) where a reader is confused with the intent of the statement. ‘Lost in translation’ is the most apt phrase to describe this problem. The scholar thought in his native language, then translated it into English before recording it on some sort of medium. This is a particularly large problem when the native language has grammar and syntax distinctly different from English. To the scholar, the written conforms to the original thought in his native language ‘suitably translated’ into English. But for the reviewer or reader, it almost
reads like a foreign language (and not English). The result is that the scholarly work loses credibility, simply because it isn’t readable or comprehensible in English.
Structuring scholarly writing Scholarly writings, whether full book length or article length, follow structures that have their origin in practices of writing by English speakers. These structures don’t necessarily exist in native languages. In fact, many Asian languages don’t have writing structured the way manuscripts in English are. Add to this the fact that writing
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