NATURE:The true cost of science’s language barrier for non-native English speakers 科学语言障碍给非英语母语者带来的真实代价
Survey quantifies the extra time that researchers whose first language isn’t English need to read, write and present data.
调查量化了母语不是英语的研究人员在阅读、书写和提交数据方面所需的额外时间。
Some people use cards with phonetic symbols to help them learn English.Credit: Peng Song/Getty
有些人使用带有音标的卡片来帮助自己学习英语。
Researchers whose first language is not English can spend around twice as long reading an English-language scientific journal article as native speakers.
母语不是英语的研究人员阅读英文科学期刊论文的时间大约是母语使用者的两倍。
For a PhD student working on their thesis, that can mean spending up to 19 additional working days per year just reading papers.
对于一个正在撰写论文的博士生来说,这意味着每年光是阅读论文就要多花 19 个工作日。
These statistics, published today in PLoS Biology, might not be shocking, researchers say, but it’s important to measure the effects of language barriers on the careers of academics who are not fluent in English.
研究人员说,今天发表在《PLoS Biology》 上的这些统计数据可能并不令人震惊,但衡量语言障碍对英语不流利的学者职业生涯的影响非常重要。
It “is the first step for the scientific community to make more effort to tackle this problem”, says Tatsuya Amano, a biodiversity researcher at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and a co-author of the study.
这项研究的共同作者、澳大利亚布里斯班昆士兰大学生物多样性研究员 Tatsuya Amano 说,这 "是科学界为解决这一问题做出更多努力的第一步"。
Amano and his colleagues polled 908 environmental scientists from 8 countries, each of whom had authored at least one peer-reviewed paper in English.
天野和他的同事对来自 8 个国家的 908 名环境科学家进行了调查,这些科学家每人至少撰写过一篇经同行评审的英文论文。
Some of the participants were from countries where a moderate proportion of people are proficient in English (Bolivia, Spain and Ukraine), whereas others were from countries where proficiency in English is uncommon (Bangladesh, Japan and Nepal).
一些参与者来自有一定比例的人精通英语的国家(玻利维亚、西班牙和乌克兰),而另一些参与者则来自英语不熟练的国家(孟加拉国、日本和尼泊尔)。
Their answers were compared with those from people in countries where English is the official language (Nigeria and the United Kingdom).
他们的答案与以英语为官方语言的国家(尼日利亚和英国)的人的答案进行了比较。
The team found that among scientists who had published only one paper in English, those from countries with generally low English proficiency spent a median of 29.8% more time writing it than did native speakers; those from countries with moderate English proficiency spent a median of 50.6% more time.
研究小组发现,在只用英语发表过一篇论文的科学家中,来自英语水平普遍较低国家的科学家在撰写论文时比母语为英语的科学家多花的时间中位数为 29.8%;而来自英语水平中等国家的科学家在撰写论文时多花的时间中位数为 50.6%。
Similarly, the researchers found that those from countries with generally low English proficiency spend a median of 90.8% more time reading scientific articles than do native speakers.
同样,研究人员发现,那些来自英语水平普遍较低国家的人阅读科学文章的时间中位数比母语使用者多 90.8%。
They also learnt that non-native speakers spend more time preparing to give oral presentations at international conferences, and that many avoid this type of commitment owing to language barriers.
他们还了解到,非母语人士需要花费更多时间准备在国际会议上做口头报告,而许多人由于语言障碍而避免这类承诺。
Amano, who is Japanese, says he has always struggled to communicate in English. After many years working in the United Kingdom and Australia, his English is improving, and people might think his papers are similar to those written by a native English speaker.
天野是日本人,他说自己一直在努力用英语交流。在英国和澳大利亚工作多年后,他的英语水平不断提高,人们可能会认为他的论文与英语为母语的人写的差不多。
“But behind the scenes, I have to spend so much time to reach that level,” he says. That extra effort is exactly what he wanted to quantify in this study.
"他说:"但在幕后,我必须花费大量时间才能达到这个水平。这种额外的努力正是他想在这项研究中量化的。
Heightened rejection 加强拒绝
Amano and his colleagues also examined the peer-review process. Non-native English speakers reported having their papers rejected specifically because of writing issues 2.5 times as often as native speakers.
Amano 和他的同事还研究了同行评审过程。据报告,非英语母语者的论文因写作问题被拒的频率是英语母语者的 2.5 倍。
That sounds familiar to Lina Pérez-Angel, a Colombian palaeoclimatologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
罗德岛普罗维登斯布朗大学的哥伦比亚古气候学家莉娜-佩雷斯-安吉尔(Lina Pérez-Angel)对此似曾相识。
“I have had reviewers that explicitly said that my English puts in doubt the quality of the research, or mostly gave me feedback on my English in a harsh way that made me think it was based on my Latinx/Hispanic-sounding last name,” she says.
"她说:"有的审稿人明确说我的英语让人怀疑研究的质量,有的审稿人则对我的英语提出了苛刻的反馈意见,让我觉得这是因为我的姓氏听起来像拉美人/西班牙人。
And the challenges are not limited to papers and presentations, says Paula Iturralde-Pólit, an Ecuadorian ecologist at the University of Costa Rica in San José. “It’s in every step in the process of becoming an academic,” she says.
圣何塞哥斯达黎加大学的厄瓜多尔生态学家Paula Iturralde-Pólit说,这些挑战不仅限于论文和演讲。"她说:"在成为学者的过程中,每一步都会遇到挑战。
In her experience, applying for grants to fund research projects, for example, takes much longer for someone not highly proficient in English. “It also takes more time for your adviser to review it, because you will have more errors.”
根据她的经验,以申请研究项目资助为例,对于英语水平不高的人来说,需要花费更多的时间。"你的导师也需要更多的时间来审查,因为你会有更多的错误"。
At conferences, even those who overcome the hurdle of presenting their work in English face difficulties.
在会议上,即使是那些克服了用英语介绍工作这一障碍的人也会遇到困难。
Germana Barata, a researcher who specializes in science communication at the State University of Campinas in Brazil, says that despite being fluent in English, she still feels uncomfortable at times.
巴西坎皮纳斯州立大学专门从事科学交流的研究员热尔曼娜-巴拉塔(Germana Barata)说,尽管她能说一口流利的英语,但有时还是会感到不自在。
“We are given the same amount of time to present, but what we can say in 10 minutes is different from what a native speaker can say,” she points out.
"她指出:"我们有同样多的时间进行演讲,但我们在 10 分钟内能说的内容与母语人士能说的内容是不同的。
The study has probably underestimated the impact of language barriers, because it doesn’t account for people who drop out of academia owing to the challenges described, Amano notes.
天野指出,这项研究可能低估了语言障碍的影响,因为它没有考虑到因上述挑战而退出学术界的人。
Many of those who remain, Barata says, feel that language acts as an obstacle to sharing their work and advancing their careers. “We have a much longer and slower journey to project ourselves and to have our work projected abroad,” she says.
巴拉塔说,许多留下来的人认为,语言是他们分享作品和推动事业发展的障碍。"她说:"我们需要更长、更慢的时间来展示自己,并让我们的作品在国外得到展示。
Amano thinks that solving the problem should not be the responsibility solely of the people experiencing the language barrier.
天野认为,解决语言障碍问题不应仅仅是语言不通者的责任。
Journals could provide access to artificial-intelligence tools to assist researchers with writing, for example, or could connect authors with proficient English speakers to help review their articles.
例如,期刊可以提供人工智能工具,协助研究人员写作,也可以为作者联系英语熟练者,帮助审阅他们的文章。
Conferences could consider allowing researchers to present in their native language, using a translator, and could publish abstracts in multiple languages. “Non-native English speakers constitute almost 95% of the world’s population,” Amano says.
会议可以考虑允许研究人员使用翻译以母语进行报告,并以多种语言发表摘要。"非英语母语者几乎占世界人口的95%,"Amano说。
“If we don’t support those 95%, I’m sure we can’t solve many global challenges.”
"如果我们不支持这 95%的人,我相信我们就无法解决许多全球性挑战"。
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