Category Archives: Inclusion

by monzo

Promoting multilingualism and inclusiveness in educational settings in the age of AI

Alessandra Molino, Ilaria Cennamo, Lucia Cinato, Marita Mattioda

Università di Torino, Italy

Panel: Language as a means of inclusion in educational and institutional settings

Chair: Maria Margherita Mattioda, Università di Torino, Italy

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems for natural language processing, which increasingly permeate people’s daily life, offer undeniable advantages in terms of speed and efficiency, but also raise social and ethical questions about how AI may undermine socio-cultural and linguistic equality. This paper presents the activities of the panel “Linguistic rights and language varieties in Europe in the age of artificial intelligence”, discussing the role of education in helping new generations recognize and challenge practices that may affect linguistic, social, and gender inclusiveness.

We report on initiatives within the panel aiming at raising awareness among university students, in particular foreign language learners, of the socio-cultural and linguistic implications of neural machine translation (NMT). NMT software such as Google Translate, DeepL, or Reverso is in large use among current, digital native students (Jiménez-Crespo 2017), who may not be fully aware of the risks of such digital resources for the development of their language skills and translation competence, as well as for broader social issues. Through theoretical discussions and translation-related activities, students were encouraged to reflect on the massive presence of certain languages online and the lack

of visibility of others, a situation that may have a negative impact on inclusive access to digital technologies (Ranathunga et al. 2021), multilingualism and, ultimately, the fundamental goal of European integration. The uncritical use of NMT systems may also lead to a progressive phenomenon of language flattening at the levels of register and sociolects, thus affecting the preservation of linguistic diversity. Finally, students were also made aware that current NMT systems are still far from guaranteeing adequate treatment of gendered language (Attanasio et al. 2021). The widespread inability of generating gender-inclusive content may reinforce stereotypes and inequalities.

Preliminary results of the impact of our pedagogic activities will be presented in this paper, making special reference to the initiatives conducted at the University of Turin (Italy).

References

Attanasio, G. & al. (2021). E-MIMIC: Empowering Multilingual Inclusive Communication. 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data), 2021, 4227-4234, doi: 10.1109/BigData52589.2021.9671868.

Humbley, J., Raus, R., Silletti, A., Zollo, D. (eds) (forthcoming), Multilinguisme et variétés linguistiques en Europe à l’aune de l’intelligence artificielle. De Europa, Special Issue 2022. http://www.deeuropa.unito.it.

Jiménez-Crespo, M. (2017). The role of translation technologies in Spanish language learning. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 4, 181-193.

Ranathunga, S., Lee, E.A., Skenduli, M.P., Shekhar, R., Alam, M., & Kaur, R. (2021). Neural Machine Translation for Low-Resource Languages: A Survey. ArXiv, abs/2106.15115.

by monzo

Fostering citizen engagement through integrative language planning

James Archibald

Università di Torino, Italy

Panel: Language as a means of inclusion in educational and institutional settings

Chair: Maria Margherita Mattioda, Università di Torino, Italy

In any state, monolingual or multilingual, a common overriding objective is to create, build and maintain a cohesive national entity which will serve the social, cultural and economic needs of the citizenry, present or future. In order to create this type of national linguasphere and to maintain relations with other or related linguaspheres, the state must establish coherent policies which will guide its practices with respect to socioeconomic inclusion, cultural identity and language.

Integrative language planning cannot be disassociated with strategic development. This is what we have called elsewhere a stakeholder approach to language planning.

This model of devising or implementing language policies requires that states articulate clear statements of intent so that all concerned have an understanding of what is planned and how the plans will be executed. Hence, planning and practice go hand in hand.

Moreover, given the human involvement in the process, legislators and administrators must be mindful of the “affects” (Damasio 2018, Ch. 7) that will result from statements of intent, policy formulations, legislative texts and regulations used in the implementation of language legislation. In addition, public administrators must be in a position to objectively measure any possible social, cultural and economic effect of such policies, legislation and regulations. At the same time, this measurement should take place in an atmosphere which reflects the fundamental human rights of the present and future citizenry.

Rooted as they are in shared ideologies, these policies and practices help the state to define its educational philosophy and priorities as well as its institutional policies. That is why state-mandated institutions must define their own institutional policies. These should be in alignment with national policies and practices.

Such a system, if well planned and maintained, should have as a main objective to foster citizen engagement and support for policy orientations.

References

Archibald, J. & Chiss, J.L., éds. (2007). La langue et l’intégration des immigrants. Sociolinguistique, politiques linguistiques, didactique. Paris : L’Harmattan.

Archibald, J. & Galligani, S. (2009). La langue, l’immigration et la cohésion sociale. In Archibald, J. & Galligani, S., dirs. (2009) Langue(s) et immigration(s) : société, école, travail, 9-15. Paris : L’Harmattan.

Archibald, J. (2019). Principes de mise en œuvre de politiques linguistiques intégrées. In Grin, F., dir. Les « linguasphères » dans la gouvernance mondiale de la diversité, 26-28. Neuchâtel : Délégation suisse à la langue française, 2019.

Busekist, A. von. (2018). The ethics of language policies. New York : Routledge.

Damasio, A. (2018). The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures. New York : Pantheon.

Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Freeman, R.E. & Mcvea, J.F. (2001). A stakeholder approach to strategic management. Social Science Research Network Electronic Journal, January. (DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.263511).

by monzo

Machine-translation literacies, inclusion and language rights in the production and reception of vaccination information for CALD communities in Catalonia

Nune Ayvazyan (URV); Anthony Pym (URV) 

Machine-translation links appear regularly in official administrative information for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Catalonia, supplementing the translated and post-edited versions variously provided in Catalan, Spanish, English or Aranese. In the case of COVID-19 directives, raw machine translations were provided, resulting in errors that would be comical if they did not concern healthcare (“wash the hands regularly with ice”). Even when such links do not appear, younger users in many communities resort to machine translation in order to comprehend official information.

Here we report on the effectiveness and inclusivity of machine translation in COVID vaccination information in English, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, as indicated in a series of eye-tracking reception tests for a short informative text translated in three different ways. We focus in the first place on the way raw machine translation is received and how end-users activate degrees of machine-translation literacy when negotiating clear translation errors (cf. Bowker 2009, 2019; Bowker and Buitrago Ciro 2019; cf. Ayvazyan and Pym 2016, 2022 for Russian-speaking communities in Catalonia). We then consider the reception effects of human post-editing as a second kind of machine translation literacy that requires specialized training to be carried out effectively. Finally, we test the reception effects of pre-editing, understood as the writing of official start texts in such a way that the typical errors are avoided before they occur. In all three cases, we evaluate both comprehension and trust in the translated text.

Much as any use of machine translation may compromise users’ rights to full and clear healthcare information, we hypothesize that pre-editing in particular enables a series of trade-off positions (Grin 2022) where receptive literacy overcomes comprehension problems, trust in the text is not fatally compromised, machine translation aids in engagement with official languages, and the long tail of minority languages may be efficiently included in public communication.

Keywords: machine translation, inclusion, minority languages.

by monzo

La traducción a lectura fácil en las instituciones internacionales como ejemplo paradigmático de la promoción y difusión de valores inclusivos a través del lenguaje

Sara García Fernández

En el año 2006, se ratificó la Convención internacional de las Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos de las personas con discapacidad, un documento con validez, relevancia y aplicación global que sentó los cimientos del desarrollo de políticas públicas y de mediación lingüística más inclusivas, enfocadas a garantizar la accesibilidad y la igualdad de derechos y oportunidades para los ciudadanos con discapacidad en todos los ámbitos políticos y sociales. Entre las bases establecidas, destaca el derecho al acceso a documentos oficiales de interés comunitario, para lo cual se estima necesaria su traducción a lectura fácil. En la última década, el uso de este tipo de traducción se ha extendido a diversos mecanismos de difusión cultural públicos y privados, y ha cobrado mayor importancia en contextos institucionales, donde la traducción desempeña un papel crucial en términos de comunicación efectiva y equitativa. No obstante, aún queda mucho por mejorar. Por eso, nuestro objetivo radica en identificar los retos que plantea la traducción a lectura fácil de publicaciones emitidas por instituciones internacionales aún no adaptadas, tanto en inglés como en español. Para ello, examinaremos en primer lugar las convenciones y la evolución de los paradigmas dominantes en traducción institucional y en discapacidad a lo largo de la historia, analizando sus implicaciones desde planteamientos teóricos de corte postestructuralista que destacan que el lenguaje refleja y también construye realidades e identidades. Posteriormente, expondremos, a partir de muestras representativas extraídas de documentos institucionales oficiales ya adaptados, los principios fundamentales de la lectura fácil como un tipo de traducción intralingüística con un creciente potencial para fomentar la inclusión de las personas con discapacidad a nivel internacional, incentivando un cambio de percepción respecto a la diferencia y la heterogeneidad social. Finalmente, abogaremos por la traducción como una herramienta clave en la promoción e integración de colectivos minoritarios frecuentemente excluidos.

Palabras clave: lectura fácil, traducción institucional, discapacidad, lenguaje, inclusión.

Sara García Fernández es graduada en Traducción e Interpretación por la Universidad de Salamanca, donde también ha cursado el Máster Oficial “La Enseñanza de Español como Lengua Extranjera”. Actualmente, se encuentra cursando estudios de Doctorado en la Facultad de Traducción y Documentación de la Universidad de Salamanca bajo la dirección de la profesora Mª del Rosario Martín Ruano. Su investigación gira en torno a la traducción institucional y su potencial como medio de difusión de valores inclusivos en lo relativo a la discapacidad a través del lenguaje. En el marco de sus estudios de Doctorado, ha realizado ya varias comunicaciones y presentaciones vinculadas de manera más o menos directa a la temática de su tesis en diferentes eventos a nivel nacional e internacional, y algunas de estas ponencias han derivado posteriormente en artículos en proceso de publicación. 

by monzo

The Regulations of the Chilean Constitutional Convention and multilingual deliberation: legitimacy, inclusion, linguistic justice, and hegemonic monolingualism

Marco Espinoza

The constitutional moment in Chile has been highly participative and characterized by the political incorporation of traditionally excluded groups. Conversation and public deliberation have been central in this process. In this context, the diversity of languages and communicative practices has become so relevant that the Convention’s General Regulations explicitly state a series of principles acknowledging the importance of linguistic matters for the deliberative work the Convention (and their relation to rights, non-discrimination, and democratic participation). These include plain language, gender-inclusive language, and linguistic diversity. This presentation focuses on those principles concerned with plurilingualism, multilingual deliberation, and translation of documents from Spanish to the different languages of the territory. 

The analysis and discussion will first focus on the debates, arguments, and agents involved in the promotion of this type of language regulations and language regime for the workings of the Convention. This will be followed by a critical discussion of these regulations in relation to legitimacy, inclusion, and linguistic justice. It is argued that these principles and regulations mainly operate on a symbolic level as a legitimating mechanism of the Convention itself as a representative and inclusive institution. The fact that these regulations are entirely written in Spanish, the absence of actual multilingual deliberation, interpretation, and the multiple translations, are a clear indication of the language hierarchies in the territory, and reproduce assumptions about the monolingual functioning of society. It is concluded that the Regulations, despite their possible interpretation as an attempt at linguistic justice, contribute to validate the hegemonic monolingualism in Spanish that characterizes the country’s institutions, and can hardly contribute to prefigure a context of multilingual deliberation and participation in Chilean institutions. 

Keywords: Chilean constitutional convention, multilingual deliberation, linguistic justice, hegemonic monolingualism.

by monzo

Language as a means of inclusion in educational and institutional settings

Panel Chair: Maria Margherita Mattioda

In today’s globalised and interconnected world, managing linguistic and cultural diversity becomes increasingly complex and raises new questions and challenges at the political, economic, and sociocultural levels. Reflection on the so-called linguaspheres (Grin 2018), i.e., constellations of countries or populations sharing the same language, highlights the need for international cooperation at the above-mentioned levels to preserve sociolinguistic diversity. Such cooperation efforts have led, and continue to lead, to the development of transformative paradigms focused on social cohesion and the recognition of fundamental linguistic rights (Archibald 2009).

Language is one of the means through which inclusive policies are articulated (Gazzola 2016). However, the role of language is often underestimated. While its importance is acknowledged when it comes to gender and racial discrimination, other less evident aspects also require attention. Awareness of all the factors potentially affecting diversity is integral to policy planning and the development of inclusive strategies.

Several questions arise in this context. Which language(s) is/are best suited to promote effective communication in specific settings? What are the relationships among languages in multilingual contexts? What are the effects of language choices on social relations? How does the choice of language at institutional level, whether deliberate or imposed, affect citizen engagement and active participation? What technical means can promote, maintain and sustain inclusion?

The panel will focus on how language policies can be designed based on inclusive strategies, among which is that of active citizenry. The promotion of inclusive policies is the goal of various current European projects, some of which described in the panel, aimed at developing tools for inclusion from both educational and institutional perspectives.

Although the principle of linguistic diversity is promoted by the European Union and many international organisations (e.g., UNESCO, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF), its application is often problematic, due to the practical need of using only a few, widely shared languages for international communication, thus creating a paradox whereby inclusion is achieved through exclusive practices.

No easy solution exists. However, acknowledging the variety of contexts, situations, practices, communicative and educational needs is a first step to identifying possible tools and strategies to favour inclusive policies based on the value of multilingualism (Humbley J., Raus R., Silletti A., Zollo S. forthcoming; Gaboriaux C., Raus R, Robert C., Vicari S. forthcoming)

In this regard, the panel will include four presentations on existing projects, three of which funded by the European Union, aiming at promoting inclusive language policies and related best practices. Following are some of the issues that will be discussed.

  1. How can citizen engagement and inclusiveness be promoted through integrative language planning? (James Archibald – University of Turin)
  2. How can inclusive, multilingual language education be integrated in university programmes and syllabi? (Elisa Corino, Sandra Garbarino – UNITA)
  3. How can artificial intelligence education contribute to the development of metalinguistic awareness of inclusive language use in educational contexts? (Alessandra Molino, Ilaria Cennamo, Lucia Cinato, Marita Mattioda – University of Turin)
  4. How can the widespread use of artificial intelligence tools affect multilingual communication choices in institutional settings? (Rachele Raus, University of Bologna; Tania Cerquitelli, Politecnico of Turin)
References

Archibald, J. & Chiss, J.L. (2007). La langue et l’intégration des immigrants. Sociolinguistique, politiques linguistiques, didactique. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Archibald, J. & Galligani, S. (2009). La langue, l’immigration et la cohésion sociale. In Archibald, J. & Galligani, S. dirs. (2009). Langue(s) et immigration(s) : société, école, travail, 9-15. Paris : L’Harmattan.

Busekist, A. von. (2018). The ethics of language policies. New York : Routledge.
Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gaboriaux, C., Raus, R., Robert, C., Vicari, S. (eds) (forthcoming). Le multilinguisme dans les organisations internationales. Mots. Les langages du politique, 128/2022.

Garnier, B., Blanchet, Ph. (2020), Diversité linguistique et formation citoyenne, ELA. Etudes de linguistique appliquée, 197, 2020/1.

Gazzola, M., Wickstrom, B. (2016). The economics of Language Policy. Cambridge : MIT Press.
Grin, F. dir. (2019). Les « linguasphères » dans la gouvernance mondiale de la diversité. Neuchâtel : Délégation suisseà la langue française.

Humbley, J., Raus, R., Silletti, A., Zollo, D. (eds) (forthcoming), Multilinguisme et variétés linguistiques en Europe àl’aune de l’intelligence artificielle. De Europa, Special Issue 2022. http://www.deeuropa.unito.it.

Keywords: language, inclusion, multilingualism, education.

Fostering citizen engagement through integrative language planning

The UNITA project on Intercomprehension: inclusive multilingualism in educational settings

Promoting multilingualism and inclusiveness in educational settings in the age of AI

Artificial Intelligence at the service of inclusive language policies: the case of the E- MIMIC Project

by monzo

The constitutional contours of preferred-gender-pronoun policies at U.S. public institutions of learning

Manuel Triano López

The United States Supreme Court has held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution directs the government to treat alike “all persons similarly situated.” Accordingly, the judiciary reviews with heightened scrutiny laws or policies that discriminate against individuals in a so-called “protected class.” Although the Court still has not ruled on whether transgender individuals constitute a protected class for Fourteenth-Amendment purposes, it has ruled that the category of “sex” in Title VII (a federal law on workplace discrimination) includes transgender individuals. Consequently, an employer may not dismiss an employee merely for being transgender. In 2021, the Education Department extended this protection to transgender students under a 1972 law that forbids sex-based discrimination in institutions of learning receiving funds from the federal government. 

These institutions could therefore invoke that 1972 law to justify disciplinary measures against professors who violate preferred-gender-pronoun policies, i.e., those that require professors to address their transgender students with the gender pronouns (“he,” “she,” etc.) that these students prefer. From a legal standpoint, however, the disciplinary measures could clash with the professors’ constitutional right to free speech, which includes the right to refrain from speaking. In other words, the government —in this case, represented by public institutions of learning— may not compel people to affirm a belief with which they disagree.By analyzing relevant court rulings handed down over the last two years, this presentation aims at resolving the tension between a public educational institution’s interest in eradicating sex-based discrimination against transgender students and a professor’s constitutional freedom from compelled speech.

Keyword: Public Education, Free Speech, United States of America, Transgender Community

by monzo

Inclusive Responses to Language Violence

Panel Chair: Edith Muleiro

How can translators, interpreters, and language activists develop sustainable models to meet the needs of people who need language services, especially in humanitarian and crisis contexts?

How can the profession include people who don’t have access to higher education, certification, and traditional paths of professional development?

What degree of exclusivity is appropriate in a discipline whose raison d’être is linguistic inclusion?

Although at least 4.5 billion people around the world speak two or more languages, the Translators Association of China estimates that only 640,000 of them work as translators. Translation is one of the fastest-growing industries. Yet many people who would make phenomenal translators and interpreters face administrative, educational, and resource barriers which bar them from doing so.

At the same time, for many refugees, asylum seekers and other linguistically vulnerable people it can be next to impossible to access appropriate translation services. Even within more common language pairs like Spanish<>English, the lack of recognition of linguistic diversity and comprehensive training often leads to faulty translation. And these risks are especially great for less dominant languages like certain Indigenous and endangered languages.

These administrative barriers combined with a lack of appropriate translation services for linguistically vulnerable people mean that the massive demand for humanitarian translation services goes unmet.

And the stakes are life and death.

Drawing on their research and professional experiences, the panelists will consider the state of humanitarian translation in several contexts, including Argentina, Spain, and the United States. They will reflect on language violence and exclusion in each of these contexts, highlighting the devastating consequences of that exclusion. Without language services, people cannot access resources, information, and life-saving protections.

Panelists will then discuss frameworks for developing inclusive responses to that violence, considering how pro bono interpretation, alternative paths to certification, and community-led solutions can help meet the need for interpreters and translators. Participants will highlight the importance of quality control and training and discuss how to balance those concerns with the need for maximum inclusion. Finally, participants will reflect on their own initiatives to equip more translators outside of traditional pathways and share lessons learned in those contexts.

Panelists

Edith Muleiro is the Social Services Coordinator at Kifkif, a non-profit organization that promotes the rights of migrant and refugee LGBTI+ people in Spain. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and is studying forced migration at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her undergraduate thesis investigated systemic issues with access to interpreters in immigration courts in the United States. She has experience interpreting between English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Romina Galloso Sabat is the Spanish Team Lead at Respond Crisis Translation. Respond is a collective of language activists providing compassionate, effective, and trauma-informed interpretation and translation services for migrants, refugees, and anyone experiencing language barriers. Romina focuses on language quality management, as well as in the design, development, and implementation of education and training programs for translators and interpreters. She is studying translation and interpretation at the Universidad de Belgrano in Argentina. She was the recipient of the 2021 Pro Bono Week Award for the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration, in recognition of the language services she provided to the South Texas Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR).

Katie Becker has worked for several years in pro bono immigrant legal services in North Carolina. At the University of North Carolina School of Law, she trained and managed a team of volunteer interpreters who assisted clients and student-attorneys with asylum cases. She has a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a master’s from Queen’s University Belfast. She was the recipient of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Peace and Reconciliation from Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on linguistic violence against Indigenous-language speakers seeking asylum in the United States.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual
[2] https://www.translatemedia.com/careers/how-to-become-a-translator/the-translation-industry/ 
[3] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/interpreters-and-translators.htm

by monzo

Lost in Translation: Interpretation as a barrier to asylum in Immigration Courts

Edith Muleiro

Panel: Inclusive Responses to Language Violence

Chair: Edith Muleiro

The first presentation focuses on research surrounding interpretation in U.S. Immigration Courts and social services, with a comparative lens based on the panelist’s work in Spain. For asylum seekers worldwide, lack of language access is particularly problematic because the inability to convey their stories may be the difference between life and death. 

In the US, this research was carried out in Texas. Immigrants who speak a language other than English struggle to access quality interpretation and translation in US courtrooms due to a variety of linguistic, social, and cultural challenges. To learn more about this language polemic, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 professionals who work in social service and judicial systems related to immigration courts in Texas. 

Findings indicated that the largest gaps and challenges pertain to interpreter training, reporting pathways, working conditions, telephonic interpretation, translation of documents, and interpretation for detained respondents. Policy implications include suggested changes to the current interpretation system which integrate language justice principles. 

These findings will be compared to observations of interpretation practices within social services in Spain, based on Edith Muleiro’s role as a social service coordinator at a non-profit that works with LGBTI+ migrants. This comparison seeks to highlight the similarities within the systems that asylum seekers travel through worldwide.