English: A Language Barrier for Global Science
The global science community is lagging because of a language barrier. Click here to learn why the English language is a barrier for global science!
When it comes to scientific research, language controls the flow of knowledge.
Having a universal language improves this flow and keeps everyone on the same page.
The current scientific lingua franca is English, but it wasn’t always so.
As far back as the Renaissance, scientists like Galileo recognized the need to speak the same tongue.
He often translated his findings into Latin, so that non-Italians could read and understand his work.
As time progressed into the 19th century, French dominated scientific thought.
After World War One it was German, especially in the areas of physics and medicine.
Not until after World War Two did English come to the forefront, as Americans led the way to new discoveries.
While English has controlled scientific speech over the last few decades, it isn’t without its flaws.
Recently, it has created a language barrier that has blocked the flow of information.
Non-native speakers often fall through the cracks, and the knowledge that’s lost creates an information lag in the scientific community.
Overlooking Non-Native Speakers
The English language has the greatest impact on biodiversity and conservation of the natural world.
For example, the fairy pitta is an exotic bird found on the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, and Japan.
Research on the species population showed that it was vulnerable to extinction.
However, it was excluded from the assessment by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The reason?
The scientists behind the paper published it in Chinese.
Without this data, scientists cannot take the steps needed to preserve this creature and its habitat.
As a result, the fairy pitta could decline until they are extinct, depriving the Earth of another rare species.
Luckily, the language barrier has not gone unnoticed by zoologists.
Researchers at Cambridge University searched Google Scholar in 16 languages for articles on conservation.
They found that 35.6% of the 75,000 documents uncovered were not published in English.
If we do the math on that, it means that the larger scientific community ignored roughly 27,000 pieces of information.
The study also asserts that the prevalence of English has made scientific data unavailable in local languages.
This language barrier not only endangers wildlife but also affects environmental policy and field implementation.
In Spain, for example, 54% of conservation directors cite the language barrier as an impediment to their jobs because they do not have access to the latest scientific data on conservation.
Even if you try not to ignore non-English research, you can still have a hard time.
Because most of the papers surveyed in the study had no English title or abstract, they were invisible to standard keyword searches.
Scientific journalism also suffers from an English bias.
Argentinian paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia recently discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived in Patagonia 90 million years ago.
However, when English-speaking outlets heard the story, they left him out, choosing instead to focus on his American collaborators.
This is not an isolated incident, either.
In 2014, Argentinian Rodolfo Coria and Canadian Philip Currie unveiled a new species of carnivorous raptor.
In the wake of the discovery, Currie was given most of the credit while journalists barely mentioned Coria.
According to MIT fellow Federico Kusko, systematic bias “goes beyond the issue of language. It helps elevate one source over another.”
What you get is an equally reliable source not getting an equal amount of attention, resulting in a loss of valuable knowledge.
Ignoring Fatal Disease Warnings
It may not be important to you whose name headlines an article, but the language barrier can create scary headlines that could affect your health.
In January 2004, the H5N1 virus, better known as bird flu, ravaged Asia’s bird and poultry population.
A study during that time found that pigs had also become infected with the virus.
Since pigs are susceptible to human viruses and serve as a jumping off point for human infection, this news was alarming.
The study warned to prepare for this strain of flu.
Unfortunately, at the time the warning went unheeded.
Not until August of that year did the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) learn of the study.
What took so long?
The scientists behind the study published it in Chinese, in a small veterinary journal.
Thankfully, the WHO and the UN caught the warning in time.
But what if they didn’t?
What would have happened?
It’s true that bird flu infections are rare, usually the result of contact with an infected bird.
Symptoms are relatively mild.
Medicine and vaccines for humans and birds exist.
But what if the virus changed?
How would we combat it then?
The information lag brought on by the language barrier makes answering these questions difficult and slows the response time.
Not something you want in the event of a global pandemic.
How to Get Around the Language Barrier
As we’ve said before, language controls the flow of knowledge when it comes to scientific research.
A universal language like English makes it easier to navigate this river, but we potentially lose data from non-native speaking sources.
So what’s the solution to this problem?
How can we include everyone in the ongoing scientific discussion?
How can we make sure we don’t propagate misinformation?
The answer is with in-depth language studies.
English speakers should learn languages outside of their own to get a better understanding of the surrounding world.
However, English will still dominate scientific thought in the years to come.
Being able to speak it fluently, without an accent, will put you one step ahead in your career.
Fortunately, we can help with that.
Our programs teach you how to improve your English speaking skills.
We also have comprehensive pronunciation guides to help you speak flawlessly.
Don’t wait.
Get in contact with us today to get started.
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Have a success story you want to share?
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Tell us in the comments and join the conversation.
We’re always looking for more ways to open the channels of communication.
Can’t wait to hear from you.
