Multilingualism, translation, interpreting and linguistic inequality

Description: This project examines interpreting practices in marriage fraud investigations conducted by Belgian authorities, in which a complex chain of interviews and reports results in the decision whether a transnational couple's marriage application is genuine or fake. Both professional and non-professional interpreters are relied on to interpret the statements and answers given by the applicants not proficient enough in Dutch or French during an interview with a municipal officer and later on with a police officer. During the interpreter-mediated interaction, a written statement and interview report is noted down by the interviewer. The project focuses on the role of the interpreter in the entextualised codification of spoken evidence. The project's final, applied objective is to increase awareness of the significant role and complexities involved in interpreter selection and entextualisation in marriage fraud investigations by Belgian authorities.
Promoter(s): Mieke Vandenbroucke , Bart Defrancq
Researcher(s): Sari Goukens
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2023 - 2026

Description: The project aims to gain a better understanding of the communication needs of applicants for international protection in the reception network, and use these insights to develop a more targeted multilingual information service for this target group. The project focuses on the intake phase of applicants with a vulnerable linguistic profile. On the basis of ethnographic field research, the project aims to develop a multilingual website (audio and video) in order to better attune the provision of information to the language needs of this target group.
Promoter(s): Katrijn Maryns , July De Wilde
Researcher(s): Aline Guaus
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2019 - 2022

Description: Providing an adapted language input in a multicultural classroom is often challenging to educators. Teachers are frequently the parents’ first contacts for language counselling and educational support, and therefore, they may influence the language exposure not only in the classroom but at home as well. This study aims to investigate the cognitive, emotional and behavioural attitudes and needs related to multilingualism of teachers in Flanders to formulate hands-on logopaedic advice on language input in a multilingual school environment.
Promoter(s): Evelien D'haeseleer , Kristiane Van Lierde
Researcher(s): Julie Daelman , Yana Nys
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Period of time: 2020 - 2023

Description: In defiance of an increasingly hostile rhetoric and political climate towards migration, there has been a surge of online audio/visual platforms where immigrants come together to highlight their ethnic identities. In the context of transit migration in Mexico, this project explores transnational identity formation among Latinx migrants, looking at how they translate their lived experiences to a digital space through audiovisual self-representation. Combining theories and methods of Translation, Migration and (Digital) Media Studies, this research aims to analyse how a sense of identity and belonging emerges on migratory routes and in digital spaces where information circulates and transnational communities are forged. Youtube channels, Facebook, Whatsapp groups, etc. about and by Latin-American migrants are treated in this project as new forms of translation whose discourse can be defined through their contexts, actors, and practices.
Website research project: https://research.ugent.be/web/result/project/f7873505-674d-11ee-b1ad-3dd08fb7752a/details/bof-sta-202309-006-belonging-in-translation--the-audiovisual-transfer-of-latinidad/en
Promoter(s): Alexandra Sanchez , July De Wilde
Researcher(s): Elisa Robbe
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy , Faculty of Political and Social Sciences
Period of time: 2023 - 2027

Description: EUWEBPSI aims to develop and test an innovative EU-wide WEB portal for information exchange and online collaboration between stakeholders involved in providing and using quality webcam public service interpreting. EUWEBPSI wants to tackle a double challenge: (1) the lack of a unified framework of minimal standards for PSI services leads to unequal access to basic services across the EU and across types of public services; (2) the mismatch between interpreter supply/demand requires more flexible solutions to enhance interpreting capacity, in particular in situations of urgency and for languages of lesser diffusion (LLDs). EU-WEBPSI is an EU-AMIF project with partners from Belgium (PI), UK, Austria, Greece and France.
Promoter(s): Katrijn Maryns , July De Wilde
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2022 - 2025

Description: The purpose of this PhD is to investigate narratives in multilingual children with and without voice disorders to detect clinical markers for language impairment. Secondly the effect of language training on narrative skills will be investigated in multilingual children with and without a developmental language disorder.
Promoter(s): Evelien D'haeseleer , Kristiane Van Lierde , Ellen Simon
Researcher(s): Julie Daelman
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Period of time: 2017 - 2024

Description: Due to current political and demographic developments, multilingual psychotherapy for refugees and migrants is becoming increasingly relevant. Interpreters are often indispensable in bridging the language barrier between patient and therapist. Their presence is, however, not without consequences: the dyadic relationship between therapists and patients becomes a triad. In this project we analyze how therapists, patients and interpreters co-construct the therapeutic relationship over the course of a therapy, which takes, on average, 12 sessions. Focus is on verbal and non-verbal communicative means to display trust and empathy. We combine three methods: interviews, a questionnaire and interactional anlaysis of recorded sessions. This research is ocnducted by a transdisciplinary team combining expertise from the fields of psychology, interpreting studies and linguistics.
Promoter(s): July De Wilde , Claudio Scarvaglieri
Researcher(s): Peter Muntigl
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2023 - 2025

Description: Multilingualism plays a critical role in asylum and refugee encounters. Often, migrants and refugees have a hard time expressing themselves because they do not get adequate language support. So far, research has focused on the multilingual challenges of adult migrants and refugees, but little attention has been paid to communication with unaccompanied refugee minors (UAM). This research project aims to fill this gap through a sociolinguistic ethnography of how linguistic diversity is managed in the guidance trajectory of UAM, focusing on the interaction between UAM and legal guardians. More specifically, the project will examine the multilingual strategies selected by UAM and their guardians and their impact on (a) disclosure and performance of personal experiences, (b) negotiation of complex procedural knowledge and (c) building of a relationship of trust, with a view to increasing knowledge of the interactional management of these encounters and an improved guidance and care of UAM.
Promoter(s): Katrijn Maryns , Ilse Derluyn , Floor Verhaeghe
Researcher(s): Lotte Remue
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2022 - 2026

Description: In this ethnographic research project, we examine the implementation and application in Belgium of EU Directives 2010/64/EU and 2012/29/EU on the right to oral and written language assistance in criminal proceedings. We examine (1) how these directives were transposed into Belgian national law, (2) how the police, the correctional court and the public prosecutor's office in Ghent apply the right to language assistance in practice and (3) what role lawyers play in facilitating language assistance for their clients.
Website research project: https://research.flw.ugent.be/nl/projects/language-assistance-criminal-proceedings-belgium
Promoter(s): Sarah Van Hoof , Katrijn Maryns
Researcher(s): Sara Delva
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2021 - 2026

Description: Acquisition of sociolinguistic variation is increasingly considered essential for L2 speakers. At the same time it poses challenges, especially for late language learners. This project focuses on the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by late starting learners in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Flanders offers a fascinating context for this project, because the linguistic landscape is strongly dominated by non-standard language variation (mainly Colloquial Belgian Dutch), while Standard Dutch still occupies a superior position ideologically (also in L2 education). More specifically, the following questions are focused on - What are L2 speakers' attitudes towards Standard and Colloquial Belgian Dutch? - To what extent do L2 speakers incorporate non-standard language variation into their L2 system? These questions will be answered by compiling and analyzing a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews with L2 speakers and informal conversations between L2 and L1 speakers.
Promoter(s): Chloé Lybaert , Anne-Sophie Ghyselen
Researcher(s): Pauline Verhelst
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2023 - 2027

Description: With this project, we aim to develop an open source prototype of a multilingual messaging system that can translate and forward simple messages via an existing messaging application (e.g. WhatsApp). The messaging system will be developed in cooperation with Fedasil, the Belgian federal agency for the reception of asylum seekers. The messaging system will allow asylum reception centre staff to convey practical messages and instructions to centre residents (e.g. inform centre residents about an activity or technical problem), including for so-called 'language of lesser diffusion'. For translation, the messaging system relies on both a context-specific translation memory and on machine translation.
Website research project: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/matias-machine-translation-inform-asylum-seekers
Promoter(s): July De Wilde , Katrijn Maryns , Lieve Macken , Arda Tezcan
Researcher(s): Ella van Hest , Michaël Lumingu
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2023 - 2025

Description: In many countries, global mobility and migration create a more diverse society. This shift in population also reflects in schools. However, pupils have great diversity in terms of ethnicity, talents, beliefs, and language skills; we see that Flemish schools still apply a monolingual language policy. Whereby Dutch is considered to be the standard language of instruction. Many Flemish schools completely ban the home language of pupils. This study aims to look at the school's language policy dynamics and how they influence each other (micro-, meso- and macro-level). During this ethnographic research, an intervention takes place, 2 classes of a Flemish secondary school are observed, interviews are conducted with teachers, pupils, management, and language teachers throughout the different phases of the research. This research aims to investigate how teachers' perceptions, attitudes, behaviors towards multilingualism change in the classroom after they implement FML in their own classroom.
Website research project: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/multilingualism-secondary-education-flanders-dynamics-language-policy
Promoter(s): Wendelien Vantieghem , Piet Van Avermaet
Researcher(s): Maxime Van Raemdonck
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2019 - 2023

Description: Although language diversity poses short-term challenges, early multilingualism and multi-literacy come with great benefits, at least, when it is correctly supported. Currently, many language minority (LM) families are distressed about language issues and many early childhood (EC) professionals (such as parenting advisors and childcare staff) feel insecure in their approach toward LM families. This project aims to transform this societal problem by promoting early multilingualism and multi-literacy in childhood and childcare in Flanders. In the first phase of the project, large-scale data and small-scale will be collected. This will generate critical insights about the needs of LM families and competencies of EC professionals. In the second phase, this knowledge will be integrated into five valorisation applications that will address the broad field of EC professionals.
Website research project: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/pro-m-promoting-early-multilingualism-childhood-and-childcare
Promoter(s): Wendelien Vantieghem , Piet Van Avermaet
Researcher(s): Victoria Van Oss
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2018 - 2022

Description: Since the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for remote interpreting in reception centres has become particularly acute. To respond to this demand, this action-research project analyses the institutional and organisational challenges of remote interpreting, and more specifically webcam interpreting in the Fedasil reception network. Based on a thorough context analysis, a pilot project is carried out in a selection of reception centres in order to develop and test an innovative method for video-remote interpreting in the reception network. The implementation of this pilot project is accompanied by the development of an (online) training module and script for video-remote interpreting for service providers in the reception network.
Promoter(s): Katrijn Maryns , July De Wilde
Researcher(s): Marie Gijsels
Faculty / Faculties: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Period of time: 2021 - 2022