Conference languages at international meetings on environmental and sustainability issues

Sonia Vandepitte
University College Ghent – University of Ghent

It is generally recognized that English has become the lingua franca at international conferences. However, is it the case with conferences on environmental and sustainability issues, too? A study of interpreting activities at international conferences on the environment and sustainability in the last decade will present the answer to this question for Europe.  

On the basis of operational definitions of the key concepts of “conference language”, “international meetings” and “the environment and sustainability”, a wide range of databases from various sources have been investigated: academic institutions, conference interpreting providers and actors in the field of the environment and sustainability.

The results of the inquiry showed that apart from English, hardly any other language is used at these meetings. This means that the communities involved did not hire any interpreting services and that the following critical question arises: does nonnative language use at conferences on the environment and sustainability influence understanding in the same way as it was recognized by Kurz (2005)? A research design to answer that question will be presented.

References

Kurz, Ingrid. (2005). Accent and Interpretation. Information Loss with a Nonnative Speaker. Bulletin suisse de linguistique appliquee, 2005, 81, Summer, 57-71.