Researching Multilingually

"Researching Multilingually" is an AHRC Research Networking project that aims to explore how cultures are translated through research and data collection processes. Many researchers nowadays find themselves in research contexts where there are multilingual communities, or they are working on projects that involve people and/or events in other cultures. In these situations, they often find that they need to conduct interviews in another language, or use a language which is foreign to interviewees; or they may be required to interpret or translate a dialogue, event or document from one language to another. In these contexts researchers are often faced with methodological, practical, and ethical dilemmas as to how to interpret and explain differences in linguistic intent and meaning. Similarly, participants in these projects sometimes feel that they have been misrepresented through processes of translation and interpretation. Thus, the potential for misinterpretation and misunderstanding in translating cultures-through language-is immense. Yet little information about these linguistic processes is available, either in the literature or via research methods training programmes.
This research network project aims to address this research gap by inviting 36 researchers to discuss the complexities and challenges they face in researching multilingually. We aim to expose-in three two-day seminars-best practice and pitfalls in researching multilingually. Researchers will be invited to discuss research design, instruments, data collection and generation, interpretation and translation, and writing up of research. The project team will synthesise the emergent findings and develop recommendations and guidelines for researching multilingually.
These outcomes will be disseminated to the AHRC research community, public/private/third sector research organisations, and Doctoral Training Centres via a workshop. Network project findings/outcomes will also be posted on the network website so that they can be implemented by all researchers, and researching training programmes, e.g., in higher education. The network project will also result in international conferences and publications. An intended development will include a follow-up project where selected researchers' seminars will be published in a special issue of an international, peer-reviewed journal and an edited book. Overall, the outcomes of the research network project will result in improved understanding, reporting, and representation of people of other languages and the cultures in which they reside.

The research network project "Researching Multilingually" will impact a range of stakeholders: 1) academic researchers across a range of disciplines, offering access to new research epistemologies, methodologies, and research tools in researching groups and individuals in more than one language; 2) research training institutions (e.g, universities/higher education organisations, AHRC/EHRC community, DTCs), who will have new teaching and research tools to train researchers; and 3) research participants themselves, who will benefit from the awareness raising and research tools that emerge from this project in that researchers will be better equipped-theoretically, methodologically, and reflexively-to engage in dialogic processes as they seek to translate cultures and the people residing within them in the writing up of their research. In particular, people in marginalised groups will benefit as researchers directly confront issues of power and representation.

The resultant outputs-a website, a workshop, and research publications-will provide better knowledge for organisations/institutions involved in public consultation and policy development, the result of improved research methods for translating cultures, and thus, better representation of the voices of those within them.

These outputs will be realised for both immediate and long-term use. On completion of the three two-day seminars, the research team will synthesise findings and develop recommendations. These will be made available on the project website, and disseminated to the AHRC community and DHTs through a workshop. The research team will endeavour to include community groups-including public, private, and third sector groups, accessed through their research networks and those of seminar participants-in the workshop. Further workshops may be arranged where required (time and funds permitting). Further impact will also be realised through the links we will establish with the University of Birmingham's MOSIAC team. The project team have plans for longer term outputs, which include two publications-a special issue of a journal and an edited book (the proposals for which have already been negotiated and agreed). These publications will draw on the best of the seminar presentations of researchers participating in the network.

Because the project includes research that is interdisciplinary, multiple beneficiaries within the commercial private sector, policy-makers nationally and internationally, and local government agencies and regulators are all likely to benefit from these research outcomes. As the research network project will generate new knowledge (methodologies, tools, and techniques for researching multilingually), the project outputs will result in improved understanding and representation of people and the cultures in which they reside, thereby improving the knowledge base on which economic, social, and political decisions by governments and private and third sector organisations are made. Thus, improved effectiveness of public services and policy, and improved quality of life for these translated cultural groups (including health and welfare needs) are an inevitable outcome of this project.