Language challenges of Covid-19 are a pressing issue

In mid-March, we issued a call for papers for a special issue of the international sociolinguistics journal Multilingua devoted to “Linguistic diversity and public health: sociolinguistic perspectives on Covid-19” edited by Ingrid Piller (Macquarie University, Sydney), Jie Zhang (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan), and Jia Li (Yunnan University, Kunming).

This is an update on the extraordinary response to our call for papers, which demonstrates that language challenges of Covid-19 are a pressing issue for linguists worldwide.

Emerging research agenda for crisis sociolinguistics

We received more than 200 abstracts – or about ten times more than we anticipated – from scholars from around the world, mostly from the global South. These abstracts fall into five broad categories, which might constitute a basis for a sociolinguistics of the Covid-19 pandemic:

1. Linguistic limitations in the governmental provision of public health information and other public service communication to linguistically diverse populations in different countries and regions
2. (In)accessibility of public health information to disadvantaged and minoritized groups, including indigenous populations, migrants and refugees, and people with disabilities
3. Top-down and bottom-up language management efforts and strategies adopted to overcome language barriers during the crisis
4. (Critical) discourse analyses of political speeches, media reports, and social media posts, particularly of Covid19-related racism and discrimination
5. Problems related to translation and multilingual terminology standards in public health information and medical research

The majority of the abstracts we received were excellent and in a first step we limited our selection to studies in categories 1-3 because these matched our call for papers most closely. However, given the page limits of our special issue, we had to make some further very difficult decisions.

International research collaboration is vital

The strong global response to our call for papers with abstracts coming in from over 30 different countries also brought home to us the importance of international collaboration. And, perhaps even more so, the threats international collaboration is currently facing as many retreat into their own tribes. We therefore took time out from one of our editorial meetings to record a short video for the #ResearchAcrossBorders campaign launched by the Humboldt Foundation.

#ResearchAcrossBorders

Professors Piller (@Macquarie_Uni, Sydney), Zhang (Zhongnan University of Economics & Law, Wuhan) and Li (Yunnan University, Kunming) work together across national borders to research #language challenges of #COVIDー19 @AvHStiftung @HumanitiesAU https://t.co/bvzjbkFUYq pic.twitter.com/C54an3d6SI

— Language on the Move (@Lg_on_the_Move) April 10, 2020

Covid-19 special issue of Multilingua to focus on Chinese sociolinguistic research

With these considerations in mind, we eventually decided to focus the special issue further on Chinese perspectives. Our reasons for doing so were not only that China is 2-3 months ahead of the rest of the world in the Covid-19 crisis but also as a way to open a space for dialogue between “Chinese” and “Western” sociolinguistics.

The Chinese world is highly multilingual and language barriers to accessing public health information are a pressing concern to linguistic minorities – both indigenous and migrant – within China, as well as in the global Chinese diaspora. At the same time, many Chinese governmental agencies, academic institutions, and grassroots groups have been actively responding to the language and communication needs of linguistically diverse populations.

We would like to stress that we did not anticipate this narrower focus when we issued the call for papers, and that it is the result of the extraordinarily strong response we received.

Language on the Move and Multilingua to continue to provide forums for sociolinguistics of Covid-19

Given that we had to reject so many relevant and important abstracts, we felt it was necessary to provide additional platforms for these pressing debates about the linguistic implications of Covid-19. Therefore, we would like to issue the following two open and ongoing calls:

1. Language on the Move series devoted to language challenges of Covid-19
   This growing series already attracts a readership from around the globe and we would like to expand it further, including as a resource for online teaching and learning in Applied Linguistics. We would therefore like to invite researchers to submit blog posts for inclusion in the series.
   Guidelines for research bloggers on Language on the Move are available here.
2. Multilingua to make additional slots of individual papers related to Covid-19 available
   In addition to the special issue, which is scheduled for publication in September this year, we will turn over a significant number of slots for individual papers in Multilingua to language challenges of Covid-19 over the next two years.
   We welcome submissions to Multilingua through our normal submission process to be considered for such a slot. You can find information about the journal here and detailed submission guidelines here.

Many more platforms and publications will undoubtedly come on line or are already emerging such as the Journal of Global Indigeneity’s call for papers for a special issue devoted to “Indigenous Innovation in Higher Education during the Corona-virus pandemic” or the “Language resources” page of the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019 website.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has brought linguistic inequality to the fore in globally unprecedented ways and will continue to shape sociolinguistic research agendas for some time to come. For now, watch out for Multilingua issue 39(5), which will come out in September this year.

解决抗击新型冠状病毒的语言问题刻不容缓

三月中旬，澳大利亚麦考瑞大学的Ingrid Piller教授, 中南财经政法大学的张洁博士和云南大学的李佳博士在国际语言学核心期刊Multilingua 上发起了以“语言多样性与公共卫生健康：新型冠状病毒的社会语言学研究”为主题的专刊征文启事。

该征文启事一经刊出就获得了热烈的响应，由此可见疫情时期出现的语言问题已成为世界各地语言学家亟待解决的课题。

应急社会语言学的热点研究议题

我们收到了200多份摘要，远超预想的十多倍。这些摘要的作者来自世界各地，其中大部分来自发展中国家（南营）。本次收集到的摘要大致关注以下五类话题，这些话题或可成为新型冠状病毒社会语言学的研究基础：

一、不同国家和地区的政府向不同语言背景群体提供公共卫生信息以及其他公共服务信息方面的语言供给不足问题。
二、土著人群、外来移民、难民以及残疾人士等弱势群体对公共卫生信息的（无法）获取问题。
三、灾难时期克服语言障碍的自上而下和自下而上的语言管理措施及策略
四、有关新型冠状病毒的种族主义和歧视言论的（批评）话语分析研究，涉及的语料有政治演讲、媒体报道和社交评论
五、公共卫生信息和医疗研究中出现的翻译问题和多语术语标准问题

提交的大部分摘要都非常优秀，我们首先选定了与本专刊征稿最为吻合的前三类话题的摘要。其后，由于考虑到专刊所能容纳的文章数量，我们不得不做出更加艰难的选择。

国际学术合作是关键

来自世界30多个国家和地区的摘要即是对我们专刊征稿的全球响应又是倡导国际合作的重要机会。当前，国际合作面临重重挑战，许多国家和地区彼此隔离。因此，编委会专门录制了一个短视频，以此响应洪堡基金发起的“科研无国界”运动，呼吁国际合作、共同抗疫。

#ResearchAcrossBorders

Professors Piller (@Macquarie_Uni, Sydney), Zhang (Zhongnan University of Economics & Law, Wuhan) and Li (Yunnan University, Kunming) work together across national borders to research #language challenges of #COVIDー19 @AvHStiftung @HumanitiesAU https://t.co/bvzjbkFUYq pic.twitter.com/C54an3d6SI

— Language on the Move (@Lg_on_the_Move) April 10, 2020

Multilingua的新冠专刊将聚焦中国社会语言学研究

基于以上各种因素考虑，最后我们决定把专刊定位为与中国相关的研究。选择中国视角的原因不仅仅是因为中国比世界其他国家和地区早两、三个月抗击病毒，我们还希望能借助专刊构建“中国”和“西方”社会语言学的对话空间。

中国是多语聚集的国家，无论是中国的少数民族、国内流动人口、在华外来移民还是海外的华裔群体，获取公共健康信息的语言障碍已成为亟需解决的问题。与此同时，许多中国政府部门、学术机构和民间团体正在积极应对不同语言群体的语言和沟通需求。

需要说明的是，我们在征稿时并无计划缩小研究范围、聚焦中国。这一最终决定是根据收到的摘要数量和研究话题而审慎做出的。

学术博客“语言在行动” 和Multilingua期刊将继续为新型冠状病毒的社会语言学研究提供论文发表平台

由于不得不拒绝许多相关而重要的摘要，我们认为有必要为这些没有入选专刊的研究提供发表机会和平台，为抗击新型冠状病毒提供可借鉴的语言学方案。基于此，我们特向大家提供两个继续投稿方案，欢迎大家赐稿：

一、学术博客“语言在行动”已发表与新型冠状病毒的相关语言专题
该专题吸引了全球读者的广泛阅读，我们将扩大该学术网站功能，构建应用语言学网上教学资源，欢迎各位学者踊跃投稿。
详见“语言在行动”的研究博客投稿指南。

二、Multilingua 期刊将继续发表新型冠状病毒相关的语言学研究来稿
除了今年9月份出版的专刊，今后两年Multilingua期刊将继续发表大量与疫情相关的社会语言学论文。
欢迎大家向Multilingua期刊踊跃投稿，详见期刊信息和投稿指南。

越来越多的发表平台和刊物正在不断涌现，或者已经出现。比如，Journal of Global Indigeneity期刊以“新型冠状病毒大流行期间高等教育的本土创新” 为主题的专刊，以及2019年土著语国际年网站的“语言资源”网页。

毫无疑问，这一流行病以前所未有的方式在全球范围内凸显了语言的不平等，并将会在未来一段时间内继续影响社会语言学的研究议程。届时，敬请继续关注今年9月份即将上线出版的Multilingua期刊第39卷第5期。