Esperanto-USA

A number of eminent Esperanto-speakers will present at a symposium at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science entitled "English-Only Science in a Multilingual World: Costs, Benefits, and Options". The session will be on at 8:30am on Friday, Feb 15th with speakers including Humphrey Tonkin, José Antonio Vergara, and Ulrich Ammon. The presentation was organized by E. James Lieberman and Mark Fettes. Read more for the abstract.

Over the past 80 years, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of scientific publications written in English and a corresponding decrease in the use of all other languages for global scientific communication. At first sight, this appears to offer significant gains in efficiency and universality, as scientists everywhere are required to learn, at most, one language in addition to their own. There are, however, drawbacks to this system that may be significantly affecting both the development of global science and its social effects. Issues of concern include the poor correlation between ability in a second language and scientific ability, the disproportionate burden of language training and technology borne by non-English-speaking countries, and a widening gap between the language of science and the languages of public discourse, government policy, and community life. How can the actual effect of these issues be assessed on the basis of empirical data? What are the ethical dimensions of language choice for working scientists? Does research on language technology or other communication systems point to the emergence of alternatives? Are there implications for language policy at the national or international levels? These questions are explored by a multilingual panel from Chile, Germany, India, and the United States. The panel members propose an agenda for research and science policy.