Jose, the question you raised could be a matter of a multilingual interdisciplinary project, the completion of which can give a sound answer to what we gain and what we lose when conducting and communicating research in English. I would eagerly participate in such a project, as I happened to think, study and write in Armenian, Russian and English and accumulated self-reflective observations. I also noticed that non-English researchers writing in English build up thought in a different way.

Sure there are researchers who have experienced this. Why not collect and study these data?

Its a useful thought.. Especially for science subjects

ITAWY (I totally agree with you). What are the options though? Are there any?

Knowledge is contained in all the languages, it is part of culture and we should preserve diversity. I believe that language (and style) unification will impoverish the cultural diversity of world thought. I also admit that most valuable ideas NOT thought and NOT published in English do not get proper recognition. I think that it is the standards of what is called "research" should be changed: broadened.

The question has no direct and close answer. Hope, my contribution will make a step forward.

English is a very direct language, so we can say complicated things in a very concise way. I think this is one of the strongest advantages of English as research language. But I also agree with Gayane, we should preserve the diversity and particularly the research community should not "punish" all that other research that is not written in English.

I thank you for your answers Gabriela, Gayane, and Jerry.I think that language standards and language diversity should prevail under all circumstances. How could people who control world research hear other world research voices?

Well, english is the "official" language of world research in a formal or informal way !!! I agreed with the idea that english is a very direct language. Of course, it's very usefull for people like me (mexican) who are not a native speaker of that language and working in scientific networks where the most publications are in english. (Long time ago ancient latin occupied that place). But there's a huge problem, that many research and publications produced in a different language (and not translated to english) are unknown for many colleagues around the world. For example, I'm a social anthropologist and the "simple" word of "culture" can have many interpretations and meanings in differente anthropological communities because their native languages. I'm thinking in arab, mayan, and russian examples. English as a official language for research today it coudl be seen as advantage because you only have to learn one language to communicate your scientific work...we cannot be learning all time all the languages. But, it coulb be also empoverishing scientific communication across cultures and scientific communities.

Yes Josué, I agree with you. I believe that English speaking scientists need to learn to communicate in other languages other than English orally and in writing. It would be ideal to see a scientist speaking German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swahili, Africans, or any other combination. Research would be richer and it would be more inclusive. But let's see the future has in store for research.

Jose, the question you raised could be a matter of a multilingual interdisciplinary project, the completion of which can give a sound answer to what we gain and what we lose when conducting and communicating research in English. I would eagerly participate in such a project, as I happened to think, study and write in Armenian, Russian and English and accumulated self-reflective observations. I also noticed that non-English researchers writing in English build up thought in a different way.

Sure there are researchers who have experienced this. Why not collect and study these data?

Pues sí, considero más que acertada la idea de que los investigadores fomenten la comunicación entre distintas comunidades científicas para ese enriquecimiento de distintas formas y contextos culturales en los cuales viven y trabajan.

Jerry, Gayane, Gabriela, Josué,and others who might be interested,

I am thinking of a multilingual project, but so far I am interviewing people who live in different towns in Colombia only ten miles away from each other. I am interested in observing how language changes from town to town in terms of: vocabulary choice, grammar differences, and ways of speaking. I am conducting this research in Spanish, but I would love to connect it with other people who might do the same or something similar in their home countries. This would probably lead to a comparative study that would yield results in two languages and what have you.

My interest is to publish this either in the United Kingdom or the United States. I would even consider publishing it in Australia.

Would any of you be interested in chipping in?

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks. José Lobo.

I have recently spoken with a young Hungarian person who told me that Hungarian was the best language for expressing scientific and computer concepts. I always believed that for fellow Europeans, Hungarian was an almost impenetrable and difficult language to understand and learn. Perhaps there is some merit in diversity.

Paul

It depends on the community - including but not exclusively academic community - what language they prefer, not prefer, what is appropriate, what language medium provides the appropriate form for conveying information, ideas, attitudes, and also significantly in what language the (academic) discourse commences.

John Swales's concept of 'Discourse Community' detailed in a book called Genre Analysis:English in Academic and Research Settings' (1996 if I recall) is very useful for getting to grips with these issues, and of course it transcends just English. The discourse communities lends itself well to Wenger's 'communities of practice' idea too - and to some extent any academic discourse evolves from and contributes to the community with the same interests etc.

Lots of people think that Research Gate is English only, but it is not. But ...

wenn ich auf Deutsch geschrieben hatte, es geht leider nicht. Also koenen Sie vielleicht nicht so klar verstehen

(if I had been writing in German it is not so very useful as you perhaps couldn't understand clearly anyway.)

So, I shall avoid German, mainly as it seems quite inappropriate in an answer o this question - our (discourse) community answering this question has not yet had recourse to German and probably will not have. For all the reasons you know and all the ones you pragmatically sense.

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Não, penso que não. Eu falo português e estou usando o google pra entender a sua pergunta e responder. Logo, outro pesquisador pode tentar fazer o mesmo em outra língua e se virar.(entendeu a gíria brasileira ou não?) Mas o resultado no google pode não ser bem o que eu imaginei significar, o mais importante é agregar temas comuns de interesse, a comunicação de um jeito ou de outro acaba se dando, basta ter boa vontade.

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Exemplo de uso de "":traduzido automaticamente pelo GoogleportuguêsfrancêsinglêsNo, I think not. I speak Portuguese and I'm using google to understand your question and answer. Soon, another researcher can try to do the same in another language and turn around. (Brazilian slang understood or not?) But the result on google can not well be imagined what I mean, the most important is to add common themes of interest, communication in one way or another ends up giving, just have good will

Just now Maria has done something interesting, using online translation software. She makes a good point about results not being so good! Until such programs can incorporate some kind of contextual awareness and sensitivity, they are not so useful and at best just extensions of us, our tools. Something for the future?! Until then, issues such as use of English (only?) in academic discourse will go on.

But it is not the English or its use which is primary - rather what the student/researcher/teacher needs to say and next be understood which is primary.

It's a very interesting and genuine question. However we have been unable to find the answers of these kind of questions in last 5-6 decades. There was a time in science when everything used to be either Greek or Latin. Unofficially English has been recognised as main language of communication almost all over the world. If you publish your work in English you have more readership. That's the reason why some countries have also started using English as the language of communication. China can be one of the very good example. Some journals have bilingual policy. It can be concluded that English has been accepted as main language for communication.