I think I may understand your problem, and if I do then I have a similar problem. A lot of my research material is in Korean, but I am writing in English. I have to go through a lot of labour to have the interview that I have done translated into English. I use a translation and then I add notes to add extra meaning when a word in Korean means more or less than it closest equivalent. Having you base work in Arabic or Korean or any other language does not reduce the reliability if done properly you can compensate for the changes in meaning of words, and if you are doing in-depth or qualitative work then you want an overall story so relating a translated experience is not a stumbling block. You simple cite that the work was originally done in Arabic and that it has been translated. If it is quantitative numbers are universal 5.4 is understood by everyone and you just label your graphs in English.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

thanks a lot for your answer. I thing the translation part of your suggestions is a good experience but it will cost the researchers a lot and don't forget that the poor countries having a plenty of talents don't have enough money. On the other hand I believe that my question could be a criticism of c. Marshal and G.B. Rossman book on qualitative research.

It is true and you are welcome. People though in poor countries can translate on their own if their English skills are poor and then have an English language editor do the grammar checks for a much lower cost. A university even in poorer countries should have an English teacher that may be able to help. As a criticism of the authors I would have to read the article to get a better grasp of it.

cheers,

Hamidreza, why would you write your research in Arabic? Why not Persian?(or Azerbaijani; as I see from your name you may be Iranian Azeri)? By the way Arabic isn't a small language, but still, English is the Academic language worldwide.

But to address the issue: most respectable journals and publishers have their own English editor who checks and corrects the authors' English; but the problem is that many Anglophone peer-reviewers are intolerant of an author whose English skills are weak(but who, nevertheless, might have a good scientific point).

Dear Babak, Hi. yes you are correct I'm Iranian and I write mainly in Farsi. Arabic was just as an example in using non-English language. I wanted to be impersonal in my claim , thus I used "what if".

the question regards the materials like interviews not the article itself. In qualitative research as mentioned in the question, the reliability of the research depends on its being repeatable by other researchers and comparing the results with the findings of the main researcher. if the details of interviews, focus groups discussion etc. are in English, then they could be examined by many researchers. Thus the validity of the research will increase too. I will explain the issue in details later.

I see. Yes you have a valid point.

Dear Pamela, the smaller a language, the less researcher, the lesser chances to reproduce the study.

just a question of another type: Aren't smaller languages less worth? I think the value of languages depends on the number of their speakers as well as on the sources available in them. I am totally against the extinction of languages and I think that small languages should be protected as Human cultural heritage. But the solid reality is that the small languages are in the danger of extinction because of the mechanisms and the logics I said.

yes and therefore I think there should be policies in conserving endangered languages. We cannot force people to use them but at least we can record them before they die off.

Thank You Pamela your answers to this question has justified my using qualitative papers from other countries for use in my dissertation. I am exploring if pain is managed effectively in nursing homes. The studies would have been conducted in another language, but they were written in English as pain is a subjective experience anyway the language it is expressed in should not make any difference. I cannot find any papers that support this thought. I am a third year nursing student who loves working with people but I do struggle with writing research ,any help would be appreciated.

Hamidreza, I am a researcher who conducted the qualitative interviews in Arabic and published my studies in English. Using the participant's language conveys rich data that alow you as a researcher to either describe or interpret their verbatim and to communicate your understanding in the language you publish. Your responsibility as a researcher is to check with the participants if the themes relate to their experience (member check) and then translate the themes and the quotes as your evidence to the themes (you can do the translation and back translation). If your procedures are done meticulously then I belive your study is reliable