Language and Communication in Digital International Youth Work Bettina Wissing | Language Unit – IJAB
When designing an international youth exchange, attention has to be paid to what lan - guage(s) will be used during the programme. 7 What is already a crucial decision for in-person meetings becomes a challenge for digital or hybrid settings. That said, access to technical aids for multilingual communication is made significantly easier in the digital sphere – for instance, online dictionaries. This chapter serves to encourage organisers and team leaders to give careful consideration to the matter of language as they prepare for an exchange.
Communication channels in the digital sphere Communication in digital settings works differently from that in offline spaces. It flows less naturally since by its very nature, it needs to be enabled (or disabled) by tech- nical means. For instance, participants should mute their microphones by default when not talking, and only acti- vate them when they wish to take the floor. Another as- pect is sound quality: participants cannot be sure wheth- er their sound is well received by the others, whether their microphone is of sufficient quality, or whether par- ticipants’ internet connections are stable enough to hear each other well. Informal chats with the person in the next seat are impossible. Neither is direct eye contact. Whether or not a community spirit can develop will (also) depend on whether participants can or want to switch on their cameras. That notwithstanding, digital settings offer a range of al- ternative communication channels. Most video confer- encing platforms allow participants to send each other private chat messages so they indeed can communi- cate one on one with individual participants. However, this may generate hidden dynamics that team leaders cannot sense. The general chat function allows users to send messages to the entire group of participants, for instance to comment on what they are seeing on the screen. A written discussion can develop while a pres- entation is being shown or a debate is taking place, which can enrich the communicative dynamic. Howev- er, this can be a challenge in itself: moderators or hosts need to keep track of the chat and respond where nec- essary. Chat etiquette should also be enforced, meaning no insults or hostilities or similar.
Shaping foreign-language communication
In international contexts, the challenges of working in foreign languages exist as much for oral communication as they do for written. While preparing digital events, consideration must be given to how foreign language communication should be shaped in this specific setting. First off, the considerations resemble those for in-per- son meetings: » Is there a common language that all participants understand and speak sufficiently so they can interact meaningfully with each other? The required level of proficiency in this language will depend on the subject matter of the meeting and the methods to be used. The more cognitively intense the event and the more technical the subject matter, the higher the required language proficiency. The more creative and intuitive an activity or event, the easier it will be for participants who are less proficient in the chosen language. » Or should all participants be enabled to use their first language so the dialogue can be truly meaningful and everyone can say what they want to say rather than just what they can say in a foreign language? If inter- pretation is indeed an option, should it be simultane- ous or consecutive? » Or should there be a mix of the two? For instance, should core elements of the programme (e.g. pres- entations, short speeches) be interpreted while other, more cooperative elements (e.g. group work, BarCamp sessions) are offered in one common lan- guage?
7 See Wissing: Fremdsprache als Hemmnis oder Chance? Sprachbarrieren in der Internationalen Jugendarbeit, in: IJAB (2019): Forum Jugendarbeit International 2016 – 2018, Bonn, p. 191-204.
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