The Hunt for the Simplest Possible Vocabulary: Minimal Finnish Meets Easy Finnish

Leskelä, Leealaura; Vanhatalo, Ulla

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_3

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Fernández has investigated NSM in a range of learning scenarios, including at a Danish university. It was found that university students could create NSM explications with minimal instruction, though they evaluated the task as challenging and found using primes alone too restrictive, much like in the Leskelä and Vanhatalo (2021) study. Based on this finding, Fernández argues that the minimal language approach has more appeal than NSM in a classroom setting, as it offers more flexibility (Fernández 2020).…”

Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Approaches like "Basic English" (Ogden 1929(Ogden , 1930 and "Globish" (Nerrière 2004;Nerrière & Mellott 2010) use a limited vocabulary including complex words that are difficult to translate, such as multiplication, therefore, substance (Basic English) and fair, right, and wrong (Globish) (Goddard 2019). The "plain language" (Blunden 2007;Eagleson 1998) and "easy-to-read" or "easy languages" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2009; Government of the United Kingdom 2020; Lindholm & Vanhatalo 2021) approaches are authorship guidelines that can be effective, but which rely on principles such as "use short sentences", which are vague in nature, which means results can vary (Chinn 2019;Leskelä & Vanhatalo 2021). The most obvious difference between these other approaches and minimal languages is that only minimal languages explicitly prioritise translatability.…”

Section: Minimal Languages: a Young And Rapidly Growing Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the approach piqued the interest of Finnish language teachers because of recent migration surges in Finland, and it was thought that using NSM for migrant learners of Finnish could be highly beneficial. Another study investigated "Minimal Finnish" as an alternative to "Easy Finnish" (Leskelä & Vanhatalo 2021). The study found that communicators and teachers with no prior training in minimal languages (but with experience writing Easy Finnish texts) could apply the principles of the approach to create easy-to-read texts, but that the task was challenging.…”

Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found that cultural adaptations of the vocabulary can be useful (e.g. a word like "earthquake" is less relevant to the Finnish public than to the Australian public) (Leskelä & Vanhatalo 2021). They also found that providing brief and simple guidelines, including FAQs and engaging visuals, are crucial in engaging members of the public (Vanhatalo & Torkki 2018).…”

Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Minimal Language Approach

Diget

2022

Scanstudlang

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The “minimal language” approach is an adaptation of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, designed to address communicative challenges in fields where effective communication is crucial. A minimal language vocabulary consists of the 65 semantic primes of NSM, 200–300 semantic molecules, and a small number of context-specific words (Goddard 2021a). It is a research-based take on simplified language for heightened accessibility and cross- translatability. Minimal language promotes the idea that easily translatable texts are also easy to understand, because cross- translatable words represent the concepts most “basic” to human language (Wierzbicka 2020). The approach has gained traction over the last few years, with application in fields such as language teaching (cf. Sadow 2021), science communication (cf. Wierzbicka 2018) and health (cf. Goddard et al. 2021).

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Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Minimal Languages: a Young And Rapidly Growing Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: English and Beyond: Minimal Languages In A Nordic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Minimal Language Approach

Diget

2022

Scanstudlang

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“…As Easiest Easy Finnish is in its initial stages, no specific official guidelines have yet been provided for producing it. Yet some earlier studies suggest that even less than 100 simple words could be used for explaining complex words and concepts [20,27].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Simplifying phrases in depression screens: Interpreters’ views on usefulness in six languages

Vanhatalo,

Lindholm

2023

PLoS ONE

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Assessments and treatments of mental health conditions such as depression use language that may be difficult to understand or translate. Here, we studied how interpreters assessed the usefulness of simplifying the language of a depression screen. Two alternative versions of the PRIME-MD PHQ depression screen were generated, with increasing linguistic simplicity. All the versions (standard, moderately simplified and most simplified) were translated from Finnish into Arabic, English, Farsi, Russian, and Swedish. Ten professional interpreters then assessed the different usefulness aspects of the three versions. The interpreters’ perceptions of usefulness of the different language versions for clients varied, and both simplified versions of the depression screen were commonly considered useful for interpreting contexts. The usefulness of the simplified language versions was seen as especially important for clients with multiple linguistic challenges, caused by, for example, dementia and immigration backgrounds. The language of depression screens can be greatly simplified. Simplified versions may significantly improve the accessibility of questionnaires for the wide range of individuals with compromised language competence. Simplified versions may also be helpful for inter-language interpreting in health care, and importantly, they may facilitate the transparency and cross-cultural calibration needed in evidence-based medicine.

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Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the universal Welch Emotional Connection Screen using primary and bilingual Spanish-speaking coders of videotaped mother-child interactions

Hane,

Ludwig,

Martinez

et al. 2024

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry

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IntroductionUsing clear explicit translatable language, we translated the Welch Emotional Connection Screen into a new universal language instrument, the English uWECS. In this study, we had two aims: Aim 1 was to establish concurrent validity of the uWECS by comparing scores coded by primary Spanish-speaking coders using the Spanish translation of the uWECS to scores coded by bilingual, secondary Spanish-speaking coders using the oWECS. Aim 2 was to establish the criterion-related validity in terms of oWECS and uWECS performance in tracking change in autonomic emotional connection (AEC) during the course of an intervention among preschool aged children.MethodsWe created a library of 52 five-minute Spanish-speaking mother-child videos that were collected during a randomized controlled trial of Mother-Child Emotional Preparation intervention (MCEP). The videos were collected at two time points, at enrollment and at a 6-month follow-up. The subsample of Primary Spanish-Speaking dyads from the MCEP study were coded by two independent teams of coders. We trained primary English-speaking (bilingual Spanish) coders on the oWECS, using the original training program. A different team of primary Spanish-speaking coders coded the same cases using the novel uWECS guide and trained briefly for reliability with the Spanish uWECS translation materials.ResultsWe found that the Spanish oWECS and Spanish uWECS ratings from the baseline and 6-month follow-up observations were robustly correlated, with intraclass correlations ranging from .81 to .84 and all p-values<.001, thus demonstrating sound concurrent validity for the uWECS. The oWECS and uWECS scores also achieved parallel results when evaluating the efficacy of the MCEP for primary Spanish-speaking dyads. Both the AEC scores of the oWECS [F(1, 27) = 4.31, p < .05] and the scores of the uWECS [F(1,27) = 4.06, p < .05] similarly demonstrated significant change post intervention, thus demonstrating sound criterion-related validity of the uWECS.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that the uWECS can be used to measure parent/child AEC in linguistically diverse populations and cultures.

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The Hunt for the Simplest Possible Vocabulary: Minimal Finnish Meets Easy Finnish

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Minimal Language Approach

Minimal Language Approach

Simplifying phrases in depression screens: Interpreters’ views on usefulness in six languages

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the universal Welch Emotional Connection Screen using primary and bilingual Spanish-speaking coders of videotaped mother-child interactions

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