RAPID Collaborative: Relevance of linguistic and cross-cultural appropriateness in communication during the pandemic

Effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic depends on linguistic and cultural factors as well as social and economic ones. This is a special concern for indigenous and immigrant communities for whom information about the pandemic and important health actions may not match their language or health practices. Given the dangers of the pandemic and the importance of appropriate information sharing, the project aims to answer an overarching question: What can be done to increase understanding in a context of incipient multilingualism and multiculturalism?

The project has three stages. Stage 1 examines how bilingual individuals with low levels of proficiency in the dominant language interpret healthcare messages related to COVID-19, and whether their interpretation is dependent on language proficiency and cultural framing. Phone/Skype interviews will be conducted in which target concepts/vocabulary associated with COVID-19 will be discussed. The PIs will assess the extent to which members of non-dominant linguistic and cultural communities display a disadvantage in understanding health messages and, therefore, will be more vulnerable to health crises. The interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and translated. At Stages 2-3, the PIs will develop and field a procedure for presenting the necessary concepts related to the COVID-19 and other potential health crises which are linguistically differentiated and culturally appropriate not only for the population under investigation but for general use in a multilingual/multicultural context.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.