UDC 811.111:023.5

OSADCHYI V. I.

Translation.in.ua, Language Service Provider, Director, Acting Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science (Dnipro, Ukraine)

The above substantiates the need to devise a framework for librarians to practice their knowledge of the English language considering that all Ukrainian universities have gained regular access to such databases as Scopus and Web of Science. The library staff should have the skills to navigate global databases, given the fact that libraries are being transformed into information centers to provide services to both students and researchers; in order to integrate the specific research of a particular university with the world scientific community; as well as interact with colleagues around the world.

Literature analysis

There is a large body of research illustrating the importance of English for global scientific communication. According to Foyewa (2015), international awards, meetings, and activities in the field of science and technology are carried out in the English language. The author of the cited paper gives examples of the international associations, which among others, perform their activities using the English language as the medium of communication: The International Society for the Psychology of Science; The International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA); The International Society for Psychology of Science and Technology. More to the point, these associations recommend that cross-national and international studies should be conducted in the English language.

As stated by Elsevier (2021), with a universal language, researchers know what to expect, and how to find information. They know what language to publish in and how to search for other people’s articles that support their work. Beyond published research, a universal language also helps make sure everyone has access to information in presentations, guidelines, and standards.

At the same time, it also gives millions of researchers a challenge: if they’re not native English speakers, they need to learn a new language alongside their scientific studies. English-speaking countries no longer dominate science: Brazil, Russia, India, and China are the fastest-growing in terms of the number of research publications they produce, according to Elsevier’s book World of Research (Elsevier, 2021).

However, the use of English as the universal scientific language creates distinct challenges for those who are not native speakers of English (Drubin & Kellogg, 2012). The cited authors note that for scientists whose first language is not English, writing manuscripts and grants, preparing oral presentations, and communicating directly with other scientists in English is much more challenging than it is for native speakers of English. Communicating subtle nuances, which can be done easily in one's native tongue, becomes difficult or impossible. A common complaint of non-native speakers of English is that manuscript reviewers often focus on criticizing their English, rather than looking beyond the language to evaluate the scientific results and logic of a manuscript. This makes it difficult for their manuscripts to get a fair review and, ultimately, to be accepted for publication (Drubin & Kellogg, 2012).

At the same time, nonnative speakers of English must endeavor to produce manuscripts that are clearly written. Specifically, nonnative speakers of English can write effective manuscripts, despite errors of grammar, syntax, and usage, if the manuscripts are clear, simple, logical, and concise (Drubin & Kellogg, 2012).

Many scientists from non-English-speaking countries note that the success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language. But that is associated with significant difficulties as illustrated by examples from Colombia (Ramírez-Castañeda, 2020), China (McDowell, 2021), South Korea (Huttner-Koros, 2015), etc.

Specifically, McDowell (2021) recalls a story about a trainee who motivated herself to practice oral presentations, putting in extra time and effort to become more comfortable with English. Although, as the cited source states, that inevitably led her to greater fluency but there were times when she felt as though she was a burden when asking colleagues and peers for help with English writing and pronunciation.

As regards the academic librarians in Ukraine, their practical skills should help when working with specialized literature; when participating in professional conferences; contacting international organizations. A major obstacle to working in the context of the globalization of science is the insufficient level of English proficiency. This means that a huge layer of international periodicals remains out of sight of both the staff of the university libraries and those whom they are called to help.

Aims. This study aims to provide practical recommendations to the non-English-speaking staff working at academic libraries in Ukraine to practice the English language in order to fully utilize the potential of global indexing services such as Scopus and Web of Science.

Comparative analysis and bibliometric analysis were applied in this study to estimate the share of the English-language journals in the aforementioned databases to emphasize the relevance of proper knowledge of English by academic librarians given its current status as the language of global scientific communication.

41,500 Scopus-indexed journals (as of August 2021) were analyzed to identify the following: those published only in the English language account for 56 % of the total number while most of the rest applied a hybrid approach allowing the authors to submit their papers in at least two languages with English being a language of choice.

On the contrary, the Ukrainian-language-only journals, indexed by Scopus before August 2021, accounted for 0.016 % of the total number. One should note that all the 15 Ukrainian journals accepted by Scopus after Aug 2021 adopted a hybrid two-language approach by publishing all abstracts and most papers in English.

The practical skills of Ukrainian academic librarians regarding their language proficiency were estimated on the basis of several international conferences held in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine, in 2019‒2020. The assessment involved 19 reports and written presentations submitted by participants of the above conferences. All the participants worked full-time at academic libraries at Ukrainian universities.

Results and Discussion

The modern librarian's English includes passive and active aspects of communication such as reading and comprehension; listening and understanding; the ability to conduct a conversation.<

A librarian's active knowledge of English can be improved by the following:

1. in the classroom, with colleagues under the guidance of a teacher/translator of scientific texts (at least 1 hour per week);

2. by viewing and discussing video materials on professional topics;

3. by integrating newly acquired skills into everyday practice (when preparing slides in Microsoft PowerPoint format, when providing research recommendations to students and lecturers, when delivering lectures/presentations at conferences, when writing articles);

4. by preparing a short message about scientific interests and research areas;

5. by using the best world practices of academic English.

The guided training sessions should be organized on (at least) a weekly basis in groups of 15‒20 participants (online and offline) within 3 month-long cycles (1 ‒ speaking skills; 2 ‒ listening skills; 3 ‒ scientific presentation techniques).

Passive knowledge of the English language can be improved by regularly reading professional literature (for example, the Research Information magazine, which is published in the UK and is delivered free of charge to libraries IF you fill out an application in English), as well as using special dictionaries (such as "Russian-English-French terminological Dictionary of Information Theory and Practice").

Conclusions

Accepting the current status of English as the universal language of global scientific communication implies applying considerable efforts by professionals from academic communities in non-English-speaking countries not only to learn English but practice it on a regular basis in order to be able to convey ideas and report findings without any limitations.

The specific framework suggested here for academic librarians in Ukraine involves a set of practical duration-specific steps to radically improve the English language proficiency by the service staff at Ukrainian universities in order to enable them to help both students and researchers; integrate university-specific knowledge into the global scientific community; to interact with colleagues worldwide.

The proposed program is planned to be implemented in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine, in November-December 2021 at Dnipro National University of Railway Transport. The results may prove useful for teachers of English both in Ukraine and globally.

REFERENCES

Drubin, D. G., & Kellogg, D. R. (2012). English as the universal language of science: opportunities and challenges. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 23(8), 1399. doi: https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e12-02-0108 (in English)

Elsevier. (2021). Why is English the main language of science? Retrieved from https://scientific-publishing.webshop.elsevier.com/manuscript-preparation/why-is-english-the-main-language-of-science/ (in English)

Foyewa, R. A. (2015). English: The International Language of Science and Technology. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research, 3(5), 34-41. Retrieved from https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/English-The-International-Language-of-Science-and-Technology.pdf (in English)

Nguyen, A., & Tran, M. (2019). Science journalism for development in the global south: a systematic literature review of issues and challenges. Public Underst. Sci., 28(8), 973-990. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519875447 (in English)

Ramírez-Castañeda, V. (2020). Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences. PLoS ONE, 15(9), e0238372. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238372 (in English)