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https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2797| Publication type: | Article in scientific journal |
| Type of review: | Peer review (publication) |
| Title: | The language of numbers : transdisciplinary action research and financial communication |
| Authors: | Whitehouse, Marlies |
| DOI: | 10.21256/zhaw-2797 10.1075/aila.00014.whi |
| Published in: | AILA Review |
| Volume(Issue): | 31 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Page(s): | 81 |
| Pages to: | 112 |
| Issue Date: | 2018 |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | John Benjamins |
| ISSN: | 1461-0213 1570-5595 |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Transdisciplinarity; Financial literacy; Intra-lingual translation; Communicative potential |
| Subject (DDC): | 332: Financial economics 400: Language, linguistics |
| Abstract: | Wider parts of society-at-large are not fluent in the language of numbers, and financial literacy in particular is low in many countries (OECD, 2014). This paper shows how research on financial communication with and for practitioners (Cameron, Frazer, Rampton, & Richardson, 1992, p. 22) can foster intra-lingual translation in the financial sector, which increases financial texts’ communicative potential and finally enables laypersons to better understand the language of numbers. Such an increased understanding allows individuals to set up investment plans for their current and future wealth and, for example, make informed decisions about their pension plans. By doing so, financial crises on the individual, organizational, and societal level can be avoided, which benefits social welfare and society-at-large. Transdisciplinary Action Research (TDA) offers a framework and procedures to approach such goals through close collaboration of scholars and practitioners throughout research projects. Following TDA core concepts, a cyclic process of research and development has been established in the last two decades (e.g. Perrin, this volume; Whitehouse, 2014). Whereas applied linguists involved aimed at better understanding practices of writing and intra-lingual translation at the interface of technical and everyday language, stakeholders from the financial industry wanted to improve their communication. The representatives of society-at-large, finally, were interested in contributing to sustainably increasing financial literacy. In the first part of the present paper, I sketch the suitability of transdisciplinarity in general and TDA in particular in financial communication (Section 1). Then I define the key concepts of intra-lingual translation, communicative potential, and financial literacy (Section 2). Next, I outline the data corpus and explain how TDA was applied in a series of research projects (Section 3). The presented results on a macro-level shed light on the financial analysts’ situation and practices in their multilingual workplace: the findings on the micro-level suggest that financial analysts’ texts pose a risk of partial communicative failure (Section 4). The article concludes by indicating empirically based measures to develop financial literacy, intra-lingual translation across stakeholders and texts’ communicative potential in finance (Section 5). |
| URI: | https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/16705 |
| Fulltext version: | Published version |
| License (according to publishing contract): | CC BY 4.0: Attribution 4.0 International |
| Departement: | Applied Linguistics |
| Appears in collections: | Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018_Whitehouse_The language of numbers_AILA Review.pdf | 328.04 kB | Adobe PDF |  View/Open |
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Whitehouse, M. (2018). The language of numbers : transdisciplinary action research and financial communication. AILA Review, 31(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2797
Whitehouse, M. (2018) ‘The language of numbers : transdisciplinary action research and financial communication’, AILA Review, 31(1), pp. 81–112. Available at: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2797.
M. Whitehouse, “The language of numbers : transdisciplinary action research and financial communication,” AILA Review, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 81–112, 2018, doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2797.
WHITEHOUSE, Marlies, 2018. The language of numbers : transdisciplinary action research and financial communication. AILA Review. 2018. Bd. 31, Nr. 1, S. 81–112. DOI 10.21256/zhaw-2797
Whitehouse, Marlies. 2018. “The Language of Numbers : Transdisciplinary Action Research and Financial Communication.” AILA Review 31 (1): 81–112. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2797.
Whitehouse, Marlies. “The Language of Numbers : Transdisciplinary Action Research and Financial Communication.” AILA Review, vol. 31, no. 1, 2018, pp. 81–112, https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2797.
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