Menu choice translation: a flexible menu-based controlled natural language system

Wycliffe Associates EasyEnglish: Challenges in Cross-Cultural Communication Robert G. Betts Wycliffe Associates (UK) 7 Conwy Street Rhyl Denbighshire LL18 3ET United Kingdom rbetts@btinternet.com Abstract A formally defined subset of English known as EasyEnglish is described. Primarily designed for a culturally di- verse audience of second-language English speakers, EasyEnglish seeks to clarify meaning through restrictions on vocabulary and grammar, whilst pre- serving intellectual content. EasyEng- lish has been developed by Wycliffe Associates (UK), an organisation that produces Biblical materials for worldwide audience. Special features ofa EasyEnglish include: (1) two levels of lexical restriction (approximately 1,200 words and 2,800 words respectively); (2) constraints on the range of meanings allowed for permitted terms; (3) logical reformulation and application of gram- matical structures designed to maximise comprehensibility; and (4) application of established techniques for translation across cultural boundaries. Printed and computerised tools for writing are briefly outlined, together with future developments. The efforts we make in making the EasyEnglish texts clear to people from a wide diversity of cultures and who speak a wide range of mother tongues may contribute significantly to the wide acceptance of our material; valid criticisms of EasyEnglish are also pointed out. Three particular current challenges are: selection of corpora from which suitable vocabulary can be drawn; fine-tuning the grammatical rules; and obtaining feedback from us- ers. 1 Introduction Wycliffe Associates (UK) produces Biblical materials for pastors, teachers of English, Bible translators, etc., worldwide. Our audience may have limited English as a second or subsequent language, or they may be training or communi- cating to such people. Our main thrust currently is production of Bible translations and commentaries at two lev- els of simple English. We originally conceived the simpler level as a Bible translation aid for mother-tongue translators who understand some English. But it has wider use for those with lim- ited English or reading difficulties. The more advanced level is designed for leaders and teach- ers who may have had little or no theological training. EasyEnglish translations may also serve as texts for those learning English. We currently distribute our material by CD and by Website download (with approximately 250,000 hits and 100,000 downloads per year from 140 countries). Only a small proportion of our audience owns a computer able to access the Web or read CDs. But increasingly there are Internet cafés even in quite small towns in many parts of the developing world. This enables rural people to access and download files. These peo- ple who use computers are 'gateways' to a much larger audience. For example, a church leader may use the material to teach other leaders or the whole congregation; schoolteachers may use the material with their classes. We are diversifying into production of other materials (including those for the learning dis- abled), and this diversification will increase as the Bible translation process draws to its com- pletion. 2 What is EasyEnglish? EasyEnglish is a formally defined subset of stan- dard English, with restricted vocabulary and grammar. It is different from IBM’s EasyEnglish system …

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