Portrait

27 years old

Foreign language correspondent and assistant for English and French (specializing in business)

B.A. Translation at the University of Leipzig

M.A. Media Text and Media Translation at the University of Hildesheim

Research assistant at the Institute for Translation Studies and Specialized Communication at the University of Hildesheim

Responsibilities and interests: Translation, interlingual interpreting (English, French), interpreting in easy language, tools as aids for interpreting and translating, barrier-free Communications

Member of the research group "BK med" (Barrier-free medical communication) of the Easy Language Research Center at the University of Hildesheim

Associated with the ChEG doctoral program

Topic of the doctorate

Medical communication in simple and easy language - an empirical study on the comprehension and retention of specialist medical information

The background

My study is primarily a reading study. The corpus consists of texts from a translation project of the Easy Language Research Center of the University of Hildesheim with Wort&Bild-Verlag (Apotheken Umschau). The texts deal with various diseases, medications and their side effects, as well as prevention.

Method

The test subjects for my study are people with cognitive impairments. The texts are presented to the test subjects in standard, simple and easy language; eye movements are recorded during reading using an eye tracker. The respondents are then asked to describe in their own words what the text is about. This is followed by a self-assessment of text comprehension by the respondents. In order to assess the understanding and retention of the medical information, a questionnaire is used to ask questions about the content. The method mix of free recall, rating and questionnaire makes it possible to correlate the results and make statements about comprehension and retention performance for each of the three text levels.

Publications

Ahrens, Sarah; Schulz, Rebecca; Kröger, Janina; Hernández Garrido, Sergio; Keller, Loraine & Rink, Isabel (eds.) (2022): Accessibility - Health Literacy - Health Information: Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Emerging Field of Communication. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Ahrens, S. / Hernández Garrido,S. / Keller, L./ Kröger, J./ Rink,I./Schulz, R. (2021): "Medical communication in Easy and Plain Language: On understanding, retaining and accepting specialized medical communication in comprehensibility-enhanced formats." In: Jekat, Susanne J., Steffen Puhl, Luisa Carrer, and Alexa Lintner, eds. 2021. Proceedings of the 3rd Swiss Conference on Barrier-free Communication (BfC 2020). Winterthur (online) , June 2 9 -July 4, 2020. Winterthur: ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 29 - 37. DOI: 10.21256/zhaw-3001.

Schulz, R./Degenhardt, J./Czerner-Nicolas, K. (2020): "Easy Language Interpreting". In: Hansen-Schirra, S./ Maaß, C. (eds.): Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. Berlin: Frank & Timme. 163 - 178.

Lectures

27 May 2021 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
1st International Easy Language Day Conference
"Emerging and Professionalization of Easy Language Interpreting"

December 8, 2020 Department of Information and Language Sciences at the University of Hildesheim
Research colloquium
"Medical communication in easy and simple language - an empirical study on understanding and retaining medical information"

February 13, 2020 Easy Language Research Center of the University of Hildesheim
Mehr Verständlichkeit für alle - Towards a better understanding
"Easy German Language as a means to improve German Health Literacy"

January 14, 2020 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; Germersheim site
Guest lecture in the B.A. Language, Culture, Translation
"Composites and their use in Easy Language"