Engaging with family law and the court can be a confusing, stressful and highly emotional experience for families and communities.
For individuals with limited literacy, or where English is not their first language, understanding the language of family law system can be a significant barrier to navigating the system.
Emeritus Professor Pam Peters FAHA is a linguist at Macquarie University. She retired from teaching after forty years and now focuses on research. From 2001-8, Prof Peters was the Director of Macquarie University’s Dictionary Research Centre. She was a member of the Editorial Committee of the Macquarie Dictionary from 1986 to 2006, and founding editor (1992) of Australian Style magazine.
Her best-known monographs are the Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (1995), its sequel, the Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage (2007), and the international Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004). Professsor Peters was also a member of the ABC’s advisory committee on broadcasting language from 1996 to 2024.
Her current project, a concept-based, multi-modal dictionary of terms used within family law and mediation services, has supported thousands of families to navigate the complex family law system.
“Language can be a communication barrier or engage the audience. You want to make it as accessible and inclusive as possible,” says Professor Peters.
A different kind of dictionary
To be successful, LawTermFinder required a different kind of approach than the typical dictionary.
“When you’re unsure how a word is spelt, you can’t go straight in to look it up in a dictionary,” explains Professor Peters. “The idea for LawTermFinder as an online dictionary was to use a simple graphic alongside the target word, to support recognition and understanding. So, the word “lawyer” goes with a stick figure with a briefcase, helping to flag the word’s meaning together with its spelling. This combination shifts our online dictionary into being concept-based, not just word-based.
LawTermFinder’s “easy-read” (eezee reed) system has visual cues and a voice-over function for each word, spoken by Aboriginal voice actors. It has also been translated eight different immigrant languages, including Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese, to support communities in Australia.
Working with communities
In 2020 and 2021, Professor Peters and Professor Jan-Louis Kruger worked with health professionals to improve the readability and comprehension of online health information, particularly in communicating about childhood vaccines and COVID-19.
The research involved two groups of people — native English-speakers and second language English-speaking professionals — in online tasks to see how accurately and quickly they could find information on a health website. The tasks were designed to be things parents might do regularly, such as finding vaccination information for children.
“What we found is that native English speakers found the information faster and usually got the information right. Perhaps not surprisingly, those who spoke a second language needed more time to find the correct information or could not find the correct information.”
Prof Peters concluded: “Our research shows how thoroughly we need to consider website design — especially for government websites — to be reader-centric and help them navigate through all the information provided. At a time when fake news and disinformation about health is on the rise, we need to make sure people can find proper health-care information.”
Prof Peters’ work with Prof Kruger also extends into hospitals. In 2022-3 they worked with hospital translators to improve communication between medical professionals, patients and their families.
“Our research showed how difficult it was for translators for different language groups to interpret and translate health documents accurately,” says Professor Peters. “Again we found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the highly readable document produced the fastest and most accurate translation.”
“Documents which were unreadable or heavy with jargon were less accurately translated, and translators reported greater cognitive load with them.”
Making language inclusive
“Language is incredibly important in every sphere of life in communicating and in understanding. So, I do feel rather strongly about the need to maintain language study and linguistic research, as well as accessible online resources.”
Through them we can increase community inclusion by providing both written translations and audio versions of public information.
“People may say they speak Arabic, but which variety of Arabic is it? Whether they’re from Egypt or Palestine, the language can be different — you need a bit more than a classical Arabic translation to meet the needs of the community.”
As for the future, Professor Peters emphasises the need to value diverse languages in Australian society.
“I’d like there to be more emphasis on language and language skills and language appreciation, not just in the literary sense, but as modes of communication.”
