1.1Language awareness

By language awareness, we understand the attentiveness, perception, and consciousness in identifying, analysing, and solving practical problems of language use in specific communication situations, within, across, and beyond domains and professional settings (Whitehouse, in prep.Whitehouse, M. in prep.). Writing in finance: (mis)communication and its impact on society at large.) based on (Perrin, 2013Perrin, D. (2013) The linguistics of newswriting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ) and (Handford, Garrett, & Cots, 2019Handford, M., Garrett, P., & Cots, J. M. (2019) Introduction to language awareness in professional communication contexts. Language Awareness, 28(3), 163–165. Retrieved from https://​www​.tandfonline​.com​/loi​/rmla20). While language awareness shapes people’s engagement with language, it is, at the same time, shaped by this engagement (Svalberg, 2007Svalberg, A. M.-L. (2007) State of the art. Language awareness and language learning. Language Teaching, 40(4), 287–308. ). When developing shared languages to overcome communicative boundaries between domains and settings, language users both require and develop language awareness. This process has been analysed by combining cognitive, affective, power-related, social, and performative dimensions (Garrett, 2010Garrett, P. (2010) Language awareness. In M. Berns (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier, (pp. 293–295).).

The cognitive dimension describes the mental presuppositions for language awareness and its impact on behaviour and cognitive state. Attention and detection are preconditions for the awareness of patterns, systems, and rules of situations in general and of language in specific. Awareness fosters the development of “analytic competence” (Garrett, 2010Garrett, P. (2010) Language awareness. In M. Berns (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier, (pp. 293–295).) and facilitates divergent and creative thinking as well as for communicative sensitivity to solve practical problems of language.

The affective dimension encompasses drivers behind and accruing from language awareness such as sensitivity, curiosity, and motivation. Environments that allow for the pursuit of affections enable stakeholders to pay attention to the observable and beyond, fostering the awareness of language and its use in communicative tasks. In return, the heightened awareness spurs affective factors and further improves the basis for noticing links between context and form of language and for effective intervention in communication situations (Whitehouse, in prep.Whitehouse, M. in prep.). Writing in finance: (mis)communication and its impact on society at large.).

The power dimension intends to increase confidence, ability, and empowerment to counter manipulative use of language and to apply language strategically. From a power perspective, text products and discourse can never be neutral: they are always shaped by their producers and intended to achieve certain goals (Svalberg, 2007Svalberg, A. M.-L. (2007) State of the art. Language awareness and language learning. Language Teaching, 40(4), 287–308. ). Hence, the power dimension sheds light on how power relationships – be they in politics, business, education, or society at large – construct and [ p. 3 ]are constructed by language and discourses and how this is reflected by the language users themselves.

The social dimension concerns the interaction between language use and our lives, relationships, and identities across the lifespan. Language awareness is a key in these processes because it enables and prepares language users to encode and perceive intentions through communication products and to act in a way that facilitates the pursuit of their goals. In increasingly globalised professional settings (Rankin & Stegu, 2018Rankin, T., & Stegu, M. (2018) Language for life: educational, professional and social contexts. Language Awareness, 27(1–2). ), communities, and organisations, the social dimension of language awareness plays a key role.

The performance dimension of analysis, finally, focuses on communicational success. It does so by looking at whether the knowledge gained from increased language awareness fosters skilful, circumspect, and adroit language use (Garrett, 2010Garrett, P. (2010) Language awareness. In M. Berns (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier, (pp. 293–295).). Given the present global situation that is characterised by migration and multilingualism, there is a considerable need for language awareness that contributes to an enhanced multilingual competence and a language use that aims at sustainable mutual understanding and discursive participation.

1.2Comprehensibility

By comprehensibility, we understand the property of a text to be easy to read and understand for its target audience. Thereby, comprehensibility is not conceptualised as a binary category “comprehensible” versus “incomprehensible” – but rather as a continuum. Moreover, a text that is comprehensible for one individual in a certain situation may be incomprehensible – partly or wholly – for the same individual in another setting.

There are various explanations for comprehensibility failures, showing the complexity and challenges of this notion. Reasons could be that the intention, the idea, the purpose or the pragmatic setting of the text is unclear to the reader. It might also be that the authors do not agree with or, for other reasons, do not follow the ideals of plain language: “A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information” (International Plain Language Federation, 2020International Plain Language Federation (2020)  What is plain language? International Plain Language Federation. Retrieved from https://​www​.iplfederation​.org).

Whereas the pure simplification of texts does not necessarily lead to considerably improved comprehensibility (e.g., Paris et al., 2015Paris, A., Deygas, B., Cornu, C., Thalamas, C., Maison, P., Duale, C., Kane, M., Hodaj, E., & Cracowski, J.-L. (2015) Improved informed consent documents for biomedical research do not increase patients’ understanding but reduce enrolment: A study in real settings. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 80(5), 1010–1020. ), language awareness (Part 1.1, this volume) and context awareness (Part 1.3, this volume) can help overcome the differences of the stakeholders’ knowledge systems (e.g. Busch, 2015). However, the difference in underlying contextual knowledge may not be visible on the linguistic surface: “The signifiants are the same. Having the same [ p. 4 ] signifiants with different signifiés depending on context, has consequences for comprehensibility” (Matic, De Nardi, & Steiner, this volume).

Non- or miscomprehension can cause considerable real-world problems: “There is something above and beyond grammatical comprehensibility – a functional understanding: understanding not only the text, but the practical consequences of the text” (Zödi, 2019Ződi, Z. (2019) The limits of plain legal language: understanding the comprehensible style in law. International Journal of Law in Context, 15, 246–262. , p. 252). Functional understanding is connected to the communicative situation, to its speech acts and to the context: “comprehensible texts are comprehensible because they show the ‘use’ of the text in a particular situation or give practical hints, checklists and advice” (Zödi, 2019Ződi, Z. (2019) The limits of plain legal language: understanding the comprehensible style in law. International Journal of Law in Context, 15, 246–262. , p. 260). Comprehensibility is, therefore, also dependent on the writers’ context awareness.

1.3Context awareness

By context awareness, we understand interlocutors’ attentiveness, perception, and consciousness regarding the communicative setting and environment. This includes their interest and ability to gather information about their audience’s preknowledge (i.e., their knowledge before exposure to the communicational offer), needs, and cultural background, and to offer suitable communication products. In practice, it means that the interlocutors build up appropriate mental representations of their target audiences, develop the skills to address these audiences in principle –and mobilise the ability and willpower to actually do so in a given communication situation (Rigotti & Rocci, 2006Rigotti, E., & Rocci, A. (2006) Towards a definition of communication context. Foundations of an interdisciplinary approach to communication. Studies in Communication Sciences, 6(2), 155–180.).

In Applied Linguistics, context awareness is often connected to knowledge and to the ability to navigate in specific contexts. The notion of context or rather the contextual function is one of the cornerstones in Systemic Functional Linguistics besides the ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions, where the text is part of layers of context: situational context, intertextual context, and cultural context (Halliday & Hasan, 1989Halliday, M. A. K. & Hasan, R. (1989) Language, context, and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. (2. ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.; Halliday, 1999Halliday, M. A. K. (1999) The notion of “context” in language education In: Ghadessy, M. (Ed.) (1999) Text and context in functional linguistics. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. ).

The notion of context is thoroughly discussed in van Dijk (2009)van Dijk, T. A. (2009) Society and Discourse [Electronic resource] How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . One of the conclusions is the need for a social theory of context that would connect to context interests in other disciplines with, e.g., cultural, cognitive and social perspectives – a theory that underlines the complex relations between contexts and discourses. Taking this complexity and the dynamics of context into account includes, e.g, understanding corporate annual reports not only as retrospective accounts of financial position and performance, but also as a genre depicting dreams of the future (Rahm, Sandell & Svensson, 2020Rahm, H., Sandell, N. & Svensson, P. (2020) Corporate dreams – Approprirate aspirations and the building of trust in annual reports. Studies in Communication Sciences, 20 (1), 77–91. ).

Since language, culture, and context are intrinsically connected and dependent on each other, the same cultural situation, e.g., the way to ask someone for a dance, is not only expressed differently in languages but also comes with different perspectives of the social situation (e.g., Keckses, 2015Keckses, I. (2015) Language, culture, and context. In: Sharifian, F. (Ed.) (2015) The Routledge Handbook of language and culture. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge p. 113–128.).[ p.5 ]

Thus, we consider that context awareness can be reached with different extensions and scopes in the numerous research interests and subdisciplines of Applied Linguistics. Such awareness can range from the delimited interest of the utterances as such and of context in a strict sense in certain strands of Conversation Analysis to the widest almost limitless interest in layers and connections of contexts in certain strands of Discourse Analysis. Context as well as context awareness are essential for all stakeholders in communicative and professional settings; this is common for all scholars of Applied Linguistics.

1.4Professional setting

By professional setting, we understand the constellation of material, social, and mental circumstances in which professionals and other stakeholders interact and communicate. Communication in a professional or workplace setting borrows from (and, in return, influences) general communicative practices and affects (and is affected by) the very process and nature of non-communicative professional activities. It develops within the frame of a professional culture, with which both novice and experienced professionals are expected to be familiar.

This results in “groups who regularly engage with each other in the service of a joint enterprise, and who share a repertoire of resources that enables them to communicate in a kind of verbal shorthand that is often difficult for outsiders to penetrate” (Holmes & Marra, 2014Holmes, J. & M. Marra (2014) The complexities of communication in professional workplaces. In V. Bhatia & S. Bremner (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Professional Communication. Abingdon & New-York: Routledge, 112–128., p. 114). Ethnographies of professional settings allow researchers to gain insight into participants’ sense-making practices by analysing “the domain’s origins, history, culture, features, heroes and principal players” (Resche, 2013Resche, C. (2013) Economic Terms and Beyond: Capitalising on the Wealth of Notions. Bern: Peter Lang, “Linguistic Insights” Series. , p. 42–43).

Professional settings operate as specific contexts of common and shared knowledge and expectations, which influence the different modes and types of interprofessional communication. Discourse, in the Foucauldien sense of institutionalised patterns of knowledge, is a key characteristic of professional settings; it is often action- and/or goal-oriented in that it serves to solve problems or allocate tasks. This feature has been identified as the discursive component of professional expertise and has fostered the characterisation of professional communication dynamics at work in professional settings (Wozniak, 2019Wozniak, S. (2019) Approche ethnographique des langues spécialisées professionnelles. Bern: Peter Lang, “Aspects linguistiques et culturels des discours spécialisés” Series. , p. 47–54).

Investigating professional settings and the related “communities of practice” (Wenger, 1998Wenger, Etienne (1998) Communities of practice. Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ) has been a major field of interest in Applied Linguistics. Amongst the many research support disciplines mobilised when investigating professional communities and their cultural dimensions, particular mention must be made of the ethnographic approach, which allows researchers to gain insight into those aspects of a given specific domain which lie beyond language – and often require transdisciplinarity.[ p.6 ]

1.5Transdisciplinarity

By transdisciplinarity, we understand the “deep collaboration across and beyond academic and non-academic disciplines and fields” (Perrin & Kramsch, 2018Perrin, D. & C. Kramsch (2018) Transdisciplinarity in applied linguistics. AILA Review, 31, 1–13. , p. 4), where practitioners are “participants and knowledge experts in the research process” (5). As such, transdisciplinarity is “research on, for, and with practitioners” (Cameron, Frazer, Rampton, and Richardson, 1992Cameron, Deborah, Frazer, Elizabeth, Rampton, Ben, & Richardson, Kay (1992) Researching language. Issues of power and method. London: Routledge., p. 22). By doing so, transdisciplinary research brings together epistemes from science and professional practice to build emergent shared knowledge (Buchs et al., 2020Buchs, A., Petit, O. & P. Roman (2020) Can social ecological economics of water reinforce the “big tent”?. Ecological Economics, 169. , p. 9).

This raises the issue of the (in-)commensurability of theories, methods, and concepts from formerly separated lines of knowledge building, as addressed throughout in #31 of the AILA Review (2018). With this in mind, it has been suggested to consider “applied linguistics as epistemic assemblage” (Pennycook, 2018Pennycook, A. (2018) Applied linguistics as epistemic assemblage. AILA Review, 31, 113–134. ). Theories, methods, and concepts are combined if the assemblage helps identify, analyse, and solve a problem in which language use plays a key role. Thus, the focus is on addressing real-life problems, rather than on avoiding theoretical clashes.

Many of the transdisciplinary assemblages in Applied Linguistics start from the tools and methods of ethnography – such as field notes, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. These enable researchers to observe language interactions in situ and collect artefacts, written or oral, as well as sociological, historical, and institutional data. Involvement in the field, or the “in vivo approach” (Isani, 2014Isani, S. (2014) Ethnography as a research-support discipline in ESP teaching, learning and research in the French academic context. ASp, 66, 27–39. , p. 30), is the prerequisite of all ethnographic research (Dressen-Hammouda, 2013Dressen-Hammouda, D. (2013) Ethnographic approaches to ESP research. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Ed.), The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell, 501–517., p. 502), whether it concerns the gathering and analysis of qualitative or quantitative data.

Mobilising additional disciplinary frameworks aims at cross-fertilisation, which is brought about by sharing methodological practices belonging to subfields of linguistics or to other and related disciplines. Such collaboration helps transdisciplinary research teams characterise and analyse professional domains, their cultures and discourses. By doing so, they include practitioners’ views of the practical problem, their epistemes, and their repertoires of strategies and routines that “enable them to solve problems of practice” (Perrin & Kramsch, 2018Perrin, D. & C. Kramsch (2018) Transdisciplinarity in applied linguistics. AILA Review, 31, 1–13. , p. 3).

Such joint knowledge production in transdisciplinary projects depends on the stakeholders’ ability to understand each other. In other words, research teams need to develop a shared language that helps them explain, deconstruct, and reconstruct their objects of knowledge together. It is only when all the stakeholders thoroughly understand each others’ perspectives that they can start the assemblage. At best, the emerging new concepts overcome the limitations of the original epistemes for categorically new views of the object of research and potential solutions.[ p.7 ]

2.1Shared languages in individual communication

The first pair of contributions focuses on individuals using shared languages, in particular on individuals who would like to use a foreign language including specialised vocabulary, and individuals who have to use experts’ language to thoroughly understand the consequences of their decisions. Silga Sviķe investigates the challenges, problems, and solutions of specialised lexicography in mobile apps as language learning tools (Paper I). Igor Matic & Gianni De Nardi & Felix Steiner develop a strategy for making medical information more comprehensible to laypeople (Paper II). Both approaches identify issues and develop solutions for the individual needs of expert language.

Paper I. Mobile apps as language-learning tools: Challenges, problems and solutions of specialised lexicography by Silga Sviķe

This contribution provides insight into the development and functions of mobile apps – specialised translation dictionaries with Latvian as one of the contrasted languages –together with a dictionary user evaluation analysis based on survey data. The contribution also describes the range of specialised translation dictionaries that include Latvian, which are available in the Google Play store.

The results offer the author’s insight into the development of translation dictionaries, which can be considered as important aids in language acquisition, especially in mastering and applying terminology and specialised lexis. The contribution provides descriptions of three different mobile app models for specialised translation dictionaries. These are especially designed as translation aids not only for translation students, but also for any interested parties working with the terminology.

This contribution fosters the concept of developing shared languages because it also offers the developers’ vision of how language acquisition and practical use can be improved through digital tools. This concept is based on the developed [ p. 8 ]practical and approbated models of specialised dictionaries. The mobile apps that are described throughout the research can provide individualised support in the acquisition of specialised courses related to terminology.

Keywords: mobile apps, specialised dictionaries, language learning, terminology, translation

Paper II. Analysing and optimising Informed Consent in cooperation with ethics committees by Igor Matic & Gianni De Nardi & Felix Steiner

This contribution analyses aspects of comprehensibility in the Informed Consent (IC) process. In specific, the authors focus on three main stakeholders involved in the IC process within the context of human research: (i) ethics committees, (ii) researchers, and (iii) patients. The article describes the underlying concepts of comprehensibility for each stakeholder and presents suggestions on how to establish a shared language that considers the complex relationship between these stakeholders.

To make the stakeholder’s underlying concepts of comprehensibility visible, the authors conducted interviews and analysed those qualitatively. The results show, firstly, that the ethics committees examined in Switzerland assess comprehensibility differently and that the criteria that are applied represent tacit knowledge. Secondly, the IC documents produced by researchers and the corresponding IC discussions contain elements that are barriers to comprehensibility for the layperson that should be informed in clear terms.

This contribution fosters the concept of developing shared languages by implementing practical solutions. Based on the findings above, linguistic criteria for comprehensibility and a guide for comprehensible patient information are currently being developed. Furthermore, a recently introduced template linking the two parts of IC information (documents and discussion) helps to minimise the divergence of perspectives between experts and laypersons. The combination of these measures thus promotes a shared language among the stakeholders involved in the IC process.

Keywords: comprehensibility, shared language, expert-layperson communication, Informed Consent

2.2Shared languages in organisations

The second pair of contributions focuses on ways of overcoming hinderances and constraints in transdisciplinary collaboration, in particular on researchers’ collaboration with practitioners in organizations. Eva-Maria Graf & Frédérick Dionne outline the development of transdisciplinary collaboration between [ p. 9 ]applied linguists, psychologists, and coaching practitioners (Paper III). Misa Fujio describes new directions of collaboration between university professors and professional business practitioners (Paper IV). Both approaches map innovative ways to create and foster shared language as common ground for transdisciplinary projects.

Paper III. ‘Knowing that’, ‘knowing why’ and ‘knowing how’: Aligning perspectives and assembling epistemes for a transdisciplinary analysis of questioning sequences in executive coaching. A research journey by Eva-Maria Graf & Frédérick Dionne

This contribution discusses the design process of a transdisciplinary research project on questioning practices in executive coaching. The authors argue that the centrality of questions to enable change for the client in this new helping format has yet to be thoroughly explored. They stress the importance of integrating linguists’, psychologists’, and practitioners’ epistemes to obtain results that both further the academic understanding of the phenomenon and are relevant to the actual practice of coaching.

The argument points to the necessity of taking interim steps: developing a shared language among the stakeholders in linguistics and psychology; devising an analytical tool that integrates the epistemic assemblage thus created; and designing an interprofessional collaboration that transcends the limits of academia. The contribution describes the challenging-but-successful first steps of the research project and elaborates on the (future) rewards for linguistics, psychology, and the coaching practice in an interprofessional setting.

The contribution fosters the concept of developing a shared language in the context of executive coaching, i.e., in research on and with corporate communicative practice. It portrays developing a shared language as a stepwise project that brings together the perspectives of practitioners, applied linguists, and applied psychologists on questioning sequences. Thereby, it elaborates on differences between an interdisciplinary shared language, an interprofessionally shared language, and a transdisciplinary shared language.

Keywords: transdisciplinarity, executive coaching, applied psychology, questioning sequences, epistemic assemblage

Paper IV. Transdisciplinary in Japanese business communication: New directions for collaboration between professors and professionals by Misa Fujio

This contribution discusses the challenges and opportunities that transdisciplinary collaborations have been facing in Japan, with a focus on those between business professionals and academia. By revealing the current limitations and making suggestions for future transdisciplinary collaborations, the author shows [ p. 10 ]how applied linguists can contribute to raising language awareness in general and the power dimension in particular, both at the corporate and at the individual levels.

The results disclose that, at the corporate level, possibilities and outcomes through transdisciplinary collaborations are yet to be recognised, including contribution to organisational learning and systematic knowledge transformation, although individual professionals generally realise the importance of combining their experience-based tacit knowledge with supporting academic theories.

This contribution fosters the concept of shared language by analysing the sensitivity to common ground or checking background knowledge before establishing shared language. This article describes how business professionals pay attention to different types of stakeholders across languages, organizations, and levels of expertise, and suggests further possibilities of shared language studies in Applied Linguistics.

Keywords: transdisciplinarity in Japan, industry-government-academia collaborations, professionals engaged in academia, gaps in needs, common ground

2.3Shared languages in the public sphere

The third pair of contributions focuses on the interrelation between language and the public sphere, in particular on acting with and reacting to strategic communication. Christopher J. McKenna analyses the development of institutional racial segregation with everyday language that may have seemed, on the surface, unobjectionable (Paper V). Steven Breunig investigates activities of the US military when engaging in social media messaging and management in a digitalised, mediated world (Paper VI). Both approaches emphasise the pivotal role and impact of accepted shared languages used in the public sphere.

Paper V. An invisible operational mortar: The essential role of speech acts within tri-segregated moviegoing by Christopher J. McKenna

This contribution seeks to apply the principles of speech-act theory developed within linguistics to the studies both of historical segregation in the United States and to the study of business history more generally. Specifically, the article recounts how the development of rather extraordinary business venues – namely, tri-racial movie theatres – in a region where the standard Manichaean Southern racial divide was effectively compelled by the presence of a sizeable third ethnic group: Native Americans.

The results show that even in a region where tri-segregation effected within public accommodations remained a familiar theme to local residents, tri-racial [ p. 11 ]theatre owners apparently found it necessary to reinforce intended raced-body management policies with linguistic apparatuses that complemented the very intentional design of these relatively complex facilities. News articles, site advertisements, and the directions of site staffers to patrons acted in concert as a kind of operational mortar to produce specific segregationist outcomes.

This contribution fosters the concept of developing shared languages by establishing speech-act analysis as a useful tool extendable to unexpected academic disciplines. Speech-act theories bear the potential to become standard elements within a larger analytical toolkit spanning multiple disciplinary boundaries. Speech-act analyses currently tend to be applied to contemporary debates about social justice and/or to the relative power imbalances between speakers of multiple languages within a given community. However, this contribution indicates that these analyses can prove to be useful when examining business and/or other historical situations, so long as the analysis is performed within the context of a substantial familiarity with local behavioural codes.

Keywords: speech-act theory; business history; cinema exhibition history; segregation studies; linguistic analysis

Paper VI. Language workers and the challenge of digitalisation: Gaining insight through the social media skill sharing of professional communication practitioners within the US military by Steven Breunig

This contribution investigates social media skill sharing within the US military, as a form of transdiciplinary practice, to develop themes for research and practice, and most significantly for teaching language learners to engage with the challenge of digitalisation when doing language work. For professional military communication practitioners, learning and developing knowledge and skills for social media messaging and management is becoming an increasingly collaborative effort between practitioners, researchers and industry leaders.

The results show that the communication practitioners working for the US military, as a professional community, are seeking the best practices for the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in the service of their enterprise. Social media messaging and management involves acquiring technological competences in an ever-changing social media environment, whereby the structure and function of language use is highly controlled by algorithms from the different social media platforms.

This contribution fosters the concept of developing shared languages in two ways. Firstly, in a digitalised, [ p. 12 ]mediated world, the function and impact that the technological side of social media messaging and management has on language awareness needs to be considered. Secondly, the paper shows that in a digitalised, mediated world, the way user language and user content are being incorporated into a particular community of practice should be taken into account. Being attentive to user-generated content is especially significant when practicing strategic communication.

Keywords: social media, transdisciplinary research and practive, US military, communication practitioners

3.1Shared languages as tool and result of a negotiation process

The contributions in this issue discuss various cases of transdisciplinary collaboration. Across their wide range of topics, all the papers indicate that these cooperations are both the drivers and the results of negotiation processes. Thereby, the stakeholders influence each other on several levels, from micro to macro, and converge to a certain extent, e.g., by gaining insights into each other’s professional settings and by better understanding each other’s problems, stances, and practices.

A mutually understandable, common language is a pivotal tool to negotiate the framework and conditions of such multilayered collaboration, but also to sustainably solve the targeted problems together. Given the key role that language plays in transdisciplinary settings, this contribution outlines a concept termed developing shared languages. A shared language is both the tool in and the result of a negotiation process in transdisciplinary collaboration. The stakeholders typically negotiate four issues:

Negotiating boundaries encompasses the difficulties of thinking beyond one’s own mindset and limited territory to venture into new grounds of expertise and knowledge. To ensure a collaboration on an equal footing, the stakeholders need to value and appreciate each other’s professional settings, limitations, and practices (Sarangi et al., 2003Sarangi, S., Clarke, A., Bennert, K., & Howell, L. (2003) Categorisation practices across professional boundaries: some analytic insights from genetic counselling. In S. Sarangi & T. van Leeuwen (Eds.), Applied Linguistics and communities of practice. London: Continuum (pp. 150–168).). Moreover, they have to be willing and prepared to [ p. 13 ]learn from each other and create emergent knowledge that is more than the sum of its parts.

Negotiating common ground comprises the mutual acceptance of stakeholders’ key beliefs, opinions, and stances, and the willingness to develop together on and from these grounds. Thereby, the awareness of stakeholders’ different backgrounds plays an important role. For example, the collaboration between members of a low-context culture, such as the United States, and a high-context culture, such as Japan, will need more clarification to lay a solid common ground than the cooperation of groups from the same low-context culture (Hall, 1990Rigotti, E., & Rocci, A. (2006) Towards a definition of communication context. Foundations of an interdisciplinary approach to communication. Studies in Communication Sciences, 6(2), 155–180.).

Negotiating knowledge asymmetries helps the stakeholders – both academics and practitioners – better comprehend each other’s activities, especially in cases of considerable differences in expertise or few overlaps of conceptual or methodological understanding. The reduction of knowledge asymmetries fosters the development of mutual trust by enabling the stakeholders to comprehend each other’s goals during the collaboration (Kemman, 2019Kemman, M. (2019) Knowledge asymmetry in interdisciplinary collaborations and how to reduce it. https://​i2insights​.org​/2019​/02​/26​/knowledge​-asymmetry/). This trust ultimately also improves the outcomes of transdisciplinary collaborations.

Negotiating target and purpose consists of discussing and agreeing on a common vision for the collaboration and of formulating targets and purposes in a shared language. This vision allows for prudent planning and designing appropriate procedures that are supported by all the stakeholders (Clarke, 2003Clarke, A. (2003) On being an object of research: reflections from a professional perspective. Applied Linguistics, 24(3), 374–385. , p. 383). Especially for collaborations that require intralingual, interlingual, and intercultural translation, a mutual understanding of the targets and purposes is a prerequisite for success.

3.2Shared languages are characterised by the interplay of their key drivers

Being both the tools and the results of a negotiation process with various facets, shared languages shape and are shaped by transdisciplinary collaboration on scaling levels. The key drivers are (a) on the macro level, the area such as the public sphere (2.3), the organisation (2.2), and individual communication (2.1); (b) on the meso level, the stakeholders such as academics and practitioners (1.4); and (c) on the micro level, language skills and properties such as language awareness (1.1), comprehensibility (1.2), and context awareness (1.3.)

The contributions of this issue show various forms of such key drivers as well as their interplay on different levels with scaling intensity. Whereas practitioners often handle language drivers unconsciously, researchers – especially in the field of Applied Linguistics – should be aware of them and consider them when entering transdisciplinary collaboration. This awareness strongly contributes to developing a shared language in transdisciplinary teams. Questions foregrounding specific language drivers include:[ p.14 ]

Issues of language awareness

Can language awareness, similar to language acquisition and practical language use, be improved by digital tools, such as mobile apps, and foster the development of shared languages (Sviķe, this issue)? How does technology impact the development of a shared language in transdisciplinary collaboration, especially regarding the strategic communication between the stakeholders in a project and beyond (Breunig, this issue)?

Issues of comprehensibility

Given the multidimensional character of comprehensibility, how can it be ensured that a real mutual understanding between the stakeholders has been established, especially when their knowledge is vastly different, e.g., between doctor and patient (De Nardi, Matic & Steiner, this issue)? Does a thorough analysis of the stakeholders’ common ground enhance comprehensibility because understanding is connected to the context (Fujio, this issue)?

Issues of context awareness

How does everyday, seemingly objective and descriptive, language with bland and prosaic statements yet notions of illocutionary and perlocutionary force influence transdisciplinary collaboration (McKenna, this issue)? And how can context awareness help stakeholders bring each other’s tacit knowledge to light and integrate it in the development of a shared language (Graf & Dionne, this issue)?

3.3Shared languages as facilitators of communication and mutual learning to solve socially relevant problems

These and many other questions are answered in the contributions included in this issue. Whereas they all indicate that there are many ways to develop a shared language, they also show that the common characteristic of developing shared languages is a scaling process involving multiple factors that interact and influence each other. And, most importantly, all papers point to the fact that shared languages act as enablers, facilitators, and catalysts of communication and mutual learning between the stakeholders.

So, shared languages become an exclusive medium for the exchange, an “invisible operational mortar” (McKenna, this issue) that further strengthens the relationship and mutual understanding among the stakeholders. As such, shared languages cannot necessarily be understood or easily be replicated by third parties who are not familiar with the context or lack insight into the previous negotiation [ p. 15 ]processes. This holds true on scaling levels, from interpersonal dialogue to public discourse.

Furthermore, the research discussed in this issue has provided evidence that shared languages foster the transcendance of boundaries: whether in individual communication, e.g., between doctor and patients; in organizations, e.g., with coaching executives; or in the public sphere, e.g., between government and society at large. Depending on context and setting, shared languages can be developed along the lines of intralingual translation, e.g., jargon; cross-domain translation, e.g., English for Specific Purposes; or interlingual translation, e.g., collaboration-specific dictionaries.

To sum up, if Applied Linguistics is about “solving socially relevant problems where language plays a key role” (https://​aila​.info, 2021), the cases discussed in this issue provide strong empirical evidence that, in transdisciplinary approaches, there is a twofold benefit from informed language use. Firstly, on an object level of the research outcome, language matters when practitioners are enabled to solve professional and social problems. Secondly, on a meta level of research, language matters when researchers and practitioners engage in mutual learning. It builds the bridges between domains and their cultures and epistemes.

Hence our shared interest in developing shared languages – both as applied linguists and as citizens living in a world that calls for informed action.