Who we are

The Internet platform “Easy – Plain – Accessible” was initiated by Christiane Maaß and Silvia Hansen-Schirra. Christiane Maaß is a Professor for Media Linguistics at the University of Hildesheim, Institute for Translatology and Specialised Communication (Germany). She is the Director of the Research Centre for Easy Language (Forschungsstelle Leichte Sprache) and Head of the PhD Research Team “Accessible Medical Communication”.
Silvia Hansen-Schirra is a Professor for English Linguistics and Translation Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Faculty of Translation Studies in Germersheim (Germany). She is the Director of the Translation & Cognition (TRA&CO) Center and Head of the Research Group “Simply complex – Easy Language”.

The two research groups in Hildesheim and Germersheim have complementary profiles and are united in their approaches to texts, users and translation. The groundwork for linguistic modelling of Easy Language (EL) as a variety was laid in Hildesheim (Bredel/Lang/Maaß 2016), where scientific guidelines for Easy Language were established (Maaß 2015 and Bredel/Maaß 2016 a-c).The Research Centre for Easy Language conducts theoretical research and application-oriented research into Easy and Plain Language and is in close contact with the target groups. The research group “Simply complex – Easy Language” in Mainz/Germersheim has adopted methods from cognitive science for the assessment of EL modeling and rules with the respective target groups of EL (Hansen-Schirra/Gutermuth 2018, 2019, Gutermuth 2020). Using methods such as eyetracking, EEG and fMRI, the TRA&CO team focuses on quantitative-empirical reception research. These two groups in Hildesheim and Mainz/Germersheim currently constitute the highest concentration of research resources dedicated to EL and accessible communication in the German-speaking world.


References

Bredel, Ursula, and Christiane MaaßArbeitsbuch Leichte Sprache. Berlin: Duden. 2016c. Print.

Bredel, Ursula, and Christiane MaaßLeichte Sprache. Theoretische Grundlagen, Orientierung für die Praxis. Berlin: Duden. 2016a. Print.

Bredel, Ursula, and Christiane MaaßRatgeber Leichte Sprache. Berlin: Duden. 2016b. Print

Bredel, Ursula; Lang, Katrin, and Christiane Maaß. “Zur empirischen Überprüfbarkeit von Leichte-Sprache-Regeln am Beispiel der Negation“.  Ed. Nathalie Mälzer.  Barrierefreie Kommunikation. Perspektiven aus Theorie und Praxis. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2016. 95-115. Print

Gutermuth, Silke. Leichte Sprache für alle? Eine zielgruppenorientierte Rezeptionsstudie zu Leichter und Einfacher Sprache. Manuskript der Dissertationsschrift. In print at Frank & Timme, 2020. Print.

HansenSchirra, Silvia, and Silke Gutermuth.  “Modellierung und Messung Einfacher und Leichter Sprache“.  Eds. Susanne Jekat, Martin Kappus and Klaus Schuber.  Barrieren abbauen, Sprache gestalten. Winterthur: ZHAW Züricher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, 2018. 7-23. Print.

HansenSchirra, Silvia, and Silke Gutermuth. “Empirische Überprüfung von Verständlichkeit“ Eds. Christiane Maaß and Isabel Rink.  Handbuch Barrierefreie Kommunikation. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019. 163-182. Print.

Maaß, Christiane. Leichte Sprache. Das Regelbuch. Münster: Lit., 2015. Print.


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