The Language Services Unit (LSU) presents its tools at TERMOS 2023
The main objective of the University of Granada’s (UGR) Language Policy is to support the institution’s internationalisation process. In this respect, one of the priority areas is the communication policy in Spanish and other languages. Consequently, the importance of multilingualism in the process of internationalisation is acknowledged, especially the use of English as an academic lingua franca and the consolidation of Spanish as a language of academic exchange and university teaching, both internally and in international relations.
To support this policy, the Language Services Unit (USL) of the University of Granada, among other tasks, is responsible for the institutional language standardization and the development of language resources. The main objective is to provide tools to support the internationalisation strategy of the UGR, thanks to the work carried out by an interdisciplinary team.
The USL presents this Friday, May 12th, at the Third Wroclaw Terminological Meeting (TERMOS 2023), the UGR’s terminology management protocol and some of the language tools developed by the USL.
When developing tools to improve institutional language, the USL considers that the language used at any institution is based on two pillars: the institution´s specific terminology and the existing style guides. As a response to the need to systematically manage university terminology, in 2018 a terminology resource, in the form of a database called UGRTerm, was launched. UGRTerm is a bilingual (Spanish-English) termbase, conceived as a centralised and open access resource. Currently, UGRTerm contains over 49,300 terms in a total of over 22,000 entries.
UGRTerm regulates the use of the institution’s proprietary terminology, including the names of posts, degrees, divisions, secretariats, etc. of the UGR. In addition, it regulates terms frequently used in the academic field, which belong to a wide array of thematic subfields, some specific to the teaching-learning process and others to more transversal fields such as quality evaluation, etc.
This resource has been designed primarily as a linguistic resource for internal and external translators and the staff involved in the production of institutional texts in English at the UGR. The primary objectives of this work is to contribute to the improvement of the quality and coherence of institutional texts written in English for our international readership, to comply with standardisation requirements in official documents and information resources, and to create a repository of institutional knowledge, an invaluable asset for members of the UGR and other interested parties.
To facilitate access to the tool for those less familiar with the use of terminology resources, help guides have been produced in both Spanish and English. Video tutorials have also been developed on the main search functions and utilities of UGRTerm. In addition, training seminars are organised for UGR administrative and support staff and academics. Finally, the UGRTerm team is also involved in disseminating information about the resource to organisations that may find it useful for their translations, such as the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Translation.
As a companion to UGRTerm, the USL has also produced the UGR English Style Guide for drafting institutional texts. This handbook provides a set of standardised conventions that are recommended for use at the UGR. The guide has been designed primarily as a linguistic resource for internal and external translators and the staff involved in the production of institutional texts in English at the University of Granada (UGR).
The primary objective of this work is to contribute to the improvement of the quality and coherence of institutional texts written in English for our international readership. To achieve these objectives, a user-friendly and highly visual manual has been produced, with examples of correct and incorrect use of the various topics covered. For example, we note here recommendations on the use of gender-neutral language.
In the short and medium term, the success of the language standardisation policy within the UGR depends to a large extent on three factors: proactivity, multidisciplinarity and integration. If these three factors converge, the benefits of systematic management will be more evident in this institution. Some of the contributions include the improvement of the institutional language of the University of Granada. Writing and translating institutional texts in Spanish and English is easier and faster, and the consistent use of official terms and styles appropriate for an international community are ensured. Another contribution refers to compliance with standardisation requirements in official documents such as the European Diploma Supplement (SET), and information resources like the new UGR´s bilingual catalogue of programmes and courses, UGRCat.
In addition, as a result of UGRTerm, we now have a repository of institutional knowledge. Such a repository is invaluable for members of the UGR and other interested parties, who need to acquire knowledge about the institution’s structure and services thanks to the thematic index. Moreover, language standardization increases international research visibility, since the use of standardized institutional denominations avoids confusion resulting from the incorrect identification of the research activity. Finally, by producing clearer and more coherent documents, and by increasing the transparency of the institution, we hope to contribute to an enhanced image-building strategy in the University of Granada.
To sum up, the challenge of normalisation in the short and medium term at the UGR is twofold: to encourage the participation of the different profiles of term users and text producers and to make them aware of the usefulness of the institutional language policy and tools in their daily work.
Contact:
Silvia Montero-Martínez (Director for Language Services and Resources)
smontero@ugr.es
Unidad de Servicios Lingüísticos (USL)
langservices@ugr.es