Elhuyar Fundazioa - Language Services 

How language quality is managed? 

All the texts written in Basque that Elhuyar creates for external purposes —the translations for its customers— are checked and corrected by language revisers.

There is a language quality (HK) team to promote continuous improvement in the quality of written production in Basque at Elhuyar. This team is made up of members of the lexicography and translation departments.

The HK working group has been set up to manage all this, and its functions are as follows:

• To detect the mistakes that are repeated most.
• To gradually establish criteria in the areas in which the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia) has yet to take a decision; the ultimate aim will be to compile the Elhuyar style guide.
• To inform Elhuyar writers and translators of the mistakes and inform them of the criteria.

In order to guarantee Language Quality, an organisation has to put in place a structured, detailed process. The following aspects have been taken into consideration in this process:

• Language Model
• Specification and Implementation of a Quality AssuranceProcess
• People
• Tools and resources

Language Model

Within Language Quality Management, a language model is crucial, in other words, a reference model is needed to judge whether quality language has been used or not.

Quality Control

First and foremost, a quality assurance process has to be described and structured. The first step towards achieving this requires the specifying of the work flow both inside and outside the organisation.

After that, the process needs to be implemented by organising the necessary people, tools and resources. Finally, the process needs to be evaluated by making whatever adaptations and changes are deemed necessary.

People

Each member of an organisation, each according to his or her own level, responsibilities and tasks, is a participant in the quality assurance process. The people who undertake to establish and implement the language model form the “Language Quality Team” (HK) referred to above.

Tools and Resources

In order to guarantee language quality, each member of an organisation, according to his or her own level, responsibilities and tasks, uses a range of tools and resources.

• Automatic Spell Checkers (Xuxen, XuxeNet)
• Translations Memory Tools
• Reference sources
  • Dictionaries (lexicographical as well as terminological)
  • Terminological databases
  • Corpora
  • Consultation sites (Jagonet...)
  • Discussion sites (Itzulist...)
  • Adviser network

The tools that the Language Quality (HK) team needs to use in order to fulfil its tasks properly are crucial. In this context, the cornerstone is the process to manage the decisions adopted when the HK team establishes criteria, corrects texts, etc.

The reflection and analysis conducted, the exchange of information and views and, at the end of the day, the very decisions that result from the whole process are an important component of the organisation’s knowledge; this requires careful handling not only to ensure that the process is a quality one, but also to ensure that this knowledge is shared, updated and reused.

This is the work flow chart for the Language Quality Assurance Process in Elhuyar’s Language Services:

Some of the steps in the process have been integrated into the System for Managing Language Quality (HKS).