The quality of teaching materials EIMA. Basque Language Service. Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government.

Introduction Importance of a quality system Not a very easy task It demands a greater care when dealing with lessened languages: Because they are not completely normalized languages Because of the diglossic situation

The quality programme’s origins and organization Beginnings: Three aspects into account: Content’s analysis Technical analysis Language analysis Consolidated: 1998:  Quantity of material-volume  Content’s levels Greater human resources Consulting Committee Team of experts and analysers Coordinator (Documentalist) Clarification of linguistic criteria

Technical committees and experts. Consulting Committee Setting and up dating of suitability criteria The STYLE book Ortotipography, 2004 Inadequate calques or interferences, 2005 Onomastic, 2005 Criteria for the use of capital letters, 2008 Morphosyntax: answering to some other questions, ?2009 Transcriptions of non standardized language and texts in school books, ?2009 Pronunciation: articulation and intonation, ?2009 Recommendations to normalize the scientific and the technical Basque language, ?2009 Punctuation signs Ragbag: odd answers to a thousand questions Onomatopoeias Three characteristics All agents implications The approval of the of the Basque Language Academy Wide distribution

Technical committees and experts. Examiners and Coordinators team. o Examiners team o - Secondary level teacher. Half-time dedication. o - Expert work by specialities: o Social sciences o Euskera o Nature sciences o Technology o Music o Physics and Chemistry o Business sciences o Mathematics and computer sciences o Coordinator o - Secondary level teacher o - Full-time dedication o - Coordinator: o Book of style o Expert work

Suitability criteria Idiomatic correction (typing, orthography, morphosyntax, calques, translation, pronunciation…) Textual and contextual adaptation (receiver, field or frame, cohesion-coherence, kind of text…) Regulation authorities Linguistic rules (Grammar) Euskaltzaindia’s regulations (Basque Language Academy) EIMA’s style book Recognized authorities Caution

Correcting procedure. The corrector’s job. Semantic nuance: Analysis ≠ Correction Pragmatic Correction Didactic Correction Coherent Correction

Correction Procedure. Qualifications and reports Qualification “Acceptable as it is” “Acceptable, but with proposed changes” “Acceptable, but with mandatory changes” “It needs a wholesome review” “Totally unacceptable” Report for the publishing house

Correction Procedure. Timing and parameters. Weekly periods It depends according to the period of the year Established parameters for the correction volume Ulterior pursuit and checking of the corrections

Basical criteria for coordination Unifying criteria for correction Sessions to unify criteria Consensus among several agents Free access to enquiries After the first analysis is done, if the material is rejected, it is again analyzed by the same examiner The qualification and the report are agreed bay the examiner and the coordinator

The most urgent problems and propositions to ameliorate them Problems Those attached to the translation itself Constant doubt: is it correct/ is it adequate How to get and easy and communicative syntax Propositions to ameliorate Textual-grammatical amelioration To explore the reflexion of the textual cohesion To explore the reflexion of the linguistic interferences (abuse of long phrases) Logistic amelioration To optimize the computer means (web pages) for a better coordination of all agents