case study international best practice: south africa (rsa) gabriele sauberer (termnet)

Case study

International Best Practice: South Africa (RSA)

Gabriele Sauberer(TermNet)

2007-07-28 EAFT Seminar Dublin 2

[email protected]

1. Executive Secretary of TermNetProjects, Business development & PR

2. Interdisciplinary research & training at the University of Vienna, Centre for Translation StudiesIntercultural management, project management & diversity management

3. Board member of EAFT


Content of presentation

Introduction: role of terminologyPolicies & Frameworks in RSAPractice, Projects & Training

In loving memory of Xolile Mfaxa Director of Language Planning and

Terminology Coordination at the National Language Services of the South African Department of Arts and Culture

Distinguished expert and colleague

Close friend and brother

Who met his untimely death on 1st May 2007 toghether with Nomhi, his wife, and their children Oyisa and Umuhle

LALANI NGOXOLO LUSAPHO LWAKWANTLANE!


“South Africa has eleven official languages. The challenge is to translate this constitutional provision into living reality.”

(Dr Pallo Jordan, South Africa´s Minister of Arts and Culture)


That´s what terminology development, management & training in RSA is all about: to empower people to translate human rights into reality.

e.g. by enabling access to legal and other public information in people´s mother tongues.


Role of Terminology

The language we use and need to understand in public and business life is less “general language” than “specialized language”

characterized by the terms of the respective subject fields

e.g. legal texts, parliament speeches, court terminology, science and technology, etc.


Role of Terminology

Terminology skills: a key qualification of information professionals and language practitioners, particularly in RSA and SADC

applies to all levels of information and knowledge creation, storing and processing


Role of Terminology

ranging from basic terminology teaching to applied terminology in sophisticated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries and

... in Human Language Technologies (HLT)... in the Semantic Web... in e-Business, e-Health, etc.


Role of Terminology

Important part of the translation of a “constitutional provision into living reality”: to develop terminology in the indigenous languages of African languages communities.

Policies & Frameworks

1. South African Languages Bill

2. Pan South African Language Board Act


Constitution

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996, section 6) recogni-ses the principle of multilingualism by providing for eleven official languages of South Africa and for all official languages to enjoy parity of esteem and to be treated equitably;



To provide for an enabling framework for promoting South Africa’s linguistic diversity and encouraging respect for language rights within the framework of building and consolidating a united, democratic South African nation, taking into account the broad acceptance of linguistic diversity, social justice,



the principle of equal access to public services and programmes, respect for language rights, the establishment of language services at all levels of government, the powers and functions of such services, and matters connected therewith.


Language policy

5(1) All official languages shall be used equitably and enjoy parity of esteem.

(2) Without derogating from the provision in subsection (1), the national government must use not less than four languages for any given purpose as provided for in section 7(b), provided that these languages shall be selected by each organ of state from each of the four categories of official languages in subsection (3) on a rotational basis, except when it is reasonably necessary to follow an alternative policy in the interest of effective governance or communication.


Language policy

(3) The categories of languages referred to in subsection (2) are –(a) the Nguni group (isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu and siSwati)(b) the Sotho group (Sepedi, Sesotho and Setswana)(c) Tshivenda/Xitsonga(d) Afrikaans/English


Language units

6(1) Within three years after the commencement of this Act, a language unit must be established –(a) for each department of the national government; and(b) for each province.


Language units

7(1) A language unit shall have the powers and functions to –(a) implement and monitor the implemen-tation of regulations made in fulfillment of the obligations imposed by this Act; (b) take effective and positive measures for the implementation of the national language policy as determined in section 5 in regard to the following: ….


Language units

(c) conduct language surveys and audits relevant to its sphere of activity (...);

(d) inform the public, (...), of the content and implementation of the language policy of the relevant organ of state;

(e) do all things incidental to or necessary for the proper fulfillment of the obligations referred to in paragraphs (a) to (d).


Development of indigenous languages

and South African Sign Language/s8 Subject to the provisions of section 9(a), the Minister shall take practical and positive measures for the development of the indigenous languages and South African Sign Language/s, in particular to –


Development of indigenous languages

(a) identify priority areas for the development of these languages;

(b) support existing structures involved in the development of these languages;

(c) establish new structures and programmes for the development of these languages, and

(d) support cross-border projects for the development of these languages in the Southern African region.


PanSALB – ACT

To provide for the recognition, implementation and furtherance of multilingualism in the Republic of South Africa; and the development of previously marginalised languages; to establish a Pan South African Language Board; and to provide for matters connected therewith.


PanSALB

The Board shall have the following objects:

(a) To promote respect for and ensure the implementation of the following principles:

(i) The creation of conditions for the development and for the promotion of the equal use and enjoyment of all the official South African languages;


PanSALB

(iv) the promotion of- (aa) multilingualism; and (bb) the provision of translation

and interpreting facilities;(v) the fostering of respect for languages spoken in the Republic other than the official languages, and the encouragement of their use in appropriate circumstances; and


PanSALB

and

(vi) the non-diminution of rights relating to language and the status of languages existing before 27 April 1994;


PanSALB

(b) to further the development of the official South African languages;

(c) to promote respect for and the development of other languages used by communities in South Africa, and languages used for religious purposes;


(d) to promote knowledge of and respect for the provisions and principles of the Constitution relating directly or indirectly to language matters;

(e) to promote respect for multilingualism in general; and

(f) to promote the utilisation of South Africa's language resources.


(2) The Board shall-

(a) initiate studies and research aimed at promoting and creating conditions for the development and use of- (i) all the official languages of the Republic;

(ii) the Khoe and San languages; and

(iii) sign language; 2007-07-28 EAFT Seminar Dublin 28

(2) The Board shall-

(b) promote and ensure respect for-

(i) all other languages commonly used by communities in South Africa, including German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu;

(ii) Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other languages used for religious purposes in South Africa; (…)


PanSALB

terminology mentioned in a definition:'acknowledged, practising language worker' means a person with extensive experience and training in interpreting or translation or terminology or lexicography or literacy teaching or language teaching;


TermTrain Workshop March 2006 Pretoria

Copyright JC Roux 31

Other Frameworks:

Networking language resources in Africa: Future plans and proposals

Justus RouxStellenbosch University

Centre for Language and Speech Technology

Top – Down InitiativesNational Government

Commitment : Technology / Multilingualism

2000 IT / HLT Steering Com

2002 Ministerial AdvisoryPanel on HLT

2003 HLT Task Teamfor implementation

National Lexicography Units Pheripheral Pheripheral

State Information Technology Agency (SITA) & CPSI

E-government Gateway (Multilingual)

Standards South Africa

STANSA 37 Terminology and other resources

Bottom – Up Initiatives

South AfricanUniversities

National Research Foundation

NRF

African Lang Association

SIG

Council for Scientific& Industrial Research

CSIR / MERAKA

POTENTIAL MODEL

FOR

RESOURCE CENTRE IN HUMAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Central co-ordination hub

Interlinking development nodes at expert centres

Sharing model

Copyright JC Roux

Identification of multilingualdigital text and speech resources in

different sectors. Negotiations / Contracts

Software development: Tools for annotation / mark-up data management etc

Training (Non-formal) of annotators / database managers

Meraka

University C

University B

University A

Resources and Expertise to feed into

National Lexicographic Units

(NLUs)

Government Depts HLT–products for

E-Gateway (via SITA)

Academic research and development

Private sector ICT apps – telecoms

e-commerce

News Media

SABCArchives

Nat & Prov Parliaments

National Resource Centre for Human Language Technologies

(VIRTUAL)

Annotation / Mark-up of Digital Text and Speech Resources (Fixed

standards)

GOVERNANCENRF / DAC / DST

SECRETARIAT: OPERATIONS

Central planning & Co-ordination, Consultation, Database Management

Resource backup, Marketing

DAC HLT UNIT

All Gov Depts

Publishing Houses

NLSTerminology

Services

SITA

Practice, Projects & Training


1) Multilingual terminology process in RSA

©Mapula Gaffane, National Language Service

(NLS) within the Department of Arts and Culture

36

Multilingual terminology process

11 Official languagesEnglish powerful language – rich in terminology

Other official languages- status has to be elevated – terminologies have to be developed

Terminology development takes place within the context of the subject field

37

Developing terminologies for developing languages

Multilingual terminology collections for developed languages match existing equivalents

Developing terminology for developing languages requires interactive collaboration between linguists and subject specialists to find suitable equivalents

Developing terminologies for developing languages

Developed language with well established terms in a subject field is used as source language

In situations of language disparity the most prominent need is to have translation equivalents


39

Secondary term creation

An interactive consultative process of linguists, terminologists and subject specialists working together

Many challenges have to be successfully managed – language & human resources

Term recognition part of the overall picture of processing terminological data

Different steps in developing terminology

Process which entails two major phasesGround text productionTarget text production


41

SOURCE TEXT PRODUCTION

Planning the project (target users; demarcation of subject field; needs of the target users; typology; identification of source material)

Process of term harvestingDocumentation of terminological dataExplanations/definitions (why?)

42

SOURCE TEXT PRODUCTION (continued)

Consulting available sourcesOrdering data into workable formats Collaborating with subject specialists in source text committees

Editing and proofreadingWork lists

43

TARGET TEXT PRODUCTION

Collaboration with subject specialists and linguists (speakers of the target language)

Establishing terminology committeesThe process of providing equivalents for the target language - discussing terms at regular meetings of the terminology committee

44

TARGET TEXT PRODUCTION (Continued)

Detailed record (minutes) reflecting decisions about terms at terminology meetings

Updating the databaseProofreading & editingPrinting & publication of end product


2) Projects & Examples

"Telephone Interpreting Service for South Africa" (TISSA) – initiative of the NLS within the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and jointly funded by the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB).

Example HLT Applications

Telephone based information systems (automated)

• Tourism & Travel: Hotel booking systems (AST project); train, air, bus schedules

• Health services: First level medical help lines, Aids

hotlines, TB hotlines

• Public services: Applications for pensions, travel documents, car registrations; telephone accounts, telephone number enquiries

Copyright JC Roux

Interactive voice driven information / transaction system

Xhosa SA English Afrikaans Zulu Southern Sotho

Speech recognition

Natural language

understanding

Dialogue controlSpeech synthesis

Data-base

Accessinformation

Request in language X

Recognised utterance

System response

Answer in language X

Retrieveinformation

Copyright JC Roux


Examples ICT & HLT

... e.g. spellcheckers: The Centre for Text Technology at the North West University in South Africa has released four new spellcheckers in indigenous languages – Setswana, isiZulu, isiXhosa and Sesotho sa Leboa.


University Example

project performed by the Unit for isiXhosa in Stellenbosch University's Language Centre: to develop isiXhosa as an academic language.

Mr Pumlani Sibula – head of the unit.

Training & Awareness

September 2005 in Johannesburg: training within the framework of awareness raising event “Advancing multilingualism through terminology development” sponsored by the Department of Arts and Culture of South Africa

four-days Training course on the basic principles of terminology and terminography, (project)management and terminology market(s)



TermTrain

Another piece of the puzzle of terminology activities in RSA: TermTrain

Overall goal: To perform a train-the-trainer pilot project for capacity-building in the field of specialized language and specialized knowledge for language communities in Africa.

Target groups: subject advisors and curriculum facilitators on behalf of Governmental departments.


What is TermTrain?

Full project name: “Design and implementation of practice oriented terminology trainings for two groups of information professionals: 1) ICT trainers and 2) language trainers in language communities of Africa (TermTrain)”


What is TermTrain?

A pilot project for capacity-building in African countries

co-financed by UNESCO's intergovernmental Programme Information for All (IFAP) and project partners

initiated and managed by TermNetFurther information:

http://www.termnet.org/english/projects/TermTrain.php

case study international best practice: south africa (rsa) gabriele sauberer (termnet)

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