EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
This is unit 2: Easy-to-understand language.
In short: E2U.
Element 4: The language of E2U.
Video lecture: Discourse of E2U.
My name is Sergio Hernández Garrido from the University of Hildesheim.
In this short video lecture, I will talk about the discourse level
of E2U texts.
I will focus on the aspects of intertextuality,
presupposed knowledge and text types.
First on intertextuality:
Texts have intertextual relations with other texts.
This intertextuality may come in different forms:
Implicit or explicit reference to another text
or more than one text.
An example are citations.
Intertextuality can also take the form of implicit or explicit references
to the whole text type.
From intertextual knowledge,
readers deduce information on what to expect from a text:
What are supposedly its functions or contents?
As I already stated, texts may refer to other single texts
explicitly or implicitly.
These other texts contain information the authors expect the readers to know.
Presupposed knowledge is necessary to understand the initial text.
Readers may not know the information but still be able to know
where to find the information necessary to understand the initial text.
Sometimes, text authors explicitly say which texts they refer to.
This can be done through citations or other forms of mentioning.
Thus, the authors can indicate the source of the presupposed information.
Often, the reference to the source texts is implicit or vague.
In any case,
texts that presuppose knowledge from other texts
are complex for readers to process.
Readers need to identify the intertextual references
Perhaps, they even need to fill in the unknown information
before going on reading the initial text.
Experienced readers might know the text the author refers to.
This helps them process the text quicker and more easily.
The target groups of easy-to-understand language
usually do not have the same reading experience
or previous knowledge on the subject like the author or experienced readers.
Intertextuality therefore requires text experience.
If intertextuality is presupposed, it is a hazard to comprehensibility.
If information from another text is needed in E2U,
it may not be enough to just refer to a specific source.
Instead, it will be helpful to indicate where to find the information
and to give a summary on the information in these sources.
If information is relevant to the text, it should be added in E2U.
It should be considered if information is in E2U format or not.
If not, it will probably not be accessible to the primary target groups.
In the field of legal communication, it is not always possible
to avoid references to laws and regulations.
These texts are not written in Easy or Plain Language,
but rather in expert legal language.
The target groups cannot be expected to have previous knowledge
on the laws and regulations that are cited in the text.
What is more: they will not have access to the referred text
as it is too complex linguistically and conceptually.
Information that is needed will have to be given directly
in the easy-to-understand text.
Addition is one of the principles of E2U:
Relevant information that cannot be presupposed
and may not be accessible for target groups has to be added.
Intertextuality in online formats:
Online texts are hypertexts.
They bring intertextuality to another level
and open new ways to add information.
Hypertexts with its links is not limited to what is seen on the screen;
it represents a whole web of texts.
The content is not represented linearly,
it consists of single texts that are linked.
This opens new opportunities for the creation of content in E2U.
Using the hypertext structure of online texts can shorten the information amount
that has to be added to a single text.
Extra information can be given in texts that are linked to the initial text.
For this to be functional, there are a few prerequisites:
First of all, the target groups have to know how the links work.
This is only possible if the target groups have internet experience.
We cannot expect all target groups to have such knowledge,
meaning, to know they have to click on the link and how to return to the text.
Therefore, links have to be explicitly introduced in the initial text.
Target groups have to be instructed to click on the link.
Also, the information in the linked text has to be comprehensible and perceptible
for the target groups.
An easy-to-read text should only link to other easy-to-understand texts
or explain that the linked text is not in E2U.
As an example,
we show you the homepage of the North German Broadcasting Association.
If they use links, they explicitly guide the action:
Users are instructed to click on the link.
Links are underlined for a visual highlight.
Considering previous knowledge:
Authors and translators of E2U texts,
be it Easy or Plain Language,
need to consider which kinds of previous knowledge
can be expected from the target groups.
Target groups cannot be expected to know as much about a subject
as other groups have that do not need comprehensibility-enhanced texts.
Therefore, it is important to introduce additional information
necessary for the target groups to understand the content.
This becomes clear when translating or adapting material
into Easy or Plain Language.
The source text may presuppose knowledge that the target groups do not have.
Easy and Plain Language experts should be able to recognize those gaps
and fill them with the information needed.
This may regard content or terminology
that may be unknown to the target groups.
To avoid terminology is not always possible
if talking on an expert subject.
This terminology has to be explained.
On text type knowledge:
Presupposed knowledge may also be text type knowledge.
Experienced readers deduce instantly which text type a text belongs to.
On this basis,
they have expectations on the content
and functions of a text before reading it.
For instance,
when reading written news on a website,
the visual presentation of the text indicates
that the text informs about news and events.
This knowledge helps experienced readers to find the macro-proposition of a text,
meaning, its main points, and thus facilitate reading.
Even if research has shown that primary Easy Language target groups
have some forms of text type knowledge,
it is more restricted than in average readers.
These readers need more information
on the text type they are confronted with.
Main points of the text and its functionality have to be made noticeable.
For example, in informative texts,
the use of questions answered directly afterwards in the text
show very clearly that the text's intention is to inform.
On text type conventions:
Users of E2U have some previous knowledge on many text types,
even if limited compared to average readers.
It is therefore helpful not to erase all text type conventions
from the E2U texts.
This often happens for EL texts, but it might not be helpful.
Texts in E2U should keep at least
part of the text type conventions of the original texts.
But it has to be stated that the features of E2U
sometimes make it difficult to keep the text type conventions.
For example:
Comprehensibility can be enhanced,
if a story or event is told chronologically.
News texts usually do not have this structure:
They do not tell the story chronologically,
but rather start with the actual news item
and tell the events in flashbacks and flashforwards.
The slide shows this structure in a typical news text.
Such a structure requires elaborate grammatical skills,
for example, with respect to tenses
that are not at hand in E2U.
Such texts may be interesting to read,
but they require complex comprehension skills
that may not be present in the target groups of Easy language.
A story in chronological order would be easier to understand
but clashes with text type conventions of a news text.
To relate a news story in chronological order
would therefore erase the “news character” of a text.
In the Easy Language target text version of this same news text,
a compromise was used:
The Easy Language target text gives up chronological order.
It starts with the actual news item, a conviction in court,
and does present some flashbacks,
but at the same time reduces the number of flashbacks
and pools the information on the single time levels.
So, the target text information is easier to process
but still presents qualities of a news text.
To sum up:
It may not be possible to keep text type conventions completely,
but they should not be completely erased.
E2U should have a bridging function:
Meaning, that comprehensibility-enhanced texts,
apart from helping to understand a specific content,
should build a bridge to standard texts.
Target groups should be able to learn from texts in E2U:
about the content, and about the textual conventions of regular texts.
In this way, they gain text type specific knowledge.
This video lecture has been prepared by Sergio Hernández and Christiane Maaß
from the University of Hildesheim.
You can reach us at easit@uni-hildesheim.de
The project EASIT has received funding
from the European Commission
under the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships
for Higher Education programme,
grant agreement 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication
does not constitute an endorsement of the contents,
which reflect the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible
for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Partners of the EASIT project:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
Università degli Studi di Trieste,
Universidade de Vigo,
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
SDI München,
Dyslexiförbundet,
Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
Zavod Risa.
EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
Subtitles by: Nina Kristin Hansmann.