EASIT: Easy Access For Social Inclusion Training.
This is unit 2: Easy-to-understand language. In short E2U.
Element 2: Legislation, standards, and guidelines.
Video lecture: Easy-to-understand language in Germany:
Easy and Plain Language research and rulesets.
My name is Christiane Maaß from the University of Hildesheim.
In the first video, we gave an overview
about the German concept of easy-to-understand language.
We also gave insight into the fields
where easy-to-understand language is already used
and where more easy-to-understand material is needed.
The first video ended
with an overview on important legal milestones.
The second video,
is on the German research situation.
We will talk about the existing practical and scientific guidelines.
Then we will go into more detail
with regard to the German easy-to-understand language rules.
This topic covers more aspects than the other videos
and treats the situation of easy-to-understand language
in Germany from different viewpoints
Therefore, we have created two videos
to cover this topic.
Research on Easy and Plain Language in Germany
has considerably stepped up in the last 10 years.
Meanwhile, Accessible Communication
and Easy as well as Plain Language,
have become multidisciplinary research topics
and we have a rich publication landscape.
This very active landscape has contributed
to the development of Easy Language.
A major promoter of Easy and Plain Language Research in Germany
is the Research Centre for Easy Language
that is situated at the University of Hildesheim.
This research centre is also part of the EASIT consortium.
It has put forward research results
with the focus on Easy and Plain Language,
among which scientifically founded Easy and Plain Language rules.
Other research groups are the LeiSa team
around Prof. Bettina Bock
with an inclusive approach
and the TracoLab
of Prof. Silvia Hansen-Schirra
with the user centred approach.
More research is being done
for example in the area of psychology,
second language acquisition, and educational studies.
Plain Language is being researched primarily
from the perspective of specialised communication
and translation studies.
And so, we move into the next topic which is guidelines.
In Germany, there are practical guidelines
as well as scientifically founded rulebooks.
On the side of the practical guidelines
there is the German version of the Inclusion Europe guidelines,
the rules from the empowerment movement
Netzwerk Leichte Sprache,
which is Network Easy Language,
and those from the Accessible Information Technology Regulation
we already talked about.
The scientifically founded rulebooks are
Leichte Sprache. Das Regelbuch. Or: Easy Language. The rulebook.
and the three volumes of the Duden Leichte Sprache.
Duden is a publisher that is perceived to be
the most influential and standard-setting
publisher with regard to the German language.
It provides sets of rules on German grammar,
spelling, and language use.
With the Duden Easy Language,
this institution has positioned
as a supporter of Easy language.
Both materials, the rulebook as well as the Duden books,
were drafted at the University of Hildesheim.
In 2020-21,
the German Institute for Standardisation is developing a norm
to harmonise the different rulesets.
In the following, we will discuss
the scientific rules developed by
the Research Centre for Easy Language and published by Duden.
Concerning the rules for Easy Language,
the basic rules on easy-to-understand
already presented also apply to the German language.
Therefore, we will not repeat them in this presentation.
You can access this information in the presentation:
Unit 2: Easy-to-understand language.
Element 1: Understanding E2U.
Video Lecture: Basic rules of Easy-to-understand language.
But there is one rule on the word level that especially applies
for the German language and it concerns the German compound nouns.
The German Language is famous for its long compound nouns.
Theoretically, they can expand indefinitely.
Here is the example of such a long compound noun:
Tageskurbeitragsautomat.
This means: One-day spa tax (ticket) vending machine.
These very long compounds
are difficult for the target groups to process.
Especially, if the compound consists of more than two lexical items.
As is the case in our example.
Easy Language rules propose to separate long words
in order to make them easier to process.
For the separation,
hyphens and the mediopoint may be used.
Tageskurbeitragsautomat
using the mediopoint would look like this:
Tages∙kurbeitrags∙automat.
This separation makes the single compounds stand out
so that they can be perceived more easily.
Plain Language is not strictly normed in the German context.
Translators can depart from Easy Language and enrich
the Easy Language ruleset according to the users
and the target situation.
For example, if the subject is situated in an expert context
with many new concepts that are introduced in the text,
the syntactic structures should remain very simple.
On the contrary, if the subject of the text is very down-to-earth
and well-known to the readers, the syntactic structures
may be a little more complex with simple compound sentences
or longer stretches of text.
An example of the first case is the Apotheken Umschau,
a widely known offer in the field of public health communication.
They inform on health issues
that may well be somewhat technical.
Accordingly, the syntactic structure remains very simple.
As we can see in the example.
I read the English translation of the German example:
"What is an acute middle ear infection?
In the case of an acute middle ear infection,
the affected person has a severe ear ache.
This is because the middle ear is inflamed.
The middle ear is behind the eardrum inside the ear.
Persons affected by a middle ear infection
often have a cold.
Small children are particularly frequently
affected by a middle ear infection."
This is the end of the section about
easy-to-understand language in Germany.
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,
Universidad de Vigo,
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
SDI München,
Dyslexiförbundet,
Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
Zavod Risa.
EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
Subtitles: Iruya Ehrler