Terminology as a Sense Making Social Tool

UID/LIN/03213/2013Since the middle of the first decade of this century, several authors have announced the dawn of a new Age, following the Information/ Knowledge Age (1970-2005). We are certainly living in a Shift Age (Houle, 2007), but no standard designation has been broadly adopted so far, and others, such as Conceptual Age (Pink, 2005) or Social Age (Azua, 2009), are only some of the proposals to name current times. Due to the amount of information available nowadays, meaning making and understanding seem to be common features of this new age of change; change related to (i) how individuals and organizations engage with each other, to (ii) the way we deal with technology, to (iii) how we engage and communicate within communities to create meaning, i.e., also social networkingdriven changes. The Web 2.0 and the social networks have strongly altered the way we learn, live, work and, of course, communicate. Within all the possible dimensions we could address this change, we chose to focus on language – a takenfor-granted communication tool, used, translated and recreated in personal and geographical variants, by the many users and authors of the social networks and other online communities and platforms. In this paper, we discuss how the Web 2.0, and specifically social networks, have contributed to changes in the communication process and, in bi- or multilingual environments, to the evolution and freeware use of the so called “international language”: English. Next, we discuss some of the impacts and challenges of this language diversity in international communication in the shift age of understanding and social networking, focusing on specialized networks. Then we point out some skills and strategies to avoid babelization and to build meaningful and effective content in mono or multilingual networks, through the use of common and shared concepts and designations in social network environments. For this purpose, we propose a social and collaborative approach to terminology management, as a shared, strategic and sense making tool for specialized communication in Web 2.0 environments.authorsversionpublishe

Business, management, and entrepreneurship in romanian and portuguese proverbs

Business and trade, along with the development of arts and crafts, have always offered wonderful opportunities for interaction between different people, customs, and cultures. Doing business and trading, people needed effective means of communication to manage their businesses and administer related institutions. Folk wisdom has treasured, from a popular prospective, this language of business—over all natural, cultural, and language obstacles—in its extremely concentrated but self-explanatory form: proverbs. Surprisingly, the relatively new principles of business management and entrepreneurship have quite interesting correspondents in peoples’ oral culture as proverbs. Certain proverbs distil people’s experiences from diverse business situations, management positions, and entrepreneurial standpoints, regardless of country of origin, hence their universal and global value. As part of more extensive work on the above subject, as well as a base for comparative studies, this paper is the first research work to illustrate how elements of global management culture are reflected in proverbs. Hence, a number of proverbs are analyzed and their educative value emphasized as cases or examples in business, management, and entrepreneurship education. This paper tries to set off the almost unexplored and challenging potential of proverbs to be used as teaching aids, while working with both undergraduate students (mainly) and international students. Moreover, this paper aims at analyzing the correspondence between Romanian and Portuguese proverbs (as two countries of similar cultural background—Latin), as far as the way they reflect the elements of business, management, and entrepreneurship. Illustrative examples are analyzed according to 21 different key-issues of business, management, and entrepreneurship (7 for each). The major conclusions are these: (i) all 21 principles are covered by proverbs in both languages; (ii) there is an astonishingly high degree of correlation between Romanian and Portuguese proverbs: out of a sample of 30 Romanian proverbs on business, management and entrepreneurship issues, 28 have Portuguese counterparts. A good part of this paper is based on previous research (Scarlat, 2008a, 2008b).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O Ciclo Vicioso do Satisfatório na Gestão de Terminologia em Contexto Empresarial: problemas e oportunidades

É objetivo geral deste trabalho perceber o modo como as empresas gerem as terminologias e as línguas de especialidade em contextos de comunicação multilingues, especialmente quando mediada por tradução. Com base num suporte teórico da Terminologia aplicada à tradução e, sempre que necessário, dado o teor interdisciplinar do tema, em pressupostos da Gestão e da Tradução especializada, desenvolvemos a pesquisa no âmbito de um quadro metodológico descritivo, sustentado em vários métodos qualitativos e quantitativos de recolha primária e secundária de dados. Temos, por pano de fundo, um cenário aparentemente paradoxal. Por um lado, para os clientes (empresas e consumidores), a língua é vista como um ativo e um recurso funcional e de apoio: serve como meio para atingir um objetivo, não é o objetivo em si. Do outro lado, da indústria da língua, a língua é matéria-prima e o bem final, ou seja, é o objetivo, o seu produto final, pelo que a preocupação com a qualidade linguística é muito maior. A investigação foi desenvolvida em dois ciclos de pesquisa. No primeiro, o trabalho centra-se na língua portuguesa, como língua de chegada, no mercado global da tradução especializada da CPLP, do qual apresentamos um contorno possível. No segundo ciclo, descrevemos a forma como as línguas são geridas nas empresas internacionalizadas, com destaque para a prática de tradução empresarial ad hoc – e discutimos o status quo da gestão terminológica na generalidade das empresas. Mais do que apontar falhas, apesar de termos identificado a terminologia como um dos fatores críticos do processo, tentamos perceber a causa do ciclo do satisfatório mantido nas empresas, que os melhores argumentos e estudos dos agentes da indústria da língua, nomeadamente da terminologia, não têm conseguido mudar. Numa abordagem, sempre que possível, abrangente e integradora à questão, tentamos desmistificar a clivagem entre fornecedores e clientes e a ideia tout court de más-práticas das empresas, vendo-as à luz das políticas linguísticas da Comunidade Europeia, mas também das caraterísticas da sociedade global do conhecimento. Aí identificamos algumas oportunidades, que exigem não só o investimento da cultura empresarial, mas também uma atitude mais pró-ativa dos agentes da Terminologia, de forma a agilizar o processo de mudança baseado na educação para a qualidade. Deste modo, pensamos ser mais fácil criar uma “cultura favorável” à gestão de terminologia, e à qualidade da língua de especialidade em geral, baseada na confiança e na competência, com atitudes e comportamentos cooperantes ao nível de todas as partes interessadas

Correlation between the spread of COVID-19 and the Interest in personal protective measures in Poland and Portugal

This research initiated during Artur Strzelecki’s research stay at Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal.The pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has gained extensive coverage in public media and global news, generated international and national communication campaigns to educate the communities worldwide and raised the attention of everyone. The coronavirus has caused viral pneumonia in tens of thousands of people around the world, and the COVID-19 outbreak changed most countries’ routines and concerns and transformed social behaviour. This study explores the potential use of Google Trends (GT) in monitoring interest in the COVID-19 outbreak and, specifically, in personal protective equipment and hand hygiene, since these have been promoted by official health care bodies as two of the most protective measures. GT was chosen as a source of reverse engineering data, given the interest in the topic and the novelty of the research. Current data on COVID-19 are retrieved from GT using keywords in two languages—Portuguese and Polish. The geographical settings for GT are two countries: Poland and Portugal. The period under analysis is 20 January 2020, when the first cases outside China were known, to 15 June 2020. The results show that there is a correlation between the spread of COVID-19 and the search for personal protective equipment and hand hygiene and that GT can help, to a certain extent, understand people’s concerns, behaviour and reactions to sanitary problems and protection recommendationsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Language management and knowledge transfer in multinational sites

PEst-OE/LIN/UI3213/2014The knowledge-based society we live in has stressed the importance of human capital and brought talent to the top of most wanted skills, especially to companies who want to succeed in turbulent environments worldwide. In fact, streams, sequences of decisions and resource commitments characterize the dayto-day of multinational companies (MNCs). Such decision-making activities encompass major strategic moves like internationalization and new market entries or diversification and acquisitions. In most companies, these strategic decisions are extensively discussed and debated and are generally framed, formulated, and articulated in specialized language often developed by the best minds in the company. Yet the language used in such deliberations, in detailing and enacting the implementation strategy is usually taken for granted and receives little if any explicit attention (Brannen & Doz, 2012) an can still be a “forgotten factor” (Marschan et al. 1997). Literature on language management and international business refers to lack of awareness of business managers of the impact that language can have not only in communication effectiveness but especially in knowledge transfer and knowledge management in business environments. In the context of MNCs, management is, for many different reasons, more complex and demanding than that of a national company, mainly because of diversity factors inherent to internationalization, namely geographical and cultural spaces, i.e, varied mindsets. Moreover, the way of functioning, and managing language, of the MNC depends on its vision, its values and its internationalization model, i.e on in the way the MNE adapts to and controls the new markets, which can vary essentially from a more ethnocentric to a more pluricentric focus. Regardless of the internationalization model followed by the MNC, communication between different business units is essential to achieve unity in diversity and business sustainability. For the business flow and prosperity, intersubsidiary, intra-company and company-client (customers, suppliers, governments, municipalities, etc..) communication must work in various directions and levels of the organization. If not well managed, this diversity can be a barrier to global coordination and create turbulent environments, even if a good technological support is available (Feely et al., 2002: 4). According to Marchan-Piekkari (1999) the tongue can be both (i) a barrier, (ii) a facilitator and (iii) a source of power. Moreover, the lack of preparation for the barriers of linguistic diversity can lead to various costs, including negotiations’ failure and failure on internationalization.. On the other hand, communication and language fluency is not just a message transfer procedure, but above all a knowledge transfer process, which requires extra-linguistic skills (persuasion, assertiveness …) in order to promote credibility of both parties. For this reason, MNCs need a common code to communicate and trade information inside and outside the company, which will require one or more strategies, in order to overcome possible barriers and organization distortions. Whatever the strategy or language policy chosen is, the MNC continues to have a multilingual environment. This fact can trigger both personal and professional side reactions (positive or negative), and above all, power relations (Marchan-Piekkari, Alexandra Albuquerque Polytechnic of Porto ISCAP- School of Accounting and Administration 4465-001 S. Mamede de Infesta CLUNL – Centro de Linguística da Universidade Nova de Lisboa Portugal [email protected] Rute Costa Universidade Nova de Lisboa CLUNL – Centro de Linguística da Universidade Nova de Lisboa Lisboa Portugal [email protected] José Paulo Esperança ISCTE-IUL Departamento de Finanças Lisboa País [email protected] Business Sustainability III 2 1999; Voermans, 2011).This happens because language is used not only to transfer messages between a sender and a receiver but, above all, to share knowledge, ie "(...) the information required to satisfy needs (...).Thus, only when knowledge becomes explicit and intelligible can be functional and useful; as tacit knowledge, information will not be conveyed, and as such, some employees may not perform certain tasks, make decisions or act in accordance with company policy. So language has a crucial role in the management of MNC and may even be a positive or negative discrimination factor (intentionally or unintentionally) Marschan et al.(1997) and create power authority distortion (PAD). PAD occurs when HQ managers (who have formal authority in the relationship) have to relinquish part of their power to subsidiary managers, who have better language skills in the corporate language (Harzing & Feely, 2008 and function as language mediators. Information, filtered by mediators, can also suffer distortions, manipulations and be used for personal purposes, in cycles of communication that may be beyond their control. Language influences, therefore, all communication flows, clearly interfering with the organizational level, with a "shadow" structure (Marchan-Piekkari et al., 1999) behind the formal chart. Mediated communication in the MNC, including the translation of documents, intra and inter-subsidiary or subsidiariesheadquarter, may thus eventually become an extra function more or less regular of the activity of employees who master foreign languages. However, this function and the impact that this type of translation are also not in any way, thoroughly studied. This paper intends therefore to elaborate on the relation of language/ translation policies and knowledge transfer/ management in international business environments and its impacts in companies’ international communication strategies. Based in several studies on this field, focusing on language management in international companies (Feely, 2003; Marschan et al., 1997; Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, & Welch, 1999; Harzing & Pudelko, 2013), and in a case-study on “language management in business international communication” we intend to discuss in what way (1) the lack of an effective language policy can transversally affect company performance and identity; (2) the investment on language and terminology management may improve quality in communication, both amongst company and subsidiaries and company and clients (3) investment in translation and terminology knowledge, management and tools can boost talent and ROI.publishersversionpublishe

Managing the Language Needs of Multinational Companies - Strategies to Optimise International Communication: a Case Study

UID/LIN/03213/2013This paper intends to contribute to trans-disciplinary research on language management in international business (IB) and most of all help breaking old paradoxes related to the (i) wrongly assumed self-sufficiency of language in professional and business communication situations and (ii) costs of investment in language. We will present results of two empirical studies that describe language management and business translation practices in companies operating in foreign markets. Finally, despite being still an ongoing research, we will give some insights on how language management and translation mediated communication can be more cost-effective in this kind of companies.authorsversionpublishe

CLIL training guide: creating a CLIL learning community in higher education

The ReCLes.pt CLIL Training Guide presents the theoretical and practical basis for the creation of a CLIL Learning Community of foreign language teachers and subject teachers with the topics organized across four chapters. In Chapter 1, the objectives and structuring of the ten hours of sessions and the learning outcomes are presented with an introduction to CLIL design in higher education (HE), forms of interdisciplinary cooperation/collaboration, and a number of models for classroom management. Chapter 2 provides enriching material to help teachers bett er understand the principles of a CLIL Learning Community and CLIL itself, including interactive and student-centered methodologies, a focus on oral interaction and critical dialogue, suggested activities, and the key points for organizing a successful CLIL module. In Chapter 3, on CLIL materials and resources, sections cover the defi nition and examples of scaff olding and activating prior knowledge as well as the selection and adaptation of scaff olding materials, including the use of electronic media and a terminology-based approach. The proposed terminology-based approach focuses on the collection, description, processing, and systematic representation of concepts and their designations. As such, the use of terminology can become a key construct in CLIL teaching, involving the search, production, use, and dissemination of information. International organizations, networks, and multinational professional communities are involved in these steps within the global communication process, providing real motivation for students participating in the CLIL learning process. The final chapter …Livro Financiado por FCT no âmbito do programa ‘Partilha e Divulgação de Experiências em Inovação Didática no Ensino Superior Português’info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Educomunicação e suas áreas de intervenção: Novos paradigmas para o diálogo intercultural

oai:omp.abpeducom.org.br:publicationFormat/1O material aqui divulgado representa, em essência, a contribuição do VII Encontro Brasileiro de Educomunicação ao V Global MIL Week, da UNESCO, ocorrido na ECA/USP, entre 3 e 5 de novembro de 2016. Estamos diante de um conjunto de 104 papers executivos, com uma média de entre 7 e 10 páginas, cada um. Com este rico e abundante material, chegamos ao sétimo e-book publicado pela ABPEducom, em seus seis primeiros anos de existência. A especificidade desta obra é a de trazer as “Áreas de Intervenção” do campo da Educomunicação, colocando-as a serviço de uma meta essencial ao agir educomunicativo: o diálogo intercultural, trabalhado na linha do tema geral do evento internacional: Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue