Education in Multilingual and Multimedia

Applications and Transgressions of Standards and Norms

Multilingual communication and multimedia professionals are often unaware that their practices are guided by various normative documents. Among these texts are official standards (trade, industrial, technical and ergonomic) and standards issued by such organizations as ISO. Although they may not know about the standards, communications professionals nevertheless feel that procedures, sound practices and known models are important. Given that awareness of this world of norms, standards and standardization, for various reasons, should be taught during initiation to the language professions, we plan to hold a conference for individuals and groups who have a stake in incorporating norms and standards into the initial and continuing education for these professions. Our conference will be a forum for discussing and sharing knowledge about norms and standards for translation, writing, terminology and technology, as well as quality assurance and control methods, tools and techniques in the fields of writing, terminology, translation and localization. As a corollary, education and instructor accreditation will be discussed, as well as institutional certification and approval or recognition of degree courses or programs. Obviously, depending on the context, there is also the question of the role of employers and professional associations in setting de jure standards and de facto norms. To cover the entire subject, the conference will also feature technologies that are used on a daily basis by communications professionals. The standards governing them will be discussed and there will be instructive presentations.