Influència de l'organització dels serveis lingüístics canadencs a Catalunya

Resum

After commenting on the similarities and differences between the linguistic situation in Canada —specifically in the Quebec area— and Catalonia, the author summarizes the different political measures affecting the linguistic situation that have been enforced in both places. Both Quebec and Catalonia have given official status to their native languages (French and Catalan respectively), which are spoken by a minority of the countries' total populations. In Quebec, however, the linguistic normalization process extends itself to broader areas than what is contemplated in the Linguistic Normalization Act in Catalonia, which excludes universities, businesses, as well as working and professional corporations. In Quebec, the process of introducing French in these areas has been brought about by the creation of language services, organized in regular working units and supervised by specialists. Furthermore, Canadian universities offer Bachelor degrees in translation and terminology that furnish the normalization process with professionals. In 1989, the Direcció de Política Lingüística —the Catalan government's language office— offered advantages to professional corporations and universities to create language Services towards normalization and whose structure would be inspired in the Canadian model. Each entity must organize its service depending on its size, resources, and activities, and must also have a normalization plan including objectives, strategy, and schedule of the proposed change. Finally, the author describes the University of Barcelona's Catalan Language Service, which is also based on the Canadian model, and which intends to normalize the language problem in that complex and heterogeneous organism.