ALTHOUGH THIS SUBJECT IS OFFICIALLY PROPOSED AS THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE “EUSKARAREN ARAUAK ETA ERABILERAK” ‘NORMS AND USAGE IN BASQUE’ SUBJECT, IT IS IN FACT AIMED AT VISITORS OF ANY ENGINEERING DEGREE and therefore adapted to the point of view of students who do not know either Basque language or Basque culture, as ITS REAL NAME “BASQUE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE” REFLECTS IT.



This course aims both to provide students with an introduction to the Basque land, people and culture, immersing them in the real sociolinguistic environment of the country, and to inform about the available basic resources we found for Basque to minimally manage with the language, focusing specially on the basic expressions and terminology.

Although this area seems to relate only to linguistics, it has to underline that the desire to define the exact meaning of words/terms has always been a topic of interest of engineers since the beginning of communication in specialized areas. In fact, in the Royal Academy of the Basque Language, a great percentage of the members are engineers.

The course does not complement any specific course of the School of Engineering of Gipuzkoa, but it can be used to acquire a background in case of being interested in working with local teams or enterprises that give importance to the use of Basque. On the other hand, it offers the opportunity to experience the local culture of the Basque Country.

1. Critically discussing opinions and views on Basque language and culture

2. Becoming familiar with the main features of the Basque language, land and culture

3. Locating a given cultural product in time and space: texts, songs, buildings, etc.

4. Managing with the resources where Basque is involved, specialized terminology included.

5. Understanding the similarities and differences with regard to other languages.

Block I. The language

- Typological outline of Basque and some language basics

- Theories on the origin

- Geography and sociology of the language: extension, dialects, standard variety, status, areas of use

- Basic vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation by traditional means and/or through the use of digital resources.

Block II. The land and people

- The Basque land from the historical, cultural and political perspectives

- Main landmarks or places of cultural, historical and geographical significance

- Traditions, identity, professions

- Current society

Block III. The culture

- Literature: main authors and creations; oral and written literature

- Music: main styles and trends

- Fine arts: main artists and creations

- Traditional sports and games,

- Festivals and feast days

Block IV. Basic resources

- Language learning resources

- The (digital) media: TV, radio, newspapers and magazines

- Wikipedia

- Specialized journals

- Tools: speller checker, euskalbar (toolbar of corpora and dictionaries); automatic machine translator

A number of materials included in eGela will serve as the starting point for each topic of the course. Home readings will be recommended and students will be expected to actively participate in class-discussions on the topics introduced by means of various texts, charts and audiovisual media. A number of activities will be suggested with the objective of reinforcing the acquired information and familiarizing students with new examples and cases that are relevant for each topic.

The language of the course will be English, as the main materials for reference and study. However, other language could be used in particular questions or some lectures, if the group’s language skills make it possible. In some short exercises and in a part of a project the use of basic Basque will be required.

If possible, we will make some excursions in order to practice what we learn in class.



Although in the schedule only lecture and practical classes are fixed, practical computer work will also carried out. These three teaching modalities will be combined according to the requirements of the contents, that is, one day of the week will not be necessarily for lecture class only and the other one for practical class and computer work. In case of such changes, students will be previously notified in class or through the forum.

• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Ikus ohiko deialdirako eta ezohiko deialdirako orientazioak (%): 100

There are two assessment systems for the ORDINARY CALL: the continuous assessment and the final assessment. However, the preferred method is the continuous one (without any final exam):



Continuous assessment means: participation in class, following the contents of the subject, and doing and delivering all the projects on the fixed date. For passing the subject, it will be necessary to get at least 5 in the final grade.

Regarding the participation, student will be asked to attend class. In case of not being possible, all the activities and exercises should follow and deliver via eGela, and tutoring should be used for questions.

During the semester, a variety of exercise and activities should be carried out, and all of them will have a value in the final grade:

- Short exercises to do and finish in class or during the week (both individually and in groups, either oral or written). All the written ones should be uploaded to eGela. 20 %.

- A multiple choice test. 30 %

- A summary portfolio: it will be necessary to fill out a portfolio where the main contents of the course are collected as a summary. They will be mostly topics already developed in class as well as writings about the Basque language and the experience in the Basque Country. Few of them should be written in Basque, being aware that knowledge of the Basque language will be very basic. (50 %).

All these exercises and projects will be exhaustively explained and detailed in class and will be documented in eGela. This assessment plan may change in case teacher thinks it is necessary according to the group profile.

If a student cannot attend class for a justified reason, he or she must report it to the teacher at the beginning of the semester. If the student in this situation wanted to participate in the continuous assessment, she/he should have to follow the contents of the course via the virtual platform “eGELA” and should have to attend tutorials for feedback. If, eventually, this way of working was getting too difficult, he/she could do the final exam.

Students who do not pass the continuous assessment may also take the final exam. Thus, the result obtained in the exam will be the final grade of the subject.

Those who do not pass the continuous assessment and do not take the exam will have NOT APPROVED.

Those who leave continuous assessment and do not present to the exam will have NOT APPROVED, unless they notify previously to the teacher that they want to renounce the ordinary call.

Those who directly do the final exam will have the grade got on it. Once presented to the exam, this call will run.

Those who have not carried out the continuous assessment either the final exam will get the not presented mark.



Final assessment:

The final assessment is an exam-only system where the grade is based entirely on a final exam.

The final exam will consists of 3 blocks, similar (but not the same) to the tasks proposed in the continuous assessment:

- A multiple choice test: 40 %

- Development of a topic chosen from a list that will be provided previously by the teacher and make an oral presentation (in English) with its .ppt (or other format) writing support. 30 %

- A writing task. One part should be written in Basque and the other in English. 40 %

The exam will be hold in the computer lab, so that students can use the appropriated resources.

According to Article 12.2 of the UPV/EHU Evaluation Regulations, students wishing to resign from the ordinary call must notify it to the teacher. The student who renounces the ordinary call will have the mark of not presented.

In the extraordinary call only a final exam system can be carried out, where the student gets her/his entire grade. This exam will have the same structure as the proposal in the ordinary call. For the preparation of the exam, the student will have the possibility to hold as many meetings or seminars as necessary with the teacher for the resolution of exercises or doubts.



According to Article 12.2 of the UPV/EHU Evaluation Regulations, in the final evaluation, the fact of not presenting to the exam on the official date will automatically determine the waiver of the corresponding call and, as a consequence, the mark of not presented.

The contents of the course (program, evaluation, notes, exercises, tasks to be delivered, articles, addresses...) will be hung on the virtual platform “eGELA”. To follow the contents and know the deadlines of the tasks, a basic document “Diary” will be available in eGELA, where the activities that we carry out daily and the decisions or notes that are made in class are briefly collected. Other issues such as changes in tutoring hours, notes that have not been explained in class, will be communicated through the forum.

Basic bibliography

Ayuso, M., Zallo, R. (2009) The Basque Country. Insight its culture, history, society and institutions



Douglass, W., Zulaika, J. (2006) Basque Culture: Anthropological perspectives. University of Nevada, Reno.

Etxepare Institute (2012) Publications. Basque Culture Series

In-depth bibliography

Etxegoien, J. C. (2006) Orhipean. The Country of Basque. Ed. Pamiela.
Garabide Elkartea (2010) Language Standardisation. Garabide.
Jaka, A. (2005) Translating Basque Literature. University of the Basque Country

Knorr, G. (2010) Kaixo! English-Basque conversation guide. Ed. Txertoa.
Kurlansky, M. (1999) The Basque history of the world. Penguin Books.
Laka, I. (1996) A Brief Grammar of Euskara, the Basque Language

Olaziregi, M. J. (2008) “Mapping the nation in contemporary Basque literature”, Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo: International journal of basque linguistics andphilology, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2008, pgs. 387-398.

Rehm, G.; Uszkoreit, H. (eds.) (2012) The Basque Language in the Digital Age. White Paper Series, ed. Springer

Trask, L. (1995) “Origins and Relatives of Basque” in Hualde et al. 1995: 131, 65-99. in Hualde J. I., Lakarra J. A. & Trask R. L. (eds) (1995) Towards a History of the Basque. Language, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 131. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Zuazo, K. (2013) The Dialects of Basque. Center for Basque Studies.

Journals

Aldiri, arkitektura eta abar aldizkaria (UEU)
http://www.aldiri.eus/paperekoak/
Elhuyar Zientzia eta Teknologia aldizkaria (Elhuyar)
https://aldizkaria.elhuyar.eus/

Web addresses

Dictionary - Morris Student (eu-en, en-eu)

Dictionary - Elhuyar (eu-en, eu-es, eu-fr)
Dictionary – Aisa - Illustrated dictionary with audio
Dictionary – Euskalterm: https://www.euskadi.eus/web01-apeuster/en/ac36aEuskaltermWar/publiko/erakutsiBilaketa?locale=en
Elhuyar Foundation

Trask, Larry. Some important Basque words and a bit of culture.

Basque cinema -
Basque legends -
Basque proverbs -
Various online resources -

Tools:
Xuxen, the speller-checker corrector: www.xuxen.eus
Euskalbar, Firefox toolbar: corpus and dictionaries: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/euskalbar/
Elia, auotomatic machine translator: https://elia.eus/