Learning terminology in order to become an active agent in the development of Basque biomedical registers

The aim of this article is to describe some theoretical and methodological bases underpinning the design of the course Health Communication in Basque (HCB) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Based on some relevant theoretical tenets of the socioterminologic and communicative approaches to Terminology, the authors assume that terminology planning must be adapted to the sociolinguistic situation of each language. Moreover, the article claims that terminology planning for a language undergoing a normalization process must acknowledge the target situation of well-developed languages, in which terminology changes over time and varies according to communicative situations. Taking into account the sociolinguistic situation of Basque, the authors conclude that the most important goal of the HCB course should be to help students become active agents in the development and consolidation of Basque biomedical terminology. Thus, the most relevant learning objectives defined in the syllabus involve language awareness with regard to terminology variation: using term formation rules to create different kinds of denominative variants, actively thinking about the grammaticality and genuineness of different variants of terms, and managing terminological variation according to functional criteria.