The Interpreter and Translator Trainer

[ahmed_allaithy]

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer
Volume 3, Number 2, 2009


Now available to online subscribers

http://www.stjerome.co.uk/periodicals/journal.php?j=107&v=629&i=697

Contents

Natives or Non-natives? That Is the Question . . .

Teachers of Translation into Language B


Pages: 189-208
Author: Nike K. Pokorn, Slovenia
Abstract


This article investigates whether the assumption that teaching staff should always teach a course unit in translation into their A language and should never be involved in translation classes into a language that is not their mother tongue is valid and supported by factual evidence. Based on observation of translation teachers who are native and non-native speakers of the TL, the article investigates typical features of teaching strategies in course units of translation into language B. Digital recordings of lessons and questionnaires seem to suggest that native language does influence the way teachers teach translation; however, it is argued that it would be useful to engage both teachers who are native and those who are non-native speakers of the TL at different stages of translation training.
Keywords

Directionality in translation training, Teacher profile, Translation into B Language


Corpus-based Translation Activities for Language Learners


Pages: 209-224
Author: Federico Zanettin, Italy
Abstract


While a number of studies have dealt with the use of corpus linguistics resources in the education of translation trainees, and a large body of literature exists on the use of corpora for second language learning activities, the relevance of corpus-based translation activities in second language learning settings has been explored to a lesser extent. This paper argues that translation can be a legitimate type of activity for ESL learners and that integrating corpus resources into second-language writing and translating means supplementing the traditional learning grammar of "dictionary items + combinatory rules" with a novel learning grammar of "corpora + rules for querying and analyzing them". Examples are presented from a course in English as a foreign language delivered to Italian postgraduate students of international relations. Students were asked to revise an MT translation of a short text from an academic or journalistic source related to international relations, and then write an essay explaining how they used corpora and corpus linguistics techniques to evaluate and revise the translation. Students' performance varied both in terms of the final translation produced and in the way and degree to which they used corpus resources, and it appears that the students who mostly benefited from the course were those who were able to both formulate better hypotheses and linguistic queries, and to analyze the results of different corpus resources. While the course was aimed at language rather than translation learners, the results also have clear implications for the latter.
Keywords

Data-driven learning, Translation and language teaching, L2 translation, Corpus-based activities, Pedagogical uses of MT, John Sinclair, Italian-English translation


A Cross-Sectional Study of Translator Trainees’ L2 Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies


Pages: 225-256
Authors: Omar F. Atari and Adel Abu Radwan, Oman
Abstract


In some undergraduate five-year translator training programmes, the first two years are devoted to language training, and the following three years to linguistics and translator training courses. However, there is a growing concern among EFL instructors and translator trainers in Arab university English departments about an apparent decline in their 4th-year and 5th-year trainees' L2 reading comprehension skills. The question that should be addressed then by both EFL and translation instructors is whether students' L2 reading skills continue to develop after they proceed from the language training component to their linguistics and translator training courses. This cross-sectional study examines the performance of 32 subjects, drawn from the language training component, and the linguistics and translator training components in the five-year translator training programme at King Saud University, on two L2 reading comprehension tests. The study also examines their reading strategies through the use of the think-aloud technique. Results show that there is no differentiation in strategy use among the different level groups (i.e., Level 4 from the language component, Level 6 from the linguistics component, and Levels 8 and 10 from the translator training component), and that both higher level and lower level groups become entangled in bottom-up lower-level language-based text processing strategies. The macro-textual issues (i.e., top-down higher-level knowledge-based text processing) such as knowledge of text type, anticipation of content, integration of ideas, inferencing, etc. seem to be overlooked in current translator training courses at King Saud University.
Keywords

Strategies, Top-down processing, Bottom-up text processing, Schemata, Process/product-oriented research


Authenticity in Accreditation Tests for Interpreters in China


Pages: 257-273
Author: Jing Chen, China
Abstract


Authenticity pertains to the correspondence between the characteristics of Target Language Use (TLU) tasks and those of the test task (Bachman & Palmer 1996:23), and relates the test task to the domain of generalization. This study investigates authenticity in accreditation tests for interpreters in China. It starts with a review of authenticity as an important quality in test development that is considered explicitly or implicitly by language test developers in designing language tests. It then evaluates the degree to which major accreditation tests for interpreters in China evidence authenticity by comparing the characteristics of each test with those of interpreting as a professional language task. Three questions are then specifically addressed. The first is whether accreditation tests have to be authentic in order to be useful. The second concerns the extent to which the tests can and should be authentic. And the third concerns how practicality may be weighed as a test quality in setting up an authentic accreditation test.
Keywords

Authenticity, Accreditation, Test, Interpreting, Task characteristics



Feature Article

What’s in Your Blend?

Creating Blended Resources for Translator Training


Pages: 275-294
Author: Alina Secară, Pascaline Merten and Yamile Ramírez - UK, Belgium & Germany
Abstract

In our increasingly technology-mediated educational landscape, blended teaching and learning methodologies - which bring together selected features of online and face-to-face training - can enhance the educational experience of both trainers and trainees. Yet the implementation of blended teaching and learning approaches in some fields of translation can present trainers with a number of problems. These include the trainers' lack of familiarity with the use of certain software applications and the scarcity of electronic materials and pedagogical scenarios for them to draw on. This paper explores the pedagogical resources developed as part of two European collaborative projects in the domain of translator training and discusses the lessons learnt from the exploitation of these resources in blended learning scenarios. It offers an overview of the changes that technology has brought to the educational sector, followed by a discussion of key features of the blended teaching and learning approach, and an examination of the impact of technological developments on the translation industry and their transformational effect on professional practices and the training of translators. The final sections present the materials created under the framework of the eCoLoTrain and eCoLoMedia projects, which aim to support blended learning in translation and multimedia localization, respectively. Throughout, an overview of how some project-specific resources and materials can be used in translator training environments is followed by advice on relevant best practices. The conclusion speculates briefly on how the materials which are still under development will effectively be put to use by trainers and trainees alike.
Keywords

Blended learning, Translation technology, Online learning, Face-to-face learning, Pedagogical guidelines, Computer-assisted translation, Multimedia translation

BOOK REVIEWS

Jorge Díaz Cintas (ed.):

The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation (Benjamins Translation Library, vol. 77)
Reviewed by Agnieszka Szarkowska, Poland
John Kearns (ed.): Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods and Debates (Continuum Studies in Translation Series)
Reviewed by Mira Kim, Australia
Presentación: Padilla Benítez, Pedro Macizo Soria and María Teresa Bajo Molina: Tareas de traducción e interpretación desde una perspectiva cognitiva [Translation and Interpreting Tasksfrom a Cognitive Perspective]
Reviewed by Luis Alonso Bacigalupe, Spain
Sandra Hale: Community Interpreting (Research and Practice in Applied Linguistics Series)
Reviewed by Mary Phelan, Ireland
Keiran Dunne (ed.): Perspectives on Localization (American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series XIII)
Reviewed by Jody Byrne, UK

THESIS ABSTRACTS

Uso de corpus electrónicos en la formación de traductores (inglés-español-inglés)

[Using Electronic Corpora in Translator Education (English-Spanish-English)]
Patricia Rodríguez Inés, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

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