Where the Ivory Tower meets the Wordface: In search of meaning and alternatives to silence in specialist translator training (original) (raw)

Developing translators' skills: a diachronic case study

2017

This study investigates how and to what extent following a training programme at postgraduate level affects trainee translators’ perception of translation problems and the way they justify their decisions. This study explores how trainee translators describe the strategies they used to identify translation problems and the justification of the decisions made, as well as to what extent trainee translators integrate the theoretical knowledge acquired throughout the course into translation practice. The one-year master’s degree programme in Translation Studies at the University of Birmingham was used as a case study to undertake this research. Data was collected at different stages throughout the academic year (2012-2013). The research techniques used in this case study consisted primarily of a translation task completed by trainee translators and accompanied by forms to comment on translation problems and translation strategies. The task was followed, in some cases, by retrospective i...

Finding Ways to Increase Translators’ Competence

Knowledge International Journal, 2018

Many scholars have so far attempted to answer the question as to what constitutes translation competence. In doing so, it has been established that this competence requires a combination of various types of knowledge and skills, which consequently results in the complexity of the matter. It is precisely this complexity that has yielded in a number of approaches to defining and analyzing translation competence, which is considered to be a number one prerequisite for a successful professional in this field. Since many scholars who study translation competence agree that it is most effectively developed at an academic institution, modern language faculties that educate future translators and interpreters need to adapt their curricula so as to increase students' translation competence and skills. This article looks at one of the possible ways in which translation classes have been designed in order to pursue this goal. It explores students' perceptions on the presence of a native English speaker during translation classes and direct benefits (or the lack thereof) and presents possible guidelines for the improvement of translation classes.

Influence of Translator Training on the Perceptions of Translation as well as on the Role of the Translator: A Comparative Study

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies , 2019

This paper investigates the extent to which translator training influences the perceptions of translation and shapes the role of the translator. The study explores the cohorts' perceptions of translation and of the role of the translator drawing from Tymoczko's call (2014) to look beyond Western conceptualisations of translation. A view that long benefited from the view of translation as an act of transfer or carrying across. Recent research suggested viewing translation as an act of re-contextualisation (House, 2018) or an act of re-narration (Baker, 2014). The study uses think-aloud protocols (TAPs) to monitor and understand the process of translation. Two groups of participants were selected for this research. One group comprises of ten trainee translators, who are MA Translation Studies students, and the second comprises of ten natural translators, who are bilinguals with no prior training in Translation. The natural participants perceived translation as a process of transfer in which the translator plays an active role. Trainee translators viewed translation as a communicative process, and the translator is at the heart of this process, creating links between cultures and increasing intercultural knowledge.

Translator Education: for a praxeological approach

2012

In an economy in which the private sector and academia increasingly consider cooperation in research and training as the logical choice in the name of efficiency, it is puzzling to note that translation, a field of research and study aimed at building bridges over cultural differences, has been failing so miserably at creating the type of rapprochement and mutual understanding that is so desperately required to ensure that the needs of a growing industry and field of research are met. This paper is an attempt to understand why translation scholars and translator employers have such strong views about each other and how these views are the symptom, not the cause, of such mutual misunderstanding. It will be argued that the reason why this gap exists is that the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of each party are not clearly defined, and that the success of the (life-long) pedagogical endeavour rests in the establishment of a climate of trust and cooperation between academia and the translation industry. In conclusion, we will suggest a number of initiatives that might help alleviate the situation.

Developing translator competence: understanding trainers’ beliefs and training practices

Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 2019

Translator trainers are faced with the challenges of helping translator trainees develop translator competence that meets the needs of the current language services industry. However, the existing literature provides little information on translator trainers' beliefs about translator competence or their actual training practices. The study reported here adopted a mixed methods approach, in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to investigate translator trainers' beliefs and training practices in the Chinese context. Analysis of the responses to a questionnaire as well as the interview and classroom observation data suggests that there were discrepancies between Chinese translator trainers' beliefs and their training practices. It was found that the translator trainers generally recognised the importance of all the sub-competences of translator competence. However, they primarily focused on developing trainee's bilingual and translation knowledge sub-competences and marginalised other sub-competences in their training practices. The observed discrepancies could be attributed to several internal factors (e.g., self-efficacy and motivation) and external factors (e.g., students' abilities, curricula, examinations, colleagues and facilities). Based on these findings, several implications for the (self-)training of translator trainers are elaborated.

[Book reviews]: "Translator and interpreter training

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 2009

Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods and Debates (Continuum Studies in Translation Series). John Kearns (ed.). London & New York: Continuum, 2008. xiv + 223 pp. ISBN 978-0-8264-9805-2 (hbk), ISBN 978-0-8264-9806-9 (pbk). £75 (hbk)/£24.99 (pbk).

Training and educating interpreter and translator trainers as practitioners-researchers-teachers

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 2019

With a focus on the synergies between practice and research, and the way they can inform each other in the education and training of future interpreters and translators, this article discusses pedagogical approaches in T&I education and makes training-of-trainers recommendations to be followed when choosing T&I teachers in courses that match the needs of today's markets and the new realities of contemporary higher education. Aiming to cross the divide between practitioners and researchers and between T&I training and education, the article proposes that higher education institutions promote the presence of both the vocational and the academic in the classroom by recognising the status of practitioner-researchers and valuing the experiential. To fulfil their pedagogical duties and roles, any practitioner, academic, or practisearcher involved in a T&I course should undertake teacher training and acquire the teaching expertise necessary to properly guide and advise future T&I professionals. Higher education institutions should ensure that their T&I trainers and educators acquire the didactic knowledge, at both micro and macro levels, needed to guide trainees along solid pedagogical lines.

TRAINING THE TRANSLATOR

Lörscher of Leipzig, to Hans J. Vermeer of Heidelberg, to Wolfram Wilss of Saarbrücken, and to Rodney Sampson of Bristol who generously undertook the task of reading the entire manuscript Finally I would like to thank Bertie Kaal of Benjamins Publishing Company for her cooperation and support during the final production stage. Needless to say, I alone am responsible for any remaining inadequacies.

The Standard Profile of The 21st Century Translator: Implications for Translator Training

This study examines the profile of the translator in Cameroon and posits that the translating activity is increasingly becoming part of the translation service, reflecting the market expectation to train translation service providers rather than translators. The paper demonstrates that the translation profession as it is performed in the field and portrayed in job adverts reveals that a wide range of employers are looking for translators and their services. A survey of the Cameroonian translation market was carried out to raise awareness of the language skills translators need in order to work successfully as language services providers. The data for this study was obtained from 36 professional translators drawn from the public service, the freelance and in-house corporate translation market in Cameroon/ The study argues that today's new translator's profile and his activities are basically variants of inter-lingual communication in which the tradition concept of translation constitutes only one option and these add-ons, which contribute to a better professionalization of the translator pose new challenges to translation pedagogy in terms of both content and methodology. In this vein the study proposes a translational language teaching model aimed at making training more responsive to market exigencies in this era of modernization.