Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training: Mediation and Culture (Continuum Advances in Translation) [1 ed.] 1441193405, 9781441193407

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Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training

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Continuum Advances in Translation Series Editor: Jeremy Munday Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds, UK Continuum Advances in Translation publishes cutting-edge research in the fields of translation studies. This field has grown in importance in the modern, globalized world, with international translation between languages a daily occurrence. Research into the practices, processes and theory of translation is essential and this series aims to showcase the best in international academic and professional output. Other Titles in the Series: Corpus-Based Translation Studies Edited by Alet Kruger, Kim Wallach, and Jeremy Munday Music, Text and Translation Edited by Helen Julia Minors The Pragmatic Translator Massimiliano Morini Quality in Professional Translation Jo Drugan Retranslation Sharon Deane-Cox Translating the Poetry of the Holocaust Jean Boase-Beier Translation, Adaptation and Transformation Edited by Laurence Raw Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context Edited by Nana Sato-Rossberg and Judy Wakabayashi Translation as Cognitive Activity Fabio Alves and Amparo Hurtado Albir Translation, Humour and Literature: Translation and Humour Volume 1 Edited by Delia Chiaro Translation, Humour and the Media: Translation and Humour Volume 2 Edited by Delia Chiaro

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Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training Mediation and Culture

Edited by

Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and

Michał Borodo

Continuum Advances in Translation

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Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane 11 York Road Suite 704 London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Séverine Hubscher-Davidson, Michał Borodo and contributors 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. EISBN: 978-1-4411-7038-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Global trends in translator and interpreter training : mediation and culture / edited by Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Michal Borodo. p. cm. – (Continuum advances in translation studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-9340-7 – ISBN 978-1-4411-7038-5 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-4411-2746-4 (epub) 1. Translating and interpreting–Study and teaching. I. Hubscher-Davidson, Séverine. II. Borodo, Michal. P306.5.G57 2012 418’.02071–dc23 2011051211

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain

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This volume is dedicated to John Kearns, to whom the editors are especially indebted for his invaluable help and support

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Contents

Series Editor’s Preface

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Notes on Contributors

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Introduction Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Michał Borodo

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Part 1: Curriculum Issues in an International Context Chapter 1: Curriculum Ideologies in Translator and Interpreter Training John Kearns Chapter 2: Translation Competence: Training for the Real World Christina Schäffner Chapter 3: The Standard EN 15038: Is there a Washback Effect on Translation Education? Anca Greere

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Part 2: Global Trends in Technology for T&I Training Chapter 4: Translation Technologies as seen through the Eyes of Educators and Students: Harmonizing Views with the Help of a Centralized Teaching and Learning Resource Elizabeth Marshman and Lynne Bowker Chapter 5: Assessing Competence in Using Electronic Corpora in Translator Training Patricia Rodríguez-Inés and Amparo Hurtado Albir Chapter 6: Subtitling and the Didactics of Translation Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin

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Part 3: Translation, Intercultural Communication and Empowerment Chapter 7: Teaching and Learning the Importance of Ideological Awareness for Chinese-Speaking Trainee Translators Valerie Pellatt

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Chapter 8: The Role of Translation in Other Learning Contexts: Towards Acting Interculturally Maria González Davies Chapter 9:

Towards Empowerment in Translator Education: Students’ Opinions and Expectations of a Translation Training Course Konrad Klimkowski and Katarzyna Klimkowska

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Part 4: Global Perspectives on the Translation Process Chapter 10: Training of Professional Translators in Australia: Process-Oriented and Product-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Marc Orlando Chapter 11: Addressing the Question of Ethical Dilemmas in Community Interpreter Training Łukasz Kaczmarek Chapter 12: Tracing Strategic Behaviour in Translation Processes: Translation Novices, 4th-semester Students and Professional Translators Compared Susanne Göpferich Index

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Series Editor’s Preface

The aim of this new series is to provide an outlet for advanced research in the broad interdisciplinary field of translation studies. Consisting of monographs and edited themed collections of the latest work, it should be of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students researching in translation studies and related fields, and also to advanced students studying translation and interpreting modules. Translation studies has enjoyed huge international growth over recent decades in tandem with the expansion in both the practice of translation globally and in related academic programs. The understanding of the concept of translation itself has broadened to include not only interlingual but also various forms of intralingual translation. Specialized branches or sub- disciplines have developed for the study of interpreting, audiovisual translation, and sign language, among others. Translation studies has also come to embrace a wide range of types of intercultural encounter and transfer, interfacing with disciplines as varied as applied linguistics, comparative literature, computational linguistics, creative writing, cultural studies, gender studies, philosophy, postcolonial studies, sociology, and so on. Each provides a different and valid perspective on translation, and each has its place in this series. This is an exciting time for translation studies, and the new Continuum Advances in Translation Studies series promises to be an important new plank in the development of the discipline. As General Editor, I look forward to overseeing the publication of important new work that will provide insights into all aspects of the field. Jeremy Munday General Editor University of Leeds, UK

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Notes on Contributors

Amparo Hurtado Albir is Full Professor at the Department de Traducció i Interpretació of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is the team leader of a number of research projects on translation pedagogy and the acquisition of translation competence and head of the PACTE research group. She is the author of numerous publications on the theory and pedagogy of translation, including Enseñar a traducir: Metodología en la formación de traductores e intérpretes (ed.), Madrid, Edelsa, 1999 (3rd edn, 2007) and Traducción y Traductología , Madrid, Cátedra, 2001 (5th rev. edn, 2011). Michał Borodo is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz, Poland. He has published on various topics in Translation Studies and his main research interests include translation and language in the context of globalization, translator training and the translation of children’s literature. Lynne Bowker is Associate Professor at the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Ottawa, where she is also the Director of the School of Information Studies. Her teaching and research interests include the organization of information, terminology and language for special purposes, corpus linguistics and translation technologies. Maria González Davies is a Senior Lecturer in English Studies for Education at the University Ramon Llull, Barcelona. Her research interests include translation training, strategic knowledge in translation and foreign language teaching and learning. Her books include Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom (2004) and Whose Story? Translating the Verbal and the Visual in Literature for Young Readers (2009) (co-edited with Riitta Oittinen). Susanne Göpferich is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of English and Director of the Centre for Competence Development at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Her research interests include Translation Studies, languages for specific purposes, as well as comprehensibility and writing research with a focus on process-oriented research methods and competence development. Her most recent monograph is Translationsprozessforschung: Stand – Methoden – Perspektiven (2008). Anca Greere is Director of the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology at the Department of Applied Modern Languages, ‘Babes-Bolyai’

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Notes on Contributors

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University, Romania. She is also an expert evaluator for the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and has been actively involved in trainer mentorship, research into training methodology for translators and curriculum design. Séverine Hubscher-Davidson is a Lecturer in Translation Studies at Aston University, Birmingham. She teaches both translation theory and practice, and her research interests are in the area of translation process research, translators’ personalities and individual differences, as well as translator training. She has published articles mainly on psychological aspects of the translation process. Łukasz Kaczmarek is a Senior Lecturer in translation at London Metropolitan University. His research interests include community interpreting, competence modelling, the role of expectations in competence impression formation, as well as their implications for community interpreter training, practice and accreditation. He is also interested in methodology underpinning on-line course delivery in translation. John Kearns has worked as a Polish-English translator and trainer and has published extensively on the topic of translator education. He is editor of the journal Translation Ireland and his collection Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods, Debates was published in 2008 by Continuum. He works as an administrative co-ordinator at the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin. Katarzyna Klimkowska is a Lecturer in the Institute of Educational Studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland. She specializes in adult education, including professional and on-the-job training. Her current research interests focus on students as adult learners, with special interest in students of translation and their development. Konrad Klimkowski is a Lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland. He teaches interpreting, translation theory and text linguistics. His current research focuses on incorporating non-formal education into the formal curriculum, encouraging student autonomy and self-determined learning, and revisiting the notion of assessment in translator education. Elizabeth Marshman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation, and has been a member of the Observatoire de Linguistique Sens-Texte since 2007. Her research interests include translation technologies and computer-assisted terminology, and specifically the semi-automatic extraction of terminological relations from corpora. She has also been involved in the CERTT project since 2007, and is currently the Director of the CERTT team.

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Notes on Contributors

Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin is a Lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She is co-director of the MA in Advanced Language Skills and teaches Italian Language (including Italian for Special Purposes) and Translation. She has published articles and books on language teaching methodology, language and new technologies and subtitling in language teaching and translator training. Marc Orlando is a Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies at Monash University, Australia. He also works as a freelance interpreter and translator. His research focuses on the synergies between academic research, professional practice and language didactics in the training of interpreters and translators. Valerie Pellatt is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Translation and Interpreting at Newcastle University. She co-authored Thinking Chinese Translation (Routledge), has published work on Chinese numbers and several articles on various aspects of translation. Her main research interests are the application of schema in translation and numerical expressions in language. Patricia Rodríguez-Inés is a Lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her main current research interests are in translator education, corpus-based Translation Studies and translation technologies. She is a member of the PACTE research group, which specializes in the study of translation competence and its acquisition. Christina Schäffner is Professor of Translation Studies at Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Her main research areas are translation and political texts, translation and metaphor and translator training. She has published widely in these areas, and is also a member of editorial boards of several journals.

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Introduction Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Michał Borodo

This volume was inspired by the Contexts in Translation Education panel at the 3rd Conference of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), held at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia from 8–10 July 2009. The theme of the conference was ‘Mediation and Conflict: Translation and Culture in a Global Context’. This attracted a large number of contributions which tackled issues of globalization, localization, cultural translation, mediation, intercultural relations and other issues of concern to the translator and interpreter (T&I) community. The panel on Translation Education specifically aimed to bring together translation practitioners from a variety of different contexts to share ideas and present work currently undertaken in translation classrooms across the world. The chapters in this volume address translator training practices and innovations from a total of eight different countries and three continents: Poland, the United Kingdom, Romania, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Australia and Germany. The varied contributions enable the reader to gain a deeper insight into some context-specific practices and to reflect on both theoretical and practical implications for the T&I training community. The volume is broadly divided into four main areas of interest: curriculum issues, technology, intercultural communication and the translation process. The volume’s global character may be construed on multiple levels. The most readily apparent is the geopolitical plane related to the growing global interconnectedness observable in various spheres of human life. This results in intensified interactions between distant cultural areas, such as China and the United Kingdom (Chapter 7), and the ever-increasing number of migrants in need of community interpreters capable of mediating for them in new cultural milieus (Chapter 11). The volume also adopts a global perspective in its focus on the wider institutional context, investigating the interactions between academia, the world of business and various international bodies (Chapters 2 and 3), all of which influence the transnational standardization of the educational sector, as well as on the impact of widely accepted belief systems and ideologies behind T&I training curricula (Chapter 1). From another perspective, the volume offers a global, holistic approach to educating the trainee translator, who, in order to become a versatile, self-aware professional translator,

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should, among other things, be provided with constructive, comprehensive feedback from trainers (Chapters 9 and 10) and be able to critically assess the usefulness of electronic tools commonly employed in the translation profession (Chapters 4 and 5). The holistic, global approach postulated in this volume involves both a macro-perspective, relating to the aforementioned supranational and institutional contexts, as well as a micro-perspective concerning the minute stages of the translation process (Chapter 12) and the ability to successfully deal with transferring individual culture-specific items from one language to another (Chapter 6). Finally, the volume offers a global overview of the concept of translation, which may be taken beyond the professional context and understood as an inherent and long-standing human activity of relevance to various other activities, such as language learning (Chapter 8). Mediation and culture are equally potent and multifaceted notions also investigated in the present volume. How to mediate between different cultural areas, how to mediate knowledge in the translation classroom, how to constructively communicate feedback, how to communicate with the client, how to cooperate with the world of business and how to integrate technology into one’s teaching in a way beneficial and satisfactory for the various stakeholders involved are some of the questions dealt with in this collection. When, in his volume entitled Globalization and Culture , John Tomlinson discusses the concept of global hybridization, he observes that ‘movement between cultural/ geographical areas always involves interpretation, translation, mutation, adaptation, and “indigenization” as the receiving culture brings its own cultural resources to bear, in dialectical fashion, upon “cultural imports”’ (2003: 84). The employment of a translation-oriented conceptual framework, in line with Cronin’s metaphor of globalization as translation (2003: 34), seems felicitous, though such depersonalized expressions as ‘movement involves’ or ‘culture brings’ partly blur the actions of the mediators involved in the activity of translation. As everyday contact between people across the world is growing more intense and complex, translators are the ‘mediators of cultures’ who are capable of holding the world together, or keeping its people apart (Tonkin and Frank 2010). The individuals involved in the formation of versatile future mediators aware of the consequences of their translation choices are the trainers, responsible for building what Sainz (1994: 141) called ‘little cells’ of awareness in their translation students. These all-important cells can be created and fostered within professional translator training programmes which, among other key elements, pay particular attention to curriculum issues, the use of technology, intercultural communication and the process of translation. The first part of the volume deals with curriculum issues, which have recently gained importance in the literature (e.g. Sawyer 2004, Kelly 2005, Niska 2005, Ulrych 2005, Gile 2009, Baker and Maier 2011). One of the pertinent factors in this context is contextualizing curriculum and choice of training or competence model as, according to Calvo (2011), a specific competence model can

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be suitable for one or more curriculum settings and still prove inefficient for a number of curriculum situations and needs. In the opening chapter, John Kearns discusses curriculum ideologies in translator and interpreter training, and examines the assumptions underpinning what he terms a prevailing monolithic ideology despite increasing interest in context-specific training. In his chapter, he invites the reader to examine critically the push towards a unified vision of training objectives currently taking place in curricular development transnationally, by considering more nuanced taxonomies of curricular ideologies. His chapter serves as a reminder that one size does not necessarily fit all, and that belief systems that inform curriculum design need to be carefully considered. This reflective essay serves to frame ensuing discussions of practices in subsequent contributions reflecting a variety of translator training ideologies. One example of the kind of curriculum practice that is informed by a strong belief system has been successfully implemented in Aston University’s postgraduate translation programmes. In her chapter, Christina Schäffner describes the translation industry’s attempts to set a benchmark for quality, and the consequent development of European standards for translation service providers and translator training institutions. The increasing need for qualified professional translators in Europe has led to a sharp increase in translator training programmes. According to the author, these translation programmes should prepare graduates for the needs of the market, and ensure a good match between graduates’ competences and employers’ requirements. She goes on to describe exactly how this can be accomplished in the framework of a European Masters in Translation (EMT) postgraduate curriculum, acknowledged by some as one of the most sound and exhaustive curriculum design processes in our field so far (Calvo 2011). A good example of the kind of unified vision reflecting various ideologies referred to by Kearns is a European standard. In her contribution, Anca Greere critically examines a European standard of relevance to the translation community EN 15038:2006. Though a product of the professional translation environment, its adoption by different European national standardization bodies has impacted on translation education. In her essay, Greere examines how the standard may exert an influence on Romanian higher education on four different levels – on the level of curriculum development, in the sphere of educational policymaking, to enhance the status of formal translator training, as well as on the terminological level, offering potential advantages to Translation Studies scholars in Romania. One feature that has certainly marked curricula in translation programmes is the growing use of technology and IT tools, which is the focus of the second part of this volume. As Hartley (2009: 106) observes, a consequence of globalization and the rapid expansion of the internet has been the growing demand for translations of product information, software, user manuals, etc. In turn,

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this need for translation services has meant that translators are increasingly required to possess professional competences in a range of new technologies, including the use of translation memories, terminology management and other forms of (semi)automatic translation (Pym et al. 2006). In their essay, Lynne Bowker and Elizabeth Marshman address this issue, highlighting that although professors and students generally recognize the importance of technologies in today’s market, they may nevertheless hold different views in relation to some aspects of technology training and specialized tools. The authors present their study, whereby they have been investigating attitudes towards technologies as part of the Collection of Electronic Resources in Translation Technologies (CERTT) project, operating at the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation (STI) since 2007. Having compared attitudes towards the importance, usefulness and limitations of electronic tools among faculty staff and students, they suggest ways of harmonizing these views and bringing the two groups closer together for a more effective use of translation technologies. While the above chapter offers a macro-perspective on the use of electronic tools in the translation classroom, it is complemented by the chapter by Patricia Rodríguez-Inés and Amparo Hurtado Albir, who demonstrate how technology may be employed on a micro level to develop a very concrete competence in the use of electronic corpora for translation purposes. The authors use a broad palette of assessment instruments for data collection. They point to numerous potential benefits of implementing their proposal, as it has proved helpful for translation trainees in developing greater autonomy, selfconfidence and data-processing skills. One of the chief assets of this article is the inclusion of concrete teaching units and practical exercises designed to help students develop competence in using electronic corpora to translate. Closing the section on global trends in technology for translator training, Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin presents a practical application of technology drawn from her own teaching practice at the National University of Ireland, Galway. In her contribution, the effects that analysis and production of subtitles have on advanced language learners are explored, and the creation of subtitles is considered as a means of enhancing learners’ intercultural awareness, pragmatic competence and translation skills. Although not without its challenges, the use of audiovisual translation (AVT) in advanced translation classes has certainly been a consequence of the growing popularity of new technologies, and now often takes pride of place in the translation curriculum. The advent of technology certainly helped shape today’s translation curricula, and contributed to producing what the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation and higher-education institutions offering the EMT term ‘technologically competent professionals’ who are experts in multilingual and multimedia communication. Alongside technology, intercultural communication is similarly acknowledged as a key component of

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successful translation performance. This theme is taken up in a translation training context by Valerie Pellatt, who argues that the approaches of Chinese native-speaking students of Chinese-to-English translation may be the effect of state ideology, which contributes to framing their understanding of texts as well as their perceptions of the English-speaking or international target audience. Making reference to the concepts of Occidentalism and auto-Orientalism, the author provides examples of aspects of translation in both published professional translations and students’ translations which show traits characteristic of Chinese norms of translation. This chapter highlights how a lack of intercultural awareness may result in a case of being ‘lost in translation’. In the second contribution dedicated to the topic of intercultural communication, Maria González Davies explores how translation as a skill in itself and as a learning strategy can be usefully employed to provide students with the means to act interculturally and to improve expertise in specific learning contexts. She investigates the advantages of the use of translation in the classroom, something which has traditionally formed part of the learning process but was then largely rejected. The author argues that the employment of translation may contribute to developing linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence in learning contexts where languages and cultures are in contact. This argument is supported by a case study focusing on 24 teacher trainers and their understanding of translation. In the concluding chapter in this section, Konrad Klimkowski and Katarzyna Klimkowska discuss the concept of empowerment in translator education, and the benefits of introducing it into everyday educational practice. They present a case study in which they investigated 53 students from Maria CurieSkłodowska University in Lublin, Poland with regard to their perception of their translation classes, expectations of translator trainers and the role they themselves would like to play in the translation classroom. Discussing the concept of empowerment-based education, the authors observe that time is needed for the concept to be accepted and implemented in the classroom. Additionally, by addressing the issues of student assessment, this chapter effectively bridges the gap with the next contribution from the final section of this collection. Having started the volume with discussions of notions of global interest, such as curriculum design and translation technologies, it seems appropriate to conclude the volume with a close-up of the translation/interpreting process. In education theory, looking at the learning process with the help of mechanisms of self-assessment and self-evaluation is a long-standing practice. Educationalists (Biggs 1988, Cowan 1998) believe that self-assessment is beneficial when used formatively and consistently as a learning tool, and Boud, a major advocate of self-assessment in Higher Education, claims that the quality of student work improves through ‘cycles of feedback and reworking’ (Boud 1990: 106). In his contribution to the volume, Marc Orlando defends the case

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for self-assessment and self-evaluation in translator training, alongside external evaluations. The author discusses the implementation, at Masters’ level, of different types of evaluations which mirror different stages of the training of future professional translators. Orlando presents both product and processoriented tools introduced in the Master of Translation Studies at Monash University, such as evaluation grids and a translator’s diary, and argues that these are examples of elements which can be introduced in a formative approach, centred on the student, with the aim of helping trainees to become thinking professionals aware of the normative demands of the T&I industry. Looking at the translator training process in this innovative way enables a more complete picture of the translation student experience to emerge. Łukasz Kaczmarek’s chapter complements the others in two key areas. First, it addresses the question of ethical dilemmas, a topic highly relevant to both the translator and interpreter’s training process, and increasingly acknowledged in the literature (see for example Baker and Maier 2011). Secondly, it presents a different perspective on aspects of mediation and intercultural communication faced by community interpreters which is of relevance for the T&I training community. After a discussion of various models of translation ethics and their potential application to interpreting, Kaczmarek focuses on the Code of Professional Conduct proposed by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) with a view to demonstrating how some of its principles relate to values underlying the models of translation ethics. He presents an analysis of excerpts showing selected dilemmas that community interpreters might encounter in the course of their professional work, and proceeds to demonstrate that community interpreter training institutions may currently be underemphasizing ethical dilemmas in their courses. The author then proposes various methods of how ethical dilemmas can be acknowledged during training. Also concerned with gaining a better understanding of her students’ translation process, Susanne Göpferich presents her research into students’ and professionals’ strategic behaviour. The author decided to compare strategic behaviour in the translation processes of students at the start of their translation training, with that of translation students in the fourth semester of the BA programme, and that of translators with at least ten years of professional experience. By using three different types of participants, this chapter is a good example of a fine-grained triangulated analysis of translator behaviour, the results of which have the potential to have a significant impact on the translator training context. It is hoped that, by drawing attention to both global and local practices and challenges in translation classrooms, the contributions in the present collection will prove inspiring and thought-provoking for translator trainers, scholars and professionals operating in a broad international context.

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References Baker, M. and Maier, C. (eds) (2011) Ethics and the Curriculum: Critical Perspectives. Special Issue of the Interpreter and Translator Trainer (ITT), 5 (1). Biggs, J. (1988) ‘Student learning research and theory – where do we currently stand?’, in G. Gibbs (ed.) Improving Student Learning: Theory and Practice , Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff Development. Boud, D. (1990) ‘Assessment and the promotion of academic values’, Studies in Higher Education 15 (1), 101–11. Calvo, E. (2011) ‘Translation and/or translator skills as organising principles for curriculum development practice’, The Journal of Specialised Translation (16). Retrieved at http://jostrans.org/issue16/art_calvo.php, Accessed 15 September 2011. Cowan, J. (1998) On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher, Buckingham: Open University Press. Cronin, M. (2003) Translation and Globalization , London: Routledge. EMT Expert Group (2009) ‘Competences for professional translators, experts in multilingual and multimedia communication’. Retrieved at http://ec.europa. eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/key_documents/emt_competences_ translators_en.pdf, Accessed 10 September 2011. Gile, D. (2009) Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training (Revised edition), Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hartley, T. (2009) ‘Technology and translation’, in J. Munday (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies , Oxon: Routledge, 106–27. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Niska, H. (2005) ‘Training interpreters: programmes, curricula, practices’, in M. Tennent (ed.) Training for the New Millennium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pym, A., Perekrestenko, A. and Starink, B. (2006) ‘Translation technology and its teaching’. Retrieved at http://isg.urv.es/library/papers/isgbook.pdf, Accessed 10 September 2011. Sainz, M. J. (1994) ‘Student-centred corrections of translations’, in C. Dollerup and A. Lindegaard (eds) Teaching Translation and Interpreting 2: Insights, Aims, Visions, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 133–43. Sawyer, D. B. (2004) Fundamental Aspects of Interpreter Education: Curriculum and Assessment , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Tomlinson, J. (2004) Globalization and Culture , Cambridge: Polity. Tonkin, H. and Frank, M. E. (2010) The Translator As Mediator of Cultures, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Ulrych, M. (2005) ‘Training translators: programmes, curricula, practices’, in M. Tennent (ed.) Training for the New Millennium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/index_en.htm [accessed 10 September 2011 from www.ec.europa.eu] http://gams.uni-graz.at/fedora/get/container:tc/bdef:Container/get [accessed 10 September 2011 from www.gams.uni-graz.at]

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Part 1

Curriculum Issues in an International Context

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Chapter 1

Curriculum Ideologies in Translator and Interpreter Training John Kearns

1. Introduction Recent years have seen vigorous research efforts on matters of curriculum development in translator and interpreter (T&I) training. Much of this research has focused on decisions regarding what should be included on T&I syllabi, what the optimal teaching methodologies are for nurturing translation skills, how best the outcomes of T&I training programmes can be assessed, what the relationship should be between theory and practice in such T&I programmes etc. So far, however, little attention has been devoted to the belief systems which inform these decisions in the first place, belief systems which have been characterized by education scholars as ‘curriculum ideologies’ and which are recycled and reproduced by those same curricula which they go to create. This chapter will introduce this topic in theoretical terms by examining the dynamics of such curricular ideologies, the ways in which the values matrix they (re)produce may be manifest in T&I curricula and the specific challenges this may pose for theorists of T&I education with reference to the apparent contradiction presented by ‘vocational’ training in an ‘academic’ context.

2. The Provenance of Training Research in Translation and Interpreting We are writing at a time when scholarship in language mediation education is blossoming, with numerous contributions extending and casting new light on long-running debates concerning such topics as competence, the integration of new technologies in training initiatives, cognitive research on the acquisition of T&I skills and the development of new teaching methodologies.

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Moreover, new research trends are emerging, some of which have previously also seen scholarly attention in the broader field of Translation Studies (e.g. ethical approaches) and others which have developed specifically within T&I education (e.g. approaches to doctoral studies in T&I). As might be expected, the vast majority of this scholarship has been conducted by T&I scholars and practitioners and, more recently, by scholars who have begun to specialize in T&I education, usually having come from a background in T&I studies. One seldom finds contributions in the field from scholars in mainstream education studies, which again is probably understandable. With Translation Studies itself having been characterized in the past as an ‘interdiscipline’, scholars have welcomed theoretical and methodological approaches from other areas, and this heterogeneity of purpose can also be observed in T&I training research, with dialogues being informed by psychology, cognitive science, distance learning, politics and sociology. Thus it appears ironic that in such a diverse intellectual climate, among the last disciplines to have been summoned in discussions on education in the area, has been education research itself. There has been a paucity of approaches considering T&I training from the perspective of educational studies discourse, rather than from translation and interpreting studies, with research tending to be focused more squarely on outcomes acknowledged by T&I scholarship rather than by scholarship in mainstream pedagogy. Papers are written by T&I scholars, peer-reviewed by other T&I scholars and books reviewed in the field are more likely to be T&I publications than publications addressing broader questions of higher education. Of course, this is a tendency rather than a rule; nevertheless, the dearth of T&I research adopting approaches from fields such as curriculum studies may legitimately be bemoaned when we encounter a major T&I scholar claiming that ‘[i]t is high time academics stopped pretending the design of translator training courses is a complicated matter. After many years of well-informed debate, everyone now knows what the contents and methods should be, and those who do not should not really be attempting to set up courses at all’ (Gouadec 2007: 327–8). It is not our enterprise to discuss Gouadec’s somewhat surprising comment here in any detail (for such a discussion see Kearns, forthcoming; also Ó Ciaráin 2010). Rather, in the light of our earlier comments, we mention it as it presents a palpable contradiction concerning the growth of research in T&I training in recent years. Put bluntly, if the matter of what should be included on courses and how they should be taught is so obvious, why is there still so much research ongoing in the field, so much disagreement over what we shall see later to be very fundamental issues, and so many apparently unanswered questions? What appears as obvious to Gouadec may well be interesting in its very obviousness, in the tacit assumptions it makes (perhaps not without reason) about the nature of T&I education and about those who research it. Why should such assumptions be obvious to one scholar, yet not to others? With a

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view to answering some of these questions, we shall investigate the potential of curriculum studies to bring to light fundamental ideological contradictions in the design of translator training initiatives, and the further potential to inform what appear to be increasingly common tendencies to formulate translation and interpreting curricula at an international level. In the spirit of any discussion of ideology, it is necessary to begin by re-examining notions to define the terms in which they can be analysed. As such, in the next two sections we shall initially examine what we mean by notions of ‘curriculum’ and ‘ideology’, and then look at the implications of both in relation to translation.

3. Curriculum Studies The notion of ‘curriculum’ may be understood in many different ways (Jackson 1992: 3–12). Traditionally, as Kenneth Henson notes, ‘curriculum’ simply meant ‘a set of courses’ (2001: 8), but the extra meanings which it has accrued over the years permit a wider range of meanings. As has been acknowledged by F. Michael Connelly and Oliver Lantz, the definition will often vary depending on the context in which it is used (Connelly and Lantz 1991: 15). Publishing trends such as specialized journals and secondary / tertiary literature have only recently begun to be manifest in T&I training scholarship, in comparison to the appearance of such similar publishing initiatives in other areas of Translation Studies, such as translation theory, literary translation, the linguistics of translation etc. Thus, in view of this relative youth of the area of investigation and of the disagreement which would seem to prevail among pedagogues in the field over even apparently basic translator training issues, a broad definition of curriculum would appear suitable to provide as broad a forum as possible for discussion. Thus it shall be posited that a curriculum is the totality (planned or unplanned) of ideas and activities in an educational programme and their transmission to meet learning needs and achieve desired aims within a specified educational system . This is to be distinguished from a ‘programme’ (which we will take to refer to the set of learning experiences provided in the curriculum of an institution and which is usually manifest in a configuration of courses leading to a qualification), a ‘course’ (for our purposes, a constituent part of a programme, usually featuring a series of lectures, seminars or other classes covering a predefined topic, often assessed by essays, an examination, or other form of student output) and a ‘syllabus’ (an outline of the area(s) to be covered in a single course over a period of time). In presenting this definition of curriculum for our purposes, we assume that it is a tangible entity, or at least a concrete concept: the product of a sustained process of deliberation on how a particular educational scheme may best be organized. However, considerable effort in curriculum studies has been

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expended on a dimension of curriculum which does not fit this prototype, but is relevant nevertheless: the ‘hidden’ dimension. In spite of its enduring popularity among researchers, there is disagreement concerning the origin of the term ‘hidden curriculum’1 and, in common with the notion of ‘curriculum’ itself, it is prone to being defined in a variety of ways, such as ‘unplanned curriculum’ (Wiles and Bondi 1993: 9), that is that which is taught implicitly rather than explicitly by the school experience (Schubert 1986: 105), and as ‘unofficial instructional influences’ (McNeil 1990: 308). Here we shall again appeal for breadth in the understanding of the notion to avoid a confusing proliferation of terms. A ‘hidden curriculum’ will refer to the unplanned learning experiences derived from the nature and organizational design of the institution in which training takes place. The importance of this concept for translation becomes evident when we note how, in the absence of a translator training curriculum informed by established knowledge from Translation Studies, curriculum studies, teaching methodology, applied linguistics etc., the resultant curriculum is prone to being the direct product of such factors as what the institution and its stakeholders feel intuitively should be taught and in what way (cf. Li 2000: 128). Thus the term ‘hidden curriculum’ can be used to refer to the entirety of educational experiences that take place in the absence of any ‘planned’ curriculum. It might be argued that this understanding of the notion is somewhat broader than that which has been in common currency in the literature. This breadth can be justified on two grounds: (a) the general (and necessary) fluidity with which notions of curriculum are inevitably prone to being defined, and (b) the case of translator training in many countries, frequently lacking elements (such as textbooks, predefined syllabi, etc.) which can serve to organize the educational experience in the absence of curriculum guidelines. This lack of organization may result in syllabus – and often even curriculum – design being left up to teachers themselves, teachers who often have no training in the teaching of translation. Symptomatic of this prevalence of hidden curriculum in translator training is the fact that while the title of one of the canonical texts in the field – Dorothy Kelly’s A Handbook for Translator Trainers (2005) – might lead us to expect a volume focusing on teaching methodologies, materials design and use, and perhaps syllabus design, the book is actually a much broader treatment of curriculum design in translator training, again reflecting the fact that numerous translator trainers are embarking on their teaching enterprise from scratch. As such, the implication of Kelly’s text is that a ‘reflective’ teaching practice in the field must invariably uncover the prevailing hidden curriculum, as the necessary matters of curriculum design will not always have been carried out at higher levels of educational administration. To return to the important matter of the presence of ‘hidden’ curricula, how are we to assess the values system informing such a curriculum when it has

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been realized through a series of largely intuitive notions of what constitutes good translator training? Much research in T&I training has focused on developing a greater awareness in the design of curricula to be responsive to certain needs (cf. Li 2000, referred to earlier, for a good example). Nevertheless, the impossibility of ever regulating the vast array of factors that contribute to making up the hidden curriculum suggests that an examination of the intuitions of what constitutes good translator training may not be as retrograde as those whose efforts are (justly) focused on achieving a more vocationally and academically responsive curriculum might suggest. To examine these intuitions in a structured way, we propose to use the concept of ‘curriculum ideology’, which will be presented in the next section.

4. Curriculum and Ideology The highly pervasive nature of the notion of a curriculum is thus clear: it is far more than the outline of a programme of studies (in spite of being frequently considered as such). Indeed, when considered according to our definition as the totality planned or unplanned of educational experiences involved in such a programme, it must also be recognized as amounting to something far greater than the sum of its constituent parts. Making deliberate curricular choices which are attendant to such activities as needs analysis, planning goals and learning outcomes, planning courses and designing syllabi, deciding on teaching methodologies and developing new ones, adopting and designing instructional materials and settling on approaches to assessment and evaluation, can all be considered part of curriculum planning, or ‘un-hiding’ the curriculum. Importantly, however, the complex mesh of decisions involved in achieving this level of curricular planning will itself produce an additional outcome: an overarching curricular ideology, a single ideological entity emerging from the commonality of decisions made in shaping an educational experience. The notion of ideology is similarly fuzzy to that of curriculum and, again, definitions must of necessity be related to the particular projects within which they will be applied (van Dijk 1998: 1–7). When we look at the origins of the term in the writings of Antoine Destutt de Tracy during the French Revolution, we see it conceived as an empirical science of ideas breaking free of older metaphysical conceptions of thought (for a discussion see Williams 1977: 56–8). This is thus the opposite of the pejorative sense which the word subsequently acquired, with ‘ideological discourse’ now often being characterized in popular parlance as views which are ‘skewed by a set of rigid preconceptions’ (Eagleton 1994: 1). Many studies have attempted to account for this change in fate of the notion of ideology and it is not our aim to retrace these discussions here; we merely note them to show the term’s fluidity. For present purposes, we shall use ‘ideologies’ with reference to our discussion of

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the curriculum to refer to the belief systems (i.e. values) that inform decisions made in curriculum design in ways that are often tacit. These value systems are thus reproduced by these same curricula that they inform, again in ways that are often tacit. Indeed, the unspoken nature of these value systems has been central to much writing on ideology as the nature of ideologies presumes a subjective vantage point from which they are viewed (cf. Grossberg 2005: 175–8). As such, curriculum ideologies should be clearly distinguished from theories of pedagogy, which again may inform curricular decisions, but which are enounced explicitly; the hidden curriculum, for example, by definition is not determined directly by a theory of pedagogy, though it may still be shaped by numerous ideological factors. At the heart of all considerations of ideology and curriculum is the fundamental fact that education can never be considered a neutral act. Just as there is always a curriculum (though it may well be hidden), there is similarly an inevitable ideological matrix underpinning the delivery of that curriculum. The examination of this ideological element is a necessary project in considering all curricula. Michael W. Apple, one of the first to consider curricula in explicitly ideological terms, quotes Donald Lazere in characterizing this project as one that seeks to ‘explicate the manifest and latent or coded reflections of modes of material production, ideological values, class relations, and structures of social power – racial and sexual as well as politicoeconomic – on the state of consciousness of a people in a precise historical or socio-economic situation’ (Lazere 1977: 755, quoted in Appel 1979: 1). Lofty aspirations, though one can see how they might be relevant to the field Lazere is concerned with (i.e. English studies). Can such issues be considered relevant in a field such as T&I training, however, where more mundane appeals for training to be ‘less academic’ and ‘more market-oriented’ have for a long time been the order of the day? We shall return to this question later, particularly when we look at debates on translation curricula between scholars in the field. For the moment, let us focus on an important aspect alluded to above about the ways in which curricular ideologies operate in comparison to the more explicit discussions about curricular policies and initiatives (which they may inform, but with which they ought not to be confused): this is their essentially tacit nature, a nature that typically leads them to be overlooked in scholarly discourse on curriculum, T&I training curricula being no exception. When we conceive of translator training and education2 as being the preparation of the student for a career as a professional translator, the designation of universities – where such training typically takes place – as vocational training institutions is accepted implicitly. This is in spite of the fact that the nature of such institutions would resist such (re-)designation for the curricula of other subjects. We might accept that it is a university’s job to provide vocational training for translators for a job market that needs such translators, but we would be less likely to accept that the focus

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of the teaching of undergraduate Philosophy should be to provide students with vocational training with a view to their becoming professional working philosophers in the same way (disregarding, for a moment, the somewhat limited career opportunities for professional working philosophers). Of course, leeway needs to be granted here in assessing the vocational/academic duties of the university, particularly in comparing subjects from the humanities and the natural/social sciences. While it could be argued that one of the aims of a university degree in English literature might be to nurture students into becoming more sensitive readers, nobody would claim that a degree in nursing ought to teach students to be more appreciative patients, should they ever end up in hospital! Different expectations are made of different subjects in the university environment, and many of these expectations are explicitly vocational. This is no less true in the humanities, which is the faculty considered by some to be among the most resistant to the vocational impulse. Yet these obvious discrepancies in terms of curricular expectations are seldom addressed explicitly in writing on curriculum development in relation to T&I and this, as we shall see, has led to much discussion on the subject taking place at cross purposes. Elsewhere we have discussed translator training in relation to the vocational and academic dichotomy in university environments (Kearns 2008). Rather than studying the curricular dynamics of the university contexts where such translator education takes place, our aim here is rather to highlight the vast divergences in stakeholder expectations that can be made of such contexts, and to note how the factors which inform these expectations, and which are considered here as ideologies, go largely unheralded. Indeed, the tacit nature of ideological influence is prone to becoming entirely obfuscated by these norms which emanate from it, and this may have the further effect of making them intractable. As Elliot Eisner notes: What is important about such educational practices is that they emanate from ideologies no less powerful than those directed by publicly expressed orthodox religious beliefs. Indeed, because the former practices may obscure their ideological sources, they may be especially difficult to change. Looked at in this way, it becomes clear that at the broadest social level, acculturation itself can be regarded as a form of ideological induction. When one ideology becomes ubiquitous, it renders those acculturated insensitive to the ways in which their own beliefs have been shaped; they are too close to the scene to recognise its features. (2002: 49) With a view to laying bare the mechanisms of this ideological induction, a diachronic examination of how curricula have been analysed in theories, histories and textbooks shows that the various attendant curriculum philosophies amount to little more than ‘new wine in old bottles’ (Jackson 1992: 16). Jackson himself analysed various trends in curriculum philosophies (1992: 15–16)

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surveying work by McNeil (1977), Eisner and Vallance (1974), and Kliebard (1987) to produce a list of curricular ideological tendencies which included: (a) humanism (curriculum oriented towards ideas of the holistic development of the individual, a tendency associated with the highly influential work of John Dewey); (b) social reconstructionism (curriculum oriented towards a prioritizing of society’s needs over those of the individual, with vocational/employability criteria considered paramount, a tendency associated with the work of Franklin Bobbitt); (c) technologist (curriculum development as essentially a technological process for producing whatever ends are demanded by policymakers, who are assumed here not to be curriculum designers); and (d) academic rationalism (an approach to designing curricula which prioritizes the subject itself and the particular academic tradition which it represents). There are doubtless other ideological tendencies as well (for a list of such tendencies in the context of language teaching, for example, see Richards 2001: 113–20). However, it is particularly interesting in passing that academic rationalism, despite being arguably the least theorized (most tacit?) curriculum philosophy, and thus perhaps the tendency most characteristic of hidden third-level curricula, features most consistently in all the overviews presented (again, for a more detailed discussion of this, see Kearns 2008). If ideologies are tacit, how is the influence which they exert on curricula to be discerned? In his consideration of ideology in this context, Eisner regards curricula as vehicles which convey an institution’s enterprises towards educating its student cohort. This conveyance takes place within a values matrix of ideologies which implicitly identify and justify the direction which this education assumes (2002: 47). Thus, if we are to seek where this ideological values matrix is manifest in the curriculum, it is to points of disjunction in consensus – issues which may be regarded as ‘problematic’ in one sense or another – to which we should turn, as it is on such issues that values come into play in steering the learning experience. These shall be the focus of our next section.

5. Curriculum and Contention What do we mean by ‘problematic’ in terms of curricular context? To answer this, let us begin by assuming that certain elements of the educational package may be regarded as ‘givens’. Few would argue, for example, that a student pursuing a degree in a second language (L2) should not study elements of practical language training, at least to a greater extent than such training would prevail in a university programme in a society’s first language; a degree in English in the United Kingdom or a degree in French in France will typically feature less practical language training (or a very different type of such training) than a degree in either of these languages in Poland or Russia, for example. Of course such givens may be far from universal when considered

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on a global scale – national tradition still constitutes an important element in the development of academic and intellectual traditions (see Galtung 1981 for an interesting geographical characterization of various intellectual styles). Nevertheless, with the rise in transnational initiatives in higher education such as the Bologna Process, it is likely that moves towards greater harmonization of third-level curricula may well characterize future development in the sector. Yet, that is not to say that such transnational initiatives possess either the power or the inclination to eliminate diversity between third-level curricula altogether. In modern languages degrees, for example, the more precise weightings of literature, culture, linguistics or practical language courses within a programme will probably continue to differ radically from institution to institution, and country to country, with curricular decisions often being determined by, for example, national guidelines (e.g. as decided on by a ministry or higher education authority), staff interests and availability and student interests and abilities. With reference to translation, another particularly interesting factor determining curricular decisions may be the status of the target and source languages being addressed in the educational context, particularly if one of those languages happens to be a language of limited diffusion demanding native speakers of that language to translate out of it into their L2, a practice long discouraged by prevailing ideologies in the (major-language dominated) professional translation community. In the 1990s in Poland, I worked in an English department where students pursued a five-year MA programme in English without any course in translation whatsoever – while a third-year practical English course was nominally termed ‘Translation’, it was in fact an advanced-level grammar course. The reasons for the absence of translation were various, though mostly related to students being considered too weak in English to manage translation into that language. Here it should be borne in mind that inverse translation has a high status in the Polish translation job market and has often been considered the main challenge in practical translator training; thus advanced practical training in English was considered preferable to the teaching of translation into Polish. L1 abilities were considered, in curricular terms, relatively ‘unproblematic’, particularly in a context where the vast majority of graduates became teachers of English rather than (primarily) translators. The absence of translation from the curriculum appears particularly ironic considering that, up to 2002, any graduate of a university MA programme in a language could apply to become a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły) in that language, with decisions on whether to conduct competency tests on applicants often being left to the discretion of local authorities. A little over a decade on and there has been a sea-change in the presence of translation on Polish university curricula. With the huge need for Englishlanguage teachers that characterized the 1990s now largely satiated, and with more restrictive demands being imposed on the provision of language teacher

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training in university curricula, there has been a shift away from classes in L2 teaching methodology towards a variety of other language specializations, among them translation (particularly at postgraduate level). At the same time, the introduction of legislation specifying a more rigorous vetting procedure for candidates wishing to become sworn translators has resulted in a greater demand for practical training in translation. The ever-increasing reach of global Translation Studies scholarship to embrace an array of other disciplines and discourses, including culture, gender, IT, (geo-)politics, sociology, ethnography, corpus linguistics, cognitive psychology, education, law, etc., has been reciprocated by Polish modern language studies also adopting new interdisciplinary approaches to offer innovative trajectories in translation research. Thus, to return to the matter of contention in curricular development, the position of translation in undergraduate and (as a specialization) in the new post-Bologna postgraduate degrees in Poland, now appears relatively ‘unproblematic’. Yet beyond this, when we come to examine how translation should be taught, what should be taught in a translation course, what should be the role of ‘Translation Studies’ in such a programme and how should translation theory relate to the teaching of practical translation skills, the situation seems no less problematic in Poland than it is internationally. Not, as we can see from the Gouadec quote discussed earlier, that this is always acknowledged. Yet there are numerous debates about very fundamental problems in translator training which demonstrate how deeply contentious the whole endeavour is, and the next section shall focus on some of these in particular.

6. Contentions in T&I Curriculum Ideologies In 2003, Anthony Pym circulated a questionnaire among various trainers and scholars of translation made up of fairly basic training questions: What kind of training programme should be offered? Who should train translators? How should a programme be structured? etc. Though the questions may appear basic, the answers differed in many fundamental respects. Gouadec himself, for example, gave short shrift to course input from translation theory and Translation Studies and, when asked about the ‘major success areas in current translator training’ boasted that his university programme had ‘an employment rate of 100% if that means anything’ (Gouadec 2003: 19). This view of the measure of the success in translator training being assessed in exclusively vocational terms is also the prevailing thrust of Gouadec’s book (2007) referred to earlier. Brian Mossop, on the other hand, in his response maintained that: the function of a translation school is not to train students for specific existing slots in the translation industry, but to give them certain general abilities

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that they will be able to apply to whatever slots may exist 5, 10, 15, or 25 years from now. In other words, I think university-based translation schools must uphold the traditional distinction between education and training. They must resist the insistent demands of industry for graduates ready to produce top-notch translations in this or that specialized field at high speed using the latest computer models. (2003: 20) We have commented elsewhere (Kearns 2005) that this and other divergences of opinion on such basic matters pose a significant challenge for scholarship on translator training. Here it is our contention that acknowledging this variation in ideological terms may serve to better inform our understanding of curricula, both those that are hidden and those that have been designed as the result of a deliberate attempt to optimize the education process. While functionalist scholars of translation have not, by and large, framed their work in ideological terms, the move to translation being considered as an act of communication shaped by the context (often professional) in which it takes place has obvious implications for the design of translation curricula. An obvious example is the provision of a brief in student translation exercises, though whether this can be directly attributable to the rise of German functionalism is debatable. Far more directly attributable to this research tradition is Paul Kußmaul’s advocacy of functional text linguistics in his evaluation of student translations (1995: 14); he emphasizes that behind such an approach is an acknowledgement of the importance of ‘the knowledge, expectations, values, and norms of the target readers, who are again influenced by the situation they are in and by their culture’ (ibid.: 149). With similar functionalist sympathies, Christina Schäffner has made an important contribution to re-considering the received wisdom that translation training may only take place once the L2 has been mastered, by proposing that the functions of translation can operate symbiotically with the acquisition of language, in a way that merits and justifies the inclusion of translation on undergraduate curricula (Schäffner 2000). Among the strengths of the functionalist impulse in Translation Studies has been the success of its proponents in galvanizing their approach through a variety of difference disciplines, from text linguistics (Reiß 1971, 1976, 2000) to psycholinguistics (Kußmaul 1995) to professional intercultural discourse (Holz-Mänttäri 1984, 1986). As such, this can be seen as part of a general effort by a group of scholars frustrated with the limited purview of earlier linguistic theories of translation, which failed to adequately consider the practice in real-world (professional) terms. Therein lies the ideological motivation for the impulse, and it is interesting that it is also in ideological terms that certain criticisms were made of functionalism. When, for example, Peter Newmark (1991: 106) criticizes what he sees as functionalism’s penchant for ‘the modernistic abstract jargon of Contemporary Public Relations on which the media i.e. basically TV have to feed themselves’ for obscuring the real issues in translation,

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this is a criticism which has ideology at its core, in the form of a set of decisions motivated by a general underlying sociopolitical perspective: The adherents of neo-functionalism write in a businesslike manner about explicit commissions, specifications, targeted addressees, realizability, deadlines, fees, cost effectiveness – translation is transported to a Thatcherite world, but instead of producing translation examples, all they provide is [sic] imaginary translation occasions, describing how one would translate a text for this or that event, without quoting any segment of the text. As I see it, this unrelenting pursuit of functionalism is as dogmatic a distortion of the Prague School as the concrete building horrors perpetrated in the suburbs of Prague and so many other European cities, all in the name of a Corbusian functionalism. (ibid.: 106) This is not to say that Newmark examines his own precepts for judgement in explicitly ideological terms – one is to presume that he regards them to be ‘common sense’ to the same degree as what he takes to be functionalism’s dogma: ‘. . . it is merely common sense that in order to do anything well, you have to know why you are doing it, and that if you’re translating a soap advert, you won’t do it in the same way as you translate a hymn’ (ibid.: 106). Yet it is in the very commonness of this common sense that we find ideology’s blind spot, and thus we see clearly how the subjective vantage point from which ideology’s value systems are enounced essentially precludes explicit statements of those systems by the subject. For another similarly fascinating disagreement on very basic premises, we can look at the criticisms provided by Federica Scarpa of ten recurrent naiveties in translator training, as identified by Anthony Pym (Pym 2005, Scarpa 2006; see also Pym 2006 for a response to Scarpa’s criticisms). In considering the evidence of ideology in debates about translator training, the Scarpa–Pym debate is particularly interesting as the article to which Scarpa was responding was one in which Pym selected a number of prevailing orthodoxies in translator training to challenge (Pym 2005). A tacit orthodoxy of the kind being presented here is the embodiment sine qua non of a curriculum ideology: Eisner notes how ‘[any] orthodoxy attempts to make the world into its own image, especially the educational world’ (2002: 48–9). The stance Scarpa adopts towards Pym can be seen as paradigmatic of a larger-scale opposition between ‘the Ivory Tower and the Wordface’ (pace Chesterman and Wagner 2002). While Scarpa may teach translation, her objections are similar to those of many from the ‘professional’ translation community rather than the academic one. This opposition between academia and the translation profession is one to which Pym has legitimately objected (Pym 2001), but one which we will bear with for the moment, as it usefully characterizes the schools of thought we see articulated here.

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Scarpa falls into various essentialist traps set by Pym’s piece, largely through her failure to realize the ideological provenance of her own arguments, emanating solely from the discourse of the professional translation community, to the exclusion of numerous other discourses that could be considered (thirdlevel pedagogy research, curriculum studies, psychology, etc.). Thus, in opposing Pym’s assertion that not all translator training need take place in universities, she sees as the only alternative ‘to go back to a past with translators being trained outside universities (or other on-the-job training)’ which would constitute a ‘setback to a long-term effort to raise the professional status of translators and of translation as an academic discipline’ (2006: 1). Yet the relationship between academia and the profession underlying this assumption is problematic for the university. If training for the profession (which is what Scarpa is exclusively talking about) must be university based, then universities risk being set an agenda in which it will be extremely difficult for them to examine, and if necessary to challenge, the professional contexts in which translators work: working ‘within’ the ideology of the profession, it becomes more difficult to question that profession or to examine its deeper social, cultural and political roles. Ironically, this point is illustrated most clearly by Pym’s own reply to Scarpa’s rejoinder which, perhaps deliberately, chooses to emphasize the indebtedness of the university to the market rather than to challenge it, maintaining that on some of his courses in Tarragona: the teachers are market-based professionals, the tools they teach come straight from the market, the students are mostly market-based professionals seeking to extend their skills, the fees we charge are at the going market rate . . . All the university provides is a shoddy physical setting and an official stamp of approval, a cachet of presumed quality. All we sell, as a university, is that image. We are in the business of exchanging symbolic capital (our prestige, our image) for economic capital (students’ money), as Bourdieu would put it. (2006: 2) Conceiving of academia’s prerogative in these terms, Pym appears wilfully to deny the value of non-market-oriented education, while still acknowledging that it is this non-profitability that grants universities their status: What is our symbolic capital? It has a lot to do with strange presumptions of economic non-profitability. It benefits enormously from having old buildings, fancy job names, snazzy robes for special occasions, and occasional helpings of professorial arrogance. Yet that image also suggests we are interested in substantial long-term knowledge, in frames far wider than an immediate savoir-faire for immediate employment. (2006: 2)

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But how interested are we in these things? Pym believes that academics appear to put a blind faith in them. The ‘proper training’, which he associates with the kind of skills transferability referred to by Mossop earlier, remains a valid aim and, moreover, can still be afforded (or at least is not necessarily withheld) by market-oriented technical training. Yet, on the topic of what these transferable skills are and how they may be identified by trainers, Pym is more reticent: And while we talk about the nobility of those ‘fundamental competencies’ (‘proper training’ indeed), our students will find space in their lives to experiment with ideas and relations, developing competencies that are far more vital and improper than the abstract schemata that keep us employed. To be even clearer: I do not believe that people like Scarpa and Pym have any special insight that allows us to identify and delimit ‘proper training’, but if that illusion of knowledge and control helps us gain time and space for any kind of training, then so much the better. Let us use it. (2006: 3) As such, one may be led to the somewhat harsh conclusion that, as university educators, we are engaged in a charade (albeit an occasionally useful one) in which the market is hoodwinked into thinking that we know what we’re doing as long as we feed it employable fodder. This assessment may be less harsh if one compares the immediate chances of a Tarragona graduate on the job market against those of a Rennes graduate from Gouadec’s programme, where the curriculum is judged according to the criterion of providing ‘100% employability’. What space is there for economic non-profitability? Yet even if we were to accept Pym’s assertion that ‘people like Scarpa and Pym’ have no insight into what ‘proper training’ should be (do not trainers also pick up knowledge about both training and translation along the way?), the notion that we are to spend our working lives in institutions whose ideological bent is largely illusory seems unfulfilling to say the least. Yes, Pym is justified when he says that ‘we are interested in substantial long-term knowledge, in frames far wider than an immediate savoir-faire for immediate employment’ but what is more, many of us are also interested in how best to impart that knowledge and, indeed, how these frames are constituted and contextualized by both the teaching environment and the workplace. We have to be, as it is now a topic for which many university management cadres, at least in this particular writer’s experience, seem to have neither time nor inclination. Thus the breadth of a study like Dorothy Kelly’s (referred to earlier) as a curriculum design manual becomes all the more pertinent. Yet its designation as such is tacit, once again revealing a level of ideology operating in the output of pedagogical research and guides. Just as our discussion of Pym here may challenge the acceptability (for the academic) of being satisfied with the ‘mere’ symbolic capital of the varsity,

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Pym’s position, along with his debate with Scarpa, show the impossibility of thinking about these issues outside of a consideration of the ideological context in which such debates about curriculum must necessarily take place. As such, and to refer back to our earlier discussion, while Pym appears content to acknowledge, but leave concealed, this hidden curriculum, for others among us our intellectual curiosity towards translation and interpreting may also extend to a curiosity about the contexts in which it can best be imparted to our students.

7. Conclusion – Subject-Led Curricular Ideologies The professional and academic stances in translator training which we can see reflected in the ideologies pervading the curricular debate between Scarpa and Pym have shifted cagily over the past two decades in respect to numerous issues, some obvious, some less so. How can modes of curriculum development keep abreast of such developments? As a challenge, this may indeed seem overwhelming at first, given the futility of attempting to second-guess developments in industry for purposes of educational planning. Nonetheless, a focus on the local real-world professional, social and educational contexts in which translation and interpreting take place also offers many keys to training initiatives which we may well miss if we focus our attention solely on international developments in language mediation education. To refer back to the Polish example referred to earlier, we noted the importance of training in inverse translation in the local context. An interesting litmus test demonstrating the kind of ideological shifts in training norms referred to above might be to chart the gradual changes in attitudes towards translation into the L2, from those (influenced by a ‘professional’ discourse dominated largely by those working in major-language translation cultures) which brooked no favour with it, to those which have gradually begun to tolerate it in respect of the translation cultures of languages of limited diffusion (cf. Pokorn 2005, Kearns 2007). Conversely, the kind of implicit assumption regarding the straightforwardness of translation into the L1, which characterized the attitudes of those referred to earlier in the English department in Poland of the 1990s, would now hardly be tenable.3 These are observations that can contribute to informing the design of curricula for the Polish context. They may not suit others, and indeed there are numerous examples of curricular initiatives which have been criticized as illconceived for drawing on inappropriate source models (see the criticism of Hertog 2001 in Kearns 2003). This is important, because if we take it that translation serves different purposes in different societies, and indeed within the same society, the appropriateness of a single curricular model prescribing how all T&I training should take place seems highly questionable. To refer to the

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ideological tendencies mentioned earlier, the fact that the social reconstructionist impulse (of which Gouadec may be considered the perfect exemplar) has proved pervasive in discussions about translation curricula, does not mean that it constitutes the ‘right path’ and, indeed, the assertion that one single such right path exists is a belief which any consideration of ideologies in the curriculum demands that we dispense with at the outset. We can, and should, look at the professional world and learn from it. Yet this does not mean that we need grant it a hegemonic role in ideologically determining educational programmes. Nor, indeed, need we in Europe assign our curricular planning to Brussels or Bologna, influential though both may be as loci of third-level educational development. Rather, we should examine the decisions we make in designing our programmes of study in terms of the functions of translation and interpreting for our local contexts, a praxis that can, and should, still be informed by international thought on educational design. It is only through achieving a cognizance of the matrix of values resultant from these decisions that we can become familiar with the influences exerted by ideology on our curricula.

Notes 1

2

3

While Elizabeth Vallance credits Norman V. Overly’s collection The Unstudied Curriculum (1970) as being the first text to investigate the phenomenon, Philip W. Jackson was discussing the notion two years earlier in his publication Life in Classrooms (1968). Note here how ‘training’ and ‘education’ are frequently used interchangeably by many working in the field. For more on the distinction, see Bernardini 2004. This type of development has been noted by Cay Dollerup in his study of common characteristics of the permeation of translator training in various societies over time, a study which itself reveals the implicit way in which ideology impinges on the diachronic development of curricular thought (Dollerup 1996).

References Appel, M. W. (1979) Ideology and Curriculum , London; Boston; Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Bernardini, S. (2004) ‘The theory behind the practice: translator training or translator education?’, in K. Malmkjær (ed.) Translation in Undergraduate Degree Programmes, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 17–29. Chesterman, A. and Wagner, E. (2002) Can Theory Help Translators? A Dialogue between the Ivory Tower and the Wordface , Manchester: St Jerome. Connelly, F. M. and Lantz, O. C. (1991) ‘Definitions of curriculum: an introduction’, in A. Lewy (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Curriculum , Oxford: Pergamon Press, 15–18.

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Dollerup, C. (1996) ‘The emergence of the teaching of translation’, in C. Dollerup and V. Appel (eds) Teaching Translation and Interpreting 3: New Horizons, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 19–30. Eagleton, T. (ed.) (1994) Ideology, Harlow: Longman. Eisner, E. W. (2002) The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (Third edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Eisner, E. W. and Vallance, E. (eds) (1974) Conflicting Conceptions of the Curriculum , Berkeley, CA: McCutchan. Galtung, J. (1981) ‘Structure, culture and intellectual style: a comparison of Saxonic, Teutonic, Gallic and Nipponic approaches’, Social Science Information 20 (6), 817–56. Gouadec, D. (2003) ‘Notes on translator training (replies to a questionnaire)’, in A. Pym, C. Fallada, J. R. Biau and J. Orenstein (eds) Innovation and E-Learning in Translator Training: Reports on Online Symposia , Tarragona, Spain: Intercultural Studies Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 11–19. Retrieved at http://isg.urv.es/ library/papers/innovation_book.pdf, Accessed 24 September 2011. — (2007) Translation as a Profession , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Grossberg, L. (2005) ‘Ideology’, in T. Bennett, L. Grossberg and M. Morris (eds) New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Malden: Blackwell, 175–8. Henson, K. T. (2001) Curriculum Planning: Integrating Multiculturalism, Constructivism, and Education Reform (Second edition), London: McGraw Hill. Hertog, E. (ed.) (2001) Aequitas: Access to Justice across Language and Culture in the EU, Antwerp: Lessius Hogeschool. Holz-Mänttäri, J. (1984) Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode , Annales Academicae Scientiarum Fennicae B226, Helsinki: Suoma-lainen Tiedeakatemia. — (1986) ‘Translatorisches Handeln – theoretisch fundierte Berufsprofile’, in M. Snell-Hornby (ed.) Übersetzungwissenschaft. Eine Neuorientierung, Tübingen: Franke, 348–74. Jackson, P. W. (1992) ‘Conceptions of curriculum and curriculum specialists’, in P. W. Jackson (ed.) Handbook of Research on Curriculum , New York: Macmillan, 3–40. Kearns, J. (2003) Review of Aequitas: Access to Justice across Language and Culture in the EU, in E. Hertog (ed.) ITIA Bulletin (November 2003), 3–4. — (2005) ‘Translator training: contexts and curricula’, Translating Today Magazine 2 (January 2005), 8–10. — (2007) ‘Translate and be damned! Inverse translation and professional recognition’, in R. Sokoloski, H. Duda, K. Klimkowski and J. Klimek (eds) Warsztaty translatorskie IV/Workshop on Translation IV, Ottawa; Lublin: Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa and Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski, 171–91. — (2008) ‘The academic and the vocational in translator education’, in J. Kearns (ed.) Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods and Debates , London; New York: Continuum, 184–214. — (forthcoming) ‘Towards a critical translation pedagogy’, in M. Thelen and B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (eds) Selected Papers from the Fifth Maastricht-Łódź Dual Colloquium [working title].

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Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Kliebard, H. M. (1987) The Struggle for the American Curriculum 1893–1958 , New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Kußmaul, P. (1995) Training the Translator, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Lazere, D. (1977) ‘Mass culture, political consciousness, and English studies’, College English XXXVIII, 755. Li, D. (2000) ‘Tailoring translation programmes to social needs: a survey of professional translators’, Target 12 (1), 127–49. McNeil, J. D. (1977) Curriculum: A Comprehensive Introduction , Boston: Little, Brown. — (1990) Curriculum: A Comprehensive Introduction (Second edition), New York: HarperCollins. Mossop, B. ([2000] 2003) ‘What should be taught at translation school?’, in A. Pym, C. Fallada, J. R. Biau and J. Orenstein (eds) Innovation and E-Learning in Translator Training, Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 20–2. Retrieved at http://isg.urv.es/library/papers/innovation_book. pdf, Accessed 24 September 2011. Newmark, P. (1991) ‘The curse of dogma in translation studies’, Lebende Sprachen 36 (3), 105–8. Ó Ciaráin, S. (2010) Review of Translation as a Profession by Daniel Gouadec, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 4 (1), 129–34. Pokorn, N. (2005) Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation into a Non-Mother Tongue , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pym, A. (2001) ‘To localize and humanize . . . On academics and translation’, Language International (August 2001), 26–8. Retrieved at www.tinet.cat/~apym/ on-line/translation/humanize.html, Accessed 27 August 2011. — (2005) ‘Training translators: ten recurrent naiveties’, Translating Today 2 (January 2005), 3–6. Retrieved at www.tinet.cat/~apym/on-line/training/10_ naivetes.pdf, Accessed 27 August 2011. — (2006) ‘Eppure . . . A reply to Federica Scarpa’s reply’, Paper presented at the conference Tradurre: professione e formazione , Università di Padova, Italy, 6–8 April 2006. Retrieved at www.tinet.cat/~apym/on-line/training/Pym_Reply_ to_Scarpa.pdf, Accessed 27 August 2011. Reiß, K. (1971) Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik , Munich: Hueber. — (1976) Texttyp und Übersetzungsmethode. Der operative Text , Kronberg: Scriptor. — (2000) Translation Criticism: The Potentials and Limitations, Transl. Erroll F. Rhodes. Manchester: St Jerome / New York: American Bible Society. Richards, J. C. (2001) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge Language Education Series, Cambridge: CUP. Scarpa, F. (2006) ‘Some issues in specialist-translator training: a reply to Anthony Pym’, Paper presented at the conference Tradurre: professione e formazion , Università di Padova, Italy, 6–8 April 2006. Schäffner, C. (2000) ‘Running before walking? Designing a translation programme at undergraduate level’, in C. Schäffner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 143–56.

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Schubert, W. H. (1986) Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility, New York: Macmillan. van Dijk, T. A. (1998) Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach , London; Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage. Wiles, J. W. and Bondi, J. (1993) Curriculum Development: A Guide to Practice (Fourth edition), New York: Macmillan. Williams, R. (1977) Marxism and Literature , Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Chapter 2

Translation Competence: Training for the Real World Christina Schäffner

1. Introduction The translation industry has experienced growth worldwide over the last years, and it is predicted that this development will continue. A survey conducted on behalf of the European Commission (2009) estimated an annual growth rate of 10% for the size of the language industry in the European Union. This language industry, not only in Europe but also beyond, is diverse (including website localization, audio-visual translation and all forms of interpreting) and international. For example, as a result of the developments of new tools and technologies, a client based in the United States of America can put a translation commission on the internet late in the evening which is picked up by a translator in Australia. Due to the time difference, the translator in Australia can finish the translation and send it back to the client while translators in the United States of America are missing out on this job because it is night-time. Moreover, when we speak of translation (and also of interpreting) in a global context, we need to bear in mind that we are dealing with a fragmented and unregulated sector. This means that, in many countries, translation work can be done by people who have not undergone any specialized training and who do not have a professional qualification as a translator. In addition, customers are often more interested in getting a translation quickly and at low cost, which may conflict with quality. Translation quality and professionalization, however, are high on the agenda of translation companies and professional associations. There may be situations in which a quick and rough translation is all that is required by a client, but there are many more cases where a high-quality product is needed. A case in point would be corporate material which multinational companies produce for their international customers (and shareholders), or the legislative texts produced by supranational bodies such as the United Nations or the European Commission. Within the translation industry, we have therefore seen attempts

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at setting benchmarks for quality, such as the development of the standard EN15038 for Translation Service Providers in Europe. The primary objective of this standard is to ‘establish and define the requirements for the provision of quality service for translation’, as it is explained on the website of the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies. The growth of the translation industry also means that more and more qualified professional translators are needed in order to ensure quality. Over the last decade, there has been an enormous increase in translator training programmes worldwide. Such programmes are largely delivered by universities and, in Europe, increasingly at postgraduate level as a result of the Bologna process which aims at creating a European Higher Education Area based on international cooperation and academic exchange. A resulting challenge for universities is to make sure that translation programmes prepare graduates who are qualified for the needs of the diverse profession in the rapidly changing market. This means that programmes need to bear the market needs in mind, and they need to ensure a good match between graduates’ competences and employers’ requirements. In this chapter, the term ‘competence’ refers to translation competence, which involves more than competence in using two languages. Within Translation Studies, there is a significant amount of literature dealing with the definition of translation competence and how it can be developed in translator training programmes (e.g. Risku 1998, Schäffner and Adab 2000, Witte 2000, PACTE 2003, González Davies 2004, Hurtado Albir and Alves 2009). One of the recent developments in this respect is the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) project, initiated by the Directorate General of Translation (DGT) of the European Commission, and aimed at raising the standard of translator training in the European Union as well as fostering cooperation between higher-education institutions offering translation courses. As part of the EMT project, a translator competence profile was created which details the competences that translators need to successfully work in the ‘rapidly evolving field of multilingual and multimedia communication’ (EMT Expert Group 2009). This chapter will briefly introduce the EMT translator competence profile, with a specific focus on the Translation Service Provision Competence, and subsequently illustrate how we aim to prepare our graduates for the real world with reference to one particular module in our postgraduate programmes: The Translation Profession.

2. The EMT Translator Competence Profile The initiative by the Directorate General for Translation to agree on a competence profile was motivated by the difficulty the DGT experienced in hiring qualified translators. As previously suggested, the translation industry is a largely unregulated sector, and translator training provision is quite diverse

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across Europe. The EMT initiative was thus also a good opportunity to put forward a minimum quality profile and learning outcomes to be achieved at the end of second-cycle training according to the Bologna process. Programmes which can demonstrate that their graduates achieve these learning outcomes can become members of the EMT network. The EMT competence profile serves as a reference framework, specifying competences for professional translators who are seen as experts in multilingual and multimedia communication. This reference framework sets out what is to be achieved, acquired and mastered at the end of study at postgraduate level in respect of the professional competences. At the same time, it is acknowledged that university education for translators has wider aims and goes beyond the more specific professional aspects. Competence is defined as ‘the combination of aptitudes, knowledge, behaviour and knowhow necessary to carry out a given task under given conditions’ (EMT Expert Group 2009). Six competence areas are put forward, with more specific competences listed in each area, which are all interdependent and which together constitute the minimum requirement of a translator qualification. The six competence areas are as follows: 1. Translation Service Provision Competence (with an Interpersonal and a Production dimension) 2. Language Competence 3. Intercultural Competence (with a Sociolinguistic and a Textual dimension) 4. Information Mining Competence 5. Thematic Competence 6. Technology Competence The list of these competence areas clearly reflects the professional aspects. Previous publications on translation competence also mentioned language, cultural, thematic, technological and (re)search competence, although less attention was paid to what is here called Translation Service Provision Competence (though Kiraly (2000) and Alves and Gonçalves (2007) differentiate between translation competence and translator competence, which comes close). For the purposes of this chapter, the focus will be on this area of Translation Service Provision Competence, showing how it is described in the EMT profile before illustrating how it can be achieved in a postgraduate programme. The Translation Service Provision Competence has an Interpersonal and a Production dimension. The interpersonal dimension refers to the following aspects: z z

Being aware of the social role of the translator Knowing how to follow market requirements and job profiles (knowing how to remain aware of developments in demand)

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Translation Competence z

z

z z

z z z z

33

Knowing how to organize approaches to clients and potential clients (marketing) Knowing how to negotiate with the client (to define deadlines, tariffs/ invoicing, working conditions, access to information, contract, rights, responsibilities, translation specifications, tender specifications, etc.) [. . .] Knowing how to comply with instructions, deadlines, commitments, interpersonal competences, team organization Knowing the standards applicable to the provision of a translation service Knowing how to comply with professional ethics Knowing how to work under pressure and with other experts, [. . .] Knowing how to self-evaluate (questioning one’s habits; being open to innovations; being concerned with quality; being ready to adapt to new situations/conditions) and take responsibility

These elements focus on the translator as a professional, as an expert in his or her own right (as already highlighted by Holz-Mänttäri 1986), as an agent who is cooperating with other agents and who is aware of the requirements of the professional role and the expectations of clients, other experts and fellow translators. The production dimension addresses the following points: z

z

z

z z

z

z

Knowing how to create and offer a translation appropriate to the client’s request, that is to the aim/skopos and to the translation situation Knowing how to define stages and strategies for the translation of a document Knowing how to define and evaluate translation problems and find appropriate solutions Knowing how to justify one’s translation choices and decisions Mastering the appropriate metalanguage (to talk about one’s work, strategies and decisions) Knowing how to proofread and revise a translation (mastering techniques and strategies for proofreading and revision) Knowing how to establish and monitor quality standards

These competences and skills are more specifically related to working with texts and are, as such, more closely linked to language, intercultural, thematic and information mining competences. As said above, all six competence areas and the detailed sub-competences listed for each one of them are closely interrelated. This is also reflected in the learning outcomes and the structure of our postgraduate programmes, as well as in the learning outcomes, aims and objectives of each of the modules. A general overview of the programmes at Aston University will be given in the next section before the module The Translation Profession is presented in more detail.

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3. Translation Competence as an Educational Aim Three postgraduate translation programmes are currently offered at Aston University: the MA in Translation in a European Context (this programme is a member of the EMT network), the MA in Translation Studies and the MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Translation Studies. Each programme lasts for 12 months on a full-time basis, and students earn a total of 180 credits (= 90 ECTS), 120 of which are gained from the taught modules and 60 from the dissertation. The overall learning outcomes of the above programmes include the ability to approach tasks on the basis of sound theoretical knowledge and translation competence; an awareness of the complexity of translation as a process and of the research required in order to produce translations that are appropriate for their specified purpose; competence in the use of information technology; knowledge about the social role and function of translation for intercultural communication, cultural representation and perception; well-developed intellectual qualities of reasoning, critical analysis and creativity, as well as skills of research, enquiry and independent learning. All three programmes share the following modules as core modules: Theoretical Concepts of Translation Studies, Text Analysis for Translation, The Translation Profession and Research Methods (the main aim of which is to prepare students for their dissertation). Practical Translation modules are offered for English in combination with French, German and Spanish, with modules for each direction (i.e. translation into English and out of English in each case). The other modules are Specialized (LSP) Translation, Translation and the Representation of Cultures, The EU – A Web of Institutions, Analysing Written and Spoken Discourse. These are either core or optional modules, with the MA in TESOL and Translation Studies having additional modules (English Teaching Practice, Approaches to Teaching and Learning, Course and Materials Design) which provide knowledge and skills for the TESOL part of the programme. The individual modules are interrelated and build on and/or complement each other, with each of them developing the competences of the EMT profile, albeit to a different degree. For example, language and intercultural competence play a more prominent role in Text Analysis for Translation, thematic competence in LSP Translation (and also in the EU module), and information mining and technology competence in LSP Translation and Practical Translation (although information mining competence is essential for the majority of modules and also for the Master’s dissertation for which students choose their own topics). The production dimension of the Translation Service Provision Competence is also very prominent in the practical translation modules of our programmes. Students are always given a text with a very specific translation brief, and

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part of the assessment requires writing comments on translation problems encountered and how they were solved in view of the specified brief (e.g. what research was undertaken, which alternative solutions were considered, which arguments are put forward to justify the final solution). Students are also expected to refer to theoretical literature in these comments (e.g. Nord’s types of translation problems (2005), Chesterman’s (1997) typology of translation strategies). Knowledge of translation theories, of research into translation and of the development of the discipline of Translation Studies more generally is provided in the module Theoretical Concepts of Translation Studies. The development of the Translation Service Provision Competence, and its interpersonal dimension more specifically, is central in the module The Translation Profession which I will illustrate in the remaining parts of this chapter.

4. Joining Forces: Incorporating Professional Aspects into an MA Programme 4.1 Learning outcomes As already indicated above, the module in which the development of the Translation Service Provision Competence is at the forefront is the module The Translation Profession. The learning outcomes can very generally be described as follows: students will acquire knowledge of – and skills in – a variety of professional aspects of translation and the professional environment. More specifically, these learning outcomes can be broken down in terms of knowledge and understanding, cognitive/intellectual skills, professional skills and transferable skills. This means that students will acquire knowledge and understanding of: z z z

z z

the procedures of project management in translation companies quality control mechanisms in translation companies the differences in the work of freelance translators and translators in employment legal and ethical aspects of the profession the manual and electronic tools and processes involved in translation and project management and work with clients.

Concerning cognitive and intellectual skills, students will be able to: z z z

engage critically with professional issues contribute to professional debates reflect critically on their own strengths and weaknesses.

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The professional skills encompass students’ ability to: z

z z

apply the insights gained to their own practical work (translation, revision, editing, etc.) enhance their interpersonal skills (dealing with clients, working in a team) enhance their skills in activity-based learning

And transferable skills cover: z z z z z

time management communication skills (oral and written) giving and receiving constructive criticism team work reflecting on one’s own knowledge, strengths and weaknesses (reflective practitioners)

In sum, students are expected to gain insights into the professional environment, an environment which is very different from the normal academic context that they are used to.

4.2 Structure and challenges The Translation Profession is a 20-credit module which stretches over the academic year, or more precisely, over 24 weeks. The first eight weeks are made up of weekly seminars of 2 hours each, whereas in the remaining weeks students mainly work independently as a group on their projects to be described below. In addition to the seminars, a full day is devoted to an introduction to the translation memory system TRADOS, followed by a session on MemoQ. We also regularly organize joint events with the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, the professional association in the United Kingdom, covering specific topics (e.g. website translation, working with direct clients) and thus providing additional opportunities for our students to meet professional translators. A programme delivered at a university and subject to the university’s quality assurance procedures needs to demonstrate both its academic nature and its relevance to the professional world. This requirement can be challenging, due to the fact that academics employed at the university are predominantly engaged in teaching and research, but less so in professional translation. They therefore have less first-hand experience with the environment and the daily work of a translation company. In order to meet this challenge, we have therefore teamed up with professionals from the translation industry in delivering this module. Since both the university and the translation industry have a

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common interest in promoting the profession and a shared responsibility in its sustainability, such close cooperation is an excellent opportunity to join forces for achieving this aim. Another challenge is that of limited time available. Ideally, all students would get some practical experience through a placement in the translation industry, and this placement would contribute to the credits required for a Master’s degree. It is difficult, however, to guarantee a placement and the same learning experience to all students, not to mention the challenges which supervising students pose to the translation companies themselves. The module The Translation Profession is thus conceived as a substitute for a placement, and aims at simulating a professional environment. In this module, students are asked to create their own translation companies (as a simulation exercise), assigning roles to the members of the group by negotiation, securing an authentic translation commission and managing this translation project to successful completion.

4.3 Content Students are prepared for these tasks in the first weeks of the module, with the seminars being led, separately or jointly, by academics and representatives from the translation industry. In the first two weeks, we discuss the market situation for translators, based on a collection and analysis of job advertisements. Since the students on our Master programmes come from various countries, this exercise is also a good opportunity to compare the markets in the respective countries, in respect of the amount and variety of jobs offered (including jobs as project manager, localizer – which leads to a discussion of the diversity of the profession), subject-specific domains and requirements of applicants. The job specifications also reveal attitudes to professional qualifications, with some offers just asking for a degree in languages, whereas others specify a postgraduate degree in translation. In this context, we also discuss advantages and disadvantages of being in full-time employment (in a translation company, in a translation department of an international institution such as the DGT, in a translation department of some other type of company) vs working as a freelance translator. Another topic covered at the beginning of the module is the role of professional associations (including Continuous Professional Development activities) and codes of practice or codes of ethics. Again, students research the situation in their own respective countries, so that the debate is enriched by a comparison of the provisions of the various national codes. The following four to five sessions are conducted solely by a representative from the translation industry who is an expert in providing sales training courses and consultancy services to the translation industry world-wide. He

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thus has vast experience in all aspects of what the industry does, how it has changed and what it needs. These sessions provide the more specific input the students need for setting up their companies and managing an authentic project. The following topics are covered in these sessions: z

z

z

z z

Setting up a Translation company: name, mission statement, logo, services offered, structure, roles, marketing, profitability, etc. Quality control: people and procedures, proofreading, revision, quality standards (e.g. EN15038) Project management procedures and standards: scoping, planning, managing, communicating, production workflow, project management systems, etc. Legal and ethical aspects: statutory obligations, insurance, tax, etc. Marketing and customer care: finding and contacting clients, selling translations, pricing, quotes and invoicing, costs for additional services, contracts, retaining clients, etc.

These sessions combine lectures and student activities. For example, students are asked to look at the websites of translation companies (both in the United Kingdom and in their own home countries), evaluating the effectiveness and attractiveness of these websites and be prepared to give a short presentation on good and poor examples found. When it comes to the topic of how to find clients, the discussion also covers the effectiveness of the methods used to contact them and potential cultural differences. For example, would it be appropriate to make a cold phone call? Is this more or less acceptable in the various cultures? At what time can an initial email be followed up by a phone call? Is company presence on Twitter and/or Facebook essential these days? In respect of pricing and quoting, the students are given some exercises for calculating the costs of various translation projects, differing in size, number of target languages and additional services. Benefits and risks of providing discounts for new clients and/or speed of settling the bill are also discussed. Dealing with these topics contributes most directly to the interpersonal dimension of the Translation Service Provision Competence. In particular, students develop their interpersonal skills by learning how to organize approaches to clients, how to negotiate with the client, the standards applicable to the provision of a translation service and learning how to comply with professional ethics.

4.4 Activities One of the first major activities the students are asked to do is to prepare for a mock tender for a translation assignment. They are informed that an insurance company would like to have training material and other documents

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translated into several languages, and that they are looking for a translation company to give this assignment to. A description of the task and some sample documents in the source language (English) are made available to the ‘companies’ which have been set up in the meantime. We leave it to the students themselves to decide who will be a member of which company, with usually five to six students forming one company. For the mock tender, each translation company then has to give a 10-minute presentation, supported by PowerPoint, trying to convince the client (consisting of the representative from the translation industry who had conducted the seminars and the academic lecturer) to give the assignment to them. We expect a presentation of the company (their name, their mission statement, experience and strengths) as well as an introduction of each member of the company in their respective roles (such as translator, project manager, terminologist, reviser, vendor manager, finance accountant). Each group member is required to contribute to the presentation, showing how the company intends to proceed should they be successful in winning the project. These presentations by the various companies follow each other, and they are done in front of all students. At the end of the presentations, each individual student is asked to vote for the winner. This voting is done secretly, by writing the company’s name on a sheet of paper, and the votes are counted by the lecturers (who cast their votes as well). Before the winning company is announced, a general discussion is held on the performances, reflecting on questions such as: What makes a convincing bidding method? Which arguments are most persuasive? Did the company give the impression that they are competent? Who showed the most professional behaviour? In comparing their presentations, students also address problems they had faced in preparation. For example, knowing this is a mock tender, students had wondered whether they should be honest and present themselves as a group of Master students still in a training process, or whether they should be inventive and just make up a company and present it as highly successful in order to secure the job. In talking about effectiveness and persuasiveness, students often see for themselves that a client-focused presentation is more successful compared to a presentation which focuses on presenting the company. Having undertaken research on the client, and thus showing knowledge of the client (e.g. in terms of their business, customers, website presence, existing multilingual documents) gives a company an advantage over another one. As students are normally already highly IT competent, they set up good company websites, create impressive logos and even hand out business cards. After the peer review feedback, the industry representative and the academic lecturer add their own comments and advice. After this bidding exercise, the groups are required to submit a progress report of approximately 800 words, written by the team, and addressing the issues of how the team coped with the first challenges, how they agreed on the

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company name, how they assigned the professional roles and how they prepared for the mock tender. They are allowed to attach appendices (e.g. minutes of the group meetings, email exchanges), and this group report accounts for 20% of the module mark. All of the remaining time is then devoted to individual group work, and the companies have to find a real client and a real project which they have to manage as a team. The groups work independently on this task but, if requested, they can arrange a consultation with the lecturer. There are also three or four additional talks provided by representatives from employers, including the DGT, addressing topics such as: What do translation companies expect from graduates? What should a CV look like to attract the attention of a potential employer? Such talks also provide more detailed information on specific procedures, for example, illustrating project management and various software used. In some cases, former graduates of our Master programmes who are now working in the translation industry come back to deliver such talks.

4.5 Assessment and outcome For the main assessment, students have to submit an individual reflective report of approximately 4,000 words at the end of the module. This report accounts for 80% of the module mark. In this report, they are expected to address the following issues, but this time from their own perspective and their own role in the company: How were the tasks distributed? How was the project planned and managed? How efficient were the working relationships among the group members in their respective roles? Which problems were encountered and how were they solved? What went well and why? What did not go well and why not? How could similar problems be avoided in future? What could be done differently next time? The report is expected to be a critical report, not simply a narrative of what was achieved. As such, it should include a reflective statement about the learning process and the perceived learning outcomes, and a reflection on the student’s own knowledge, strengths and weaknesses. Students are also expected to comment explicitly on how the seminars had prepared them to cope with the task, and which literature and other sources they consulted for guidance on performing their respective role and achieving the task. Based on experience with these reports so far, it has been decided that more explicit reflection was required on how exactly each member of the company contributed to assuring the quality of the translation. Until now, this issue has often been underdeveloped in the reports by those students who had performed the role of project manager or accountant. These reports should ideally provide sufficient evidence that the Translation Service Provision Competence has been acquired in all aspects of the interpersonal and production dimension, and also in conjunction with the other competences.

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The final seminar is devoted to another oral presentation by the companies, less formal this time, since the reflective reports had already been submitted. In these presentations, the companies report on the project they completed, illustrating how they secured it, how they went about it, how they coped with problems, what went well and what they have learned. These are very interesting sessions, showing the progress made over time and the confidence and professionalism gained. For example, their accounts of how they negotiated instructions and deadlines with the clients are evidence of improved interpersonal skills. Most groups report initial difficulties in securing an authentic task, since on the one hand it had to be a real translation assignment, but on the other hand they could not charge for it since the company was not a legal entity (quoting and writing an invoice are part of the task, but no real money is exchanged). The clients are very often found among relatives and friends of the students, in addition to charities and other volunteer groups. The arguments used in convincing, for example, relatives of the usefulness of having documents translated, also demonstrate an awareness of the wider social role of translation and of translators.

5. Conclusion Our postgraduate programmes have been running since 1997, but they have regularly been amended to keep up with the changes in the professional world and also with the development of the discipline of Translation Studies. The module The Translation Profession, which is the focus of this chapter, was added in 2004 and has also undergone some modification (and will continue to be amended in line with developments in the translation sector). It is only since 2008 that we have had the more extensive and systematic input from the translation industry expert. As previously mentioned, all modules are interrelated, and jointly they aim to enable students to develop the complex translation competence discussed above with reference to the EMT competence profile. It is in the module The Translation Profession that all six competence areas are most closely interrelated. If we compare the overall learning outcomes of a second cycle programme as specified in ‘The framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area’ to our postgraduate programmes generally, and the Translation Profession module specifically, we can say the following. The EHEA framework states that qualifications that signify completion of the second cycle are awarded to students who ‘can apply their knowledge and understanding, and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study’. Finding a client and managing a translation project is a new environment for the students, and coping with the tasks requires a substantial amount

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of problem-solving ability for which they can build on the knowledge provided in the module seminars. Students having completed the second cycle are also expected to demonstrate the ‘ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity, and formulate judgements with incomplete or limited information, but that include reflecting on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements’. Managing a translation project is a complex activity which includes social and ethical responsibilities. Moreover, information about the translation brief is often incomplete, and judgements have to be made through negotiation and reflection. The framework further states that graduates can ‘communicate their conclusions and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and nonspecialist audiences’. This skill is demonstrated in the negotiations with the clients (non-specialists) and in the reflective reports assessed by the lecturers (specialists). These skills in communicating knowledge are equally reflected in the essays for other modules, and in the Master’s dissertation. Finally, the EHEA framework refers to graduates having the ‘learning skills to allow them to continue to study in a manner that may be largely self-directed or autonomous’. Autonomous and reflective learning is at the heart of the module The Translation Profession, as illustrated above. The experience gained in this simulation exercise, including some initial development of entrepreneurial skills, is a good preparation for their professional career. This has also been repeatedly highlighted by the students themselves in their feedback reports for the module, as well as in retrospective comments we receive from our former graduates. To conclude, the benefits of such a close cooperation between universities and the translation industry can be summarized as follows. The benefits for the students are most obvious. Having direct input from representatives of the translation industry gives them a better understanding and awareness of the employers’ needs and the business practices of translation companies. Working on an authentic project is a rewarding experience, as students enhance their interpersonal skills (e.g. dealing with clients, working in a team). In addition, they can see that their translation work is actually used, for example, by featuring on a website with the name of the translator often added as well. Being engaged in activity-based and reflective learning makes them reflective practitioners who are also able to reflect critically on their own strengths and weaknesses. The nature of the assessment differs from assignments for other modules, and students often find it easier to write this kind of reflective report rather than a more theoretical essay. They generally obtain good marks as well which is both rewarding and motivating. Finally, since the students have gained practical experience, they are better prepared for the real world; in other words, they are job-ready. When working on their projects, and also as part of the programme, they have come into contact with translation companies and professional translators, which makes it easier for students to secure

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placements in a company after having submitted their Master’s dissertation. Such placements have often led to job offers and full-time employment. The benefits of such an input from the translation industry for the university are, above all, the guarantee that the programmes are up to date and that they produce graduates who are well prepared for the professional world. Such close and regular links with translation companies thus also give credibility to statements about job-readiness in the learning outcomes of programmes. By actively contributing to programme delivery, the translation industry can also influence educational aims and at the same time get a better understanding of – and insights into – the requirements of Higher Education. Publicizing the benefits of cooperation and joint teaching, as we did for example at the 2009 Annual General Meeting of the Association of Translation Companies (Schäffner and Lawrence 2009) can also lead to more companies cooperating with universities. Finally, the translation industry itself will benefit from such cooperation which leads to enhanced professionalization of training and to job-ready graduates, therefore also improving the status and social recognition of translation and translators.

References Alves, F. and Gonçalves, J. L. (2007) ‘Modelling translator’s competence: relevance and expertise under scrutiny’, in Y. Gambier, M. Shlesinger and R. Stolze (eds) Translation Studies: Doubts and Directions. Selected Papers from the IV Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 41–55. Chesterman, A. (1997) Memes of Translation , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. EMT Expert Group (2009) ‘Competences for professional translators, experts in multilingual and multimedia communication’. Retrieved at http://ec.europa. eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/key_documents/emt_competences_ translators_En.pdf, Accessed 12 July 2011. European Commission (2009) ‘Study on the size of the language industry in the EU’. Retrieved at http://webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/archive.html?viewC onference=8148&catId=8093, Accessed 12 July 2011. European Higher Education Area (2005) ‘The framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area’. Retrieved at www.ond.vlaanderen.be/ hogeronderwijs/bologna/documents/QF-EHEA-May2005.pdf, Accessed 12 July 2011. González Davies, M. (2004) Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom: Activities, Tasks and Projects, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Holz-Mänttäri, J. (1986) ‘Translatorisches Handeln – theoretisch fundierte Berufsprofile’, in M. Snell-Hornby (ed.) Übersetzungswissenschaft. Eine Neuorientierung, Tübingen: Franke, 348–74.

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Hurtado Albir, A. and Alves, F. (2009) ‘Translation as a cognitive activity’, in J. Munday (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies , London: Routledge, 54–73. Kiraly, D. (2000) Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education. Empowerment from Theory to Practice , Manchester: St Jerome. Nord, C. (2005) Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology, and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-oriented Text Analysis (Second edition), Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi. PACTE (2003) ‘Building a translation competence model’, in F. Alves (ed.) Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 43–66. Risku, H. (1998) Translatorische Kompetenz. Kognitive Grundlagen des Übersetzens als Expertentätigkeit , Tübingen: Stauffenburg. Schäffner, C. and Adab, B. (eds) (2000) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schäffner, C. and Lawrence, D. (2009) ‘Making a success of academic partnerships’, Paper presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Translation Companies, London, 23 September 2009. Witte, H. (2000) Die Kulturkompetenz des Translators. Begriffliche Grundlegung und Didaktisierung. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. www.euatc.org [accessed 9 September 2011 from www.euatc.org] www.ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/universities/index_en.htm [accessed 9 September 2011 from www.ec.europa.eu]

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Chapter 3

The Standard EN 150381: Is there a Washback Effect on Translation Education? Anca Greere

1. Introduction The European standard ‘EN 15038:2006-Translation Services. Service Requirements’ is a purebred product of the professional translation environment, having no stated educational objectives. However, its adoption by different European national standardization bodies cannot but have considerable impact on translation education. Therefore this chapter aims to demonstrate to what degree this standard may be a useful tool in translation training and research, identifying aspects in the standard that might converge with translation education, and to indicate the means by which its content can be made useful for the development of specialized translation education. First, the European context of standardization will be described referring precisely to the relevance of EN 15038 as a European standard. Secondly, as translation education draws significantly on translation research and the issues debated by scholars and professionals, I will draw attention to the links between the aspects addressed in the standard and research undertaken in Translation Studies. Thirdly, I will describe how EN 15038 is used for translator training in Romanian higher education by drawing attention to other professional reference tools such as the European Master’s in Translation guidelines of the Directorate General for Translation of the European Commission, the Universities Contact Group mandate reports of the International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications and market studies initiated by the Romanian Translators Association. EN 15038 may be observed to impact on four distinct levels: (1) at programme level, to support curriculum development in translator training; the case of the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology of the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania will be outlined; (2) at institutional level, to promote formal higher education training and continuous professional development

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among stakeholders; (3) at the level of educational policymaking, to provide an authoritative reference for the development of Quality Assurance Standards for Higher Education Qualifications; and (4) at the national level, to validate Romanian terminology for the domain of Translation Studies.

2. EN 15038:2006 – Standardizing Translation on the European Market Standards are non-compulsory and non-regulatory instruments; hence, compliance with standards cannot be imposed and is strictly voluntary. However, standards represent a reference point for market players, a yardstick that they can measure quality and performance against. As a result, producers or service providers will strive to conform to certified standards to enhance their position on the market. European standards are consensus based, approved by a recognized body, unique on the European economic scene, and the result of a pan-European consensus reached by the members of the technical committees who are relevant stakeholders for the activities being standardized, that is technical experts, businesses, professional associations, clients, etc. Under these circumstances, it is understood that all aspects included in the text of the standard are discussed and debated to present the most relevant, reliable and technically coherent specifications that stem from transferring best-practice procedures, based on state-of-the-art knowledge, professional expertise and scientific research results, into the text of the standard. When a standard is developed by the European Committee for Standardization, it will be adopted by the national standardization bodies of the 31 member countries, ‘giving it the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement’ (EN 15038 2006: 6) and any conflicting national standards will have to be withdrawn or harmonized with the European standard adopted. This ensures that goods and services may become accessible to a wider market and may reach more clients than those nationally based. It also facilitates the streamlining of approaches for producers and service providers who simultaneously target national, European and international markets. Standards are meant for common and long-term use as benchmarks, offering descriptions and definitions, as well as procedures and requirements for particular activities. Businesses whose products and practices consistently conform to relevant standards are awarded certification marks that are recognized as badges of quality and performance. Such businesses will find that standardization improves economic inter- and intra-business relations, overcomes trade barriers and enables participation in the global market: With the global economy growing at a fast pace and the European market becoming ever more unified, the standard EN 15038 ‘Translation Services-

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Service Requirements’ represents a very timely endeavour coordinated by the European Standardization Committee to provide relevant guidelines as a benchmark for written language services. (EN 15038 2006: 4) As with any service, both the procedure and the result become key elements for assessing the quality of the service. If clients generally refer to the product (the result of the translation activity), translation service providers (TSP) need to adopt a coherent approach to the process, that is the procedure by which the product will be developed in order to meet market needs. EN 15038 outlines (1) basic requirements for the service, including specifications for human resources, technical resources, quality management and project management, (2) the client–TSP relationship as a contractual framework referring to enquiry and feasibility, quotation, client-TSP agreement, handling of project-related client information as well as project winding-up mechanisms and (3) procedures in translation services relating to the stages of the translation project such as ‘Preparation’, focused on administrative, technical and linguistic aspects, ‘Translation Process’ including the following activities: translation, checking, revision, review, proofreading and final verification, plus any added value services the translation service provider may offer. The Standard also contains five annexes with declared informative purposes and non-exhaustive information which cover the following aspects presented as lists: project registration details (Annex A), technical pre-translation processing (Annex B), source text analysis (Annex C), style guide (Annex D), added value services (Annex E). Even if the standard EN 15038 does not have a declared educational target, many aspects noted in the Standard reflecting market practices and their requirements for quality services overlap with issues addressed in the development of translation training programmes. Moreover, it can be argued that developing learning outcomes and curricula for higher education qualifications in translation must make some reference to market realities in order to offer relevant training content to develop the necessary competences for graduates to then access the market successfully and ensure professional performance compliant with quality criteria promoted by the professional community. In what follows, I intend to show to what extent EN 15038 reiterates findings in translation research and, in the second part of this chapter, specific reference to these aspects will be made in relation to the case study presented.

3. EN 15038:2006 – Convergence with Translation Research Translation education draws extensively on approaches and trends in translation theory as an expression of research results in the field of Translation Studies. In many translation training programmes, curriculum design,

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syllabus compilation and teaching methodologies greatly rely on developments in translation theories geared to professional practice. As EN 15038 mirrors professional practice, establishing quality criteria for the service of translation, an overlap with issues tackled in translation theory is inevitable. From a mere scanning of the text of EN 15038 it is evident that particular aspects detailed in it reinforce contemporary trends in translation theory and training, especially functionalist and social constructivist approaches, and the research directions pursued by scholars and professionals in more recent years. Hence, the Standard may be expected to address such issues as the minimum required components of translation competence, the framework for the extended context of translation including key players and their level of involvement or the necessary steps leading up to a quality product. At the same time, EN 15038 makes implicit reference to the foreseeable development of language professions by circumscribing additional translation-based activities which may become the subject of academic research. In detailing the requirements for the selection criteria applicable for human resources, EN 15038 lists five types of competences comprising the professional minimum requisite skills for the appointment of translators by translation service providers: translating competence, linguistic and textual competence, research competence, cultural competence and technical competence (EN 15038 2006: 7). Not surprisingly the competencies identified here greatly overlap with systematization attempts by Neubert (2000: 6), Schäffner (2000: 146), Kelly (2005: 35), where we find similar descriptors albeit termed or grouped differently. Another aspect of the Standard which has been a source of debate within translation research relates to considerations of the client-translator relationship. If the role of the client as part of the translation process is, in fact, taken for granted in the Standard, translation theory has not always welcomed the idea of translation as a client-driven service, accepting client involvement in outlining, and ultimately determining, the process and product. This aspect first made its way into translation theory in the 1970s with Hans Vermeer’s Skopostheorie (1996) and further with functionalist studies (e.g. Nord 1997). The underpinning of the notion of the translation brief, that is the client’s commission, is that it overrules the sovereignty of the source text to impose a purpose on the target text. If more traditional translation theory implicitly assumes equivalence of context and purpose between the source text and the target text, bar the lingua-cultural shift, EN 15038, in line with functionalism, relates to the client and the commission as the key factors in determining the translation strategy and in resolving any translation dilemmas that could otherwise emerge in the absence of client involvement or a clear, feasible commission.

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The stages required to ensure a high-quality translation service have also been extensively researched. If particular scholarly studies have focused strictly on the textual nature of the analysis, identifying stages targeting predominantly the transfer of linguistic content (Reiss 2000), more recent studies, especially functionalist-based ones, viewing translation as a complex professional activity, emphasize to the same degree the relevance of extratextual and intratextual contexts in qualitative professional performance (Nord 2006). EN 15038 details the procedures to be followed in offering translation services by attributing importance to all aspects that contribute to the context of the translation commission, be they extratextual or intratextual. Hence, we may identify as key activities for this service: negotiation with the client for task feasibility, quotation, agreement and other project-related information; preparation of the project, covering administrative, technical and linguistic aspects such as project registration and project assignment, technical resources and pre-translation processing, source text analysis, terminology work and usage of style guides; and the translation process proper which comprises the activities of translation, checking, revision (compulsory activities), and review, proofreading and final verification (non-compulsory activities). The Standard also helps to describe other potential language professions that are already established on the market with individual profiles breaking away from the profile of ‘translator’, as well as defining emerging profiles which are slowly gaining ground. Hence, terminologist, reviser, reviewer, proofreader, technical writer, subtitler, localizer, intercultural consultant, etc. are only a few of the profiles that are given credit by this standard as individual, self-sustaining professions. As it stands, EN 15038 makes an unequivocal plea for team work, as indeed scholars have also done (e.g. Gouadec 2007: 106). Even though the translation service provider is defined as ‘the person or organization supplying translation services’ (EN 15038 2006: 6), the image of the translator as the lonely professional no longer matches a realistic market profile. In order for quality products to be supplied, usually more persons have to be involved. Belonging to the professional community, sharing expertise and continuous professional development are the essential requisites of professional behaviour embedded in the standard. Last but not least, the standard becomes referential for terminology purposes, helping to pinpoint standard terminology in the field of Translation Studies. This is more specifically the case for lesser circulated languages (e.g. of Eastern Europe), where specialized Translation Studies terminology is not yet established and scholars prefer to disseminate in international languages; the EN 15038 linguistic variants adopted by the national standardization bodies may play a crucial role in encouraging researchers to publish in their own particular languages on specific research matters which are language bound.

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4. EN 15038:2006 – Relevance for Translator Education Given the current context of change in the still-emerging ‘European Higher Education Area’, addressing issues in curriculum development is a priority. The implementation of Bologna requisites will automatically attract debates of (in)/compatibility of educational programmes with comparable professional profiles. Such discussions are mainly fuelled by the distinctive educational claims made in national contexts. Hence, it is now generally accepted that panEuropean approaches may prove functional only when allowing for national realities. Education in translation and interpreting (T&I) is also feeling these winds of change. In recent years, a number of debates have held the attention of scholars and trainers: (1) What orientation should the programme have: academic or vocational? (2) At what level is T&I education more efficiently delivered: BA, MA or CPD training? (3) What subject-matter should be taught? (4) What forms of delivery are more effective: courses, project-work, internships, etc.? Today, T&I programme designers (especially in higher education) have a number of points of reference provided, for example, by the specialized directorates of the European Commission and by professional organizations focusing on translation and interpreting. In what follows, I intend to illustrate how the standard EN 15038 may become equally referential for translation training. Driven by the process of Bologna implementation, many educational programmes geared towards translation have undergone (or are still undergoing) transformations. The principles underlying curricular changes are rooted in the common objectives to promote the European Higher Education Area while still maintaining national specificity. Hence, the attraction of the newly designed programmes is precisely this hybrid approach, a hybridity manifested in the national/European dichotomy as much as it is manifested in the academic/vocational dichotomy. To a greater or lesser extent, it can be argued that most current-day translation education takes account of market trends. We are now accustomed to seeing the professional context leaving its imprint on the academic context, resulting, as already noted above, in an academic-vocational hybrid. Nowadays, the balance often seems to be tipped in favour of the professional-vocational component as far as is permissible by national academic and institutional constraints. In light of this trend, it seems to be common sense to acknowledge that EN 15038 cannot be ignored by educators in training translators, designing course work, promoting specific methodology for practical tasks, etc. This is even more obvious if EN 15038 is analysed from the point of view of its convergence with translation theories and research initiatives. The application of the principles outlined in the Standard will vary considerably depending on the learning outcomes set, the orientation of the programme towards given domains, etc.

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However, regardless of approach, failure to consider EN 15038 as relevant reference material for establishing programme outlines may negatively impact on the interest shown by potential trainees and also on the recognitions attributed by the professional community. This idea is supported by Kiraly (2000: 148) who strongly recommends incorporating the German DIN standard (a predecessor of EN 15038) in the curriculum development process. Thus the importance of EN 15038 to education in T&I cannot but be fully acknowledged.

5. EN 15038:2006 – Impact on Translator Education in Romania In order to illustrate the washback effect of EN 15038, I will present the situation in Romania and the levels at which EN 15038 is currently being used, with direct reference to the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology at the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, where information from the Standard was used, among other key reference materials, to inform decisions in the restructuring of the programme to meet Bologna requirements. EN 15038 was adopted by the Romanian Standards Association in 2006 and in 2007 it was translated into Romanian by a technical committee reuniting representatives of two professional associations, namely the Romanian Translators Association and the Association of Interpreting and Translation Companies in Romania; two universities: the Babeş-Bolyai University, ClujNapoca and Transilvania University of Braşov; the European Institute of Romania; eight translation companies and individual translators. EN 15038 now has the status of a Romanian national standard and may be referred to by all interested parties as an officially accepted Romanian reference document. The Romanian Translators Association has had an important role in promoting the standard to its members and non-members at the national level through workshops, online webinars and awareness raising questionnaires. Consequently, the Romanian professional community, as well as other interested parties, is increasingly aware of EN 15038 recommendations and the implications derived from conforming to this standard. The introduction to EN 15038 clearly identifies the relevant target profiles: This standard offers both translation service providers and their clients a description and definition of the entire service. At the same time it is designed to provide translation service providers with a set of procedures and requirements to meet market needs. (EN15038 2006: 4) Nonetheless, other audiences might also greatly benefit from this standard. Indeed, the latter part of the statement can easily be reformulated to address

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training programmes, as the set of procedures and underlying requirements pinpointed by the standard may, in fact, prove relevant for translation training in more aspects than one. For Romania, EN 15038 will not only contribute significantly to the professionalization of the language market, helping to filter out amateurish approaches to translation, but it also proves a useful tool for translation education. EN 15038 may impact on (1) the revising of training programmes with regard to learning outcomes, curriculum design and training methodology in line with market expectations, (2) enhancing the profile of higher education translator training and the promoting of continuous professional development, (3) supporting the development of qualification descriptors for the national higher education framework and quality assurance criteria for higher education accreditation bodies, (4) pinpointing Romanian terminology for the domain of Translation Studies for research purposes. These four impact points will now be discussed in detail with specific reference to the case study proposed, namely the situation regarding translation and interpreting programmes, past and present, at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.

5.1 Impact point 1: supporting curriculum development in translator training The Babeş-Bolyai University runs a bachelor-level Applied Modern Languages programme which, in the pre-Bologna structure, covered four years of training focused also on developing translation and interpreting skills. Parallel to this programme, we offered a Master’s programme giving graduates the possibility to tackle specialized translations and conference interpreting. Even before the implementation of the three-year undergraduate plus twoyear graduate Bologna system, the Master’s programme was divided into two separate programmes focusing precisely on specialized translation and conference interpreting. Currently, the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology and the European Master’s in Conference Interpreting both benefit from assistance from the relevant directorates of the European Commission, Directorate General for Translation and Directorate General for Interpretation. These programmes are the sole Romanian members of the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) Network and, respectively, the European Master’s in Conference Interpreting (EMCI) Network. In 2008, we admitted the first cohort of graduates to the Master’s level which had been restructured to a two-year format. For the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology, EN 15038, along with guidelines provided by the European Commission, the Directorate General for Translation for the European Master’s in Translation Network, the reports of the

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Universities Contact Group of the International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications, and Romanian translation market studies conducted by the Romanian Translators Association played a paramount role in referencing the developments and modifications to the existing curriculum. If Bologna provided the opportunity for development, EN 15038 helped identify those aspects in need of development. As our programme emphasizes the professional component in translation training, its main aim is to familiarize students with the requirements of the market while offering the necessary theoretical training and relevant practice opportunities. If before 2007, in view of Romania’s accession to the European Union, the Master’s programme focused predominantly on training translators for the translation of the acquis-communautaire into Romanian, this being the major professional opportunity for translators on the market, in 2008, the scope had to be enlarged to offer graduates the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle distinct domains and newly commissioned language activities that presaged the profiles of new language professions. At that time, a number of questions were formulated regarding the learning outcomes and the curricular components of the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology: 1. How do we streamline the first cycle training with that of the second cycle without discouraging graduates of other fields from enrolling in this Master’s programme? 2. What elements must be present in the curriculum of this Master’s programme to address market requirements distinctly? 3. How should the Romanian national language market and the European market be considered in the development of this Master’s programme? To answer the first question, we turned to the ‘Dublin’ descriptors of the Joint Quality Initiative (JQI) group to see how to distinguish between the first cycle and the second cycle and what learning outcomes were realistic in light of the 2003 Berlin communiqué for comparable and compatible qualifications. As highlighted by the ‘Dublin’ descriptors, the role of the first cycle is to build a foundation of knowledge and skills to prepare students for further development, whereas the second cycle must provide an opportunity for students to focus on problem solving in complex situations to help them gain the necessary intellectual and professional independence to enter the market in higher positions (JQI 2004: 2). For translation, this entails acquiring professional knowledge and skills to be able to handle a broad range of domains, textual typologies and commission situations through purposely designed coursework and/or project work with varying degrees of trainer assistance. Students coming to the second cycle programme should have acquired in the first cycle knowledge and skills related

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to languages (mother tongue and foreign languages), cultures (and aspects of interculturality) and/or particular domains of interest. These can then be fit into a professional framework. As such, the first cycle merely introduces translation-related information; it is the second cycle that builds and develops professional awareness. This conclusion reinforced our decision to develop more specialized translation training for the Master’s level and to exclude any complex professional issues from the bachelor level. This decision was also endorsed in April 2010 by the National Consortium for Applied Modern Language Education in Romania established under the DOCIS project coordinated by the Romanian National Agency for Qualifications in Higher Education and Partnership with Economic and Social Environment. Accordingly, a clear message is to be given to first-cycle trainees that continuation of studies to the second cycle is imperative if they are to reach a professional status governed by market autonomy and service quality. EN 15038, too, acknowledges the relevance of specialized higher education training in detailing the different ways in which listed competences can be developed (EN 15038 2006: 7), thus further justifying our approach to isolate the profession of translation in a single, advanced programme designed to cover all issues of the profession appropriately. For the second question, regarding those curriculum elements that would specifically address market requirements, we had a large pool of materials for consultation, each reinforcing the other and making up a coherent educational approach considering both the view of educators and professionals. Already in 2005, when the European Master’s in Translation Network was beginning to take shape, some of the requisites for successful translator training became evident, especially as expressed in EMT reference materials: Recommended basic components of the [EMT] programme are: translation as a profession, translation theory, text/discourse analysis and translation assignment analysis, intercultural communication, terminology work, information technology for translation, linguistic awareness and language cultivation, special fields and their languages, and practical translation (including more than one language combination). (EMT Sample Curriculum: 3) The emphasis on profession-related knowledge and market orientation is also noted in the 2007 Universities Contact Group Report. [. . .] many young translators coming straight from university courses to IOs [International Organizations] . . . were often ill-equipped to manage real world needs, preferring to spend time over producing a literary masterpiece rather than the required number of pages on more mundane subject matter. . . . Some students had an attitude problem, took criticism badly, even refusing to translate ‘imperfect’ texts; many frequently misunderstood

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and misrepresented the register of a speech or text. The remedy was training more geared to the real world of a professional translator or interpreter. (UCG Report 2007: 8) The UCG report also makes reference to language activities such as revision, public-service translation and interpreting, website translation and localization which are identified by international organizations as relevant for higher education training. Similarly, EN 15038, largely focuses on market-driven practices, and supports the development of training programmes in so far as it elicits aspects that need to be trained before they can be applied on the market. If the training programme is to present a realistic picture of the market with its exigencies and opportunities, the following topics become of paramount importance for trainees: (1) professional management, including aspects related to the translator-client relationship, translator-fellow translator relationship, translator-collaborator relationship; translator-team player relationship; translator-superior relationship; (2) professional responsibility, incorporating fiscal and ethical aspects; (3) professional practice, relating to the provision of professional services, the reality of complex commissions and added value language services, the positioning on the market through a specific business type, etc. All these aspects need to be addressed in the curricular structure through the thematic areas proposed for study and the learning opportunities offered. For the third question, namely considerations concerning the Romanian and European language markets, we considered EU trends in developing the language units of particular EU institutions for the European dimension of the programme, and Romanian national trends on the language market, as elicited by a survey conducted by the Romanian Translators Association in 2007, for the national dimension. If the previous aim of the programme was to train translators for the EU institutions, currently this objective would no longer be justified. In the three years 2007–10 there were two recruitment competitions conducted by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) for translators with Romanian. The language units of different European institutions are now properly staffed to cover the translation needs of the institutions. Hence, job openings for permanent staff are not to be foreseen in the immediate future and the only form of collaboration with EU institutions is through freelance tenders. This makes for a reduction in the quantum of hours and curriculum space dedicated to tackling tasks focusing on EU institutiontype translations. On the other hand, Europe-based multilanguage vendors are expanding to include Romanian, and more European and international clients are expected to access the Romanian translation market in the coming years. Clearly, for these situations, different translation commissions are to be expected than those customarily practiced by EU institutions. Text-typologies,

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domains for translation and recipient profiles are just some of the aspects that require a change in focus. The 2007 survey by the Romanian Translators Association reinforces this shift in EU focus from EU institutions to EU language vendors, while also relevantly pinpointing development directions for the Romanian market (Cobliş 2008: 136–55). Of relevance for curriculum development are the following aspects: the Romanian market is unevenly split among freelance translators, in-house translators and translation companies, with the great majority (73%) opting for a freelance status (Cobliş 2008: 138); 51% act as full-time translators, while 49% undertake translation activities on a part-time basis (Cobliş 2008: 139); added value translation services offered are technical writing (12%), subtitling (14%), localization (20%), interpreting (54%), revision/proofreading (60%), notarized translations (69%), translation into a B or C language (78%) (Cobliş 2008: 140). Given the outlook of the Romanian market as illustrated by this survey, we identified a series of issues and situations which needed addressing in our endeavour to achieve focused curriculum development. If preference is given to freelancing rather than in-house employment, the graduates of the Master’s programme must be equipped to assume qualitatively the independent status of a freelancer, capable of resolving all business-related issues including marketing and management without having benefitted from in-house mentoring. Moreover, for half of the translators on the market, translation is a collateral activity and one that might help supplement their income. Under these conditions a professional conscience is difficult to shape in the absence of a clear sense of belonging to a professional community. The Master students should thus be properly trained to acknowledge the responsibilities that come with professional practice and they must be guided in resolving situations posing fiscal and ethical dilemmas. Additionally, it is clear that the translation profession is diversifying even in the Romanian market, hence activities such as technical writing, subtitling, software and web localization, authorized translations and revision/proofreading should be accounted for in the curriculum. Having explored these guidelines and concluded on our approach for curriculum development, we proposed the following curricular components for the two-year second-cycle structure. ‘ICT’, ‘CAT Tools’ and ‘Terminology’ clearly do not require any additional justification for admission to the curriculum; however, other courses have to present a coherent methodological approach and relevant thematic topics which contribute to the overall professional development of the future translators and to their chances in the labour market. In the first year of study we familiarize students with the prerequisites of professional translation, working towards the necessary competences through the following disciplines: ‘Romanian Contemporary Language’ (A language), ‘Language and Cultural Studies’ (for the B and C languages), ‘Information and Communication Technologies’, ‘Terminology’, ‘Contemporary Translation

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Theories’, all supplemented by project work. ‘Romanian Contemporary Language’ aims to refine the A language; ‘Language and Cultural Studies for B/C languages’ proposes a comparative approach for the language combinations A+B, A+C; ‘Contemporary Translation Theories’ presents the succession of theories leading up to functionalism and focuses on the relevant theoretical elements for describing the service of translation with special emphasis on the client-translator relationship as elicited by EN 15038. Project work conducted in this first year of study is also guided by the principles laid down in the standard EN 15038. Hence, the work is frequently organized in teams with challenging commissions simulating real-life working conditions. In this respect, for the fulfilment of the tasks, project management and translation service procedures adhere to the recommendations of EN 15038 as trainees develop patterns of professional behaviour. In the second year of study, the realm of the profession is tackled in more detail in conjunction with domain-specific specialized translation training. Consequently, we aim to develop a responsible attitude towards the profession, to raise awareness of a multitude of business-related issues and to further develop the competences of the trainees with a focus on domain-specific tasks. The overall aim is to equip trainees with the relevant competences, values and attitudes to enable them to enter the market successfully and become part of the professional community, and professional placements and courses such as the ones listed below are meant to pave the way towards this aim: ‘Translation – A European Profession’, ‘CAT Tools’, ‘Terminology’, ‘Specialized Translations from/into B/C languages’ (with a range of four optional courses: ‘Scientific and Technical Translations’, ‘Legal and Authorized Translations’, ‘Administrative and Diplomatic Translations’, and ‘Audiovisual Translations: Subtitling and Localization’), ‘Production of Functional Texts’ and ‘Editing and Revision’. Throughout this second academic year ‘Translation – A European Profession’ provides an overview of the profession touching on business organizations and fiscal matters, marketing and management issues, deontological and ethical aspects based on EN 15038 as well as other authoritative materials which offer guidelines and recommendations produced by businesses and/or professional associations. Authorized translations, subtitling, localization and technical writing are all listed in EN 15038 as added value services that should be offered to the same level of quality as presented in the standard. This is indicative of the fact that such activities are part of a broader professional perspective, which must be trained for. Hence, they become fully justified components of the curriculum. ‘Specialized Translations’ trains for domain diversity, tailored to specific language combinations as well as both translation directions, that is from and into the foreign language. In light of national market practices, we decided to present tasks of ‘Specialized Translations’ also into B/C languages. In support of this decision, EN 15038 does not explicitly rule out translations into

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the B/C languages, if the translator attains ‘mastery’ in linguistic and textual competence, and if knowledge of text-type conventions and cultural information referring to ‘locale, behavioural standards and value systems’ are applied skilfully when producing texts (EN 15038 2006: 7). Similarly, the European Commission accepts both translation directions in advocating the ‘two-way method, that is translation by translator out of their main language’ or the ‘three-way method, that is neither the source language nor the target language is the main language of the translator’, with the observation that ‘[t]o ensure quality, documents are always revised by translators whose main language is the target language’. So, rather than excluding this component from the programme, we found it necessary to raise awareness in trainees of the difficulties of translating into the foreign language, the differences in approach to translations into the mother tongue and the development of the necessary mechanisms to evaluate whether they can take on a specific task or must responsibly refuse it or redirect it to a fellow translator. Considering that there is high demand on the Romanian market for translations into B/C languages and that more than 70% of the translators on the market offer translations into the B/C language, with few of these having formal higher education training in translation, we consider that our trainees can positively influence the approach of the market towards quality practices if they are well-informed and professionally conscientious. ‘Production of Functional Texts’ and ‘Editing and Revision’ were introduced as distinct courses whose relevance is confirmed by EN 15038 and market surveys. EN 15038 makes repeated reference to textual-conventions-in-context, determined by types of texts, cultural encodings and client-driven textual production. Textual verification procedures are also extremely important; as a result EN 15038 advocates the compulsory nature of revision as an underlying quality mechanism and intrinsic part of a complete translation service. Checking undertaken by the translator and revision by another translator are not to be disregarded, if quality is to be attained; reviewing and proofreading may also be required (EN 15038 2006: 11–12). One aspect still remains unaccounted for, that is the double profession practiced by many translators and/or interpreters. As Cobliş (2008: 139) notes, it is generally the interpreters who switch to translation: [. . .] in Romania, only a small number of interpreters are able to make a living by providing exclusively interpreting services, while the majority of trained interpreters are forced to provide various other services, more commonly written translation. The problem lies in the fact that when a professional switch occurs there is no guarantee that the translator or interpreter has the competences for the other profession.

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Much as we are convinced of the fact that at Master’s level the two professions cannot and should not be simultaneously trained for within the same structure, we do acknowledge the situation in the labour market and realize that for our trainees it would be constructive to have some awareness of the requirements for the profession they are not specifically training for. For this purpose, we envisage developing a curricular bridge between the two Master’s programmes, namely the European Master’s in Translation Studies and Terminology and the European Master’s in Conference Interpreting at the Babeş-Bolyai University. This will be done by, first, developing a module for public-service translation and interpreting (in courts, police stations, hospitals and other settings) where, indeed, it is advisable for the same individual to perform translation and interpreting tasks, and secondly, by offering trainees the possibility to choose some elective courses from the programme they are not enrolled in. This would enable trainees to comprehend the requirements of both professions and develop attitudes mapping their professional competences, which in the long run should help adjust any undesirable market practices.

5.2 Impact point 2: promoting formal higher education training and continuous professional development In Romania, before 1990 there was no specific translation training being conducted in higher education institutions. Foreign language graduates of departments of modern languages could become translators on obtaining a certificate issued by the Ministry of Culture and/or an authorization by the Ministry of Justice. Undergraduate-level translator training was set up at the beginning of the 1990s on the French Langues Étrangères Appliquées model first at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and then also in other higher education institutions. However, this did not contribute to a change in the procedure of authorization, and graduates of modern languages programmes are still authorized to translate on the basis of their foreign language degree, without consideration of the fact that there is no focus on translation training or translation-oriented learning outcomes, and graduates do not have sufficient exposure to specialized textual typologies and professional practices (Greere and Tătaru 2008: 113–18). This lax authorization procedure has resulted in over 30,000 authorized translators (with various language combinations) currently listed by the Romanian Ministry of Justice. Needless to say, as a direct consequence, many graduates will apply for the certificate to enable them to round up their income by performing amateurish translations. Without any real professional motivation, such translators rarely develop a responsible attitude for this profession and frequently get away with unprofessional performances that are overlooked

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by clients who are either unaware of the quality of the product (or rather lack thereof), who cannot evaluate the translation task, or who feel culpable for having sought out the lowest market price. Currently, this authorization is considered by many inexperienced clients as a minimal service requirement for Romanian translators, and it is mistaken for a badge of quality. However, no translation competence assessment is undertaken for the issue of these authorized certificates. This situation impacts equally negatively on both the market and education. With practically every language graduate doing translation work, the market becomes greatly diluted and it is difficult for clients to find their way to professional translators. The three-year Bologna version of Applied Modern Language training only addresses very basic translation issues by focusing on language and culture in oral and written communication, with specialized domain training being pushed to the graduate level which is now a two-year structure. If before Bologna, a four-year Applied Modern Languages undergraduate programme could set objectives of training professional translators for the market, the current three-year structure cannot be as ambitious. Furthermore, language programmes are also becoming fuzzy in scope. In an attempt to keep their appeal, language teacher training curricula suffer from the infusion of specialized language and communication training that can open up doors to market language professions as an alternative to the profession of ‘teacher’, which is currently perceived as financially and socially demeaning. As a result of these changes, although the one-year Master’s programme was considered optional in the past, the current two-year Master’s programme should ideally be compulsory if the profile of the graduates is to meet market expectancies. Insensitive to the Bologna changes, the Ministry of Justice has not upgraded in any way the authorization procedure for translators; still today, graduates of bachelor-level programmes from Modern Languages departments are awarded this authorization for translators. Failure to acknowledge the changes in education puts even more pressure on Master’s-level programmes, making their compulsory nature questionable. If after three years graduates may become translators authorized by the Ministry of Justice, what will motivate them to spend two additional years in education, instead of in the market. Even if the two-year Master’s structure is clearly better oriented towards students’ needs (Greere 2010: 14), offering comprehensive training in the profession without demanding prerequisites other than foreign language competence, the national context clearly discourages continuation of education for specialized translator training. EN 15038, on the other hand, gives extra weight to the argument supporting the importance of education in the field. First, it spells out the activities related to translation, illustrating translation as a complex profession that requires a more professional approach; professional investment for the development

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of competences, skills, attitudes and values related to this profession is not optional but rather imperative. Secondly, EN 15038 makes clear reference to higher education training as a compulsory part of translation competence development, identifies continuous professional development as a requirement for quality services (EN 15038 2006: 7) and points to the importance of education in the selection of human resources, which should be based on requisite skills and qualifications (EN 15038 2006: 6) Since 2007 (the year of the adoption by the Romanian Standards Association of the Romanian version of EN 15038) the Babes-Bolyai University has noted more interest from translators already on the market who have enquired and/or applied for the Master’s programme, and who view such education as an opportunity for continuous professional development, especially if they have no previous specialized training. Recent first-cycle graduates also comprehend the role of second-cycle education and apply for the Master’s programme in the hope that they will indeed be able to boast an unambiguous professional profile and become more competitive on the market. Clearly, this interest is also due to the selection in 2009 of the programme as the sole Romanian Master’s level programme to be included in the European Masters in Translation Network. In relation to continuous professional development, the Romanian Translators Association has reported an increased interest in continuous professional development shown by its members. Since 2007, a number of courses have been organized on request, with content convergent to issues referenced in EN 15038. The translation technology training series, initiated in 2005, was expanded to include new developments, and new training sessions were initiated on topics such as revision, business practices, marketing, terminology and specialized subjects.

5.3 Impact point 3: supporting the development of quality assurance standards for higher education qualifications The development of Romanian higher education programmes is crucially determined by the Romanian National Higher Education Qualifications Framework provided by the Romanian National Agency for Qualifications in Higher Education and Partnership with Economic and Social Environment ACPART, and the Standards and Guidelines provided by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ARACIS. In April 2010, ACPART set up a Consortium for Applied Modern Languages training, including translation and interpreting. Drawing on EN 15038, the guidelines mentioned above, and consulting comparable programmes elsewhere in Europe, the Consortium developed Competence Grids with descriptors and minimum standards which are now available for use by Romanian

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HE institutions. In addition, ARACIS, acting as the sole Romanian authority responsible for developing accreditation methodology for higher education programmes and specific quality standards for domain-related programmes, is currently updating and refining its evaluation methodology, also in line with ACPART competence grids. Bologna first-cycle and second-cycle programmes that fall under the domain of Applied Modern Languages, as per Romanian Governmental Decision 1175/2006 with subsequent amendments, are accredited according to the Specific Standards of the Committee for Humanities and Theology. Currently, these Standards, together with the methodology proposed as pilot versions in 2007, are being updated and amended in light of new developments in all domains. Hence, for Applied Modern Languages and, more specifically, for translation training, a number of aspects will have to be reconsidered: (1) the professions targeted by the training should reflect market developments, (2) the profile of the trainers should be adjusted to encourage professionals as trainers, (3) the curriculum components should more closely reflect the professional environment, (4) the learning experience of the students should be extended to include more specific exposure to market practices. On a closer analysis of these Standards, we may pinpoint more precisely the reasons for such imminent revisions. For now, the Standards for Applied Modern Languages programmes indicate as career prospects professional profiles that are not properly mapped out to make a relevant distinction between Applied Modern Languages programmes and Language and Literature programmes, focused on teacher-training, nor are they sufficiently reflective of the diversification of the language market. Regarding trainers, Romanian university educational policy only allows individuals with an academic status to act as trainers in all higher education programmes. For translator training, it is highly recommended for professionals active on the market to be involved in the training, an aspect reinforced by the 2007 report of the University Contact Group: One crucial point was that translation and interpreting studies had in all cases to be taught by professionals with experience and that this was non-negotiable, though some universities were unwilling or unable to apply the rule, for cost reasons or because they had still not grasped the message. (UCG 2007: 5, emphasis in the original) In stipulating the fundamental disciplines that should form the curricula of translator training programmes, note must be taken of the importance of including courses focusing on the refinement of the mother tongue, for familiarization with business-related professional issues and for the development of skills for information and communication technology. Furthermore, if the training is to be successful, trainees must be exposed to relevant professional

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experiences on the market through internships where they can observe market practices and develop professional behavioural patterns. Consequently, development of the Standards to include clear characteristics for internships is highly advisable. To support such amendments to the Standards, appropriate argumentation must be sought in authoritative reference documents. ARACIS Quality Assurance Standards must be compatible with the National Qualifications Framework in Higher Education. As a result, the amendments to be made to the Standards will undoubtedly take as reference the relevant grids developed and approved by the Consortium, and it will draw on the same recommendations derived from the resources used for the Competence Grids, including EN 15038. This procedure has already been discussed and approved in the Committee for Humanities and Theology.

5.4 Impact point 4: authorizing romanian terminology for translation studies In addition to the different levels of programme, institutional and policymaking impact already noted, EN 15038 also impacts on research in Translation Studies conducted by Romanian scholars. These scholars seem to prefer to publish their research findings in foreign languages, the most apparent reason for this being international acknowledgement of the research, which impacts positively on academic careers. However, this approach also raises certain issues which are, incidentally, not only specific to Romania and apply to many countries in central and Eastern Europe, and beyond: (1) quite often Romanian researchers working in different international languages do not benefit sufficiently from the studies of their colleagues, as reception is rendered difficult by limited linguistic competences – this results in insufficient dissemination at a national level, (2) some publications lack an appropriate level of readability given the fact that the Romanian examples need at all times to be explained through glossing techniques in the international language, often making comprehension difficult – this could be easily overcome if the publications were in the language of the examples, (3) research into issues of translation from/ into Romanian is lagging behind at content level but also at conceptual level – there is no unified terminology in Romanian for terms used in the field of Translation Studies, (4) the Romanian metalanguage for translator training lacks stable points of reference, as some scholars will calque from English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, etc. depending on their working language – this results in confusing interpretations of particular terms. The Romanian version of the standard EN 15038 helps to provide authoritative terminology for Translation Studies and, hence, to unify the numerous variants existing for specific concepts, thus impacting on a linguistic level.

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Translation scholars can now refer to the Standard for appropriate terminology validated by a group of national experts and retain the definitions provided. This will certainly assist the creation/development of the necessary literature on relevant translation issues involving Romanian as one of the languages in the language pair. Such a result is beneficial for research and training alike, efficiently addressing the problems listed above.

6. Conclusion The standard EN 15038 ‘Translation Services-Service Requirements’ is a relevant tool for the European translation market, setting clear quality criteria for the service of translation. For translators on the market, EN 15038 is a yardstick to measure quality performance against, and a benchmark to work towards until conformity with the Standard can be obtained. Additionally, it is a quality-assessment tool for clients and professional accrediting bodies, but it also provides guidelines for specific translator education, including research and training. For Romania, EN 15038 has the status of a Romanian standard adopted by the Romanian Standards Association. Therefore it is an authoritative document which professionals, educators and government bodies can refer to. EN 15038 provides an official framework within which it is possible to raise awareness of the requirements of the translation profession and the complexity of the service. In a market where some stakeholders do not have a clear understanding of what the activity of translation entails, with many presupposing that language competence will suffice, EN 15038 duly shifts the focus towards high quality in translation activities. Although it is non-binding, EN 15038 makes relevant recommendations that cannot be ignored by stakeholders. Already, we see EN 15038 being used for a number of purposes outside the strictly professional realm: higher education institutions refer to EN 15038 to validate their curriculum for translator training; governmental agencies refer to EN 15038 for revising higher education programme descriptors and quality assurance standards and guidelines. Let us sum up the manifold applications and effects resulting from the adoption of EN 15038 in Romania, many of which are already taking shape. Born out of European consensus, EN 15038 will aid professional translators, especially those who target a wider client-base, to strive to reach conformity with the Standard (and subsequently to receive the EN 15038 ‘badge of quality’). Given the guidelines provided for project management and procedures for translation activity, EN 15038 will restrict unprofessional freelancing activities though it will not free the market of amateur translators, as it is non-binding. EN 15038 provides a framework for the Romanian Ministry of Justice to revise the authorization of translators on a competence-based procedure and to consider documented specialized education and/or professional experience

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appropriately. The Standard promotes higher education training and continuous professional development, thus raising the status of higher education translation programmes among professionals and other stakeholders, including the Romanian Ministry of Justice. EN provides information to support the development of higher education programmes under Bologna and to validate different curricular and methodological approaches. EN 15038 provides a framework for the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education to revise the methodology for accrediting/authorizing higher education translator programmes. For a standard which was developed to impact predominantly on the market, we find that the washback effect on education and education-linked aspects is very strong. EN 15038 is undeniably a valuable resource for education to be used throughout Europe according to specific national contexts in various ways. The Romanian example stands proof of its multiple applications.

Note 1

Reproductions of the standard EN 15038 are made under the Agreement of the Romanian Standards Association – ASRO no. LUC/10/139–1-2 registered on 25 August 2010.

References Berlin Communiqué of the Conference of Ministers Responsible for Higher Education (2003) ‘Realising the European Higher Education Area’. Retrieved at www.bologna-berlin2003.de/en/main_documents/index.htm, Accessed 29 August 2011. Cobliş, C. (2008) ‘Status quo and future trends of the Romanian translation market’, Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Philologia LIII (3), 137–56. European Committee for Standardization (CEN) (2006) ‘European Standard EN 15038 Translation Services-Service Requirements’, Brussels: Management Center, reproduced under the Agreement of the Romanian Standards Association – ASRO no. LUC/10/139-1-2 from 25 August 2010. European Master’s in Translation Sample Curriculum. Retrieved at http:// ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/key_documents/emt_sample_curriculum_En.pdf, Accessed 28 June 2009. Gouadec, D. (2007) Translation as a Profession , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Greere, A. (2008) ‘Quality issues in Romanian translator and interpreter training: investigating the validity of standards proposed by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education [ARACIS]’, Studia Universitatis BabeşBolyai Philologia LIII (3), 81–94. — (2010) ‘Changes to professional translator training in Romania’, Liaison Magazine 4, 14.

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Greere, A. and Tătaru, C. (2008) ‘Training for the translation profession: what do Romanian university programmes have to offer?’, Studia Universitatis BabeşBolyai Philologia LIII (3), 95–122. Joint Quality Initiative (2004) ‘Shared “Dublin” descriptors for short cycle, first cycle, second cycle and third cycle awards’. Retrieved at www.uni-due.de/imperia/md/ content/bologna/dublin_descriptors.pdf, Accessed 29 August 2011. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Kiraly, D. (2000) A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education. Empowerment from Theory to Practice , Manchester: St Jerome. Neubert, A. (2000) ‘Competence in language, in languages, and in translation’, in B. Adab and C. Schäffner (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 3–18. Nord, C. (1997) Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained , Manchester: St Jerome. — (2006) Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis (Second edition), Amsterdam: Rodopi. Reiss, K. (2000) Translation Criticism: The Potentials and Limitations, Manchester: St Jerome/New York: American Bible Society. Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (2006) ‘Methodology for external evaluation, standards, standards of reference, and list of performance indicators of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education’. Retrieved at www.aracis.ro/fileadmin/ARACIS/Proceduri/ Methodology_for_External_Evaluation.pdf, Accessed 29 August 2011. —, ‘Standarde Specifice – Comisia de Ştiinţe Umaniste’. Retrieved at www.aracis.ro/uploads/media/Standarde_specifice_C02_01.pdf, Accessed 29 August 2011. Romanian National Agency for Qualifications in Higher Education and Partnership with Economic and Social Environment ACPART, The DOCIS project. Retrieved at www.docis.acpart.ro, Accessed 29 August 2011. Schäffner, C. (2000) ‘Running before walking? Designing a translation programme at undergraduate level’, in C. Schäffner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 143–56. Universities Contact Group of the International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangement, Documentation and Publications (2007) ‘Report on meeting of the Universities’ Contact Group of the IAMLADP Working Group on training’. Retrieved at www.iamladp.org/PDFs/Standing_Committee/ UCG%20MtgRptMay2007_2_rev1.pdf, Accessed 29 August 2011. Vermeer, H. J. (1996) A Skopos Theory of Translation (Some Arguments For and Against), Heidelberg: Textcontext Verlag. www.atr.org.ro [accessed 10 September 2011 from www.atr.org.ro/ro/publicatii/ standardizare] www.cen.eu [accessed 29 August 2011 from www.cen.eu/cen] www.ec.europa.eu [accessed 10 September 2011 from ec.europa.eu/dgs/ translation/programmes/emt/universities/index_en.htm] www.emcinterpreting.org [accessed 29 August 2011 from www.emcinterpreting. org/partners.php]

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Part 2

Global Trends in Technology for T&I Training

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Chapter 4

Translation Technologies as seen through the Eyes of Educators and Students: Harmonizing Views with the Help of a Centralized Teaching and Learning Resource Elizabeth Marshman and Lynne Bowker

1. Introduction In recent years, the translation industry in countries such as Canada has boomed (CTISC 1999, Steiert et al. 2010), with high demand for quality translation services in short turnaround times (e.g. CTISC 1999: 37, Bowker 2004a: 970, Mossop 2006: 790) and too few translators to meet these needs (Clavet 2002: 13, Lord 2008: 15). With the growing pressure of high volumes and short deadlines, translators have increasingly turned towards information and communication technologies (ICTs) and computer-aided translation (CAT) tools. Stakeholders in the field are growing more aware of the importance of technologies (e.g. CTISC 1999, Lommel 2004, Fulford and Granell Zafra 2005, Dillon and Fraser 2006, Lagoudaki 2006, Galan-Mañas and Hurtado Albir 2010). In particular, translators today must generally be familiar with some translation tools (Samson 2005: 101–2, Mossop 2006: 789–90). In a study of Canadian job ads in translation and related fields, Bowker (2004a: 969) found that basic computer literacy was by far the most common skill required by employers, mentioned in 60.5% of the ads, while 18.3% also required specialized translation technology skills. Moreover, this proportion rose sharply during the three-year period of the study (Bowker 2004a: 970). The need for technologies in the translation industry has clearly affected translator education in Canada, where all BA programmes in translation currently include at least one course on translation technologies. However, financial, time and other restrictions often make teaching these technologies and the skills required to choose, learn, use and evaluate them very

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challenging. These challenges and gaps in education have likely contributed to what has been described as inadequate implementation of technologies in the translation industry (CTISC 1999: 37), as well as to dissatisfaction among employers of recent graduates of translator education programmes (Samson 2005: 104). In a survey from the eCoLoRe project, 54% of respondents who used a translation memory (TM) system had learned to use it independently (Wheatley 2003: n.p.). Similarly, 51% of respondents to an online survey reported being self-taught (Lagoudaki 2006: 16). This can obviously affect tool use: 34% of eCoLoRe respondents were discouraged from using TM tools because of difficulties learning them (2003: n.p.), and a surprising 16% of Ladoudaki’s (2006: 32) respondents owned a TM system but had been unable to learn to use it. There is an obvious need for better technology-related education for translators to allow the industry to adopt technologies and meet market needs effectively. One way to approach this challenge, and to take steps towards devising a solution, is to consider whether the development of a centralized teaching and learning resource that is dually focused on the evaluation and application of translation technologies could facilitate a fuller and more effective integration of technology-related education into the broader education of translators. In this chapter, we discuss a specific project that has been undertaken with this general goal in mind. This project aims to gather information about attitudes, interests, knowledge and needs of students and educators in relation to translation technologies, and to create a bank of resources to help meet these needs: the Collection of Electronic Resources in Translation Technologies (CERTT) (www.certt.ca). Founded in 2007, CERTT is run by professors at University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation (UO-STI) with the help of graduate student assistants. Because CERTT is not tied to any particular course or programme but is a resource made available to all UO-STI members, it does not have its own specific learning outcomes. Nevertheless, the CERTT team works closely with educators to develop and adapt resources to help students meet the specific learning outcomes identified for particular courses where CERTT will be used, as well as to meet overall programme objectives and to help ensure that tools are introduced at appropriate stages of the programme, in a context that helps students develop good judgement about their use. Below, we discuss some widespread translation technology education challenges (Section 2), and describe the CERTT project and its aims (Section 3). We then discuss surveys of students and educators, and what these results have revealed about their needs and interests in technologies (Section 4). Next, we highlight ways we believe the CERTT model can help resolve some conflicts observed in the survey data (Section 5), before presenting concluding remarks (Section 6).

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2. Technology Education for Translators 2.1 Translator education approaches In the last decade, translator education approaches have evolved significantly, for example with the development of the well-known social constructivist approach (Kiraly 2000). This approach encourages the use of realistic and situated projects in which students work and build knowledge and skills collaboratively and become active learners, rather than passive receivers of knowledge that may appear divorced from real-world needs and applications. This emphasis on active, collaborative learning echoes central tenets of long-standing approaches in post-secondary education (e.g. Chickering and Gamson 1987); emphasis on active and multimodal learning can be traced back even further (e.g. to Dale’s (1969: 107) oft-cited, though admittedly also much-modified ‘cone of experience’). Proponents of this model assert that realistic and active experience favours students’ retention of material more than passive, single-mode activities (e.g. reading or listening). Moreover, a realistic experience is considered more likely to motivate students to learn and become active participants in the process (Kiraly 2000: 9, 132). The movement towards active (and therefore more effective) learning is particularly appropriate in translation technology education, and it has been adopted by translator educators around the world, including Biau Gil (2006), Gouadec (2003), Jaatinen and Immonen (2004), Kenny (2007) and Shuttleworth (2002).

2.2 Translator education in technologies Kiraly stresses that there is more to being a good translator than linguistic and transfer competence. He distinguishes between translation competence , ‘the ability to comprehend a text written in one language and produce an “adequate” target text for speakers of a different language on the basis of that original text’ (2000: 10) and translator competence (2000: 9–13), which involves a much broader skill set that includes the ability to use technological tools effectively in the performance of translation work (2000: 123–39), the ability to understand and meet client expectations and the ability to use various technologies efficiently (2000: 11). This distinction, which Kiraly has clearly articulated and documented, has also been addressed more generally by other translation scholars, including Bernardini (2004), O’Brien and Kenny (2001) and Pym (2003). Kiraly (2000: 138) also highlights the need to help students become life-long technology learners, as tools and client needs will evolve, requiring translators to adapt quickly and effectively (Kiraly 2000: 11, Biau Gil and Pym 2006: 18). Clearly, new translators must master technologies, so translator educators must

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address this need (Samson 2005: 104). However, as the integration of technologies in education programmes is relatively recent, methods of achieving this goal are not necessarily familiar to educators (Ibid., 106). Nonetheless, educators must continue to develop effective strategies for teaching – and teaching with – translation technologies.

2.2.1 Strategies for translator education in technologies Gouadec (2003: 17), Kenny (2007: 202–4), Kiraly (2000: 123–39) and Samson (2005: 108–10) suggest several strategies for implementing technologies and optimizing their use in translator education programmes. All recommend making technologies a normal part of translation work during education, encouraging students to view them as an inherent part of working in the field. By introducing basic tools early in translator education programmes, educators can begin to ‘level out’ differences in students’ familiarity with and ability to use technology, and to facilitate future learning of more sophisticated tools (Clark et al. 2002: 65–6, Arrouart 2003: 478–9, Samson 2005: 102). This is important since students in North American and European schools today, although most have grown up around computers, often arrive in translator education courses with diverse attitudes towards and comfort levels with computers (Biau Gil 2006). A flexible pace of technology learning activities is required, as general computer literacy skills greatly influence how rapidly students adapt to new tools (ensure Ibid. 93–4). Otherwise, less technologically experienced and less confident students are unlikely to successfully ‘keep up with’ their more experienced, confident colleagues. Of course, translation technology education aims to allow future translators to make independent, informed choices in their professional life. Researchers (e.g. Kiraly 2000, Samson 2005, Kenny 2007) clearly recognize that using tools for a realistic translation task helps students to appreciate when and where tools may be used. Furthermore, many (Kiraly 2000: 131, Biau Gil and Pym 2006: 18) recognize that becoming an informed tool user involves also considering the investment made in learning tools and alternatives to tool use. Meanwhile, Gouadec (2003: 17), Beeby et al. (2009: 4) and Kiraly (2000: 130–1) suggest that use of translation tools may be most effectively taught within courses or projects that focus on the translation task itself, so that learning to use them can be presented as a natural step in the process of learning to translate rather than an ancillary task. Clearly, then, the use and evaluation of translation technologies should not be limited to a single, technology-focused course. Moreover, not only basic computer skills and attitudes towards technology use but also students’ interests and preferences are likely to vary, and ideally students should be free to investigate tools that interest them and to expand their investigation accordingly (Samson 2005: 109).

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Kiraly (2000: 127) notes that many technology education formats exist. He encourages minimizing one-to-many lecture-type activities, preferring that students take a more active role (e.g. working in groups or pairs, or to a certain extent independently). Each format offers different possibilities for pursuing personal interests, sharing information and strategies and considering different points of view. Personal preferences may also influence the effectiveness of learning approaches. Wheatley (2003: n.p.) observed wide variation in technology education formats preferred by learners: 62% of respondents wanted classroom training, 46% freely available training materials, 36% web-based training and 20% one-on-one training. Essentially, no ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for delivering translation technology education exists. Moreover, despite educators’ motivation and numerous education strategies, technologies can be difficult to implement fully into translator education programmes.

2.3 Challenges in technology education The challenges of providing adequate and fully integrated technology education are numerous, ranging from the practical (acquisition and maintenance of the tools) to the fundamental (design of translation curricula to optimize integration of technologies in crowded programmes) and the personal (attitudes and needs of both educators and students). Translator education courses are densely packed. While the nature of translators’ skills generally fit under headings of ‘translation competence’ and ‘translator competence’, the list of individual skills and specific types of knowledge that these subsume is nearly endless (Pym 2003: 485–7). Moreover, while individual educators certainly can – and do – introduce technologies into the translation classroom, a large-scale transformation of curricula and teaching methods is often needed to ensure that technologies are guaranteed a consistent, clear place in education programmes (Kiraly 2000: 124, Samson 2005). Educators naturally have varied interests, attitudes and priorities, and curriculum reform takes time; such a change simply cannot be smoothly implemented overnight to universal acclaim. In short, the importance of technologies in translator education is clearly recognized, but a gap may exist between this recognition and technology implementation in courses that are not a priori technology-focused. The productive integration of technologies in translator education must be encouraged so that new translators will be able to support and encourage the integration of technologies into the workplace and fill some gaps identified by employers. One approach is to address technology education in a more encompassing fashion with the aid of a multifaceted and versatile teaching and learning resource that supports the incorporation of technologies across the translator

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education spectrum in a meaningful way. This was the motivation behind the CERTT project.

3. The CERTT Project CERTT aims to improve integration of technologies in education at the UO-STI, and eventually beyond. CERTT has two main goals: to evaluate technology-related attitudes, interests and needs; and to satisfy these needs by delivering technology education resources via a secure online site, a strategy that has been successful for other projects (e.g. eCoLoRe 2003, Samson 2005). This format was chosen initially to ensure continued accessibility of materials and timely, convenient delivery of resources. In this approach, students can choose their preferred combination of learning strategies. Those in ‘core’ technology courses1 generally participate in class discussions about technologies and do assignments that require their use and critical evaluation; they are offered optional lab sessions with a teaching assistant who introduces the main functions of the required tools, assists them with various tasks using the tools and facilitates a discussion of students’ observations and reactions. Now, with CERTT resources, students may also work independently or in small groups, using the resources as a starting point and guide to reflection that helps them to focus on relevant aspects of tools as in-class discussions and labs do. Finally, all students – whether or not they are in ‘core’ technology courses – may explore CERTT to further develop their knowledge of available tools. The CERTT strategy is thus designed to offer maximum flexibility and a range of methods for technology learning, so that students can personalize their experience and learn as they wish, while still providing a core framework to guide reflection and support students with varying levels of technological confidence and knowledge in accomplishing translation tasks. Educators, too, can benefit from the flexibility afforded by the CERTT strategy, which allows them to accommodate both atomistic and holistic approaches to education within the overall translation programme design. There is no clear-cut response to the question of precisely when technology is best introduced into a translator education programme, but as described by Kelly (2010: 395), many translation didactics scholars now interpret atomistic and holistic approaches in terms of progression, with the former being more appropriate for the early stages of education and the latter for later stages. A common yet multifaceted framework and resource for teaching and learning translation technologies facilitates this type of progression, allowing certain skills to be taught within core courses, and others to be acquired as part of a more

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integrated approach in courses where the specific focus is not technology itself (e.g. translation practice courses). Moreover, by also making resources available to educators, we aim to help them acquire and update technology skills, and ideally encourage them to include more ‘technology-friendly’ options in their courses by reducing barriers to integration. With CERTT, educators may no longer be required to design and create technology-related education materials independently, or to set aside class time to teach tool use.

3.1 The CERTT resources CERTT has been made available to students and educators via the University’s online Virtual Campus, within the Blackboard course delivery system, and is available to registered users anywhere with an internet connection. CERTT includes step-by-step tutorials covering the basic functions of approximately 30 general ICTs and specialized CAT tools commonly used in the UO-STI programmes and considered to be among the most critical for trainee translators to master and use. CERTT also offers glossaries and other documentation about the site and its resources, sample files and corpora for use with tools, and suggested readings. Sample CERTT resources are available on the CERTT public site, www.certt.ca.

3.2 The CERTT surveys To gather information to better evaluate the current interests, needs and reactions of various translation industry stakeholders – and particularly those directly concerned with translator education – the CERTT project includes a series of optional, anonymous bilingual questionnaires that both students and educators are invited to fill in online before using CERTT in a given session.2 These surveys were administered between Fall 2007 and Spring/Summer 2010. The student questionnaire gathers information about users’ backgrounds, levels of knowledge about – and comfort with – translation technologies, and perceptions of their importance and usefulness in the field in general and for the respondents themselves, as well as of the tools’ usefulness for specific tasks. It also includes questions designed to determine what tools are of particular interest to users, as well as whether barriers have previously hampered their use of translation technologies.3 The educators’ questionnaire includes many of the same questions, allowing for a comparison of responses from both groups. As of July 2010, the student survey had garnered 254 responses and the survey of educators 28 responses.4

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4. Results of the CERTT Surveys In this section, responses gathered from students and educators on similar or identical questions will be compared to evaluate whether the distribution of responses in the two groups (based on percentage of respondents) is similar, and if not, where the variations lie.5 In particular, some discrepancies between the two groups’ responses, which we believe to be potential sources for conflict between the two, will be highlighted and discussed. As CERTT continues to evolve and expand, these will help us to better understand how these two groups of users initially view technologies, which tools interest them, and what resources would likely enhance their interactions. Ultimately, the goal will be to assist educators and students in making good use of technologies and in more effectively exploring and communicating the strengths and weakness of these tools, to help bring together the two groups in a more productive and realistic learning environment.

4.1 Comfort levels with technologies As discussed in Section 2.2.1, students in course groups vary considerably with regard to their comfort and skill with computers, which can affect the ease with which they learn new tools. Therefore, the CERTT surveys asked both students and educators about their general comfort level with technologies before they began to use CERTT. A contrast became immediately apparent (Figure 4.1): students reported the highest comfort levels, while the educators more frequently reported lower levels. The higher ‘peak’ for students is not unexpected, given that our familiarity with these groups leads us to conclude that most current UO-STI students are more likely to have grown up using technologies than the educators (cf. also Samson 2005: 102, 106). It is perhaps worth noting, however, that over 4% of the 226 students who responded to this question still report being ‘very uncomfortable’ and 7% ‘not very comfortable’ with technologies in general. This could impose significant demands on both the students and the educator in courses integrating technologies, as students may have to spend considerable time mastering the tools in addition to the ‘core’ course material, and the educator may need to support these students in acquiring the skills to complete tool-based tasks and to effectively apply these skills in new situations (cf. Biau Gil 2006: 94). This may also require educators to explain the basic principles and functioning of tools to these students, which may draw the focus away from the intended course content. Judging from the data, increasing educators’ familiarity with and confidence in using computers could bring them closer to their more comfortable students

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45.0% 40.7 40.0%

38.1

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Figure 4.1 Comfort levels with technologies of students and educators

in this area and likely help them to become more confident in explaining to less comfortable students, thereby allowing all participants in translator education to benefit from opportunities provided by technologies. Currently, providing technology support to uncertain students could be a demanding task for approximately 14% of the 21 educators who felt that they themselves were not very comfortable with technologies. This could interfere with the creation of a realistic, productive environment in which to acquire both translation and translator competence, and ultimately be detrimental to the class in general if it discourages the use of technologies. CERTT aims to address some of these issues by developing a range of resources suitable for users with different levels of confidence with computers and making them widely available to both professors and students (see Section 5.2).

4.2 Experience with translation tools The results of survey questions asking whether users had previous experience with translation tools (Figure 4.2) highlighted some interesting parallels. Similarities were present in responses from educators and students, indicating that well over half of the respondents had little or no experience with translation technologies. However, it is important to note that students in most UO-STI programmes must take a translation technologies course, while educators are

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47.8

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Figure 4.2 Previous experience with translation technologies

currently far less likely to receive training in technologies. Towards the end of programmes (when students have taken ‘core’ technology courses), educators who do not actively pursue technology training may even find themselves less knowledgeable about translation technologies than their students, a situation that certainly would not favour the productive implementation of tools in coursework, at least at a group level. Encouragingly, however, in the CERTT survey, the 19 responses from educators indicated positive impressions of the contribution tools could make in teaching: while 32% stated that they currently did not use tools at all in their teaching, only 17% of the 18 respondents to this question believed that tools could not be used in their teaching. In contrast, 44% of the respondents believed they could sometimes use them. Of the 16 educators suggesting tools that could be used more actively in teaching, 38% indicated terminology management systems (TMSs), 31% monolingual and 56% bilingual concordancers, 38% TM systems and 31% localization tools.6 This apparent recognition of tools’ importance, and the willingness to explore them, highlight the need to answer two questions: why educators want to learn about and use technologies, and what has stopped them from doing so thus far.

4.3 Challenges in tool use Of course, using translation technologies in the industry and particularly in translator education can be challenging (e.g. eCoLoTrain 2006, Bowker and

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60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0%

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Marshman 2009). Therefore, the CERTT surveys included questions about obstacles encountered (Figure 4.3). As noted above, very few respondents thought that tools were not useful for teaching and learning. Similarly, only one respondent considered that students were reluctant to use technologies. It is therefore reasonable to assume that other factors have been more important in keeping technologies from being more fully integrated into translator education thus far, which highlights the importance of investigating them so that they can be addressed. The responses, from 16 educators and 145 students, showed very strong parallels in a number of main areas. The most common obstacle was that respondents did not know enough about tools to be able to choose which ones to use; this was compounded by the fact that they also often did not know where to look for information to help them in this task. This clearly demonstrates the need for basic information about a range of tool types and their functions, as well as ways in which specific tools of each type differ, and their strengths and weaknesses. Another formidable obstacle, particularly for educators, was the lack of time to learn about tools and to create resources (e.g. TMs, termbases, corpora) to use with them. Time is also needed to design courses that make the most of the tools’ contributions, help students to develop enough facility with the technologies to participate fully and ensure that less confident students are not penalized unfairly for technical difficulties in courses intended primarily to teach and evaluate other skills.

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Despite the parallels, some discrepancies were observed. For example, as noted above, the educators tended to be more concerned than students about the limits of time for learning to use tools. Conversely, price appeared to be a common obstacle for students, though it was not considered important by educators. Concerns of a technical nature were also primarily identified by students. These varied concerns highlight the need for a centralized, comprehensive source of basic information to help both educators and students to become more familiar with the ever-increasing number of tools available and what they can do. There is also an obvious and considerable need to make tools available so that students can test them out before buying, to ensure that their limited financial resources can be used to acquire an appropriate and useful tool when the time comes. The responses highlight the importance of including free and low-cost software in a collection of training resources, to encourage students to adopt technologies early (even if these are not the exact tools they will be using once they are in the workplace and have greater resources). In short, encouraging tools’ implementation in translator education seems likely to require the development of resources that are tailored to users’ needs, but also motivation on the part of users to invest time and effort in learning them. Learning more about what motivates users to learn about tools may help to identify strategies for encouraging their use.

4.4 Motivations for learning about tools While educators face numerous challenges in implementing tools in their courses, they clearly do recognize the importance of teaching them. The eCoLoTrain survey (2006: 22) found that 71% of respondents considered this training very or extremely important, and less than 10% unimportant or less important.7 The 145 CERTT student survey responses were even more positive, with over 90% of the respondents saying that they agreed or strongly agreed that technologies were important in the translation field. The incomplete integration of translation tools across the programme may be a source of concern to these students, who may feel that they are not able to have enough practice with tools. When asked in CERTT surveys about motivations for learning more about translation technologies, 22 educators and 241 students gave fairly consistent answers (Figure 4.4), often indicating that they were learning tools to stay current in the field. This indicates how clear tools’ importance has become. There is also recognition of the widespread use of tools by employers and – in the case of educators – by students, too. Above all, both groups indicated two strong reasons concerning their work: they appear to believe that tools can

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Figure 4.4 Some motivations for learning more about technologies

help them to both save time and improve the quality of their work, ideas that motivate many stakeholders in the industry. Scholars, including Kenny (2007) and Kiraly (2000: 136), have encouraged translator educators to centre discussions not only on what tools can do technologically, but also how they can be integrated into the translator’s work process, to ensure that they are evaluated appropriately. Given respondents’ expectations that tools can be time-saving and help them to produce better work, it is pertinent to explore exactly when and how they believe tools will be useful by asking them about the usefulness of tools for specific translation tasks. Overall, respondents did feel that tools were useful for various purposes, some (quite reasonably) more than others (Figure 4.5).8 The 5 educator and 141 student respondents were fairly guarded about using technologies to produce a final translation automatically, but strongly positive about their use in research and fairly positive about use in assisting a translator to produce a draft. One interesting observation is that the educators appear to be consistently more reserved about the usefulness of technologies than the students, with the values given by educators noticeably lower for every task. At the level of specific tasks, while some gaps (e.g. for using tools to assist a translator in producing and revising a translation and for research) were fairly small, in other cases (e.g. for sending and receiving work and managing files and information)

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82 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00

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ei vi a Fa nag ng ct em ua en lr Te O th rm ese t er in ar o la ng re ch se ua ar ge ch re Te se rm a in rch O o th m er gm in t fo D ra m ft g m tra ns t H la el tio p n w i t Pr h od dra uc ft e H fin el p al R w ev i t h is e f tra ina l ns la tio n

0.00

Educators

Students

Figure 4.5 Perceptions of tools’ usefulness for specific translation tasks

there was a larger discrepancy, with the students much more positive about the ability of tools to facilitate the tasks. This may indicate that educators – particularly those who do not currently use translation technologies in professional practice – may benefit from reminders and training to highlight the usefulness of technologies in accelerating and simplifying some of the steps in the translation process. Of course, equally important is ensuring that students are aware of the limitations of tools, do not rely too much on them as a substitute for their own judgement and do not expect unrealistic results. In future, the presentation of existing CERTT resources could be adjusted and new tools and resources introduced to better highlight those that can assist with specific tasks for which tools were considered less useful. This may allow us to make stakeholders – and particularly educators – more aware of the available options and benefits of technologies. By exploring reactions such as these, we hope to be able to develop CERTT in areas of greatest need and interest.

4.5 Priorities for developing CERTT The above information about tools that may be useful to add or emphasize in CERTT, is complemented by responses to survey questions about tools that most interested educators and students (Figure 4.6).

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80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0%

Se

W or

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W in pr do o a D ce ws ic rch tio e O sso na ng ffic rs rie ine e to s an s an ols M d d on te W ol rm e in b gu ba nk Bi al C lin c s gu on orp al cor or co da a nc nc Te ord ers Tr an rm an sl e ce at Bi xtra rs io n t m ext cto em a rs li Lo ory gne ca sy rs liz st at em io s M n to T o sy ls D ste on m 't s kn ow

0.0%

Educators for selves

Educators for students

Students for selves

Figure 4.6 Tools of interest to educators and students

The responses from 15 educators and 249 students show interest in a broad range of tools, with peaks in interest for both groups. However, while there are similar trends in many areas, there are also discrepancies between what educators feel their students need to know and students’ interests. One discrepancy is evident for the more basic ICTs. Educators seem to highlight a need for CERTT to cover these tools for their students’ benefit (and sometimes even more so for themselves), while students seem more interested in specialized tools. This may signal an interesting dichotomy in the perception of students’ knowledge and skills in technologies: it is possible that many students feel they have the skills they need to work with these basic tools, while on the strength of their experience educators may feel that there is still a significant amount to be learned about the tools’ more advanced functions. Another possible explanation may be that introductory resources for independent use will be particularly useful for the minority of students who lack basic computer skills, allowing them to practise and become more knowledgeable about – and confident with – technologies outside of class time, reducing delays in class. Perhaps, however, educators are simply basing their recommendations on their own needs which, as mentioned above, often seem to be significant in these areas. Alternatively, students may feel that they have other options for learning about more general tools and would like CERTT to focus more on specialized tools. In a number of areas, the two groups correspond closely. For corpora and monolingual concordancers, interest is relatively modest in both groups.

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While these particular tools and resources appear to be less widely used in the profession (e.g. Bowker 2004b), a number of researchers (e.g. Zanettin et al. 2003, Beeby et al. 2009) have identified monolingual corpora and concordancers as very promising tools for translator education. This may signal a need to make both groups more aware of the usefulness of these tools, and to overcome some of the challenges of using them (e.g. the time required to build pertinent corpora). In contrast, educators and students share a strong interest in TM systems, which were highly ranked among specialized tools in all cases and obviously constitute a primary focus for developing resources. It is nevertheless important to note that it would be unproductive to teach TM systems in isolation, without the additional functions of translation environment tools (TEnTs). Both students and educators may need to be encouraged to recognize the important role that these other functions play in ensuring that the use of TM systems is productive. In combination, these results indicate a need to cover a wide range of tools, to satisfy different users and introduce heretofore neglected tools that may be useful. Moreover, providing information to help both groups recognize the roles that various types of tools play in the industry will be important to bring the groups to an agreement as to the need to cover them in education. Once the choice of what to include in CERTT has been determined, an even bigger challenge focuses on how to cover it. When asked to evaluate the importance of several possible priorities for such a collection, 13 educators provided a clear idea of their key requirements (Figure 4.7): they requested a user-friendly collection of clear resources that help to highlight the functions and assistance tools can offer. Surprisingly modestly ranked was the option of including information about precautions to be taken with tools, which was chosen by less than 25% of the respondents. Dillon and Fraser (2006: 69), among others, noted that new technology users may not have the experience necessary to properly evaluate how and when a tool is useful. We had thus intuitively expected that more respondents, concerned about excessive, inappropriate or unthinking use of tools, would have chosen this option. One possible explanation for the low ranking may be that educators feel more confident or comfortable discussing the product of tool use in the context of translation adequacy and quality, rather than in working with the tools themselves, and/or feel that this type of discussion is more closely related to the content of their courses, and therefore are prepared to lead in-class discussions of tools’ limitations in light of the results achieved. It is also possible, of course, that depending on the types of tools that interest them, educators may be less concerned about the tools’ limitations because these limitations are well known and/or obvious; for example, the limitations of more general ICTs may be of less concern than those of specialized CAT tools. Finally, if they have little experience with specific types

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100.0% 92.3 90.0% 80.0% 69.2

70.0% 60.0% 50.0%

38.5

40.0% 30.8 30.0%

30.8 23.1

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20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Including information about what tools can do

Including information about evaluating tools

Including Maximizing Maximizing information usercoverage of about friendliness resources precautions of resources to take with tools

Maximizing clarity of resources

Maintaining appropriate levels of documents

Figure 4.7 Priorities for CERTT development as evaluated by educators

of tools, educators may not even be aware of – or aware of the significance of – some limitations that may present subtler problems in the translation process or product. Thus we believe it is important not only to prioritize the key factors identified by educators, and to cover as many of the tools they would like to use as possible, but also to provide a reasoned amount of balanced information to ensure that CERTT users have access to the essential information about both advantages and limitations of tools, in a way that encourages the adoption of tools with realistic expectations.

5. Potential Solutions from CERTT The CERTT resources (see also Bowker and Marshman 2009) have been designed to overcome barriers to tool use and meet the needs reported by survey respondents, as described below.

5.1 Highlighting tools’ usefulness The fi rst task in encouraging both educators and students to integrate technologies more completely into courses is to highlight why and how tools

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can be useful, so that potential users can make reasoned selections and informed decisions. As discussed above, many respondents were already conscious of technologies’ importance in translation today and their usefulness for various purposes, but were unsure which tools would be useful for them. The first CERTT resource to contribute to filling this gap is a bilingual glossary of translation tool types, which describes the main functions of a range of tools and how they can be used by translators. Having access to a clear explanation of each tool allows users to feel confident that they are selecting the right tool for the job based on a description of its intended purpose. In addition, by listing the range of terms used to describe the various tools and functions, the glossary helps to prevent confusion that may potentially be caused by the use of competing proprietary terminology associated with different products. Its easily accessible and centralized information makes the glossary a useful resource for students at various levels: initially as they begin to learn about the tools in technology-focused courses, but also later for reviewing or refreshing their knowledge, and in more self-directed learning situations. Moreover, each CERTT tutorial includes an introduction highlighting tools’ main functions, and a list of tutorial goals indicating some of the translation tasks the tool can help perform. At a practical level, by describing a typical workflow, the lists of goals can assist users who are new to a tool in gaining a general overview of the steps of the tool’s use. The list also offers quick and easy access to the appropriate tutorial section for users who are familiar with the tool and need only a reminder of how to accomplish a specific task. In addition, the tutorial goals can serve as useful signposts for students working in task-oriented and self-directed learning environments, helping them to discover tools, tutorials and/or sections of tutorials that are likely to assist them in completing their tasks efficiently. Finally, these goals serve to facilitate communication between educators and students, and also to provide a basis from which educators can assess – and students can selfassess – learning. Complex tools are covered in a series of interconnected tutorials, with a workflow diagram that maps out the stages of use. The tutorials present a step-by-step approach to accomplishing these tasks, using examples of typical or interesting terms, problems or translation tasks, helping to put the functions of a tool into a relatively realistic context. To complement the ‘how to’ information, questions at the end of the tutorials also encourage analytical thinking about the situational appropriateness of different tools (e.g. ‘when to’ and ‘why to’). For instance, this may be accomplished by asking users to compare an approach that uses tools with a more manual approach, to help to highlight differences that can make users aware of tools’ advantages.

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5.2 Overcoming obstacles to tool use CERTT aims to serve as a ‘one-stop shop’ for introductory CAT tool information, offering a centralized collection of resources that is available to the entire UO-STI community, to overcome the reported obstacles of lack of knowledge about tools, coupled with difficulties in knowing where to acquire this knowledge. Students are introduced to CERTT in their technology courses, but the resources remain available at any time, accessible from any computer with an internet connection. This facilitates continuing independent exploration at the convenience of the users, allowing them to reinforce and complement their class-based learning. It is through mastering the process that students will eventually acquire professional-level expertise in the successful application of translation technologies, and it is by beginning to integrate new tools into their process independently that they will acquire good habits for later work. CERTT’s ready-to-use materials relieve educators of some of the burden of planning courses that integrate tools, and reduce the time required to plan lectures, demonstrations and activities. CERTT’s sample files can also reduce the time required to build resources for use with tools. This allows students to start using a tool without having to learn all of the steps necessary to produce resources of their own until they are ready to do so, and educators to offer students the chance to experience realistic tool use with a reduced investment of time. If educators require resources of a specific type or on a specific topic, the CERTT team will assist. CERTT resources are designed to minimize confusion and accelerate learning using a specially designed template to ensure consistent content, layout and terminology in all of the resources. One common challenge in comparing tools in order to choose the most appropriate one for particular purposes is having to adapt to a new presentation and vocabulary in each vendor’s documentation. We believe that this can slow the learning process and cause confusion, particularly for users who are not especially knowledgeable about technologies already. In contrast, all CERTT tutorials for tools present basic information in a consistent structure, including: z

z

z

An introduction that identifies the type of tool, its creator/vendor and some of the functions or characteristics that set it apart from others of the same type, as well as sources of additional information (e.g. online help fi les, the vendor’s website); A list of goals that identify some of the tasks that can be performed using the tool, which are hyperlinked to the appropriate sections of the tutorials; A section on getting started that identifies all of the resources and files needed to do the tutorial, and guides the user through downloading them;

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88 z

z

Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training One or more task-oriented sections containing step-by-step instructions on carrying out the various actions required to achieve the goals of the tutorial; and A section on wrapping up that guides the user through making and storing a backup copy of any files that may be needed in future (e.g. for in-class discussions or subsequent tutorials).

By removing or mitigating barriers to tool use, we have found that CERTT contributes to the development of a positive attitude to computer-aided translation and a high motivation level for optimizing the use of tools. For instance, as summarized in Section 4.4 above, a sizeable majority of both students and educators report being motivated to learn more about translation technologies. According to Kelly (2010: 393), affective factors such as a positive attitude and high motivation level may form part of translator competence and even contribute to higher translation quality.

5.3 Facilitating active, hands-on learning Competence in the use of ICTs and CAT tools depends largely on hands-on experience, and adding independent work to in-class introductions and demonstrations can be invaluable for building this competence (e.g. Fišer 2007). The CERTT project aims to give users the opportunity to do independent work in a low-stress environment with clear, step-by-step tutorials, thereby helping them to build familiarity with tools and gain more hands-on experience than they could in a classroom-only environment. However, one difficulty in this gradual process is that as users’ competence evolves, their training needs are also likely to evolve. Users may – and should – begin to extrapolate approaches intuitively and apply lessons learned with one tool to others (as observed for example in Fišer 2007: 6), and therefore may not need the level of detail previously required in training documents.9 The challenge then is to give less confident users the necessary step-by-step information while providing more confident users with just the key information they require. The CERTT solution thus involves a somewhat modular structure, with common basic tasks (e.g. creating and extracting fi les from compressed folders) described in fi les cross-referenced in tutorials where these skills are needed. It also involves dividing step-by-step instructions for each task with a specific tool into two levels: the upper level identifying basic tasks users are expected to perform, and the lower level providing more detailed instructions on carrying out each task. Advanced users can thus use only the upper level in many cases, while beginning users have access to all required details in the lower level.

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Moreover, for more complex tools, we have begun to develop both beginner and intermediate/advanced level tutorials, so that users who wish to explore more complex features can do so. For example, the beginner-level tutorial for a machine translation system introduces users to translating and post-editing texts using the tool, and then the intermediate-advanced level demonstrates how to adjust the settings and dictionary to improve the output. This division helps to ensure that users can complete individual tutorials in a reasonable time, and can absorb the information they need gradually, without being overwhelmed.

5.4 Encouraging critical thinking As noted above, there is far more to introducing users to translation technologies than providing instructions for completing tasks. Researchers including Arrouart (2003: 477), Biau Gil and Pym (2006: 18), Clark et al. (2002: 66), Dillon and Fraser (2006: 76), Kenny (2007: 197) and Shuttleworth (2002: 125) have highlighted the importance of encouraging critical thinking about tools in translator education. Such skills are some of the most important in ensuring that students are able to extrapolate from what they have learned in their education to keep up with the constant evolution of tools and needs (Arrouart 2003: 478). For example, the need to continually learn new tools has been highlighted in studies that indicate that translators often use more than one TEnT (Lommel 2004: 11-12, Lagoudaki 2006: 23). Encouraging critical thinking involves not only pointing out strengths and weaknesses of translation technologies, but also ensuring that new users have data on which to base an evaluation, know pertinent questions to ask, and are familiar with criteria for evaluating the answers. The CERTT resources address this with two types of questions. The first is integrated into the stepby-step instructions, and invites users to pause briefly during a task and reflect on specific aspects of the results obtained (e.g. the differences in the design or results of queries in term banks or concordancers, to highlight the various search functions available in a given tool). These questions also aim to ensure that students follow instructions consciously rather than automatically, by encouraging them to pause regularly to reflect on what they are doing and how the tool has contributed to achieving the goals of the tutorial and ultimately the translation task. The second question type focuses on higher-level reflection about tools and their usefulness, strengths and weaknesses. These appear at the end of each tutorial, and encourage students to think about their overall reactions to the tool, to compare it to others they have used, to identify the criteria they find useful for evaluating it (and similar tools) and to reflect on how the process they followed using this tool would differ from an approach that did not use

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tools or used a different tool. Both types of questions can be used as starting points for discussions in class or on a discussion board. This encouragement of critical thinking about translation technologies is another characteristic of CERTT resources that sets them apart from developers’ and vendors’ tutorials and other resources. While commercial resources are often very useful, they primarily highlight tools’ strengths and demonstrate the recommended method of integrating a particular tool into a workflow, rather than inviting users to consider their own needs and requirements first, and to compare with other tools that may provide similar functions. We believe our approach enables students to observe advantages and disadvantages of technologies based on realistic data and use these to draw their own conclusions about when and how tools may be useful. Moreover, students directly observe the investment of time and effort in learning the tools, but also the fact that it can be done with basic support, creating a realistic picture of the ways tools can influence the translation process. Through CERTT’s broad, balanced portrait of technologies, highlighting both tools’ usefulness and the importance of informed, appropriate use, we hope to help close the gap between students’ and educators’ interests and attitudes and bring these key translator education stakeholder groups closer together.

6. Concluding Remarks In 1998, Colin Haynes made the following quip with regard to translation technology: ‘If we don’t train for it, perhaps it will go away?’ (135). That remark turned out to be nothing more than tongue-in-cheek wishful thinking. No one can deny that, as we move through the twenty-first century, technology is firmly implanted in the translation profession. Similarly, educators are in broad agreement that if our graduates are to be competitive in the market, translator education programmes need to continue to improve the way in which these technologies are taught and learned. We fall short of consensus, however, when it comes to identifying the most effective means for implementing such improvements. There are many factors in play – a number of which are beyond the influence of any individual project – such as variations in users’ comfort with and affinity for technologies, as well as time and budgetary restrictions. Nevertheless, while there exist differing views on how best to prepare students to meet the technology-related expectations of the industry, an increasing number of educators support the view that an approach which truly embeds technology-related learning into the overall programme of translator education will meet with a greater degree of success than have those conventional approaches where technology-related education was isolated. To date,

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reports on attempts to integrate technology more widely across translation programmes have been largely anecdotal, reporting on small-scale or incremental efforts. This is completely understandable: changing traditional methods of delivering translation courses to more fully integrate technologies is an ambitious process that requires substantial, concerted effort from administration, educators and students and cannot be undertaken (properly) overnight. However, we believe that the CERTT framework developed at UO-STI represents a reasonable model that can be taken as a useful starting point and adapted to the specific realities of other institutions concerned with educating translators. This model has been successfully piloted and refined at UO-STI over a four-year period, and it has recently been integrated into the training and documentation collection of LinguisTech, an online translator’s toolbox developed by the Language Technologies Research Centre.10 Deployed in the Fall of 2011, LinguisTech is now available to translator education institutes across Canada, which will provide the CERTT team with an opportunity to observe how well the CERTT model scales up and the extent to which it can be adapted to meet the needs of other translation education programmes in Canada. While there is undoubtedly room for improvement, we feel confident that the CERTT model – which has been refined based on the feedback of over 250 translation students and close to 30 translator educators – provides a useful first step in giving a wide range of users a better chance of overcoming obstacles in learning how to evaluate and use translation technologies, by offering better access to alternatives to traditional approaches that both educators and students may call upon according to their needs. The CERTT model responds directly to learning requirements, such as the need for basic information about a range of tool types and their functions, as well as ways in which specific tools of each type differ, and their strengths and weaknesses. CERTT also addresses teaching needs, such as the development of a flexible and user-friendly ‘one-stop shop’ that includes not only clear resources that help to highlight the functions and assistance tools can offer, but also associated resources (e.g. databases, corpora) and appropriate exercises to facilitate active and hands-on learning that will enable users to assess when and why such technologies will be useful. We believe that by continuing to develop CERTT resources and making them easily available to both students and educators, we can encourage both groups to better integrate translation technologies into the various components of translator education. By doing so, we hope that we will succeed in bringing students and educators closer together in their interests, attitudes and expectations relating to translation technologies, and ultimately better prepare new translators for the workplace and for their future employers’ expectations. Moving forward, we plan to continue sharing the benefits of CERTT-related work with a variety of stakeholders in the translation field, to ensure that the

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industry makes the best use possible of the technologies available. There is considerable scope, for instance, for more work to be done in identifying the technology education-related needs and interests of other stakeholder groups, such as tools developers and vendors, as well as employers and translators already working in the field. These will be the subject of future investigations.

Acknowledgements The authors thank the University of Ottawa Faculty of Arts, School of Translation and Interpretation, Centre for University Teaching, Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost and Office of the Associate Vice-President (Academic), as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Language Sector Enhancement Program, for their financial support for CERTT. Thanks also to: Fernand Aubin of the Writing Centre for technical assistance; our supportive colleagues at the Language Technologies Research Centre and at UO-STI, especially Jean Quirion; and above all the research assistants whose excellent work has made CERTT what it is. Suggestions from the anonymous reviewers and the editors were also appreciated.

Notes 1

2

3

4

5

In the UO-STI undergraduate translation programmes, students currently take one ‘Translation Technologies’ course focusing specifically on the types, use and evaluation of these tools. The courses ‘Terminology and Terminotics’ and ‘Documentation and Lexicology’ also include a substantial technological component. These constitute the ‘core’ technological courses, complementing those focusing for example on translation and writing skills. The questionnaires were developed and administered in the online Survey Monkey interface, www.surveymonkey.com. (See the CERTT public site ‘Surveys’ section at, www.certt.ca.) Several surveys have addressed translators’ use of technologies and attitudes towards them, including Dillon and Fraser (2006), Fulford and Granell Zafra (2005), Lagoudaki (2006), Lommel (2004) and Wheatley (2003). These, and some works on survey design (e.g. Gray and Guppy 2003), were consulted during survey development. As the surveys were voluntary and respondents could skip any questions they were not comfortable answering, the number of respondents to individual questions varies. In addition, some questions were added in survey revisions after the initial responses were submitted, and the total number of responses to these is therefore lower than that of other questions. Because of the restricted number of CERTT users, sample size is often not large enough for in-depth statistical calculations. Therefore, the percentages

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7

8

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of responses are simply compared. Larger sample sizes in future studies would allow for more refined statistical data analysis. The eCoLoTrain survey (2006: 13–15) produced some similar results: just under half of the respondents reported familiarity with CAT and localization tools and TMSs, while between 40 and 42% said that they were not familiar with them but would like to learn to use them. Among the six educators’ responses to this question on the CERTT survey, four strongly agreed or agreed that translation technologies were important in the field today, while two were neutral. The values in this graph were generated based on point values assigned to the responses in a rating scale question. A value of 1 was assigned for an answer indicating that tools would be not at all useful, 2 for somewhat useful, 3 for moderately useful, 4 for useful and 5 for very useful. An answer of ‘I don’t know’ was not included in calculating the average. Of course, users who already have highly developed technology skills when they begin to use CERTT often do not require a great amount of detail at any stage. For more information about the Language Technologies Research Centre and the LinguisTech project, please consult: www.ltrc.ca/ and www.linguistech.ca/.

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Jaatinen, H. and Immonen, J. (2004) ‘Finnish university meets needs of translation industry’, Multilingual Computing & Technology 15 (4), 37–40. Kelly, D. (2010) ‘Translation didactics’, in Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer (eds) Handbook of Translation Studies, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 389–96. Kenny, D. (2007) ‘Translation memories and parallel corpora: challenges for the translation trainer’, in D. Kenny and K. Ryou (eds) Across Boundaries: International Perspectives on Translation Studies , Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 192–208. Kiraly, D. (2000) A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education: Empowerment from Theory to Practice , Manchester; Northampton: St Jerome. Lagoudaki, E. (2006) ‘Translation memory systems: enlightening users’ perspective’. Retrieved at www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/7307707.pdf, Accessed 13 June 2008. Lommel, A. (2004) ‘Translation memory survey 2004’, edited by Rebecca Ray, Localisation Industry Standards Association. Retrieved at www.lisa.org/ Translation-Memory-Survey-2004.518.0.html, Accessed 18 May 2010. Lord, B. (2008) Report on the Government of Canada’s Consultations on Linguistic Duality and Official Languages, Canadian Heritage. Retrieved at www. p ch.gc.c a/DA M A s s et P ub/DA M - com n - com n/S TAGI NG/t ext e - t ext/ lord_1254784496114_eng.pdf, Accessed 29 June 2010. Mossop, B. (2006) ‘Has computerization changed translation?’, Meta 51 (4), 787–805. O’Brien, S. and Kenny, D. (2001) ‘In Dublin’s fair city: teaching translation technology at Dublin City University’, Language International 13 (5), 20–3. Pym, A. (2003) ‘Redefining translation competence in an electronic age. In defence of a minimalist approach’, Meta 48 (4), 481–97. Samson, R. (2005) ‘Computer assisted translation’, in M. Tennent (ed.) Training for the New Millennium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 101–26. Shuttleworth, M. (2002) ‘Combining MT and CAT on a technology-oriented translation Masters’, in Teaching Machine Translation: Proceedings of the 6 th EAMT Workshop, Manchester, UK, 14–15 November 2002, Manchester: EAMT. Retrieved at www.mt-archive.info/EAMT-2002-Shuttleworth.pdf, Accessed 29 June 2010. Steiert, A., Steiert, M. and Mariniello, E. (2010) ‘No recession for translation’, Multilingual 21 (6), 45–7. Wheatley, A. (2003) ‘eContent localization resources for translator training: a major breakthrough for translator training’. Retrieved at www.iti.org.uk/ uploadedFiles/surveys/eCoLoRe%20results.pdf, Accessed 13 June 2008. Zanettin, F., Bernardini, S. and Stewart, D. (eds) (2003) Corpora in Translator Education , Manchester: St Jerome. www.certt.ca [accessed 27 January 2011 from www.certt.ca]

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Chapter 5

Assessing Competence in Using Electronic Corpora in Translator Training Patricia Rodríguez-Inés and Amparo Hurtado Albir

1. Introduction The main aim of this chapter is to tackle the question of how to best assess the use of electronic corpora in translator education, from both the teaching and learning perspective, to which end we present a range of instruments specifically designed for this purpose. The chapter describes the pedagogical proposal (Rodríguez-Inés 2008) in the context of which such evaluation has been carried out. The proposal includes seven original teaching units for different levels, and is aiming to fulfil translation market and translator training needs. The results of their implementation with several groups of students and in different classroom subjects are set out further on. With regards to research into education, our interest is focused on the so-called action-research, which is a process of deep inquiry into (teaching) practices, one that is geared to transforming them (Hopkins 1989, Winter 1989, Latorre, Del Rincón and Arnal 1996, Suárez Pazos 2002, etc.). The research presented here is mainly descriptive and uses qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data on teaching and learning about using electronic corpora in translation teaching. The aim of using corpora in translation teaching is to develop translation competence in general, and instrumental competence in particular. More specifically, using electronic corpora to translate can improve translator training by making it less dependent on the lecturer’s experience and more focused on students, their learning process (through reflection and discovery in particular) and the development of their autonomy, as advocated by Aston (1997) and Zanettin et al. (2003). The chapter first establishes the pedagogical bases of our proposal for the development and assessment of competence in using electronic corpora to translate. The competence components and contents are briefly described,

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and a teaching unit designed as an introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate is presented as an example of how the competence can be developed. The section on the actual assessment of the competence includes an open list of its indicators and presents several instruments for the assessment of both learning and teaching. The chapter closes with some interesting results from the evaluation of the teaching proposal.

2. Pedagogical Bases Our pedagogical bases draw on several approaches. We initially apply a constructivist concept of learning in which context and cognitive process development are paramount, and students have an active role in their learning as they adjust their mental models to accommodate new experiences, therefore building new knowledge. Furthermore, our teaching proposal is professionally oriented, in that it is geared to training professional translators. We attach importance to realism in terms of the situations, materials and tasks used for learning, as well as to learning from peers (and other agents involved in the process of translating a text).

2.1 Competence-based training The pedagogical approach called Competence-based Training (CBT) is a logical continuation of objective-based learning (Lasnier 2000: 22). However, in contrast, it involves greater transparency in terms of professional profi le in study programmes, greater emphasis on the outcome of learning, more flexibility and greater integration of all aspects of a curriculum. According to Lasnier (2000: 32),1 a competence is a complex know-how resulting from integration, mobilization and organization of a combination of capabilities and skills (which can be cognitive, affective, psycho-motor or social) and knowledge (declarative knowledge) used efficiently in situations with common characteristics. As shown by the Tuning Project (González and Wagenaar 2004), workers are nowadays required to be more flexible, offer more comprehensive skills, show learning autonomy and be able to adapt to different jobs or roles. In other words, they should have a wide range of competences, both general (i.e. not exclusive to a given professional profile) and specific (i.e. exclusive to a given professional profile), which they will be able to apply depending on the surrounding circumstances. Additionally, good information and communication technologies (ICT) skills constitute a generally required competence. CBT stresses the importance of defining professional profiles, as doing so helps to identify the learning outcomes attached to the competences

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corresponding to such profiles. To define a professional profile, it is necessary to determine what workers need to know (declarative knowledge), what they need to be able to do (procedural knowledge) and how they need to behave . Thus, a competence always comprises several components of different kinds, that is the knowledge, skills and attitudes it entails. A competence’s components give rise to its indicators, which allow for the operationalization2 of the actual competence and for its assessment.

2.2 Competence-based translator training The overall aim of translation education is the development of translation competence (TC) in students. According to the PACTE Group (2005), TC: is considered to be the underlying knowledge system needed to translate and has four distinctive characteristics: (1) it is expert knowledge and not possessed by all bilinguals; (2) it is basically procedural knowledge; (3) it is made up of various interrelated sub-competencies; (4) the strategic component is very important, as it is in all procedural knowledge. (2005: 610) PACTE’s holistic model of TC envisages the existence, interrelation and compensation of several sub-competences (bilingual, extra-linguistic, instrumental, knowledge about translation and strategic) plus psycho-physiological components (PACTE 2003: 60).3 For the purpose of this chapter, we will focus in particular on the model’s instrumental sub-competence, which PACTE defines as ‘predominantly procedural knowledge related to the use of documentation sources and information and communication technologies applied to translation: dictionaries of all kinds, encyclopaedias, grammars, style books, parallel texts, electronic corpora, searchers, etc.’ (ibid.). Working with electronic corpora means managing documentation resources and ICT tools, and doing so as part of translator training can help improve the students’ skills in at least the two areas in question. A proposal for the application of CBT to translation is set out in Hurtado Albir (2007, 2008). Based on PACTE’s TC model, the proposal identifies and operationalizes six categories of specific competences in translation training: methodological and strategic, contrastive, extra-linguistic, occupational, instrumental and textual competences. In order to operationalize these competences, in Hurtado Albir (2007: 19, based on Lasnier 2000: 46ff.) it is suggested that the following items need to be present: (1) the defi nition, which gives an overall idea of the competence; (2) the elements which make up the competence and act as indicators for establishing assessment criteria; (3) the associated discipline-related contents; (4) the assessment criteria.

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2.3 The translation task-based approach The roots of the task- and project-based approach in language teaching lie in the communicative approach, but represent significant methodological improvements in comparison thereto. The task-based approach fosters the integration of not only tasks, but also context identification and analysis, the selection of objectives and contents, and evaluation, giving students a more active role.4 It is on those grounds that, together with competence-based training, we have chosen the translation task-based approach (Hurtado Albir 1993, 1995, 1996) as our proposal’s methodological framework.5 Within this approach, tasks (rather than contents) are the units on the basis of which the learning process is organized. When arranged sequentially and coherently, they give rise to teaching units. Based on Zanón (1990), in Hurtado Albir (1999: 56), a translation task is defined as ‘a unit of work in the classroom, representative of translation practice, formally directed towards learning how to translate and designed with a specific objective, structure and sequence’.

3. Developing Competence in Using Electronic Corpora to Translate We are of the view that using electronic corpora to translate is a competence that translation students should acquire,6 as it is part of instrumental sub-competence and of a translator’s professional profile. The importance and actual use of documentation resources involving texts in the translation profession is unquestionable. Thus, as a competence that translators are expected to possess, the use of electronic corpora to translate should be present in teaching proposals. Furthermore, such proposals and the actual acquisition of the competence should be assessed. As mentioned in the previous section, the components, contents and indicators of a competence must be explicitly defined in order for it to be operationalized.

3.1 Translation competence and competence in using electronic corpora to translate: hierarchy and components Translation competence should be viewed as a whole or as a (macro)competence comprising of several competences, such as the instrumental competence. Competence in using electronic corpora to translate falls into that category, and should be regarded as a very specific competence. This highly specific competence has four components, namely assimilating principles involved in corpus work, building corpora, handling corpus-related software and solving problems using corpora. The competence structure set out in this section is shown in Table 5.1.

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Table 5.1 Translation competence and competence in using electronic corpora to translate Translation competence Ð Instrumental competence

Ð Using electronic corpora to translate Ð Components of competence in using electronic corpora to translate

The underlying declarative and, essentially, operative knowledge system needed to translate (PACTE 2003). Knowledge (both declarative and operative) related to the use of documentation sources and ICT tools to solve translation problems (PACTE 2003). Knowledge (both declarative and operative) related to the use of electronic corpora and corpus-related software to solve translation problems. 1) To assimilate basic principles involved in working with corpora. 2) To build corpora. 3) To handle corpus-related software. 4) To use corpora to solve translation problems.

3.2 Contents The contents shown in Table 5.2 are intended to enable students to acquire competence in using electronic corpora to solve translation problems, and are related to the four components thereof. While only outlined here, due to space limitations, the contents in question are explained in detail in Rodríguez-Inés (2008: 155–8).

3.3 Classroom subjects Competence in using electronic corpora to translate is transversal, in that it can be acquired in a wide range of subjects involved in translation teaching, such as direct and inverse translation, specialized translation, language for translators, documentation, ICT applied to translation, terminology, etc. Furthermore, it can be acquired at all levels of proficiency in translation, in both directions and in different fields of specialization (Pearson 1996, Zanettin 1998, Bowker 2000, Corpas Pastor 2001, López Rodríguez 2002, Monzó 2003, Wilkinson 2005,). This has been demonstrated by Rodríguez-Inés, who designed a proposal for the use of electronic corpora to translate featuring seven different teaching units for different levels and classroom subjects.7 This proposal was and remains, at the time of writing, the most comprehensive of its kind. The teaching units designed are, specifically: (1) ‘Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate’ and (2) ‘Observing contrasts in a parallel corpus’; (3) ‘Building and using a specialized bilingual comparable corpus for translating technical texts’; (4) ‘Raising awareness of translating into the foreign language with corpora’; (5) ‘An ad hoc corpus as a remedy for medical

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Table 5.2 Contents corresponding to the use of electronic corpora to translate I. Basic principles related to corpora Useful corpora for translators: 1- Corpus types. 2- Free on-line corpora. 3- Free online text repositories. 4- The Web as Corpus Basic principles of corpus work: 1- Corpus building. 2- Corpus use II. Corpus building Text sources: 1- Sources in paper format. 2- Sources in electronic format, excluding the internet. 3- Sources on the Internet. 4- Critical attitude towards text sources Management: 1- Importance of naming the fi les in a corpus in a logical manner. 2- Importance of organizing the fi les in a corpus in a logical manner Building: 1- Building a corpus. 2- Calculating representativeness in a corpus III. Corpus-related software and functions Software types: 1- For converting texts from paper into electronic format. 2- For converting PDF documents or images into text. 3- For locating and downloading texts from the internet. 4- For tagging texts. 5- For aligning texts. 6- For converting a parallel corpus into a translation memory. 7- For extracting terminology. 8- For calculating representativeness in a corpus. 9- For extracting concordances from the internet. 10- For analysing corpora: local access programs Corpus analysis software: functions provided by local access programs: 1- Extracting concordances. 2- Visualizing the context. 3- Re-sorting the context. 4- Extracting collocates. 5- Extracting clusters. 6- Extracting plots. 7- Extracting wordlists. 8- Aligning texts IV. Solving translation problems using electronic corpora Selecting the most appropriate corpus Solving translation problems in general and specialized language: 1- Conceptual information. 2- Microtextual elements. 3- Macrotextual elements. 4- Contrastive elements between two languages

translation’; (6) ‘A corpus and a translation memory’ and (7) ‘Using corpora only’. The next section features an example of the design of a teaching unit.

3.4 Designing a teaching unit: ‘Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate’ This teaching unit introduces students to some of the advantages that working with electronic corpora entails when translating a text on the basis of other documents. It establishes certain fundamental principles of corpus use, such as the importance of corpus composition and size, and the influence of those factors on the results obtained. Students identify several information extraction strategies that will enable them to exploit a corpus with corpus analysis software. The unit initially guides students to develop critical thinking and research skills and an ability to work autonomously, as they will need to formulate questions, conduct searches and interpret results themselves. The related materials included in this unit are presented in Appendix 1.

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Table 5.3 Teaching unit outline LEVEL

Beginner

SUBJECT

Introduction to direct translation (English – Spanish)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Objectives related to the use of corpora Learn basic concepts related to corpora Identify basic methodological principles of corpus work Conduct basic searches in online corpora Use basic functions of corpus analysis software Integrate knowledge and skills to solve translation problems using corpora at a basic level

z z z z z

Objectives related to the subject of translation z Become familiar with and use basic translation-related software z Evaluate documentary resources z Acquire documentation strategies CONTENTS

z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

STRUCTURE

z z z z z z z

ASSESSMENT

Various types of corpora Online English corpora (BNC ) Online Spanish corpora (CREA) The Web as Corpus (public internet) Corpus size Relationship between the results offered by a corpus and the texts it comprises Strategies to extract relevant information from a corpus Advantages of corpora compared to other electronic resources Advantages of software compared to human beings Commercial corpus analysis software (WordSmith Tools) Concord function (from WordSmith Tools) Grow/Shrink function (from WordSmith Tools) Re-sort function (from WordSmith Tools) Extracting language features Extracting collocates Extracting phraseology Task 1: ‘The results offered by a corpus depend on its composition’ Task 2: ‘Basic functions of corpus analysis software’ Task 3: ‘A bigger corpus is not always a better corpus’ Task 4: ‘Human eyes may err’ Task 5: ‘A corpus can provide more comprehensive and varied information than other resources’ Task 6: ‘How to ask a corpus questions’ Final task: ‘Exploiting a corpus to translate a text’

Indicators At the end of students’ learning process, and according to their documentation needs, they will be able to: z Indicator 1: select one or more appropriate corpora z Indicator 2: enter an appropriate search string z Indicator 3: apply search restrictions z Indicator 4: sort the results obtained z Indicator 5: use the software functions available Assessment instruments z Questionnaire on the use of electronic corpora when translating z Self-evaluation questionnaire z Student satisfaction questionnaire z Learning diary

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The tasks corresponding to the teaching unit outlined in Table 5.3 are summarized below.

TASK 1: The results offered by a corpus depend on its composition DEVELOPMENT: (1) A learning diary is provided. (2) Students use Text 1 and Worksheet 1 to search for the same word in different documentary resources, to check its different uses. (3) Students are provided with a tutorial on using WordSmith Tools and with Worksheet 2, in order for them to learn how to use and how to keep a record of the program’s most helpful functions respectively. Group dynamics: work in pairs and individually. Estimated duration: 2 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheets: 1; 2; Learning diary Texts: A text in English containing a word with several meanings, one of which corresponds to the field of economics (Text 1: ‘Women’s Growth Capital Fund’) Support material: Tutorial on using WordSmith Tools Electronic tools and resources: z z z

Online general English corpus (British National Corpus – BNC ) Financial newspaper corpus in English (Financial Times) and its description WordSmith Tools

EVALUATION: Students discuss and compare their results from Worksheet 1 with one another.

TASK 2: Basic functions of corpus analysis software DEVELOPMENT: Students use Worksheet 3 to search for various types of data in a corpus. They will have to use truncated searches and context words, expand the context, etc. Group dynamics: work individually. Estimated duration: 2 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheets: 2; 3 Electronic tools and resources: z z z

Online bilingual economics glossary (AndyMiles) Financial newspaper corpus in English (Financial Times) WordSmith Tools

EVALUATION: Students discuss their conclusions with one another. The lecturer emphasizes that while two words may have the same meaning, there will be some variation in the ways they are used (i.e. they will not be 100% interchangeable in all contexts).

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TASK 3: A bigger corpus is not always a better corpus DEVELOPMENT: (1) Students use Worksheet 4 to compare their native intuition with corpus evidence, and with a view to them realizing that they should use a general language corpus to study a general language phenomenon. (2) Students use Worksheet 5 to search for the same term in a general language corpus and a specialized corpus, and to compare their results. Group dynamics: work in pairs. Estimated duration: 2 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheets: 4; 5 Texts: A text in Spanish containing the words ‘fondo’ and ‘fondos’, as well as the conjunction ‘pero’ at the start of a sentence (Text 2: ‘Invertir los ahorros’) Electronic tools and resources: z z

Online general Spanish corpus (CREA) Financial newspaper corpus in Spanish (Expansión) and its description

TASK 4: Human eyes may err DEVELOPMENT: (1) Students use Worksheet 6 to compare the results they obtain from a corpus first without and then with the help of a piece of software. (2) To that end, they will have to learn program functions such as Collocates and Clusters. Group dynamics: work in pairs. Estimated duration: 3 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheets: 2; 6 Texts: A text in English or Spanish about synergies (Text 3: ‘Synergies: A business guide’) Electronic tools and resources z z

Online general Spanish corpus (CREA) Financial newspaper corpus in Spanish (Expansión)

EVALUATION: Students perform the same type of exercise with a different term.

TASK 5: A corpus can provide more comprehensive and varied information than other resources DEVELOPMENT: (1) Students contextualize certain terms in Text 4 and Text 5. (2) Students use Worksheet 7 to search for the same term in different sources and write down the type of information provided by each resource, including corpora. Group dynamics: work in pairs. Estimated duration: 2 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheet: 7 Texts: Two texts in Spanish containing ‘fondo’ or ‘fondos’ with different meanings (Text 4: ‘Fondo Global para Mujeres’; Text 5: ‘Perspectivas esperanzadoras para los Fondos de Pensiones’)

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Electronic tools and resources: z z z z z z z z

Online Spanish normative dictionary (DRAE) Online general Spanish dictionary (Vox) Online general bilingual dictionary (WordReference) Online multilingual economics glossaries (FMI; Andy Miles) Non-specialized webpage on investments (El Inversor) Online general Spanish corpus (CREA) Financial newspaper corpus in Spanish (Expansión) WordSmith Tools

EVALUATION: The results of Worksheet 7 are read out aloud to ensure that everybody has understood all the advantages that using corpora for documentation purposes entails.

TASK 6: How to ask a corpus questions DEVELOPMENT: Students use Worksheet 8 to extract information of different kinds in various ways. They have to keep a record of the search strategies and software functions employed. Group dynamics: work in pairs. Estimated duration: 2 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheet: 8 Electronic tools and resources: z

z

Concordances of ‘fondo’ and ‘fondos’ extracted from the Expansión corpus and saved during the previous task WordSmith Tools

FINAL TASK: Exploiting a corpus to translate a text DEVELOPMENT: (1) Students are given a source text in English (Text 6 or 7) and a translation brief, with a view to them translating selected fragments of the former. They will already be familiar with the source text’s genre and topic. (2) Students are provided with a range of corpora, both general and specialized, in the source and the target languages, as their only documentation resources. (3) As students translate, they fill in the questionnaire on the use of electronic corpora when translating, which serves as a record of the steps they take when using corpora to solve five pre-selected problems. Group dynamics: work individually. Estimated duration: 3 hours. MATERIALS: Worksheets: Questionnaire on the use of corpora when translating; Selfevaluation questionnaire; Student satisfaction questionnaire Texts: A text in English from a financial newspaper (Text 6: ‘JSE expects gold futures to excite strong appetites’ or Text 7: ‘Britain must avoid Germany’s mistake, says Feldstein’)

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Electronic tools and resources z z z z z

Online general English corpus (British National Corpus – BNC ) Online general Spanish corpus (CREA) Financial newspaper corpus in English (Financial Times) Financial newspaper corpus in Spanish (Expansión) WordSmith Tools

EVALUATION: (1) Translation quality will be assessed on the basis of its adequacy in relation to the translation brief and function. (2) At the end of the teaching unit, a self-evaluation questionnaire and a student satisfaction questionnaire are provided for students to assess what they have learned. They should also hand in their learning diary.

4. Assessing competence in using electronic corpora to translate The object of our assessment is twofold. On one hand, students’ actual use of the corpora and tools available when solving specific translation problems is assessed; on the other hand, the entire teaching unit is assessed in terms of design, planning, timing, student satisfaction, etc. In order to assess the above, we have designed several instruments that will be presented in the coming sections.

4.1 Assessment as a source of information According to Martínez Melis and Hurtado Albir (2001), research in assessment should be geared to approaches that are more empirical than those prevalent to date. We work on the principle that the object of study of assessment in translation consists not only of the end product, that is the translated text, but also of the process that has given rise thereto. Similarly, we view assessment as not merely the act of gauging the level of a competence in order to assign students a mark (summative assessment), but also as a source of information that can improve teaching and learning (formative assessment). Where curriculum design is concerned, formative assessment is an invaluable source of feedback on the implementation of a teaching proposal or, more specifically, a teaching unit. The possibility of integrating assessment into a teaching unit alongside competences, contents and materials, as part of the learning process, is one of the advantages that embracing the translation task-based approach as our methodological framework entails. Such integration is actually unavoidable when specifying competence assessment indicators, as they need to be directly linked to the competence’s components and contents. Competence indicators are instances of observable behaviour which are vital when assessing a competence. They indicate the learning outcomes that students are to assimilate.

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Both the evaluator and the trainee need to monitor the teaching and learning process if it is to provide data that can be used to improve it. In our case, assessment has focused on achieving the objectives (those related to the use of corpora to translate and those related to translation) selected for each task and teaching unit. In that regard, we have focused on assessing the process (i.e. the use of corpora) rather than the overall quality of the end product (i.e. the translations), although we have taken quality into account as a control variable. We have developed several instruments for the purposes of carrying out such assessment, including various questionnaires, charts and other resources for monitoring students’ progress.

4.2 Competence indicators Table 5.4 contains a series of indicators liable to be taken into account when assessing the use of corpora to translate. In other words, using corpora for translation implies carrying out operations related to at least some of the indicators in question. Indicators will thus be selected based on the type of task being performed and the objectives being assessed. Items in the list in Table 5.4 are displayed in no particular order.8 Table 5.4 Indicators liable to be assessed in relation to the use of electronic corpora to translate At the end of students’ learning process, and according to their documentation needs, they will be able to: z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

select one or more appropriate corpora use different types of online corpora perform searches in PDF documents as if they were a corpus perform quality searches (entering useful words/expressions/context words, carrying out truncated searches, etc.) sort the results obtained use the software functions available select one or more appropriate pieces of software build a quality ad hoc corpus use PDF document conversion software locate and download online electronic texts use software for aligning texts convert a parallel corpus into a translation memory extract bilingual concordances from a computer-assisted translation program in order to use a translation memory as a corpus interpret frequency data find equivalents to contrastive elements between two languages (English and Spanish, in this case) solve translation problems in general and specialized language find translation equivalents (terminology/collocates/phraseology) in scientific and technical texts use corpus data to justify a translation solution solve translation problems in a reasonable period of time

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In addition to the indicators listed, the acceptability of the equivalent proposed is used as a control variable, and is evaluated only as correct or incorrect when assessing the use of electronic corpora to translate.

4.3 Assessment instruments As Martínez Melis and Hurtado Albir (2001) state, there are other ways to evaluate competence in translating rather than simply focusing on translated texts. We have applied that principle to corpus use in translation and have sought to obtain information through various means, bearing in mind that different instruments are necessary for assessing the process and the product. The instruments we have developed for the purpose of assessing the use of corpora to translate are listed below: Instruments designed for assessing learning: (1) A learning diary, for students to keep a record of the knowledge and skills they feel they have acquired, and for the lecturer to have access to the students’ reflections. (2) A self-evaluation questionnaire, for students to assess their own learning at the end of every teaching unit. (3) A questionnaire on the use of electronic corpora when translating, for students to keep a record of the steps taken when using a corpus while solving a translation problem, and for the lecturer to assess whether such steps have been the most appropriate for the translation task in hand. (4) A triangulation chart, for the lecturer to integrate data on how students have used the corpora and tools available when solving a translation problem, whether they have arrived at a correct solution (acceptability), and whether the contents or skills involved have been assimilated or acquired.9 Instruments designed for assessing teaching: (1) An observation chart, for the lecturer to record their observations during the implementation of the teaching unit. (2) A student satisfaction questionnaire, for students to record their own observations at the end of every teaching unit, especially regarding the contents and methodology used. The observation chart and the learning diary are more general instruments for monitoring lessons and students over a period that may extend beyond the duration of a teaching unit. The other instruments are more specific and need to be adapted to every teaching unit or task to be evaluated.

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4.3.1 Learning assessment instruments Learning Diary We designed a basic learning diary to provide an insight into students’ perception of their learning process. Students were encouraged to record their thoughts on their assimilation and acquisition of contents and skills in the diary, in their own words and even in an informal tone (Table 5.5).

Self-evaluation Questionnaire We designed a self-evaluation questionnaire for students to appraise their own learning at the end of every teaching unit. The questionnaire is geared to obtaining information on what students think they have learned and how proficient they think they have become (rated on a scale of 0 to 10), and how Table 5.5 Learning diary WHAT I HAVE LEARNED TODAY ABOUT . . . Date How language in general works

Linguistic features of English/Spanish

Extra-linguistic features of English/Spanish

Textual features of English/Spanish

Pragmatic features of English/Spanish

Functions of WordSmith Tools or other programs

Other matters (corpus linguistics, etc.)

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useful they perceive electronic corpora to be. A real example of a self-evaluation questionnaire, featuring specific questions on the contents of the teaching unit entitled ‘Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate’ is shown in Table 5.6.

Table 5.6 Self-evaluation questionnaire on the teaching unit ‘Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate’ SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE ‘INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF ELECTRONIC CORPORA TO TRANSLATE’ Subject: Introduction to translating (English-Spanish) Please rate from 0 to 10 I am able to: • understand that the results obtained from searching a corpus are directly influenced by the quantity and quality of the texts it comprises • understand that while some searches require a large corpus, big is not always necessarily better • understand some of the benefits of using corpus analysis software, such as WordSmith Tools , when analysing large quantities of text • see that an electronic corpus can be a useful resource for documentation purposes • understand what kind of questions I can ask a corpus and how they should be formulated • make the most of a corpus when using it to translate a text Using corpora has helped me to: • translate better • find translation equivalents • feel more confident about a translation solution • understand the source text better • understand how important collocates are • be more aware of the nature of parallel texts used for documentation purposes (source, date, original or translation, etc.) • other (please specify)

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4.3.2 Teaching assessment instruments Observation Chart As can be seen in Table 5.7 the lecturer uses an observation chart to collect information on the adequacy of the teaching units and tasks designed, and to record their impressions of students’ assimilation of learning objectives, the progression of contents, the time devoted to each task, etc.

Student Satisfaction Questionnaire This questionnaire (Table 5.8) enables students to freely offer their opinions, comments and suggestions on completed teaching units.

Table 5.7 Observation chart OBSERVATION CHART TEACHING UNIT ‘. . .’ Date GENERAL COMMENTS

COMMENTS ON TASKS

COMMENTS ON WORKSHEETS

Table 5.8 Student satisfaction questionnaire STUDENT SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE TEACHING UNIT ‘. . .’ Comments on this unit • Do you think that by using electronic corpora you have learned a new way of finding information to solve translation problems in a text? Please be as explicit as possible. • Is there anything in this teaching unit that you have especially liked? Please be as explicit as possible. • Is there anything you have not liked? Please be as explicit as possible. • What changes would you make?

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4.4 Data gathered The results that will be presented here arose from the implementation of seven different teaching units, which were tested with six groups of students at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (approximately 200 students between 2002 and 2008) in four different subjects (introduction to direct and inverse translation and specialized direct and inverse translation). Overall, the sources of data collected were as follows: z z z z

44 learning diaries 100 self-evaluation questionnaires 7 observation charts (1 per teaching unit) 96 student satisfaction questionnaires.

A number of findings on both learning and teaching were made on the basis of the sources of data in question.

4.4.1 Findings on the learning process Learning Diaries The following findings from the 44 learning diaries collected are worthy of note, in that they offer the lecturer valuable information on what students consider the most outstanding aspects of their learning experience: 1) It is very important to make the objective of each exercise or task explicit and emphasize what is being learned or acquired , whether before, while or after carrying it out, so that students are aware of and retain the learning involved. 2) Students greatly appreciate working with electronic resources in general and corpora in particular, as it allows them to save time by consulting many texts at once. 3) Students have understood the aim of the proposal , as they are aware that they have acquired new documentation skills and developed a more critical attitude towards resources and translation.

Self-evaluation Questionnaires The 100 self-evaluation questionnaires collected showed that students had become more self-confident in several respects. Table 5.9 presents the highest scoring items for each teaching unit’s ‘I am able to . . .’ section, along with the corresponding score and group size: As Table 5.9 shows, the items in which students became most confident varied, depending on the teaching unit’s focus. These items range from more

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Table 5.9 Data from the ‘I am able to . . .’ section in self-evaluation questionnaires Teaching unit

Highest and second highest scoring items (‘I am able to . . .’)

Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate

1st: Distinguish between searches for which using a large, general corpus is more appropriate and those for which using a small, specialized corpus is more appropriate 2nd: Understand that the results retrieved from a corpus are directly linked to (the quantity and quality of) the texts it contains 1st: See the wide variety of potential Spanish translations of the deictic pronoun ‘this’ 2nd: See the differences between how the dash is used in English and Spanish See the wide variety of potential Spanish translations of the dash 1st: Understand the importance of naming and organizing the files in a corpus in a logical manner 2nd: Identify the characteristics of the textual genre ‘Technical description of small home appliances’ as they appear on the internet in English and Spanish 1st: Work in a pair / group when translating into a foreign language 2nd: See how repetitive and predictable language can be Be critical about native speakers’ intuition about their mother tongue Resort the context in a concordance set depending on the focus of interest

8.8

1st: Use internet text search engines and downloaders (for instance, Buscopio, Medline, Scirus, WebCopier, Flashgot) 2nd: Convert PDF documents or images into text (for instance, TextfromPdf) to reap the maximum benefit from them 1st: Use a target-language comparable corpus as a translation aid 2nd: Analyse specific documentation needs depending on the characteristics of the source text and the translation brief

8.9

Observing contrasts in a parallel corpus

Building and using a specialized bilingual comparable corpus for translating technical texts

Raising awareness of translating into the foreign language with corpora

A corpus and a translation memory

Using corpora only

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Score Student (out of 10) group size 8

8.4

8.3

9

8.1

8.7

37

8.4

8.7

6

8.2

14

8.7

7.9

26

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general issues concerning corpus building and searching to very specific contrastive or descriptive issues involving a particular language pair or genre. Crucially, most items scored 8 or above out of 10, showing that students believe their capability of performing the corresponding activities to be quite high. Several clear trends were observed in relation to the perceived usefulness of using corpora (‘Using corpora has helped me to:’ section). Note that in this section the items hardly varied from one teaching unit to another. The following items are those to which students assigned the highest scores: 1) Be more confident about a translation solution . 2) Understand the importance of collocations. 3) Find translation equivalents. From the lecturer’s perspective, it is certainly rewarding to see that the use of corpora in the translation classroom has had a positive impact on aspects that translators will find essential in their profession, such as self-confidence and the quality and naturalness of the actual product of translation. The items to which students assigned the lowest scores (which were still relatively high on the scale from 0 to 10) were: 1) Translate better. Students felt that using corpora did not help them produce better translations overall, although they did find them useful for identifying translation equivalents, according to their answers to a more specific question on the questionnaire. 2) Be more aware of the nature of parallel texts used for documentation purposes. This was not among the main purposes of most of the teaching units being tested.

4.4.2 Findings on the teaching process Observation Charts The following findings were made on the basis of the seven charts filled in: 1) Students need close guidance at the beginning of their learning process to avoid them being overwhelmed by the quantity of data obtainable. 2) Students need time to assimilate what corpora are and understand the new form of language analysis they entail . The implication of these findings for training is that students seem to work at a slower pace at the very beginning of the process of acquiring competence in using corpora to translate than later on. It has been observed that their learning process speeds up as soon as they grasp some essential principles,

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learn how to work with corpus-analysis tools (even at a basic level), and see the benefits of corpus work.

Student Satisfaction Questionnaires The 96 student satisfaction questionnaires collected revealed certain trends common to all the teaching units under assessment. Based on the students’ questionnaires, the following conclusions were reached on their use of corpus methodology: 1) Using electronic corpora for documentation purposes has been a new experience for almost all students. Students admit that their documentation skills previously mainly involved searching through dictionaries and webpages inefficiently. Using corpus methodology and software alongside exercises for optimizing document and information searches has helped students to solve translation problems. The main aspects students have found helpful include being able to: handle large quantities of parallel texts; conduct searches and obtain noise-free data; observe terms in context and discover their meaning and use; check frequency data; and, above all, carry out analyses based on complex terms, phrases, clusters, collocates or genre, rather than on single words. 2) Certain types of problems can only be solved using corpora , such as those related to frequency data or genre-specific features. 3) A corpus search can help students solve problems of which they were hitherto unaware , provided that they look beyond a single word or microtextual element in order to make the most of a set of data. 4) Both the quality and quantity of parallel texts are important, especially where extracting patterns of use is concerned. 5) Corpus building is useful and renders the documentation process more efficient . Although students initially feel that building a corpus is time-consuming, they acknowledge that doing so is worthwhile when translating specialized texts. 6) Using corpora in the classroom has revealed new uses for such resources, such as avoiding mistakes arising from the proximity of two languages, as usage and context can be easily observed. The aspects of using corpora which students found most positive are: 1) The approach is innovative , with a clear orientation towards students. 2) Contents are transmitted in an eminently practical way, and students learn how to use tools and resources in context , that is in translation subjects taught in IT suites. 3) Using corpora helps to improve translation quality as they offer greater scope and flexibility in terms of finding translation equivalents than dictionaries and general online search engines.

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4) Using corpora gives students greater confidence in their translation solutions, and can also cause them to question solutions proposed before using corpora, which might have both positive and negative implications. 5) Using corpora saves time when translating, once the corpus building process is complete. 6) Using corpora facilitates learning about the languages involved in a translation task and about translation itself. 7) Some of the skills acquired while using corpora are especially useful , such as identifying errors or creative terms in a corpus, searching by lemma or part of speech and searching within a translation memory. The suggestions made by students are as follows: 1) There should be more actual translation, in the traditional sense . Despite recognizing the usefulness of completing worksheets and exercises before, or instead of, translating a text, students miss translation in the strict sense of the word. 2) Students should build their own corpora and be given greater autonomy. Students would like to be pushed a little harder in the introductory teaching units. 3) Students should have been introduced to corpus-related contents at the beginning of their training in translation . To our satisfaction, the vast majority of students have a very high opinion of each teaching unit’s contents and organization, even stressing the usefulness of everything they have learned and acquired for the present and future. They regret not having been introduced to corpus methodology earlier in their studies.

5. Conclusion In the interest of improving translation education, we believe that it is important that teaching proposals be thoughtfully and coherently designed, and take every relevant pedagogical aspect into account, particularly the competences involved, the competence indicators to be assessed and the learning outcomes expected of students. We also believe that such proposals should be assessed so as to provide tried and tested methods for the field. In that respect, this chapter has described a pedagogical proposal for the use of electronic corpora in translator training, assessment procedures and results. We have shown that using corpora to translate is a highly specific competence within instrumental competence and translation competence, and that students can begin working with corpora at an early stage of their training. It must be emphasized that this competence can be acquired at different levels and in different classroom subjects (general or specialized, direct or inverse translation), as well as in different pedagogical contexts. Furthermore, the proposal presented here is not just about learning how to use corpora in

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isolation, but always oriented to fulfilling translation market and translator training needs, and to integrating corpora into such training in a meaningful way. In that respect, the literature on corpus linguistics rarely addresses the topic of translator education; when it does so, it is usually in relation to language teaching (Olohan 2004: 13). In relation to the question of how to best assess the use of electronic corpora to translate, this chapter has presented our attempts to implement assessment in such a way as to provide us not only with information on our teaching and students’ learning process (formative assessment), for the purposes of making improvements thereto, but also with a means of assigning marks (summative assessment). To perform such assessment, it has been necessary to design a range of instruments, including a list of competence indicators, different types of questionnaires, charts, etc. All the instruments in question have been tested in the classroom and have proved useful for assessing various aspects of the teaching and learning processes. Nonetheless, a note of caution should be added, as carrying out such a thorough assessment of the teaching and learning process requires a considerable amount of time. From a teaching perspective, and based on all of the data provided in this chapter, it can be concluded that the teaching proposal, which was designed to be tested in the classroom and assessed through various means, has been successful in terms of both students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills and their satisfaction with it. The student satisfaction questionnaire data have, rewardingly, confirmed how positive the students’ attitude was towards the new experience of using corpora as documentation resources. The fact that the students were happy with the efficiency of their documentation process, the time it saved them, the improvement in the quality of their translations and their confidence in their translation solutions, among other considerations, makes us optimistic that they may today be using and encouraging the use of corpora in translation teaching, as well as in the professional world, where the use of such resources is still undoubtedly limited (Bowker 2004) and basically consists of them serving as translation memories. From a learning perspective, the clearest benefits of using corpora, according to the students involved in the testing of the teaching units designed as part of the proposal, include greater self-confidence and increased awareness of the importance of collocates when translating, as well as the possibility of accessing meaningful frequency data. Raising students’ confidence and awareness and giving them access to data that they will have to interpret undoubtedly makes them more independent learners, which is one of the goals of the European university reform. Furthermore, students appear to have a positive opinion of the practical nature of the work involved (i.e. the fact that it can be immediately applied to any translation task) and they feel that using corpora is a whole new way of extracting information. Finally, our belief that translation students should

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begin using corpora at an early stage of their training has been backed by students’ comments.

Appendix: Worksheets from the Teaching Unit ‘Introduction to the use of electronic corpora to translate’ Worksheet 1: What each documentary resource can offer Think of each of the resources supplied as a separate corpus. Search for the term ‘fund’/‘funds’ in each resource and provide the requested information. ‘FUND’ / ‘FUNDS’

Text 1

Internet

British National Corpus (online)

Financial Times Corpus (+WordSmith Tools)

In general , does the resource contain documents in UK English / US English / both? What type of document is the resource, or what types of document does it contain? In what specific types of document have you found the term? Subject fields in which the term appears Different meanings of the term Expressions including the term Dates of the documents found Mode of the documents found: oral / written

Worksheet 2: Corpus analysis software functions List the functions of any corpus-related software you use (WordSmith Tools , AntConc , etc.) and provide the requested information. FUNCTIONS

PURPOSE

EXAMPLE

Concord Grow Shrink Re-sort ...

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Worksheet 3: Extracting information in a different way Think of possible equivalents in English for the Spanish term ‘bolsa’ in the context of economics. Then use the Financial Times corpus and WordSmith Tools to answer the questions. QUESTIONS

ANSWERS

How is ‘bolsa’ translated in the online bilingual economics glossary at www.andymiles.com? Are ‘stock exchange’ and ‘bourse’ synonyms? Number of concordances of ‘bourse’ in the Financial Times corpus? Number of concordances of ‘stock exchange’ in the Financial Times corpus? What does the difference in the number of concordances mean? Search for complex terms containing ‘bourse’ or ‘stock exchange’. Re-sort the concordances (1L, 1R). Why are these re-sort criteria not useful in the case of ‘stock exchange’? Re-sort the concordances again with improved criteria. What is the most typical construction in English to express the idea ‘bolsa de una ciudad ’? Are there any cases that do not follow the same pattern? Why? Are there acronyms formed with ‘stock exchange’? Are there acronyms formed with ‘bourse’? Write down all the acronyms containing these terms. Are there any cases of ‘bourse’ acting as a pre-modifier? If so, give an example. Are there any cases of ‘stock exchange’ acting as a pre-modifier? If so, give an example. Are there any cases of ‘stock exchange’ and ‘bourse’ appearing in the same sentence? Comment on every case in which the two terms appear together. Are ‘stock exchange’ and ‘bourse’ synonyms?

Worksheet 4: Studying usage Extract concordances of ‘Pero’ at the beginning of a sentence from the peninsular Spanish component of the CREA corpus. Use the statistical information obtained to fi ll in the table. ‘Pero’

Number of concordances Books

Newspapers

Magazines

Miscellaneous

Oral

Mode (oral/written) Year with most occurrences Subject field with most occurrences

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Worksheet 5: Explaining statistics Search for the specified terms in the CREA corpus and the Expansión corpus. Write down the number of occurrences in each corpus and some examples, and answer the questions that follow. Number of occurrences in the CREA corpus (approx. 154 million words)

Number of occurrences in the Expansión corpus (approx. 9.3 million words)

‘fondo’ ‘fondos’

Questions • Why do you think there are more occurrences of ‘fondo’ than ‘fondos’ in a general language corpus such as the CREA corpus? • Illustrate with examples • Why do you think there are more occurrences of ‘fondos’ than ‘fondo’ in a specialized corpus such as the Expansión corpus? • Illustrate with examples • Why do you think there are more occurrences of ‘fondo’ + ‘fondos’ overall in the CREA corpus than in the Expansión corpus?

Worksheet 6: Human observation vs computer objectivity Think about everything you know about the concept of ‘sinergia’ (meaning, spelling, collocates, etc.). Enter the specified truncated search in the CREA corpus and answer the questions in just 5 minutes, without any help. Then repeat the exercise, this time using WordSmith Tools and the Expansión corpus. ‘SINERGIA’/ ‘SINERGIAS’ (sinerg*)

CREA corpus

Expansión corpus + WordSmith Tools

Number of occurrences Which are the most common words (appearing at least three times) surrounding ‘sinergia/s’? How many times do they appear together? Which verbs usually appear with (appearing at least three times)? How many times do they appear together? Are there any patterns of use with ‘sinergia/s’, such as word combinations, complex terms, etc.? Give examples.

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Worksheet 7: Documentary resources Search for the specified terms in each resource and provide the requested information. ‘FONDO’ / ‘FONDOS’

Provides defi nitions?

Number of solutions/meanings

Provides contextualized examples in full sentences or texts?

Provides frequency data?

Provides translation equivalents in English?

Normative general dictionary DRAE www.rae.es (monolingual)

General dictionary wordreference.com (monolingual and bilingual) Specialized glossary FMI www.imf. org/external/np/term/index. asp?index=esl&index_langid=3 (multilingual)

Assessing Competence

General dictionary Vox www.diccionarios. com (monolingual and bilingual)

Non-specialized webpage www.elinversor. com (monolingual) Specialized glossary www.andymiles.com (bilingual) CREA corpus http://corpus.rae.es/creanet. html (monolingual) Specialized corpus Expansión (monolingual) + WordSmith Tools

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Worksheet 8: Asking a corpus questions Think about the functions you could use or the operations you could carry out to provide the requested information on the term ‘fondo/s’, and give examples. Finally, answer the questions at the end of the worksheet. if I need to know . . .

. . . what search strategies can be applied? which wordsmith tools functions would be of help?

examples from the expansión corpus (if applicable)

Definition: What is a ‘fondo’? Types: What are the most frequently occurring or popular types of ‘fondos’? Relations: What other concepts are related to a ‘fondo’? Actions: What can be done with a ‘fondo’? Figures: Who is usually associated with a ‘fondo’? Characteristics: What are the characteristics of a ‘fondo’? Choose a type. Patterns: What combinations of words include ‘fondo’? Patterns: What are the most frequently occurring grammatical combinations including ‘fondo’? (e.g. N + adj) Cases: Are there any examples of the meaning of ‘fondo’ not being related to economics?

Questions What if a monolingual corpus does not provide the exact terminological equivalent I need? How else can such a corpus help me? Where can I search? Answer:

Notes 1

2

Translated from French. The original quote reads: ‘Un savoir-agir complexe résultant de l’intégration, de la mobilisation et de l’agencement d’un ensemble de capacités et d’habilités (pouvant être d’ordre cognitif, affectif, psychomoteur ou social) et de connaissances (connaissances déclaratives) utilisées efficacement, dans des situations ayant un caractère commun’ (Lasnier 2000: 32). Operationalizing a competence means defining it in such a way as to make it possible to plan its acquisition in pedagogical terms.

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5

6

7

8

9

123

Although there are other models of TC (Wilss 1976, Bell 1991, Neubert 2000, Kelly 2005, etc.), only those of Alves and Gonçalves (2007) and PACTE have been empirically validated. See Hurtado Albir (2001: 382–408, 2010) and Hurtado Albir and Alves (2009) for a review of various TC models. There are numerous contributions on the task-based approach in language teaching (Candlin and Murphy 1987, Nunan 1989, Hutchinson 1991, Ribe and Vidal 1993, Estaire and Zanón 1994, Willis 1996, etc.). Another author who has made extensive use of the task-based approach in translation is González-Davies (2003, 2004). Varantola (2003) and Oster (2007) have also described the use of electronic corpora to translate as a competence, although this piece of work examines the concept in greater depth. Although the proposal presented here was tested in a Spanish undergraduate degree, it could also be put into practice in different contexts. This is an open list, which should obviously be extended if designing a curriculum with a broader scope. Due to space limitations, a detailed explanation and an illustrative example of how a full evaluation of the use of corpora to solve several translation problems is carried out cannot be provided here. However, such an explanation, including a description of the questionnaire on the use of electronic corpora when translating as well as the triangulation chart, is available in Rodríguez-Inés (2009).

References Alves, F. and Gonçalves, J. L. (2007) ‘Modelling translator’s competence: relevance and expertise under scrutiny’, in Y. Gambier, M. Shlesinger and R. Stolze (eds) Translation Studies: Doubts and Directions. Selected Papers from the IV Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies , 41–55, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Aston, G. (1997) ‘Involving learners in developing learning methods: exploiting text corpora in self-access’, in P. Benson and P. Voller (eds) Autonomy & Independence in Language Learning, 204–14, London; New York: Longman. Bell, R. T. (1991) Translation and Translating, London: Longman. Bowker, L. (2000) ‘Towards a methodology for exploiting specialized target language corpora as translation resources’, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 5 (1), 17–52. — (2004) ‘Corpus resources for translators: academic luxury or professional necessity?’, TradTerm 10, 213–47. Candlin, C. and Murphy, D. (eds) (1987) Language Learning Tasks, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Corpas Pastor, G. (2001) ‘Compilación de un corpus ad hoc para la enseñanza de la traducción inversa especializada’, Trans 5, 155–84. Retrieved at www.trans. uma.es/Trans _5/t5_155–184_GCorpas.pdf, Accessed 17 March 2011. Estaire, S. and Zanón, J. (1994) Planning Classwork. A Task-based Approach , Oxford: Heinemann.

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Gonzáles, J. and Wagenaar, R. (eds) (2004) Tuning General Brochure. English Version . Retrieved at http://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu/images/stories/template/ General _Brochure_final_version.pdf, Accessed 15 March 2011. Gonzáles Davies, M. (2003) (coord.) Secuencias: tareas para el aprendizaje interactivo de la traducción especializada , Barcelona: Octaedro-EUB. — (2004) Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hopkins, D. (1989) Investigación en el aula , Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias. Hurtado Albir, A. (1993) ‘Un nuevo enfoque de la didáctica de la traducción. Metodología y diseño curricular’, in R. Gauchola et al. (eds) Les langues étrangères dans l’Europe de l’acte Unique, 239–52, Bellaterra: ICE, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. — (1995) ‘La didáctica de la traducción: evolución y estado actual’, in P. Fernández and J. M. Bravo (eds) Perspectivas de la traducción , 49–74, Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid. — (1996) ‘La enseñanza de la traducción directa “general”: objetivos de aprendizaje y metodología’, in A. Hurtado Albir (ed.) La enseñanza de la traducción (Collecció Estudis sobre la traducció, 3), 31–55, Castellón de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I. — (1999) Enseñar a traducir. Metodología en la formación de traductores e intérpretes, Madrid: Edelsa. — (2001) Traducción y traductología. Introducción a la traductología (Fifth revised edition 2011), Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, S.A. — (2007) ‘Competence-based curriculum design for training translators’, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 1 (2), 163–95. — (2008) ‘La compétence en traduction et la formation par compétences’, TTR 21 (1), 17–64. — (2010) ‘Competence’, in Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer (eds) Handbook of Translation Studies , 55–9, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hurtado Albir, A. and Alves, F. (2009) ‘Translation as a cognitive activity’, in J. Munday (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, 54–73, London: Routledge. Hutchinson, T. (1991) Introduction to Project Work , Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Lasnier, F. (2000) Réussir la formation par competences, Montreal: Guérin. Lattore, A., del Rincón, D. and Justo Arnal, J. (1996) Bases metodológicas de la investigación educativa , Barcelona: Gráficas 92/Hurtado Ediciones. López Rodríguez, C. I. (2002) ‘Training translators to learn from news report corpora: the case of Anglo-American cultural references’, in B. Maia, J. Haller and M. Ulrych (eds) Training the Language Services Provider for the New Millennium , 213–22, Oporto: AstraFlup. Martínez Melis, N. and Hurtado Albir, A. (2001) ‘Assessment in translation studies: research needs’, Meta 46 (2), 272–87. Retrieved at www.erudit.org/revue/ meta/2001/v46/n2/003624ar.pdf, Accessed 17 March 2011. Monzó, E. (2003) ‘Corpus-based teaching: the use of original and translated texts in the training of legal translators’, Accurapid 7 (4), Retrieved at http:// accurapid.com/journal/26edu.htm, Accessed 17 March 2011.

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Neubert, A. (2000) ‘Competence in language, in languages, and in translation’, in C. Schäffner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , 3–18, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Nunan, D. (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Olohan, M. (2004) Introducing Corpora in Translation Studies, London; New York: Routledge. Oster, U. (2007) ‘Working towards autonomy: corpora in the translation classroom’, in G. Wotjak (ed.) Quo vadis Translatologie? Ein halbes Jahrhundert universitäre Ausbildung von Dolmetschern und Übersetzern in Leipzig. Rückschau, Zwischenbilanz und Perspektiven aus der Außensicht , 311–26. Berlin: Frank & Timme. PACTE (2003) ‘Building a translation competence model’, in F. Alves (ed.) Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research , 43–66, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. — (2005) ‘Investigating translation competence: conceptual and methodological issues’, Meta 50 (2): 609–19. Retrieved at www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2005/ v50/n2/011004ar.html, Accessed 17 March 2011. Pearson, J. (1996) ‘Electronic texts and concordances in the translation classroom’, Teanga 16, 85–95. Ribe, R. and Vidal, N. (1993) Project Work, Step by Step, Oxford: Heinemann. Rodríguez-Inés, P. (2008) Uso de corpus electrónicos en la formación de traductores (inglés-español-inglés), PhD diss., Departament de Traducció i d’Interpretació, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. — (2009) ‘Evaluating the process and not just the product when using corpora in translator education’, in A. Beeby, P. Rodríguez Inés and P. Sánchez-Gijón (eds) Corpus Use and Translating: Corpus Use for Learning to Translate and Learning Corpus Use to Translate , 129–49, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Suárez Pazos, M. (2002) ‘Una reflexión sobre algunas cuestiones relacionadas con la investigación-acción colaboradora en educación’, Revista electrónica de enseñanza de las ciencias 1 (1): 40–56. Retrieved at www.saum.uvigo.es/reec/volumenes/volumen1/Numero1/Art3.pdf, Accessed 10 June 2011. Varantola, K. (2003) ‘Translators and disposable corpora’, in F. Zanettin, S. Bernardini and D. Stewart (eds) Corpora in Translator Education, Manchester: St Jerome, 55–70. Wilkinson, M. (2005) ‘Discovering translation equivalents in a tourism corpus’, Accurapid 9 (4). Retrieved at http://accurapid.com/journal/34corpus.htm, Accessed 17 March 2011. Willis, J. (1996) A Framework for Task-Based Learning, Oxford: Longman. Wilss, W. (1976) ‘Perspectives and limitations of a didactic framework for the teaching of translation’, in R. W. Brislin (ed.) Translation Applications and Research , New York: Gardner, 117–37. Winter, R. (1989) Learning from Experience , London: Falmer Press. Zanettin, F. (1998) ‘Bilingual comparable corpora and the training of translators’, Meta 43 (4), 616–30. Retrieved at www.erudit.org/revue/meta/1998/v43/ n4/004638ar.pdf, Accessed 17 March 2011.

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Zanettin, F., Bernardini, S. and Stewart, D. (eds) (2003) Corpora in Translator Education , Manchester: St. Jerome. Zanón, J. (1990) ‘Los enfoques por tareas para la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras’, Cable 5, 21. www.andymiles.com [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.andymiles.com] www.diccionarios.com [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.diccionarios.com] www.elinversor.com [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.elinversor.com] www.imf.org [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.imf.org/external/np/term/ index.asp?index=esl&index_langid=3] www.rae.es [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.rae.es] www.wordreference.com [accessed 17 September 2011 from www.wordreference. com] http://corpus.rae.es/creanet.html [accessed 17 September 2011 from corpus.rae. es/creanet.html] http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk [accessed 17 September 2011 from sara.natcorp. ox.ac.uk]

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Chapter 6

Subtitling and the Didactics of Translation1 Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin

1. Introduction In recent years, an increasing number of contributions has appeared on the subject of audiovisual translation (AVT), particularly in relation to dubbing and subtitling, so much so that this has become ‘one of the fastest growing areas in the field of Translation Studies’ (Díaz Cintas 2008: 1), with many Higher Education institutions offering theoretical and practical modules on this topic. Interest in didactic applications of AVT is also growing, and innovative practices are being tested. This chapter starts by outlining such practices and then moves on to describe a class project illustrating the author’s experience in the use of subtitling in courses for trainee translators, focusing on the creation of interlingual subtitles. It will be argued that subtitling can positively affect both the skills and the professional profile of future translators. It is important to clarify that the article concentrates on subtitling by trainee translators, rather than by trainee subtitlers, and training professional subtitlers is not among the objectives of the module in question. In the project discussed here, less attention was paid to technical details than would otherwise be necessary, although the students involved did strive to achieve reasonable levels of technical accuracy.

2. Didactic Applications of AVT Studies on the positive effect of using subtitled material in foreign language classes now form a considerable corpus. Already in the 1980s, Price (1983) showed that the use of such material in FL classes improves linguistic and cultural competence. Since then research into the use of both inter- and intralingual subtitled videos has grown exponentially.2 However, research into the impact that the practice of audiovisual translation (subtitling or dubbing by

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students) can have on foreign language acquisition at various levels of fluency and on translator training, is still not too extensive.3 Examples of innovations in didactic applications of AVT are the LeViS project,4 which provides subtitling-based FL learning activities, and the LVS subtitling software (freeware, downloadable from the LeViS website) specifically designed for FL teaching purposes. In addition, Noa Talaván Zanón (2010) is currently experimenting with the combined use of dubbing and subtitling in Foreign Language (FL) learning at the Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia in Spain and McLoughlin and Lertola (2011), who have integrated subtitling in the FL curriculum, describe a step-by-step approach to introducing subtitles in FL teaching at intermediate level. Multimodal text analysis, reflection and exercises on audiovisual translation strategies, and collaborative manipulation of target texts, as we shall see, can lead to enhancement or refinement of translations skills. Subtitling practice can help sensitize students to the relevance of para- and extralinguistic elements of a text, highlight the relevance of inter- and intratextuality to translation tasks and stimulate metalinguistic reflection on syntactic structures. Subtitling can be a very effective tool for academic training in translation decision-making and for developing ‘collaborative learning’ (Kiraly 2005), promoting flexibility, teamwork and problem-solving skills. The relevance of this is shown in two surveys (one Canadian, one European) cited by Kiraly (ibid.), in which the translation industry complains about the lack of these very skills among graduates in translation. From this perspective, I would suggest that subtitling can benefit trainee translators for a number of reasons: it creates an environment which encourages collaboration and teamwork, it requires a level of manipulation of the source text which often leads to courageous translation choices, and restrictions imposed by the technical parameters enhance problem-solving skills. In addition, at a time when translation tasks go far beyond the age-old tradition of working with written texts or oral messages and extend to polysemiotic, multimedia and other non-standard texts, subtitling competence also adds to the profile of future translators by allowing them greater flexibility in the type of texts they can work with and equipping them with useful, transferrable ICT skills (owing to the familiarity with subtitling software which it fosters). Working in an environment with rather strict technical parameters5 and where explicatory notes are out of the question,6 students are faced with translation issues which are additional to (or at the very least different from) the ones they normally encounter in the context of monosemiotic, written texts. Not only do they need to contend with lexical standardization, simplification of syntax, reduction/deletion of redundancy (repetitions, hesitation, etc.) and the difficulty of transferring culture-specific references (without notes), they also, crucially, need to recognize redundancy, become aware of which elements

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can ‘be recovered through the non-linguistic communicative channels’ (Bruti 2006: 185) and create or maintain semantic cohesion between (written) verbal elements – the subtitles – and salient elements present in the paralinguistic and extralinguistic context of the scene. Furthermore, the already mentioned lack of explicatory opportunities on screen poses the issue of translator invisibility in perhaps different terms: should clarification in brackets be contemplated? Would this additional information clog the viewing area? Should the foreign language culture visible on screen be domesticated in the subtitles, or would the very concurrence of the two semiotic channels (visual and written/ verbal) be disturbed by such domestication? While it is not in the realm of this chapter to discuss the issue of translator’s visibility vs invisibility, it is however relevant that this topic be discussed in translator training, and trainees need to be made aware of the consequences of their choices, whichever they may be, so that they can take conscious, informed decisions. During the subtitling process, students literally manipulate elements of the text, shaping the target text (TT) through trial and error, moving back and forth between source text (ST) and TT, finally arriving at a TT embedded into the ST. While this process may be similar to that followed for a written translation, the difference here is that the ST is never replaced, but merely transformed by the subtitles. Students work with a number of interconnected elements: the transcript, the video file, their own subtitling file and a subtitling software programme. They weave in and out of their TT, adapting, spotting, testing, reviewing and confronting, over and over again, the inalterable paraand extralinguistic elements of the ST. We shall now see, in practice, the didactic application of subtitling in translator training.

3. Subtitling Practice in Translator Training at the National University of Ireland, Galway The author runs a one-semester postgraduate module in AVT7 at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The module is part of the interdisciplinary MA in Advanced Language Skills, consists of two contact hours per week over a period of 12 weeks and caters for students of Italian and French (working from Italian or French into English and vice versa). Average level of fluency is high: C1 of the European Framework of Reference for Languages.8 In this chapter, only subtitles and experiences by students of Italian are discussed. In 2010–11 four students were involved, all native English speakers, and averaging at 23 years of age. After a theoretical introduction to subtitling, students are guided through three types of preparatory exercises:9 the first type is aimed at learning how to split sentences, the second type at practising at least some of the translation

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strategies10 necessary for subtitling and the third at getting to know the subtitling software. Then, as part of their project work, students are asked to translate first and then subtitle two scenes from the Italian comedy film Johnny Stecchino (Benigni 1991). Much emphasis is put on collaborative work. While the preliminary phase (with preparatory exercises) is based mainly on individual work, projects are a combination of individual translations of the script, group discussions and class efforts: students use a wiki to input and edit subtitles as well as a forum to explain and motivate their editing. The method followed was individual pre-translation, and involved spotting and adapting (Sánchez 2004: 11); then group editing (two groups of two students each); and finally class discussions and further editing took place in order to arrive at a subtitled version of the selected scenes acceptable to all students. Afterwards, students produced an individual subtitling project and a reflective essay. During the preliminary phase, students are asked to practise splitting subtitles into two lines. To this end, a number of exercises are borrowed from Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007) and others have been specifically created by the lecturer. No timing is given in such exercises as they are purely theoretical written tasks which do not generate a subtitle on screen. Karamitroglou (1998) notes that if a subtitle has to be divided into two lines, the division must be made at the highest syntactic node. This requires an understanding of the structure of the sentence in question, so that individual verb phrases, noun phrases etc. are not broken. Although this may seem obvious, practice shows that students often create a break on the basis of purely numerical considerations (in relation to the number of characters), with poor results, as shown in Table 6.1. These exercises can be used to stimulate reflection on the syntactic structure of sentences in order to identify phrases and nodes. Preliminary exercises of the type devised by Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007) proved to be invaluable and greatly reduced the number of ‘unnatural’ breaks. Indeed, this step was introduced for the first time during the academic year 2010–11 and yielded considerable results: in the previous academic year, subtitles created for the same video clip from the film Johnny Stecchino by students who had not practised splitting sentences showed nine unnatural breaks in fi fty-nine lines of subtitles, compared to just one this year. Table 6.1 Preliminary exercises (dialogue from Manuale d’amore, Veronesi, 2005, translation by students) Text

She was lying and she is not going to the cinema with Carlotta.

Split sentence

She was lying and she is not / going to the cinema with Carlotta.

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As regards exercises on translation strategies, these are not intended to ‘prescribe’ such strategies but to familiarize students with the different available possibilities, so that they can apply them (or not) where and how they see necessary, conscious of what impact they can have on the TT, such as standardization of lexicon, trivialization of ST, etc. Following Gottlieb’s taxonomy (1992), students are asked to focus on one strategy at a time among the ten identified: Expansion, Paraphrase, Transfer, Imitation, Transcription, Dislocation, Condensation, Reduction, Deletion and Resignation. Exercises involve work on written text only and on short audiovisual texts. Although occurrences of deletion seem to be statistically less frequent than for example instances of paraphrases,11 I decided to start with deletion, which consists of simple elision of verbal elements in the dialogue, an easier strategy to apply than condensation, which ‘requires a more complex synthesis operation, of information compression’ (Pavesi 2002: 131, my translation). In the context of this course, what mattered was not so much whether reduction, deletion and eventual standardization in the subtitle lead to an impoverishment of global meaning, but to raise awareness of these strategies and of the fact that they may lead to impoverishment, or may not, when additional codes supplement and reinforce the verbal element. Certainly, ‘translation cannot reflect all features of the original’ (GerzymischArbogast 2005: 7), something which is particularly obvious in subtitling, where reduction occurs even when it is perhaps not strictly necessary. However, the trend noted in the students’ work during this preliminary stage was a tendency to translate everything and a reluctance to operate even minimal reductions. Such reluctance can result in excessively long or non-linear subtitles which can obstruct the viewing of the scene. Table 6.2 shows the limited reduction operated on the ST. Having watched a short videoclip, students were asked to translate first, then delete or condense elements which, in their opinion, could be considered redundant (regardless of the speed of dialogue and without creating subtitles). The only elements ‘missing’ in the TT are the second ‘no’ and ‘it’s’. However, repetition of ‘forbidden’ in the first line could also safely be omitted without Table 6.2 Preliminary exercises (dialogue from Aprile, Moretti, 1998, translation by students) Source text

TT-reduction exercise

-No, no. È vietato. È vietato dalla legge.

No. It’s forbidden. Forbidden by law.

-Vietato dalla legge . . .

-Forbidden by law . . .

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Table 6.3 Preliminary exercises (dialogue from 7 chili in 7 giorni , Verdone, 1986, translation by students) Source text

TT-reduction exercise

Vabbe’ amore, scusa, scusa amore, senti, Please love, I’m sorry, listen, sign these fi rmame ’ste cambiali, dai passerotto, dai loans, come on honey, come on . . . are passero’ . . . ma che stai a scherzà, dai amore, you joking? come on, come on, please, dai, ti prego, ti prego dai, Bambi . . . Scimmia! I am begging you, Honey . . . Bitch!

loss of meaning, especially since it is reiterated by the second character. Table 6.3 contains another example. Further deletions would have been possible here, as it is clear from the character’s behaviour, body language and from the soundtrack (from his voice) that he is being extremely insistent and patronizing. This tendency for ‘all comprehensive’ translations is likely to stem from the familiarity with written, often literary translations that students have acquired during their academic education. It would seem that a consequence of this familiarity – and the cause of their reluctance to cut – is a lack of recognition of what constitutes redundancy: repetitions, hesitations, false starts, speeches, interjections (Bussi Parmiggiani 2002: 180) and/or poor understanding of the peculiarities of written as opposed to oral communication. However, even less likely were the students to eliminate adjectives and adverbs, something which cannot be attributed to difficulties with oral/written codes. Bussi Parmiggiani (ibid.: 181, my translation) suggests that ‘this excess of scruples in subtitling [. . .] occurs especially when the film [. . .] is taken from literary texts, something which leads to a dutiful respect for the source and perhaps arouses a spirit of perfectionism in the translator/subtitler’.12 It is possible that the influence and the ‘weight’ of a tradition of literary translation affects the student who approaches subtitling for the first time. Therefore, the amount of manipulation required by subtitling can help to move away from literal translation and formal equivalence. In addition, work on simplification, reduction, deletion, etc. also encourages reflection on the differences between the oral and the written code by, for example, highlighting the fact that in the latter the presence of phatic expressions, ‘stop&go’ syntax (phrases interrupted and then resumed), and so on, can be inappropriate. Clearly decisions on whether or not to replicate phatic expressions, non-linear sentences etc. have to be taken case by case. In some films, such elements may be crucial and need to be incorporated in the subtitles. From this point of view, therefore, simplification should be understood not necessarily (or not only) as a constraint imposed by technical factors, but as a concession to the higher level of linearity of writing in comparison to oral speech.

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4. Class Project: Subtitling Johnny Stecchino As mentioned earlier, the fi lm chosen for subtitling was Johnny Stecchino. The plot, very briefly, is as follows: Dante, a likable but naive bus driver from Florence, meets a beautiful and mysterious woman, Maria, who invites him to spend some time with her in Sicily. Unbeknown to Dante, the woman is the wife of an ex-mafia boss, Johnny ‘Stecchino’ (toothpick, because of his habit of chewing on one), now turned police informer and in hiding, because wanted by the mafia. Dante bears a strong physical resemblance to the boss, and Maria hopes that he will be mistaken for her husband and killed, leaving John free to rebuild his life. Cleverly, the film never mentions the mafia, but plays on intertextual (cultural) references easily recognizable by audiences in Italy and, very likely, outside Italy too. Before the translation and subtitling process could begin, students were required to transcribe the dialogue. This apparently easy task is in fact not as straightforward as one may expect. Students appeared to opt spontaneously for a kind of orthographic transcript where ‘orthographic rules are observed as to punctuation, the use of capital letters for proper names, etc. Linguistic varieties are generally ironed out as regards the representation of pronunciation, standard spelling being preferred’ (Bonsignori 2009: 187). Prosodic elements were ignored, although, in some cases, ‘ad hoc’ punctuation and use of capital letters was meant to mimic prosodic or other extralinguistic features. Lexis tended to be standardized. As this was an individual task, different solutions were adopted and not always consistently. Table 6.4 shows excerpts from students’ transcripts. Two sequential scenes were selected for subtitling. The first one (12’59”) was a funny, but rather challenging, conversation at a police station. Students were asked to translate the script and then turn their translations into subtitles by adapting them to the speed of the dialogue. They were free to define the in/ out time of each subtitle and decide for how long it would be visible, keeping in mind the standard technical parameters for cinema viewing. In this scene Dante is walking around Palermo when, on passing by a greengrocer’s stall, he Table 6.4 Excerpts of transcripts from Johnny Stecchino Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

AIUTO! AIUTO! Help! Help!

AIUTO . . . AIUTOOO!

Aiutoo! Aiutoooo!

AIUTO! AIUTO!

stamattina (ST: stamane mattina) This morning

Stamattina

Stamattina

Stamattina

prendo i soldi e . . . I take the money and . . .

Prendo . . . i soldi eee . . . .

prendo i soldi, ehm, ehm . . .

prendo i soldi . . . eehh, ehh

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is taken by an impulse to steal a banana. While at the greengrocer’s, he is spotted by two mafia assassins who start shooting at him from their car and chase him through the streets of the city. Dante luckily escapes and manages to run into a police station (subtitling starts from this point). There he confesses to stealing the banana, convinced that that is the reason why he was being shot at. The policeman, who knows nothing of what happened or of Dante’s predicament, thinks he is a poor simpleton and tells him that, as long as he is sorry (pentito), everything will be alright: he only needs to leave the evidence with the police and they will return it to its owner. The word pentito is the key to this scene and to the next, as will become clear to the translator. Although students had watched the whole film, the saliency of this intratextual reference linking this scene to the next was not immediately appreciated when they started subtitling. Pentito is the non-technical term for members of mafia or terrorist organizations who, once captured, decide to become police informers. However, pentito also refers to somebody who is sorry for something he did. While work was in progress, the subtitles appeared as shown in Table 6.5. However, as the sequence continues, it becomes clear that sorry is not an adequate translation, as it does not provide a truthful representation of the ST. In the second scene (05’59”) Dante, leaving the police station, meets a judge who – believing him to be Johnny – calls him over and, in a masterful play of misunderstandings, tells him not to trust the police and to make sure everybody knows that he is no longer pentito, so that he can get his life, and his honour, back. In fact, he says that Johnny/Dante should have the following declaration printed on the front page of all newspapers: ‘Io non mi pento più!’. While ‘I am no longer sorry’ is a possible translation, it is not adequate as it lacks the double entendre, and the misunderstanding between Dante and Table 6.5 Subtitling Johnny Stecchino. In-out time always refers to the selected scene, not the whole film, and varies as spotting was initially done individually by each student Source text

-Vedo che Lei è pentito di quello che ha fatto. -Sì, sono proprio molto pentito.

Subtitler 1

Time in/out 00:02:32,160–34,230 00:02:34,790–36,550

-I see that you regret what you have done. -Yes, I am really sorry.

Subtitler 2

00:02:32,160–34,230 00:02:34,789–36,552

-I see that you regret what you have done. -Yes, really, I am very sorry.

Subtitler 3

00:02:32,160–34,233 00:02:34,791–36,560

-I see you repent for what you have done. -Yes, I truly repent.

Subtitler 4

00:02:32,158–34,228 00:02:34,788–36,555

-I see that you regret what you did. -Yes, I truly regret it.

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the judge is completely lost, and so is the humour. On the other hand, neither regret nor repent are appropriate alternatives. Indeed there is no English expression which comes close to the Italian pentito. A more imaginative approach is needed. So, back to Scene 1, Table 6.6 shows the result of teamwork on the rewording of the same subtitle. The intratextual reference between Scene 1 and 2 is therefore maintained and so is the intertextual reference to police informers. Please see Table 6.7 for an illustration of what the correlated line in Scene 2 becomes. As we shall see, a further development in the scene later brought the two groups to opt for the second solution. The immediacy of fruition of an AV text highlights the saliency of intratextual references and therefore the importance of never losing sight of the text as a whole, even when concentrating on its parts. In the film analysed here for example, on arriving in Palermo, Dante is met by Maria’s uncle, who explains to him the huge problems the city has to face: Mount Etna, drought, traffic. In the first scene we subtitled, the policeman repeats to Dante that they have enough problems as it is (‘a Palermo [. . .] ci sono problemi molto grossi’) and Dante replies: ‘Lo so, lo so. C’è un traffico . . .’ (I know, I know, what a traffic!). Recognizing intratextuality means identifying items which should be present in the subtitled text, but, on a wider scale, it also means becoming aware of the network of interconnections which make up the narrative. In order to facilitate a conscious and coherent decision-making process and encourage reflection on film discourse, an adaptation of Taylor’s (2003) model for multimodal transcription was introduced and applied to some sections of the scenes. Students were asked to analyse visual image (camera position, visual focus, visually salient items and visual collocation), kinesics and soundtrack (McLoughlin 2009). The transcription model was applied during the subtitling Table 6.6 Subtitling from Johnny Stecchino Source text

Subtitles/Team 1

Subtitles/Team 2

Vedo che Lei è pentito di quello 00:02:32,160–34,230 00:02:32,160–34,230 che ha fatto. I see that you are willing to Are you willing to help with collaborate. the inquiries? Sì, sono proprio molto pentito.

00:02:34,790–36,550 Yes, I am.

00:02:34,790–36,550 Yes, I am.13

Table 6.7 Subtitling from Johnny Stecchino Source text

Subtitle/Team 1

Subtitle/Team 2

Io non mi pento più.

00:05:08,407–11,526 I no longer collaborate.

00:05:08,407–11,526 I no longer help with enquiries.

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of the second scene, when students were given a blank file with timing already allocated (a template) and were asked to create subtitles which would fit into the predefined time slots. The timing was extracted from the original film, subtitled in Italian for the deaf and hard of hearing. As constraints increased (often less time available than students had allowed themselves while working on Scene 1), a more detailed analysis of the scene was useful and helped with the decision-making process. As students worked on the first scene, they produced between 30 and 40% more subtitle lines than the ‘official’ subtitler of the film. For this scene, however, they had to follow the template, which only allowed for 59 lines during just less than 6 minutes of film. It was therefore necessary to reflect on what constitutes ‘cognitive information’ (Pavesi 2002: 131) that is essential, salient information which must be retained, and which elements instead may be omitted without compromising the development of the plot. As a result, for example, in Scene 2 students retained 20% of repetitions, as opposed to 56% in Scene 1. Tomaszkiewicz (2009: 24) argues that conversation analysis can ‘establish scientific foundations of operating on the dialogue text of original films’. Regrettably this was not done in this instance, mainly due to time limits on this module. As a result, redundancy was not always recognized. In her analysis of redundancy as a form of manipulation of the ST, Tomaszkiewicz points out that ‘the analysis of film translation, either as subtitled or dubbed products, clearly shows that translators often make certain shortening or reductions assuming that the average viewer has knowledge of how conversation is organised, how turns are ranked and how exchanges are ritualised’ (ibid.: 25). This means that when responses are highly predictable, they can be omitted from the translation, especially in the case of subtitles. Students, however, tended to translate every utterance, even those which overlapped totally or in part. Having been informed by the judge that the police will share among themselves what he has left with them (the judge means valuables, but Dante understands the banana), Dante goes back to the police station and walks in as the policeman he had spoken to earlier is eating the famous banana. Disgusted, Dante takes it back and declares ‘Io non mi pento più, di questa banana’. Again, the intratextual reference continues to cause difficulties. On the basis of choices previously made, the new subtitle reads as shown in Table 6.8. Following an analysis of the visual image, students decided that the focus on Dante’s hand pointing repeatedly to the banana he has just put in the pocket of his jacket will create semiotic cohesion between ‘these enquiries’ and the fruit. Table 6.8 Dialogue from Johnny Stecchino Io non mi pento più, di questa banana.

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00:05:08,407–11,526 I no longer help, with these enquiries.

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At the end of the project, students were required to consider the work done, take on – as much as possible – the role of the viewer, and decide whether further editing was necessary. They were asked to evaluate the adequacy of their subtitling in relation to the other codes present on the screen, verifying for example whether the reductions, deletions, simplifications made were compensated by gestures, proxemics, tone/volume of voices, etc. In order for the course to achieve its objectives (understand the transfer process, the importance of para- and extralinguistic elements of a text and inter- and intratextual references and enhance metalinguistic competence) it is of paramount importance that ample space be allowed for a moment of both collective and individual synthesis, when the final product, the target audiovisual text, is critically appraised. Tables 6.9 – 6.11 show some of the most significant phenomena observed in the final version prepared by students. Table 6.9 Simplification/standardization of syntax ST

TT (subtitles)

E tu, te la spasseggi così tranquillamente dopo tutto quello che t’è successo !

00:00:26,960–31,280 You are strolling around/as if nothing happened?

Figliolo mio, tu ti sei cacciato in un vicolo cieco, che non ne uscirai più.

00:00:57,180–63,710 You’re in a blind alley/with no way out.

Ma, così, mi è venuto . . . comunque, oh, è tutto sistemato. Sì, perché io sono stato dai Carabinieri. . .

00:01:08,100–36,990 It was so . . . Anyway, it’s ok now./I went to the police.

Io comunque . . . giudice Bernardino, è tutto a posto, perché io ora gli ho ridato tutto a loro, no ?

00:03:02,220–07,580 Anyway everything is in order. I gave everything back to them

Table 6.10 Domestication TT

ST

Il giudice di Cassazione , Bernardino Cataratta.

00:01:27,900–31,000 The Supreme Court judge,/Bernardino Cataratta.

Sì, perché io sono stato dai Carabinieri . . .

00:01:50,140–54,980 I went to the police.

Table 6.11 Standardization of lexicon TT

ST

Ma che minchia mi stai combinando, Johnny?

00:02:43,420–47,300 What the hell are you doing, Johnny?

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The comments accompanying the wiki entry relative to the first subtitle read as follows: Student A: ‘He says cassazione, should we leave it in Italian?’/Student B: ‘like, cassazione judge? Not clear’. Student B: ‘why not? He’s a judge, it’s obvious it must be some Italian court or something’. The conversation does not continue on the wiki, but, interestingly, the final decision was to opt for domestication of the TT and ‘Cassazione’ became Supreme Court. Equally, ‘Carabinieri’ appears only in one out of four individual drafts but, again, in the end students opted for domestication. No discussion is recorded on this point in either the wiki or the forum. The ST here presents a much stronger expletive than the TT. None of the students even proposed a more vulgar translation. The first draft had no expletive at all: ‘what are you up to, Johnny?’ or ‘what are you doing, Johnny?’. However, this was not a case of self-censorship. When the strength of the original expletive was pointed out to students during class discussions, they replied that they felt that, in writing, a more faithful translation of the text would have conferred a more aggressive tone to the conversation. This is an interesting analysis of the audiovisual text: the judge has a decisive demeanour, but he is never aggressive. Indeed ‘minchia’ is hardly audible: the judge seems to be spelling the word rather than pronouncing it. In the context of the scene, then, taking into account the extralinguistic elements of the communication act, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ seems an adequate rendition of the ST.

5. Conclusion The creation of a virtual collaborative space (the wiki) where students could share translation choices and therefore construct together the final target text, as well as the availability of a forum for exchanges of information, comments and explanation of the choices made, are an integral part of the module. It is important that work with these tools is not viewed as an ‘add-on’, but understood as an exercise in reflective and critical thinking, where translation choices are discussed, motivated and then discarded, edited or selected, as deemed necessary. The role and relevance of these tools must therefore be stated clearly at the beginning of the module so that this approach can sustain the type of ‘collaborative learning’ advocated by Kiraly, and increase the flexibility, (self)evaluation and problem-solving skills of future translators, as well as their effective participation in teamwork projects. Ideally, for maximum benefit, the module should span over two semesters and also include an introduction to conversation analysis, a detailed

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examination of students’ transcriptions of the audiovisual text and a study of professionally subtitled audiovisual texts. Unfortunately, this was not possible within the relatively short time available. Further research should be directed at evaluating qualitative improvements in trainee translators who follow courses in subtitling. Statistical data in this respect would be most welcome. Regrettably, the impossibility of creating a control group within an academic, assessment driven context, meant that comparative data could not be collected. However, the course concluded with a final, individual project, in which students were asked to subtitle an audiovisual text of their choice and submit a reflective essay. Students’ comments indicated that the subtitling approach was appreciated and considered ‘fun’. Clearly, exercises and reflection on translation strategies helped them to make informed choices as regards solutions adopted. One student explains: ‘I employed [expansion] in a few areas of my project, such as when Carlo Negrini, the car thief, offers to split the taxi fare: “Il taxi. Dovemo divide”. He does not specifically refer to the fare, just to the taxi. I felt it was necessary to explain here’. It would also seem that class discussions on intratextuality yielded results: in subtitling selected scenes from Benvenuti al sud (Miniero 2010), a student encountered the Milanese dialect expression ciaparàtt (rat catcher, good for nothing) and, in her efforts to find an acceptable English expression, she argues: ‘the reference to mice also appears later on in the film (Scene 10), and so it is important that this connection is not lost’. In conclusion, the evidence presented here suggests that trainee translators benefit from subtitling modules, which include structured preparatory activities on splitting sentences, practice with various subtitling strategies, multimodal analysis, collaborative tools and space for reflective thinking. There is a general consensus among teachers and trainers that subtitling practice provides fun and motivating activities; we hope to have shown that it also stimulates metalinguistic reflection, highlights the relevance of inter- and intratextual references, enhances translation skills and contributes to the formation of flexible professionals open to the challenges of new, non-traditional translation tasks.

Notes 1

2

This research was sponsored by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences. For a comprehensive review of such research see Bravo (2008: 68–84). Other studies include: Ghia (2007 and 2011), specifically on syntax acquisition, Van Lommel, Laenen and d’Ydewalle (2006) on grammar acquisition.

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See in particular Sokoli (2006), Bravo (2008) and Talaván (2006), McLoughlin and Lertola (2011). In her doctoral thesis Maria da Conceição Condinho Bravo reports on three experiments which show that the presence of intra- and interlingual subtitles, as well as intralingual subtitling improve FL learners’ comprehension of both content and culture-specific lexicon. Stavroula Sokoli describes the use of the LVS tool (Learning via Subtitling), a software for the creation of task-based FL learning activities. Noa Talaván Zanón discusses FL activities based on the production of subtitles and their contribution to contextualized language learning. Regarding subtitling in translation training, see Rundle (2000) and McLoughlin (2009). Accessed 10 January 2011 from http://levis.cti.gr Traditionally, subtitles display an average of 12 characters per second, are limited to a maximum of approximately 40 characters and 2 lines of text. However, as readers become faster, this standard in the ‘DVD industry [. . .] has been raised to 16cps, an increase of 35%’ (Gottlieb 2007: 51). Although the absence of ‘footnotes’ is obviously the case with subtitles, Díaz Cintas (2007: 26–9) gives a number of examples of how metatextual information can be, and has been, added to subtitled films, either by way of additional explicatory information provided in brackets or in the top part of the screen, or by way of featurettes included in DVDs. These interesting developments could certainly lend themselves to new applications in the field of translator training and reflective learning. All examples of subtitling work are taken from the module Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, National University of Ireland, Galway (2010–11). Students are introduced to AVT, Subtitling, Semiotics of Subtitling. As part of their MA programme, they also cover Translation Studies and Text Analysis. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) identifies six level of FL competence. A1-A2 are basic levels, B1-B2 intermediate and C1-C advanced.For further information see http://europass.cedefop.europa. eu/LanguageSelfAssessmentGrid/en, Accessed 21 January 2011. For an excellent guide (with DVD) to the practice and theory of subtitling, see Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007). The author follows Gottlieb’s taxonomy (1992: 166) which, for every strategy listed, gives examples taken from the Danish subtitles of Mel Brook’s Frankenstein Junior. Empirical analysis of three French and two Italian comic fi lms carried out by the author and Marie Biscio showed that paraphrases were twice as frequent as condensation and up to five times as frequent as deletion. The films analysed were: Le dîner de cons (Veber, France 1998); Le Placard (Veber, France 2001); OSS 117-Le Caire Nid d’espions (Hazanavicius, France 2006), Johnny Stecchino,Tre uomini e una gamba (Giacomo and Venier, Italy 1997). However, a more rigorous scientific analysis would be welcome. It is also possible that different statistical distribution of strategies apply to different film genres. In her article, Bussi Parmiggiani gives a detailed analysis of the subtitling of The Age of Innocence (Scorsese 1993), recording, at times, excessive details, literal

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translations and attempts at ‘clarifying’ the ST which, she suggests, may be ascribed to respect for literary texts. This subtitle line may be rather short compared to the original, something which would have been discussed at a later stage. However, the two characters’ lines overlap to a certain extent. I reproduce here the students’ work without intervention.

References Bonignori, V. (2009) ‘Transcribing film dialogue: from orthographic to prosodic transcription’, in M. Freddi and M. Pavesi (eds) Analysing Audiovisual Dialogue , Bologna: Clueb, 185–200. Bruti, S. (2011) ‘Cross-cultural pragmatics: the translation of implicit compliments in subtitles’, in JoSTrans, The Journal of Specialised Translation 6 (July 2006), 185–97. Retrieved at www.jostrans.org/issue06/art_bruti.pdf, Accessed 8 January 2011. Bussi Parmiggiani, E. (2002) ‘Forme di attenzione e pluricodicità nel film sottotitolato’, in A. Caimi (ed.) Rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata 1–2 (June– August 2002), Rome: Bulzoni, 177–98. Condinho Bravo, M. (2008) Putting the Reader in the Picure. Screen Translation and Foreign Language Learning, Doctoral Thesis, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, 2008. Retrieved at www.tesisenxarxa.net/TESIS_URV/AVAILABLE/TDX-0123109– 134524/Condhino.pdf, Accessed 18 October 2010. Díaz Cintas, J. (2007) ‘Back to the future in subtitling’, in H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast and S. Nauert (eds) MuTra 2005 – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation: Conference Proceedings, Saarbrücken, 16–32. — (2008) ‘Introduction. The didactics of audiovisual translation’, in J. Díaz Cintas (ed.) The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1–18. Díaz Cintas, J. and Remael, A. (2007) Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, Manchester; Kinderhook: St Jerome Publishing. Gerzymisch-Arbogast, H. (2007) ‘Introducing multidimensional translation’, in H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast and S. Nauert (eds) MuTra 2005 – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation: Conference Proceedings , Saarbrücken, 1–15. Ghia, E. (2007) ‘A case study on the role of interlingual subtitles on the acquisition of L2 syntax – initial results’, in A. Baicchi (ed.) Voices on Translation. Linguistic, Multimedia, and Cognitive Perspectives. RILA, Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata , Rome: Bulzoni, 167–77. — (2011) ‘The Acquisition of L2 syntax through audiovisual translation’, in A. Şerban, A. Matamala and J.-M. Lavaur (eds) Audiovisual Translation in Close-up: Practical and Theoretical Approaches, Bern: Peter Lang, 95–112. Gottlieb, H. (1992) ‘Subtitling. A new university discipline’, in C. Dollerup and A. Loddegaard (eds) Teaching Translation & Interpreting, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 161–70.

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— (2007) ‘Multidimensional translation: semantics turned semiotics’, in H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast and S. Nauert (eds) MuTra 2005 – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation: Conference Proceedings , Saarbrücken, 33–61. Incalcaterra McLoughlin, L. (2009) ‘Subtitles in translators’ training: a model of analysis’, Romance Studies 27 (3), 174–85. Incalcaterra McLoughlin, L. and Lertola, J. (2011) ‘Learn through subtitling: subtitling as an aid to language learning’, in L. Incalcaterra McLoughlin, M. Biscio and M. Á. Ní Mhainnín (eds) Audiovisual Translation. Subtitles and Subtitling in Theory and in Practice , Oxford: Peter Lang, 243–64. Karamitroglou, F. (1998) ‘A proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe’, Translation Journal 2 (2) 1–14. Retrieved at http://accurapid.com/ journal/04stndrd.htm, Accessed 17 October 2010. Kiraly, D. (2005) ‘Project-based learning: a case for situated translation’, Meta 50 (4), 1098–1111. Retrieved at www.erudit.org/revue/META/2005/v50/n4/012063ar. html, Accessed 17 October 2010. Pavesi, M. (2002) ‘Sottotitoli: dalla semplificazione nella traduzione all’apprendimento linguistico’, in A. Cimi (ed.) Rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata 1–2 (June–August 2002), Rome: Bulzoni, 127–42. Price, K. (1983) ‘Closed-captioned TV: an untapped resource’, MATSOL Newsletter 12 (2), 1–8. Rundle, C. (2000) ‘Using subtitles to teach translation’, in R. M. Bollettieri Bosinelli, C. Heiss, M. Soffritti and S. Bernardini (eds) La traduzione multimediale: Quale traduzione per quale testo?, Bologna: CLUEB, 167–81. Sánchez, D. (2004) ‘Subtitling methods and team-translation’, in P. Orero (ed.) Topics in Audiovisual Translation , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 9–17. Sokoli, S. (2010) ‘Learning via subtitling (LvS): a tool for the creation of foreign language learning activities based on film subtitling’, in MuTra 2006 – Multidimensional Translation: Audiovisual Translation Scenarios. Retrieved at www. euroconferences.info/proceedings/2006_Proceedings/2006_proceedings. html, Accessed 18 October 2010. Talaván, N. (2006) ‘Using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning’, Porta Linguarum 6 (6), 41–52. — (2010) ‘Collaborative dubbing and subtitling in language learning: new experiences’, Paper presented at the First International Language Conference: Translation, Technology and Autonomy in Language Teaching and Learning, National University of Ireland, Galway, 10–11 December 2010. Taylor, C. (2003) ‘Multimodal transcription in the analysis, translation and subtitling of Italian films’, The Translator 9 (2), 191–205. Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2009) ‘Linguistic and semiotic approaches to audiovisual translation’, in M. Freddi and M. Pavesi (eds) Analysing Audiovisual Dialogue , Bologna: Clueb, 19–29. Van Lommel, S., Laenen, A. and d’Ydewalle, G. (2006) ‘Foreign grammar acquisition while watching subtitled television programmes’, British Journal of Education Psychology 76 (2), 243–58.

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Films 7 chili in 7 giorni (1986) DVD, directed by Luca Verdone, Campi Bisenzio (FI): Cecchi Gori Home Video (2005). Aprile (1998) DVD, directed by Nanni Moretti, Milan: Warner Bros Home Video (2008). Benvenuti al sud (2010) DVD, directed by Luca Miniero, Milan: Medusa Home Entertainment (2011). Johnny Stecchino (1991) DVD, directed by Roberto Benigni, Campi Bisenzio (FI): Cecchi Gori Home Video (2003). Manuale d’amore (2005) DVD, directed by Giovanni Veronesi, Rome: Filmauro Home Video (2005).

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Part 3

Translation, Intercultural Communication and Empowerment

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Chapter 7

Teaching and Learning the Importance of Ideological Awareness for Chinese-Speaking Trainee Translators Valerie Pellatt

1. Introduction This chapter explores the notion of the effect of national ideology on student translators, hypothesizing about the extent to which Chinese state ideology, as evidenced in professional and official translation emanating from China, might affect the approaches of Chinese native-speaking students of Chinese to English translation. It discusses the ideological situation of Chinese translation students, particularly with regard to national and local official texts and the students’ understanding of the English-speaking target audience. The chapter provides examples of micro-structural aspects of translation in both published professional target texts and in students’ translations which show traits characteristic of Chinese norms of translation. Chinese translators are subject to official guidance on what kind of English should be used, and to a fairly long tradition of Chinese to English translation. There seem to be simultaneous trends of Occidentalism and auto-Orientalism at work, and an implied authority conferred through the activity of auto-translation. The terms ‘auto-translator/auto-translation’ are used to indicate translation carried out by the author or text producer and are extended to indicate translation which would be edited or otherwise monitored by the commissioning institution. The terms ‘second-language translation/translator’ refer to translation from the first language into the second language (Chinese to English by a Chinese native speaker), and the terms ‘first-language translation/translator’ are used to indicate translation from the second language into the first (Chinese to English by an English native speaker).

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2. Attitude, Tradition and the Trainee Translator The way we translate is governed by our personal, cultural and/or geographical identity, our knowledge and experience of the world, and the ideology of groups to which we belong, such as our family, our school or company, and our region or nation. Most translators would probably feel that, in addition to this, we have to reach out and identify in a similar way with the ‘other’ for whom we translate. Thus, on the one hand, we are legitimizing our version of events (Baker 2006: 1) and reinforcing our ideology and, on the other, we transmit the version to the ‘other’. Our approach to transmission, in this case translation, is inevitably affected by ‘the narrative’ of power (Baker 2006: 3). As Hermans points out, ‘all translating is translating with an attitude’, even if that attitude is one of deliberate neutrality (2007: 85). Second-language student translators are usually fairly young, and may not have spent much time involved in the target culture. They will also not have had many years in which to build up vicarious knowledge of the idioms and idiosyncrasies of this culture. Driven (and hired) to project the values of the source culture, the second-language translator may not always be in tune with target readers’ knowledge and perceptions. In his exploration of the exotic space of cultural translation, Carbonell suggests that ‘translation will be more difficult when there exists a tradition in which the source culture is represented in the target culture’ (1996: 83). Though spatially distant from some of the major English-speaking areas of the world, greater China has for centuries been made familiar to the rest of the world in a series of stereotypes generally created on the basis of information transmitted by travellers, missionaries, merchants and diplomats. Carbonell’s focus is Orientalism as expounded by Said, and is mostly concerned with ‘the Bible Lands’, though the notion may also refer to the Far East, and Said’s overarching notion of Orientalism is ‘a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience’ (Said 1978/2003). The corresponding notion of ‘Occidentalism’ might be said to be a way of coming to terms with the Occident that is based on the Occident’s special place in Eastern experience. Chen suggests that Occidentalism may be ‘a counter-discourse, a counter-memory and a counter-Other to Said’s Orientalism’ (1995: 6). There is a strong tradition in China of translation into the second language, which represents the source culture to the ‘other’ and represents it from the source culture’s point of view. English translations of Chinese classics, such as those by James Legge1 and Pearl Buck, 2 helped to establish a pattern of quaint, pseudo-biblical translation, appropriate at the time. In the twentieth century, many Chinese translators still used quite archaic or romantic English styles, in the belief that they were appropriate and beautiful (Xu 1992). In the midtwentieth century, China was relatively isolated from the developed world but

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largely self-sufficient in intellectual activity: English-language resources at that time depended to a large extent on historical resources and, given the political constraints of the time, most translation work would have been officially commissioned and carefully vetted. Until the late twentieth century, a prescriptive attitude to translation and to translator training prevailed in China (Lin 2002, Chan 2004). Finally, it should be noted that Chinese literature also has a strong tradition of paratext; the concision of classical Chinese writing both in prose and poetry has required and encouraged a culture of annotation and explication over millennia. Thus, centuries of educational tradition and literary commentary may be said to have contributed to the Chinese translation tradition. Perhaps the combined traditions of formality and romanticism, a prescriptive approach and a tendency to explicitate, have reinforced the narrative of power of translation in China. Chinese translators working from Chinese to English may have been trained in a tradition in which it is believed that foreigners translate in a certain way, and that this is the way to translate for foreigners. This may have induced a view that the ‘occident’ requires a certain kind of language. Translations commissioned and published by Chinese authorities (auto-translations) have authority, and this may also create a washback effect in non-commissioned translations which adhere to the official style and prescribed glossaries. As Baker (2006: 98) notes, narratives are subject to legitimation, justification and normativeness.

3. Possible Effects of Translation into the Second Language There are many instances in published translation where the translator or editor seems to have a somewhat misguided view of the target audience. At one extreme, they may inform the readers of what they already know, for example by means of explicitation and ‘contextual overdetermination’ (Hermans 1996). At the other extreme, they may deprive the target audience of relevant information. In these cases, either the translator or the commissioning authority has misjudged how much or how little the target reader knows. Explicitation, redundancy, contextual overdetermination and omission may be regarded as common traits, or even techniques, in translation, but they could also be the result of lack of knowledge, time, resources or a desire to preserve the untouchability of the source culture. They may be the direct result of the translator’s conscious or unconscious ideology, and may not necessarily coincide with what the target audience wants or needs to read. Making wrong assumptions about the target reader’s lack of knowledge could lead to a text which appears patronizing, whereas deliberate omission of information might be perceived as deception.

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When students come fresh to the activity of professional translation, they are not necessarily aware of the tremendous implications of what they are about to do. Throughout their undergraduate education, they may not necessarily have translated for a specific audience, or for a fee. Even experienced translators who come to a postgraduate programme with some knowledge of the market may not have had the opportunity to explore the wider implications of their work – the moral, cultural and above all ideological aspects of translation. Many Chinese students of translation encounter the target culture for the first time when they enrol for their overseas degree programme, and there is now a growing trend to study translation in China, where opportunities for immersion in the target culture are inevitably fewer. An awareness of the identity and ideology of the source text producer and the target text receiver are essential ingredients in the quality of the finished product, yet may not be readily available for the Chinese student translator. It is important to note that one of the norms of Chinese translation practice is for Chinese native speakers to work in both directions, often without nativespeaker editing. This is partly related to the fact that relatively few English native speakers learn Asian languages because of the received (false) notion that Chinese is too ‘difficult’ for English speakers to learn. A great deal of translation from Chinese to English is carried out and commissioned by the producers of the source text, and is therefore auto-translation. Rather than hearing the author’s voice ‘quoted’ in the translator’s voice (Hermans 2007: 66–7), the audience thus hears the author’s voice reporting his or her own speech, or re-enunciating the source text (ibid.: 27). In his discussion of ‘translation, quotation, demonstration’, Hermans suggests that ‘quotations raise questions of detachment and accountability’ (ibid.: 67). It may be argued that auto-quotation, as found in auto-translation, may be even more susceptible to issues of detachment and accountability.

4. Identity and Ideology: The Situation of Chinese Translation Ideology inevitably permeates translation, though the new and inexperienced translator may be unaware of this. Hatim and Mason provide an exhaustive inventory of the ways in which ideology is manifest in texts (1997: 143–63). The individual (the speaker, writer or translator) sees him- or herself as the centre of a deictic circle. The deixis of pronouns, adverbs of place and time, the transitivity and directionality of verbs and the use of honorifics, are all part of the subtlety of distinguishing ‘us’ from ‘them’ and ‘them’ from ‘them’. Choice of lexis can clearly reveal whether sides are being taken, and the relative complexity of syntactic structures can express social distance or proximity.

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Essentially, the auto-translator remains the centre of the deictic circle and would feel entitled, for instance, to translate Ё೑ (China) as ‘we’, while the first language-translator might have a distancing approach. The auto-translator would normally be familiar with the very broad range of culture-specific items (CSIs), but would have to make decisions about how much the target audience knows. The first-language translator might need to research the CSIs, but would be in a far better position to know whether the broad mass of the target audience would understand these. This translator might also have a better command of the idiom available to translate an item or concept without recourse to textual or paratextual explicitation. Rhetorical style is central to the expression of identity, ideology and power in discourse. This may be manifest in length (e.g. Fidel Castro’s speeches), in choice of vocabulary, in allusion to culture-specific items that present important implications of identity for the audience, and often in the use of repetition of culture-specific catch-phrases. These are all deictic techniques which speak to the ‘home’ audience, or the ‘in-crowd’. The question is whether they should be ‘quoted’ for the target audience to make of them what they will, or whether they should be explained in order that the target audience might understand them in a way desired by the source text creators. Let us look at an example of how auto-translation and first-language translation may differ in goal and impact. In the early 1980s, religious belief was once more permitted in China, and newly revived religious groups were allowed to communicate with their counterparts overseas for the first time in several decades. For believers, clerics and researchers, the translation of the new law on religion was a crucial task in the development of relationships. In these uncharted waters, translators worked at the risk of endangering ordinary citizens who owed allegiance to any one of the various stakeholders. First-language translators, paraphrasing the words of the Chinese government for a wide variety of foreign agencies, would be, in Baker’s terms, contesting the narrative; on the other hand, translators commissioned by the government to promulgate the laws would be quoting or articulating the official narrative (Baker 2006: 38). Translators ran the gauntlet, being at the risk of treading on Chinese, foreign, Protestant, Catholic, Patriotic, Party and Underground toes.

5. Globalization, China and English The global centres are shifting and, with them, so are approaches to translation. Just as the world centres of business and manufacturing have shifted eastwards, so, to a great extent, has the industry of translation. The issue is particularly relevant today when work can be carried out in virtual space and, in the case of Chinese to English translation, where it is not deemed necessary

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to employ native English speakers on expensive American, Australian, British or Canadian soil. Translation from Chinese to English may now be handled remotely from wherever the much cheaper second-language translator’s computer happens to be. A geographical shift may signal an ideological shift. As regards the status of English in China, as Orton notes, there have been ‘nearly 40 years of purposeful Chinese government investment and expansion in English’ (2010: 14). The main motivation for this, as Orton explains, was the need for communication in the areas of science and technology. This was intended to set China back on its feet again, but the movement has gained impetus, and English in China is now akin to glamour, wealth, intellectual status and power. In his discussion of immigration and citizenship, Cronin points out that human beings have an implicit right to ‘exit and enter languages’, and that in a globalized society, languages cannot be presented as closed symbolic systems (2006: 71). China has ‘entered’ English and adopted and adapted it as part of its modern identity. It is evidence of the nation’s flowering; China has opened up, and busily encourages cross-pollination. In doing so, it has become, of its own volition, a part of the process of English heteroglossia. This is not necessarily the ‘Globish’ described by Juliane House (2011: 17), but Official Chinese English as developed and described above. China is confident that while China speaks, reads and writes English, the rest of the world, while making moves towards learning Chinese, is not exactly rushing to do so. China is therefore in a position to choose what it wants to say, and choose how it is said. Its espousal of English aids its foreign interlocutors, but at the same time it enables China’s self-image and world view to be transmitted without contamination. In its globalization, China could be said to be becoming more localized, for its possession of English aids its external image of Chineseness. Chinese authorities can coin terms for apparently exclusively Chinese practices and policies (such as the ungrammatical ‘three represents’) in a uniquely Chinese way, and these terms and ideas are officialized in international or diplomatic discourses. Setton claims that China ‘is proudly defended from within as a culture of self-sufficiency, refinement and self-empowerment through selective integration’ (2009: 110), a claim from which we might infer that auto-translation is indeed carried out on a selective basis. The overwhelming statistics of China (a population of 1.5 billion requires a lot of translation, and relatively few foreigners are well-versed in Chinese) necessitate a situation in which translation into the second language is becoming the norm for most professional translators. This is an irreversible situation in which translators are not ‘“persons-in-the-culture” of the target system’ (Toury 1995: 40), and their perceptions of the target culture system may differ from that of a native speaker of English. We have to bear in mind that official international statements may not need to be understood in detail: they may simply be observed as a certain kind of flag waving, for a great deal of what is said in international discourses is symbolic.

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6. Characteristic Traits of Official Discourse ‘Official Chinese English’, like other English language varieties around the world, has evolved organically, but it has had much more official support than other older, slower-growing varieties. A list of official equivalents in Chinese and English is published on the website of Ё೑㗏䆥णӮ (The Translators Association of China) and official English versions of major Chinese policy statements and speeches are published almost simultaneously with the Chinese on official websites like Xinhua, showing clearly what style of translation is authorized or authoritative. The style of Official Chinese English is characterized by a certain floweriness and prolixity which would not be felt desirable in, for example, American or British English. Mao Sihui, describing the current Chinese English of real estate advertising, goes so far as to label this language ‘a new kind of Orientalist discourse created by none but the Chinese themselves’ (Mao 2009: 267). This may be illustrated with the re-branding of Beijing University as ‘Peking University’, which might be seen as an attempt to invoke a romantic past. The trend to wordiness is illustrated well in Pinkham’s description of ‘Chinglish’: ‘Read anything that has been published in English for foreign readers – a magazine article, a news story, an advertisement a government report – and you are likely to find superfluous words’ (2000: 1). While the ‘English rush’ came from a post-Mao urgency to modernize, the style harks back to the period between 1949 and 1979, when China was isolated from capitalist cultures and still developing its own modern language (Seybolt and Chiang 1979: 1–27). During those years of isolation, China was ‘selling’ policies and ideology to its citizens through a very distinctive propaganda (ᅷӴ – not necessarily a negative term in the Chinese context); now it sells consumer goods in addition, and the language, though not entirely similar, is equally dramatic and romantic. This has fed into the new Chinese English.

6.1 Official translation – the expectations of working practice For the professional translator or interpreter working in China, the notion of ‘fidelity’ is paramount (Cheng 1995: 828). In practice, this means translating every word of the discourse as closely as possible and adhering to guidelines laid down by The Translators Association of China. Consecutive interpreting in China shows less tendency to paraphrase and summarize than that of, for example, the institutions of the European Union. While trainee interpreters working in European languages would be expected to produce an interpretation approximately two thirds the length of the source speech (Steve Slade, personal communication) Chinese student interpreters often express a view – even a fear – that any omission would lay them open to accusations of infidelity. Young interpreters and translators can often feel duty bound to model their English translation style on that recognized as a Chinese national ideal.

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At this point, fidelity to the text becomes inseparable from loyalty to the institution which commissions the text.

6.2 Official Chinese buzzword – over-explicitation In his discussion of interpreter training, Setton shows how succinct official Chinese can become much longer in its official English versions (Setton 2009). A recent, and very typical example of this is: ‘䗔㗩䖬ᵫ’, literally rendered as ‘withdraw from farming, return to forest’. This is a buzzword in Chinese environmental discourse. Some of my students have claimed that ‘return farmland to forest’ (a neat, fluent interpretation) is an incorrect translation, whereas an official version ‘restore woodland-converted farm-plots back for afforesting’ is correct. The latter may appear to be correct, but it is tautological and ambiguous: ‘back’ is unnecessary because the prefix ‘re’ means ‘back’; the presence of ‘restore’ implies ‘back for afforesting’ which is thus also unnecessary; the collocation of ‘back for afforesting’ is uncomfortable – a native English speaker would probably say ‘restore to forest’ or ‘reinstate as forest’; ‘woodland-converted’ is ambiguous without a context: does it mean ‘converted from woodland’, or ‘converted to woodland’? What is a farm-plot? Is it part of a farm? Is it reminiscent of ‘private plot’? Does it mean ‘privately owned’ or ‘allocated’? The simple ‘return farmland to forest’ is infinitely preferable. It says everything that needs to be said succinctly and unambiguously, whereas the longer version is repetitive, vague and ambiguous.

6.3 Official translation of the news – omission and addition On 24 August 2010, China launched a mapping satellite, and published news of this on the Xinhua website, in both Chinese and English. At first glance, the two news items appeared to be very similar but, on inspection, certain differences were discovered. The Chinese version (for the sake of argument we take this to be the source text) consisted of 327 characters, of which 52 (approximately one seventh) carried information which was not conveyed in the target text. This information was primarily concerned with identity: the name of the editor and the names of the companies which had researched and produced the satellite and its rocket launcher. The English version, the target text, consisted of 194 words, of which 43 (approximately one fifth) carried information which was not in the source text. This information was mainly unnecessary, as foreign readers could surmise it for themselves: ‘northwestern’ ‘Beijing time’, ‘Tuesday’, ‘a statement on the Ministry of National Defense website’ etc. For some reason, the writer of the article was named in the Chinese text, but not in the English text, the editor was named in the English text, but not in the Chinese text, while the photographer was named in both.

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One can only surmise that the reason for such a high proportion of difference (one third of the two texts overall) in such a small, factual text, which carries no overt propaganda, is a desire to keep certain information from foreign readers. The article must fit the same space on the website (one of the problems of website localization), so where space needs to be filled, foreigners are given ‘filler’ text which has no informational value. The triumphant word ‘successfully’ has been modestly removed from the title of the English target text. On the other hand, the extra information provided for the target reader could be regarded as superfluous or even patronizing. In addition, it appears that no English-speaking proofreader has been involved in the editing, as there are two grammar mistakes in the English text. This is not an isolated example: Chinese-speaking student translators who use websites as important sources of information often find it difficult to judge what should be kept and what should be abandoned when translating from Chinese to English.

7. A Sample of Students’ Translations This section discusses several excerpts of student translations which exhibit similar traits to official authorized versions, as illustrated above. Examples 1 and 2, drawn from Chinese texts about Chinese and Uighur culture, both come from student seminars of the MA in Translation/Translation Studies at Newcastle University. Both source texts cited here may be regarded as official Chinese texts, in that they have been commissioned by local agencies, and are aimed at promoting the locality. Example 1 (An excerpt from a text describing Yueju opera, a form of local traditional drama) 䍞࠻. . . . .ফⴔ“⇨㘮ቅᎱП⾔ˈ᱃ᓔ೒⬏П༛’ⱘ㞾✊⦃๗ⱘ❣䱊 (Yueju (drama) . . . is steeped in the natural landscape of magnificent mountains and rivers and wonderful scenic tableaux). Landscape cannot always be said to be culture-specific unless it features, for example, indigenous working practices or architecture, but the way each culture describes and honours its landscape is distinct. This is a Chinese nativespeaker student’s version: Yueju being nurtured by such environment that can be described by the Chinese ancient poem verse, ‘its aura assembles the glories of all the landscapes, and its scenery determines the definition of marvellous drawings’.

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The student’s version adds unnecessary explicitation: ‘that can be described by the Chinese ancient poem verse’. For a Chinese reader, the poem would be immediately understood and appreciated as a poem. As this piece is not concerned with poetry, but with drama, it is probably not essential to dwell on the poem per se, but rather to get across to the target reader the qualities of the drama expressed in the poem. In his anxiety to translate so fully, the student has brought about some confusion between the scenery and the drama. The student is fully aware of the Chinese cultural approach to landscape, but unaware that the same feelings are likely to be expressed much more concisely in good English. A by-product of the wordiness of the student translation is a reduction in readability. Example 2 (An excerpt from a text describing muqam, traditional Uyghur music)  वྚⱘ䲣ᔶˈᰃ㓈਒ᇨᮣ‫⇥ܜ‬೼␌⠻ᯊҷⱘϔѯ䭓℠ˈ೼㣿㣿ᯋ䞢Ϟⱘ催Ѷᙴ ᳼ ᡀⱘᡦᚙˈ㹿⿄Ўþम䲙ဝÿ℠DŽ (The embryonic form of the Muqam was a collection of songs called Bayawan, sung by the Uyghurs’ ancestors in their nomadic period, expressing emotion, resounding and long-drawn out over the vast desert). The following is a Chinese native-speaker student’s version: Muqam’s prime model is Bayawan, a type of lyrics sung by ancient Uyghur nomads roaming among the deserts and mountains. The name of Bayawan in Uyghur means ‘songs of wilderness’. ‘Prime model’ might be rather unclear to a target audience – a less formal word such as ‘early’ or ‘first’ would be more appropriate in the context. ‘Roaming among the deserts’ is an unnecessary explicitation, since ‘nomad’ is a common English word. ‘In Uyghur’ also seems unnecessary, as we can guess that ancient Uyghurs would sing in their own language. ‘Songs of the wilderness’ may be correct, but it does not appear in the source text and, in any case, it is implied in the description of the song, which is unfortunately missing from the student’s version. Mountains are not mentioned in the source text. Therefore, in this brief translation, one might notice redundant information, information which is not in the source text, and omission of information which is in the source text. Example 3 (The following two examples were taken from a speech on Confucianism by Zhu Maonan, adapted as an interpreting task)

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 ᴅ➍ⱘ᳒ᄭˈफᅟ᳿ᳳ໻ᄺ຿ˈৢᴹҢ䪅ฬ∳䗗䲒ˈത㠍ࠄ䶽೑ˈⱏ䰚ҹৢӴњ 䙷 ϛⱘҎDŽ (Zhu Xi’s great-grandson, a scholar of the late years of the Southern Song dynasty, escaped disaster down the Qian Tang River, and sailed to Korea. Upon arrival, he preached (Confucianism) to 180,000 people . . .) Five out of forty-three students rendered the story as invasion (by 180,000 people) or importation, rather than escape and missionary activity. Without the students’ own introspection, we cannot know why they produced these versions – could it be to make the great-grandson a stronger character? It should be noted, however, that the Chinese ‫( ڇ‬pass on/propagate) would usually be expressed as ‫ڇ‬䘧, and this may have caused confusion. Example 4  ᑈ߮ད⺄ࠄᴅ➍ቕⱘ䆲䖄ˈᄨᄤҞᑈᰃቕⱘ䆲䖄ˈҞᑈৠᯊϸϾ೼໻ Ҟ 䰚᳝ᕜ䞡㽕⽁ᄨ䎳⽁ᴅᄤⱘ໻‫݌‬DŽ (This year marks the 880th anniversary of the birth of Zhu Xi, and the 2560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius, and there will be important celebrations of both in mainland China). Five out of the forty-three student interpreters who carried out this task added that Zhu Xi and Confucius were great Chinese philosophers. Yet, at the same time, some of them used the Chinese version ‘Kongzi’ rather than ‘Confucius’, thus explicitating unnecessarily and also reducing comprehensibility for their audience. The above examples reveal the prevalence of changes to a text during the translation process such as redundant explicitation, omission of information, addition of incorrect information and recasting of the message. It may be unconscious on the part of the translators, perhaps motivated by a desire to persuade and market the product, or a dominant deictic schema, rather than intent to deceive.

8. Conclusion Chinese student translators vary widely in their knowledge and perceptions of their own cultures and of target cultures. Some have not been outside China prior to registering on a translation programme abroad, while some have spent several years in a foreign country. Some are fiercely patriotic and would not dream of being critical of official Chinese texts. Some extremely well-educated students have asked me what critical thinking is, for the prevailing educational

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tradition in China is that of received knowledge and wisdom. Some throw themselves into the target culture with gusto, while others are reticent. Those who have, and maintain, a lower level of awareness of foreign perceptions will continue to flounder in the ‘addition vs omission’ quagmire. The question is ‘why should anyone interfere: why should not Chinese text producers produce auto-translation which is in Chinese interests, and why should Chinese student translators not follow Chinese conventions?’ Inevitably, auto-translation into English will continue to be a routine task of the Chinese translator. Chinese translators may feel that they are faced with a choice – practice in the official tradition and be recognized and rewarded, or practice in the ‘other’ tradition, and be ostracized. Translators who are likely to pursue a career in China, or be employed to represent China in an international context, would probably do well to maintain an official attitude and style, but many student translators will work for foreign companies and institutions, which will require immediately comprehensible texts. Translators destined to work for Chinese authorities can immerse themselves in the idiom and style expected of that milieu, those working for foreign institutions may have to learn a different kind of elegance, and many will have to learn to switch between the two. Good Chinese is succinct, and good English is succinct, but often translators do not seem to be aware either of their own cultural traditions of style, or of those of the target culture. The first step is language awareness, that is, to recognize concision and superfluity in both languages. Some of the factors involved in issues of official Chinese translation include register, length, target audience knowledge and target language idiom. There seems to be a belief among Chinese student translators that language requires formality, and that formal language requires length. This is not necessarily the case. The tendency to explicitate, driven perhaps by centuries of annotation and received knowledge, deprives the reader of the privilege of inference. There are also ingrained beliefs that foreigners do not understand Chinese culture: this could be regarded as an Occidentalist view. China is now better known to the rest of the world than ever before. Foreigners have known for centuries that Confucius was a great Chinese philosopher, so they do not need to be told that, but they do need to hear him referred to by the name that they know. In order to interpret China expertly, Chinese student translators need to step out of the centre of the deictic circle. This exploratory study could be expanded to become a comparative corpus of official translations and student translations of similar genre and comparable level of difficulty. Follow-up studies might include translator questionnaires and a reader response study, with the ultimate pedagogical aim of increasing student awareness of source and target culture attitudes and ideologies, and how these affect the transmission of messages in translation.

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Notes 1

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James Legge (1815–97), prolific and highly respected sinologist, published translations of and commentaries on many major Chinese works of philosophy. Pearl Buck (1892–1973), missionary, translator of Shui Hu Zhuan (∈⌦Ӵ) as All Men are Brothers, New York: Grove Press [1957, c1937].

References Baker, M. (2006) Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account , London: Routledge. Carbonell, O. (1996) ‘The exotic space of cultural translation’, in R. Alvarez and M. C. Á. Vidal (eds) Translation, Power, Subversion , Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 79–98. Chan, L. T. (2004) Twentieth-Century Chinese Translation Theory: Modes, Issues and Debates, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Chen, X. (1995) Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-discourse in Post-Mao China , Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Cheng, Z. (1995) ‘Translation of Chinese political writings’, in S.-W. Chan and D. E. Pollard (eds) An Encyclopaedia of Translation Chinese-English, English-Chinese, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 827–934. Cronin, M. (2006) Translation and Identity, Abingdon: Routledge. Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1997) The Translator as Communicator, Abingdon: Routledge. Hermans, T. (1996) ‘The translator’s voice in translated narrative’, Target 8 (1), 23–48. — (2007) The Conference of the Tongues, Manchester: St Jerome. House, J. (2010–11) ‘A case for Globish’, The Linguist 49 (6), 16–17. Lin, K. (2002) ‘Translation as a catalyst for social change in China’, in M. Tymoczko and E. Gentzler (eds) Translation and Power, Amherst; Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 160–83. Mao, S. (2009) ‘Translating the other: discursive contradictions and new orientalism in contemporary advertising in China’, The Translator 15 (2), 261–82. Orton, J. (2010) ‘A Chinese tongue’, The Linguist 49 (3), 14–16. Pinkham, J. (2000) The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish , Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Said, W. E. (1978/2003) Orientalism , London: Penguin. Setton, R. (2009) ‘Interpreting China, interpreting Chinese’, Interpreting 11 (2), 109–17. Seybolt, P. J. and Chiang, G. K. (1979) Language Reform in China , New York; Folkestone: M.E. Sharpe Inc. and Dawson. Toury, G. (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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Xinhua (2010) ‘China launches new mapping satellite’. Retrieved at news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-08/24/c_13459840.htm, Accessed 24 August 2010. Xu, Y., Loh, B. and Wu, J. (eds) (1992) 300 Tang Poems: A New Translation , Taipei: Bookman Books. www.tac-online.org.cn [accessed 25 August 2011 from www.tac-online.org.cn] www.xinhuanet.com [accessed 24 August 2010 from www.xinhuanet.com]

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Chapter 8

The Role of Translation in Other Learning Contexts: Towards Acting Interculturally Maria González Davies

1. Introduction The main aim of this chapter is to take research and good practices related to translation beyond the field of Translation Studies to explore its possibilities as a skill in itself and as a spontaneous or directed learning strategy capable of providing the means to act interculturally and to improve expertise – here defined as the development of linguistic mediating skills and of intercultural competence – in learning contexts that involve languages and cultures in contact. The spontaneous use of translation, accepted as a natural part of the learning process by teachers and researchers alike, in spite of having been banned from the classroom with the advent of language immersion programmes, has not been systematically researched. Neither have been the possible advantages that its directed and informed use may suppose for efficient learning in educational contexts where languages and cultures are in contact. This exploratory study aims at bridging this gap in the literature by reflecting on the background and possible theoretical framework that can be drawn upon as a starting point to address this issue, and by exploring the perceptions and performance of 24 teacher trainees in their third and last pre-service year regarding the use of translation in the subject ‘Children’s Literature in English’.

2. Background Since the advent of the Direct Method in foreign language learning with its emphasis on ‘natural’ learning, that is, on learning additional languages in the same way as a child learns his or her first language with no grammar or translation (see Richards and Rodgers 2001 for an overview of approaches

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to language learning), translation as a learning skill and strategy has been under suspicion and effectively banned from the foreign language classroom. Immersion programmes that backed the L2=L1 paradigm proscribed any contact between languages, thus denying a basic learning skill: that of connecting previous knowledge so as to build (construct) new knowledge. Consequently, translation was, in the main, also banned from programmes that included learning a foreign language for specific purposes or subjects taught in a foreign language. However, in the last two decades, studies on bilingualism and the acquisition of additional languages, as well as the need to develop intercultural competence in an increasingly internationalized world, have brought about changes in how we envisage and deal with languages in contact: translation is now increasingly presented as a central skill and strategy to improve linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence. Significantly, this is made visible in documents that are now widely used by the teaching community, such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001). However, most studies on the acquisition of foreign languages and intercultural competence do not seem to inquire into the full potential of translation and frequently fall back on simplistic interpretations of its nature and complexity. Here is where translation scholars and practitioners interested in these topics can step forward and throw light on the intricacies implied in translating, and on its potential to boost both linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence. This may be particularly interesting in foreign language classes and in subjects taught at all educational levels in a foreign language as can be seen, for instance, in CLIL contexts1 (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Surprisingly perhaps for translation specialists, the fact that translation can be used as both a skill and a strategy in an informed way, far from static and meaningless grammar-translation practices and close to the widely accepted conception in Translation Studies that translation is ‘a dynamic process of communication’ (Hatim and Mason 1990: 223), is a new perspective in most educational contexts that include foreign languages. In the literature on foreign language learning or on learning through a foreign language, translation is still grouped along with other cross-linguistic spontaneous procedures such as code-switching and use of the L1, as if these were interchangeable practices, and it is assumed to be a relatively easy word for word transference activity that poses little or no problems (Richards and Rodgers 2001). Certainly, these misconceptions make more evident the gap between authentic professional translation practice and translation as used in foreign language learning or in subjects learned through a foreign language, where the complexity of translation is not present in the literature with a few exceptions (e.g. Deller and Rinvolucri 2002, González Davies 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, Leonardi 2010, Cook 2010, Corcoll 2012a , 2012b).

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In this sense, I suggest that a distinction could be established between what may be called Translation for Other Learning Contexts (TOLC), here defined as translation to acquire linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence in fields other than Translation Studies, vs translation to acquire professional translator competence. Although this is a difference that can be observed in everyday learning contexts that include a foreign language vs translation training contexts, it has seldom been addressed in the acquisition or training literature explicitly. I suggest it may be an advantage to start doing so in order to draw the ensuing profiles of each and establish similarities and differences to advance efficient acquisition and training in any learning context. Although to a lesser degree than in professional translation training contexts, TOLC can also draw on the exploration and focused use of translation competences and sub-competences, whether aptitude-oriented or attitudeoriented (González Davies 2004: 131, 217) as well as on other relevant issues in Translation Studies, from the more theoretical or historical, such as approaches to translation along history: functionalism (skopos), the cultural turn, the cognitive approach, the philosophical and hermeneutical approach and so on, to the more technological such as using automatic translation software. The main difference between TOLC and training for professional translators lies in its purpose: as TOLC aims at improving declarative and procedural knowledge in fields other than Translation Studies, here it is viewed as one other relevant learning procedure, whereas the latter aims at improving professional translation competence and is the main axis around which a translation training curriculum design revolves.

3. Translation and Intercultural Competence: Acting Interculturally Intercultural competence is pivotal in the approach to language learning put forward by the European Union in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001). Also, in accordance with social, economic and cultural internationalization and mobility, the acquisition of cultural declarative and procedural knowledge is becoming an intrinsic part of the curriculum in many university studies encouraged, among other measures, by teacher and student exchange programmes. In this context, mediation skills to favour communication across communities are definitely needed. However, just as being bilingual does not guarantee proficiency in translation, it does not guarantee the necessary competence to bridge cultures efficiently. In this sense, Byram (2008: 60–70) puts forward an interesting distinction between ‘being bicultural’ and ‘acting interculturally’, that is, according to this distinction, the former is acquired unconsciously, in a natural, informal context, as a consequence of upbringing, with no formal

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training, whereas the latter requires formal education, can be trained and creates the potential for individuals to become cultural mediators: ‘Acting interculturally’ pre-supposes certain attitudes, knowledge and skills that need to be learnt (. . .) [It] requires a willingness to suspend those deeper values, at least temporarily, in order to be able to understand and empathize with the values of others that are incompatible with one’s own. (Byram 2008: 69) In this line, and considering that the learning context here is teacher training, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the centrality of formal explicit training (‘acting interculturally’) and learning through experience are relevant and coherent as starting points for reflection as well as for observing and performing good practices. This training was carried out by means of a translation project, a novelty in itself in the context of subjects taught through a foreign language, with explicit reflection on translation, multicompetence, interculturality, plurilingualism and the different positions that can be adopted by teachers regarding the role of translation in subjects that involve the use of a foreign language.

4. Theoretical Framework Here follows the general theoretical framework underlying the study. It may also lead to further research and practice in educational contexts where languages appear in contact from the perspective of using TOLC. a) Taking the views of Cummins, Vygotsky, Chomsky and Piaget as a starting point for discussion, David Skinner’s anatomical model of the Language/ Learning connection questioned the two basic Direct Method assumptions efficiently: (a) that the L2 is learned in the same way as the L1 and (b) that the L2 should be used at all times in the FL classroom. He explores how these assumptions are inconsistent with general learning theories (1985). b) Multi-competence, another key concept behind the present theoretical framework, relates to the development of knowledge and skills other than the purely linguistic: cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-affective. Multicompetence has been defined as ‘the knowledge of two or more languages in the same mind’ (Cook 2001) and studies how bi- and plurilinguals think and learn differently from monolinguals and acquire additional skills and know-how that are not purely linguistic but are related to successful (language) learning such as high cognitive proficiency, proficient language learning, tolerance of ambiguity, high analysis and abstraction potential, developed creative and critical thinking skills, high mathematical and

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logical reasoning, or metalinguistic awareness (Bee Chin and Wigglesworth (eds.) 2007 gives a clear account of the state of the art). c) Connectivism and interdependency, two other major concepts constituting our theoretical framework, posit that all knowledge is related and interdependent and, therefore, also knowledge regarding languages and cultures. In 1984, still the age of the Communicative Approach in foreign language teaching, Cummins put forward his ground-breaking Common Underlying Proficiency Model or Interdependency Hypothesis in opposition to the then widely accepted Interference Hypothesis. The Interference Hypothesis was based on the belief that languages interfere with each other (‘negative transfer’) which, backed by the L2=L1 paradigm, gave way to immersion theories of language learning: that is separate the languages you know from those you are learning in your mind, do not draw on previously acquired languages, and do not translate. Conversely, Cummins’ Hypothesis challenged what he called ‘the two solitudes assumption’ that is, the belief that languages are learned in isolation and should not be mixed in the learning process (Cummins 1984). Specifically regarding translation he holds that ‘. . . the argument is that translation has a role to play within a broadly defined communicative approach as a means of enabling students to create multimedia texts that communicate in powerful and authentic ways with multiple audiences in both L1 and L2’ (Cummins 2008: 65). Thus, L1 knowledge can be transferred to – and help – the foreign language acquisition process by means of translation and other resources. d) The development of intercultural competence and mediation skills, that is, the ability to bridge cultures efficiently, are also crucial in the context of the present chapter. Recently, keywords such as communication and native speaker proficiency are giving way to others such as mediation and the intercultural speaker. On the one hand, this is due to new paradigms of thought in consonance with internationalization and the rise of cultural studies and, on the other, to research that has been carried out in the last two decades and that is now slowly gaining ground in both the fields of language acquisition and Translation Studies. This research, along with internationalization and mobility, has brought about a visible change in two ideas deemed untouchable up to now: the idealization of the native speaker, and complete immersion in the foreign language as the only means to improve proficiency. e) Finally, following research carried out with teacher trainees in 2001, Macaro suggested different positions that can be adopted by teachers in foreign language contexts regarding the use of the L1 in their classes: the Virtual (L1 should be totally excluded from the FL classroom), the Maximal (there is no value in the use of the L1, but it is unavoidable) or the Optimal (there may be pedagogical value in using the L1 and this should be explored). Although translation is not mentioned explicitly, I suggest that these positions can also be relevant to studies regarding the use of translation in

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these contexts. Moreover, TOLC views translation not only as a means to understand (i.e. ‘translate’) the morphosyntactic, lexico-semantic and/or pragmatic and cultural aspects of a language. It also perceives translation as a set of linguistic, encyclopaedic and transferential skills, along with specific professional skills, that may go beyond a mere understanding of those aspects to favour their efficient acquisition as well as the development of intercultural competence and mediation skills.

5. The Study Following these reflections as well as projects and research carried out previously in a professional translation training context (González Davies and ScottTennent 2001, 2005, forthcoming, Scott-Tennent and González Davies 2008), an exploratory pilot study was designed to find out how translation was perceived and performed by a naturally occurring group of 24 teacher trainees in their third and last pre-service year, to develop their linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence, specifically in the subject ‘Children’s Literature in English’, carried out at the University Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain) following a CLIL approach. The line of research put forward here tries to explore ways in which translation research and practice can build bridges and offer new perspectives across academic fields to develop ‘authentic plurilingual ways of communicating’ (Corcoll 2012b) and of acting interculturally in increasingly multilingual everyday contexts. A crucial point to consider when adapting topics taken from Translation Studies to TOLC is that, usually, the teacher trainees, as non-specialists, lack sophistication regarding translation competence. Therefore, translation theory and practice have to be tailored to their needs and awareness stage. These can be detected by different means such as an initial questionnaire as used in this study (see Appendix). The first step was to situate the project in the curriculum in an ecological way: in our case, it formed part of the subject ‘Children’s Literature in English’ in the third and last year of their pre-service training. Secondly, the reflection and practice on translation had to be adapted considering that there were 4 months (45 contact hours) to gauge the declarative and procedural knowledge, so a selection of the relevant topics had to be carried out, considering that they would be addressed to an audience that is not specialized in translation. Thirdly, the translation projects had to be designed to be meaningful and relevant to teacher trainees and, finally, the outcome also had to be oriented towards their interests. Although the main aim of the study was not to look into the theories and approaches to children’s literature throughout history (this was done as part of the subject, but was not included explicitly in the study), it is relevant to point

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out that the position adopted here regarding children’s literature is in line with the cultural turn in Translation Studies and with the field of comparative literature, where translation is decisive: Analysis of the norms and values of the target culture communicated in translated children’s literature, and of adaptations made during the translation process on the grounds of what translators assume to be the child reader’s receptive abilities and requirements, will show why translated books can be considered a particularly clear indicator of concepts of children’s literature, and indeed of childhood itself, that are specific to a given time and culture, and why practice can differ so widely in the fields of translation for children and adults. (O’Sullivan 2008: 3) A previous step in the study aiming to raise awareness in the teacher trainees involved explicit discussions and hands-on textual analyses revolving around the importance of comparing different versions and interpretations of similar topics in different communities, as reflected in children’s literature. They focused on how the different versions reflect the specific socio-historical and psychological value systems of the communities and generations that produced them, and the fact that these versions include both verbal and visual characteristics, all of which should inform the translations (based on González Davies and Oittinen 2008). Secondly, literature from the field of Translation Studies along with concrete examples were discussed to trigger a reflection on theories and approaches relevant to translation and, in our case, mainly on the cultural turn and functionalism. In the first case, the teacher trainees discovered that, thanks to cultural studies in translation – the cultural turn – literary translations are now generally considered as re-creations, whether they conform to or rebel against the target culture’s rules (the translator’s (in)visibility, cannibalistic theories, gender and so on). The idea of translation as creation and not mimesis – which is how it is usually viewed by non-specialists – led to eye-opening discussions about degrees of fidelity (i.e. from literal to free translation), ranges of strategies and motivated translation choices. Also relevant to our topic was functionalism (skopos), since both the assignment and audience were apparent from the start of the translation process. The teacher trainees received clear instructions as to the nature of the translation task and knew that their readers would be non-Catalan children and, interestingly, possibly Catalan children who would probably learn more about their own culture and that of others by distancing themselves. The approach considered that translation helps to highlight similarities and differences and to establish a dialogue between different social and cultural interpretations of the world – not necessarily to adopt them, but definitely to know about them and to know how to act interculturally, specifically by discussing and

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applying informed translation strategies as well as reflecting on the theoretical framework.

6. The Project: The Catalan Picture Book Collection The main axis around which the study revolved was an authentic project that mainly consisted in translating Catalan stories for young readers into English, in selecting and explaining specific Catalan cultural references in the chosen books, in justifying their translation choices and strategies and in designing online intercultural activities for children in primary schools worldwide. The teacher trainees finally published the source text, translations and activities on the website: The Catalan Picturebook Collection , which is part of the European Picture Book Collection hosted by the University of Roehampton and the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature. The process was recorded by means of a pre- and post-questionnaire, a pre- and post-translation task, a teacher’s diary, pedagogical translation activities, an authentic translation project, a written protocol and the teacher trainees’ self-reports. The main questions it set out to explore were: 1. Can research and good practices in Translation Studies be transferred to other learning contexts that involve the use of a foreign language? 2. Can translation be used as both a skill and a strategy to improve linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence in other learning contexts that involve the use of a foreign language? 3. Can learning material and procedures such as projects where translation is pivotal be designed to improve linguistic mediation skills and intercultural competence in other learning contexts that involve the use of a foreign language? As the study forms part of a pedagogical context, the research aims and learning outcomes should be, at least, directly related. Therefore, these questions gave way to outcomes which were formulated for the students as part of the guidelines for the project; in this way, the study was integrated in the subject naturally so that the data-gathering processes contributed to learning and/or assessment (except for the pre/post questionnaire). The formulation of outcomes is also in consonance with the recommendations for curriculum planning in the European Higher Education Area (Kelly 2005, chapter 2). Five phases were followed in the syllabus to develop the study and project: PHASE ONE. The aim of this phase was to raise awareness of existing positions regarding culture and intercultural competence, and to reflect on translation. As regards definitions of ‘culture’, after a brainstorming session where the students expressed their essentialist and non-essentialist views, definitions

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were discussed from dictionaries of different periods and from other sources, for example Byram’s ‘culture learning’ in teaching contexts (2008: 35) or House’s difference between the Humanistic and the Anthropological views of culture. The former is defined as ‘cultural heritage’ or ‘culture with a big C’ and the latter as the ‘ways of life of a community’ in the form of habits, preferences and values, which are the least visible aspects of culture (House 2009: 8). These were then expanded in class with Nida’s (1999) classification of cultural references (material, ecological, social, religious and linguistic), Hanvey’s (1992: 185–6) degrees on cultural immersion (facts, stereotypes and deficiencies; shallow comprehension; in-depth comprehension; empathy), and González Davies and Scott-Tennent’s operative definition of ‘cultural reference’ (2005: 166). As to intercultural competence, first, the definition of the CEFRL (2001: 103) was presented as a starting point for discussion: the knowledge, awareness and understanding of the relation (similarities and differences) between the ‘world of origin’ and the ‘world of the target community’. Secondly, the students discussed issues related to Byram’s tertiary socialization, that is the necessary rethinking and un-learning of moral (‘Feel’), cognitive (‘Know’) and behavioural (‘Do’) assumptions, not, he argues, ‘to replace the familiar with the new’ but to ‘raise questions about one’s own culturallydetermined assumptions and about the society in which one lives’ (2008: 36). Finally, a discussion took place around House’s integrative approach to translation as a sociocultural practice, as a linguistic procedure and as intercultural communication (2009). PHASE TWO. Once the definitions of culture and intercultural competence had been discussed, small groups worked in and outside the classroom on proposals for definitions of culture and of intercultural competence, which were presented with mind maps to be discussed with the rest of the class. An example of one of the group’s definition of intercultural competence is: ‘the ability to communicate efficiently in two or more cultures’. PHASE THREE. Translation practice was carried out in parallel to the reflection sessions to develop intercultural competence in several ways, including: (1) Completion of pedagogical activities (Nunan 1989: 40), that is activities designed to prepare the way for real life tasks such as the translation of ads, riddles, poems, tongue twisters, bilingual readings, reverse dictations, speed translation and so on (González Davies 2004); (2) Completion of a real life task (Nunan 1989: 40), that is the actual translations of Catalan Picture Books chosen by the teacher trainees for a real audience; (3) Explicit individual written reflection on the theory and practice via the questionnaire fi lled in at the beginning and end of the learning period, the written protocols and the self-report; (4) Becoming acquainted with defi nitions of translation and discussing translation strategies. In our case, Hatim and Mason’s defi nition was chosen while Hervey, Higgins and Haywood’s cline for degrees of fidelity in translation (1995: 13–14) proved a good starting

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point for discussions on strategies; (5) Choosing between cultural transplantation or exoticizing strategies (ibid.: 20); and (6) Making the translation strategies visible by means of a written protocol to be fi lled in and submitted with each translation. The latter was designed as a means for the students to make visible their translating and reasoning processes. These protocols have proven to be effective to improve translation students’ awareness of their thinking process and of their evolution in the acquisition of professional translation competence (González Davies and Scott-Tennent 2005). The procedure was as follows: the teacher trainees hand in a written protocol where they record their solutions to translation problems found in the stories. The standard sheet consisted of four columns: in the first, they write down the problem found in the source text; in the second, the range of possible strategies to solve it; in the third, their final solution; in the fourth, a justification for their choice. PHASE FOUR. The students then selected and explained briefly the cultural references they wished to highlight for their foreign readers using internet resources if relevant (see examples on the The Catalan Picturebook Collection website). PHASE FIVE. The final section centred around designing online activities based on the story the students had translated, oriented towards noticing and exploring the cultural references in their stories. These activities were also carried out in primary schools as part of their practicum.

7. Results: Translating to Act Interculturally The results presented here reflect the degree to which the students’ awareness was raised regarding issues related to views of culture, intercultural competence and the use of translation to improve linguistic mediating skills; these issues are directly related to acting interculturally. The data gathered was both quantitative and qualitative: z

z

z

An initial and final questionnaire to record the students’ perceptions of (a) culture, (b) intercultural competence and (c) cultural reference, of (d) the teachability of these concepts as well as their knowledge of (e) translation, (f) translation strategies and (g) solutions. They were completed on the first and last day of the course (interval: 14 weeks). A group written protocol to be handed in with the translation of the picture book reporting on translation problems, strategies used and a justified final solution (week 10). A self-report written by the students to record their position regarding their views on the potential usefulness of translation in foreign language learning (week 14).

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z

171

A teacher’s diary to report critical incidents and relevant issues regarding class interaction and tutorials. A pre- and post-translation task to observe the potential changes in their position and their ability to design informed directed translation activities for primary school children (interval: 6 weeks).

The most relevant results from the pre- and post-questionnaires were as follows (< > 20% of participants). As regards Question 1 (see Appendix), which concerned the students’ approach to culture, no significant changes were observed. The first definition provided in the questionnaire was chosen above the other two in both the pre (100%) and the post (95%) questionnaires with the majority of students opting for the ‘I agree very much’ or ‘I agree quite a lot’ options. This may mean that the students were already in agreement with the integration of the humanistic and anthropological views of culture. With reference to students’ approaches to intercultural competence, there were no relevant changes in the case of Questions 4 and 5 regarding whether intercultural competence can be taught/learned (100% in both cases replied in the positive), whether training is needed (pre: 96% vs post: 95%), or whether cultural references can be transferred (100% of positive answers in both). However, an interesting change was detected in the case of Question 2. As illustrated in Table 8.1, the post-questionnaire data highlights that behavioural (‘Do’) and moral (‘Feel’) knowledge were valued more highly than cognitive knowledge (‘Know’). This is contrary to the results obtained from the prequestionnaire, and indicates a shift towards understanding that if behavioural and moral knowledge are well acquired, they can be applied to most other types of knowledge (Byram 2008).

Table 8.1 Aspects required to develop intercultural communicative competence Pre (very much) (%) Knowing about different cultures (*KNOW) Feeling that you can belong to different cultures (*FEEL) Acting efficiently in different cultures (*DO) Being able to recognize differences and similarities between different cultures (*KNOW) Being able to mediate efficiently between different cultures (*DO) Being able to feel like the members of different cultures (*FEEL)

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Post (very much) Fluctuation (%) (%)

72

57

– 15

16

52

+ 36

20

48

+ 28

48

53

–5

64

86

+ 22

28

43

+15

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Table 8.2 Cultural references according to how easily they can be identified Pre (%)

Post (%) Fluctuation (%)

Easy

Clothes (H) Geography, flora and fauna (H) Rituals in public spaces (A)

68 36 64

88 67 43

+ 20 + 31 – 21

With training

Body language (A) Levels of formality (A) Literary references (H) Rituals in public spaces (A)

36 64 68 16

57 72 28 48

+ 21 + 31 – 40 + 32

With difficulty

Expressing emotions (A) Geography, flora and fauna (H) Word play and humour (A)

16 28 16

38 0 48

+ 22 – 28 + 32

In the case of Question 3, concerning cultural references, a relevant shift was noted between both questionnaires. As illustrated in Table 8.2, the postquestionnaire registers a decrease in the perceived difficulty to spot elements related to a humanistic (H) vision of culture vs an increase in the perceived difficulty to spot elements related to an anthropological (A) vision of culture. This may indicate a move from ‘stereotypes’ to ‘in-depth comprehension’. As regards translation-related questions, that is Questions 6 and 7, as well as written protocols and translation tasks, a highly relevant increase of (meta)cognitive translational competences can be observed: both the form and content of the students’ work improved. The main aims were for the students to describe, explain or name a translation strategy to solve their translation problem and to justify their final translation choice. Although they were told that any of these procedures was valid, in the written protocols and the post-questionnaire they spontaneously chose to name the strategies using specialized terminology. With regard to Question 6 specifically, the strategies and solutions were considered non-valid if there was no answer, if an explanation was provided instead of a translation, and in the case of answers such as ‘I think there is no translation’. Examples of valid strategies and solutions include: ‘foreignized’, ‘foreign word + explicitation’, ‘communicative (pastís de Nadal )’, ‘domestication (torrons or tortell )’, ‘domestication’ as well as a justification of their choice, for example ‘there is no sweet like this one in Spanish culture’ (sic). The increase of students’ (meta)cognitive translational competences is illustrated in Table 8.3. Students’ answers to Question 7 similarly suggest an increase in awareness regarding translation issues. This may be illustrated with the following comments from the pre-questionnaire: ‘I would translate it literally, although it makes no sense . . .’ ‘This is a ridiculous translation!’

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Table 8.3 Students’ ability to name the solutions and strategies employed to translate cultural references Pre (%) Christmas pudding Castellers

A valid strategy A valid solution A valid strategy A valid solution

37 45 36 37

Post (%) Fluctuation (%) 85 92 85 92

+ 48 + 47 + 49 + 55

‘It seems that the person who translated it did not know about this artist or the meaning of the words . . .’ ‘I don’t know how to translate it. It’s a difficult joke.’ ‘I do not understand the relation between “bottled cherry” and muro pequeño.’ The comments appearing in the post-questionnaire strike a different tone: ‘We should find another kind of translation to transmit the same feeling.’ ‘Boticelli – I would translate it with anything that includes fruit or fresh flowers.’ ‘I would try not to translate it literally.’ ‘Ok because it is adapted to the Spanish language, playing with words and painters of our country.’ ‘I would conserve the foreign words because the interesting point of this text is the cultural reference and the game of words.’ The data concerning the uses of translation observed in the tutorials and class sessions was also gathered in the teacher’s diary and may be summarized as follows. The translation for the project was carried out outside regular contact hours following the directives regarding autonomous learning in the EHEA. Scaffolding was provided by tutorial hours with the teacher. They were quite intense in the first 3 weeks (average: 2 hours per group per week) and decreased towards week 5 (average: 1 hour per group per week) until they proved unnecessary for the project, after week 9. From then on, only sporadic specific questions were asked. There was one highly valued open class in week 8 when the teacher trainees could exchange translation experiences and doubts, which mainly referred to how to go from literal translation to risk-taking and creative solutions. This seemed to increase their self-confidence and knowledge, both declarative and procedural. An introductory session on translation strategies in week 3 was critical, as many doubts were subsequently voiced in the tutorials: ‘Can you really do this?’, ‘But this is not translating . . .’. After the open class, their awareness increased in several ways, for example they collected and shared mistranslations from the media spontaneously.

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Finally, part of the project were self-reports and pre- and post-translation tasks. The students’ self-reports were analysed according to indicators pointing at Macaro’s three positions. In a first class session, 21 out of 24 students answered ‘no’ to the question ‘would you use translation in your English classes in school?’ (91% Virtual position). A relevant shift in position can be observed in the self-reports submitted by these students 13 weeks later with 50% adopting the ‘Optimal’ position, 36% the ‘Maximal’ position and 14% the ‘Virtual’ position. This is supported by the change in the pre- and post-translation task they were asked to design at an interval of 6 weeks and by the online activities for the project which can be viewed on The Catalan Picturebook Collection website. The translation tasks evolved from word-based routine activities to others which were holistic, challenging, interactive and informed.

8. Conclusion The explicit teaching of issues related to translation in the subject ‘Children’s Literature in English’ brought about relevant changes in both the aptitudes and the attitudes of the teacher trainees regarding their intercultural competence and their linguistic mediating skills. They progressed from a humanistic to an anthropological view of culture; from fronting cognitive (‘Know’) knowledge to stressing the importance of the more invisible behavioural (‘Do’) and moral (‘Feel’) knowledge and actions; generally moving from a Virtual to an Optimal position regarding the effectiveness of introducing translation into their classes; and, above all, the reconsideration of their concept of translation and their improved ability to solve translation problems and provide a rationale for their choice of strategies. This was all recorded in the observation instruments and confirmed by their actual work: pedagogical and authentic translation tasks, pre- and post-translation tasks, written protocols, culturebased online learning material and the discussions in class and during the tutorials. Children’s literature was presented as a valuable body of texts to compare sociocultural expressions and images of childhood, and as valid and explicit learning material to favour the development of the intra and intercultural competence of the teacher trainees themselves and that of their future (primary school) students. This was achieved mainly by exploring child images in children’s literature written originally in Catalan and in English, followed by the analysis of some translations focusing on the approach and strategies used. In this way, it gradually became clear how translation has very often operated as an active agent of transformation by introducing new verbal and visual material in the polysystem. Finally, the students translated stories and analysed their own translations seeking the rationale behind their decisions. This is where the results are more significant.

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This study is just a first step towards exploring the potential of translation as an efficient learning tool to improve intercultural competence and linguistic mediation skills in contexts other than professional translation training. More exploratory studies will help to throw light on the many angles from which translation, finally and explicitly, can occupy a central place in different learning contexts where languages and cultures come into contact. As a complex communication skill in itself, specific sub-competences related to translation competence certainly seem to back the theoretical assumptions on which TOLC is based; in addition, these can be particularly useful to help future generations to act interculturally, and to draw out the potential of our plurilingual futures.

Appendix: Questionnaire 1. Culture. Please rank these published defi nitions of culture according to how much you agree with each one. (Very much: 1 / Quite a lot: 2 / Not at all or Very little: 3) 1 1. The intellectual and artistic aspects of a society . . . A culture is a particular society or civilization, especially one considered in relation to its ideas, its art or its way of life. [British Encyclopedia, 1933] 2. By culture we mean intellectual development. It is often used as synonymous with civilization. [The Cobuild Dictionary, 1987] 3. Shared beliefs, values and behaviours of a social group, where ‘social group’ can refer to any collectivity of people, from those in a social institution such as a university, a golf club, a family, to those organized in large-scale groups such as a nation, or even a ‘civilisation’ such as ‘European’. [Byram 2008]2

2 3

† † †

† † † † † †

2. Intercultural communicative competence. Please mark these aspects of ICC according to how much you think each one is needed to develop ICC. (Very much: 1 / Quite a lot: 2 / Not at all or Very little: 3)

1. 2. 3. 4.

Knowing about different cultures Feeling that you can belong to different cultures Acting efficiently in different cultures Being able to recognize differences and similarities between different cultures 5. Being able to mediate efficiently between different cultures 6. Being able to feel like the members of different cultures

1

2

3

† † † †

† † † †

† † † †

† † † † † †

Would you like to suggest other aspects that you consider necessary to mediate between cultures?

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3. Cultural references. Please circle these cultural references according to how easily you think they can be spotted (Easily: 1 / Quite easily with training: 2 / With difficulty: 3)

Body language Child care and talk (adult attitudes) Clothes Expressing emotions Geography, flora and fauna . . . Levels of formality in texts or conversations Literary references in a text (newspapers, novels . . .) Rituals in social spaces (restaurants, religious ceremonies, classrooms, institutions . . .) Turn-taking and pauses in conversations Visual manifestations (art, audiovisuals, illustrations, traffic signals . . .) Word play and humour

1

2

3

† † † † † † † †

† † † † † † † †

† † † † † † † †

† † † † † † † † †

Would you like to suggest other cultural references and how easily you think they can be spotted and transferred to other languages and cultures?

4. Do you think that ICC can be taught? If so, do you think that specific training is needed? If so, what should it include? 5. Can cultural references be transferred across languages and cultures? If so, how? 6. Can you name two translation strategies and solutions to translate these references with no correspondence in the source and target cultures you will be working with? Strategy or strategies

Solution(s)

Christmas pudding Castellers

7. Look at the following published translations and answer the questions for each one. a) British translation (Methuen) of the Finnish Picture Book Aino by Kristiina Louhi (look carefully at Aino’s clothes): image 1 (Finnish source text): Aino with no clothes on

image 2 (English translation): Aino wearing short trousers

Do you think it has been translated appropriately? Why (not)?

YES NO † †

If you do not agree with the translation, how would you have translated it?

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b) Spanish translation of Just William by Richmal Crompton Source text in English (1977)

Spanish translation (1981)

Context: William is talking to his girlfriend and plays with words . . . ‘Has anyone told you that you’re a bottled cherry?’ (Bottled cherry = Boticelli)

‘¿Le ha dicho alguien que es usted un muro pequeño?’ (‘muro pequeño’ (low wall) = Murillo)

Do you think it has been translated appropriately? Why (not)?

YES NO † †

Ifyou do not agree with the translation, how would you have translated it?

Notes 1

2

CLIL is a teaching mode carried out in Primary, Secondary and University contexts and consists in learning a subject through a foreign language, for example ‘Science through English’ (Marsh and Wolff 2007). The references were blanked out for the students.

References Bee Chin, N. and Wigglesworth, G. (eds) (2007) Bilingualism. An Advanced Resource Book , Andover; New York: Routledge. Byram, M. (2008) From Foreign Language Education to Education for International Citizenship. Essays and Reflections, Clevendon; New York; Ontario: Multilingual Matters. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (2001) Retrieved at www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf, Accessed 28 August 2011. Cook, G. (2010) Translation in Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cook, V. J. (2001) ‘Using the first language in the classroom’, Canadian Modern Language Review 57 (3), 184–206. Corcoll, C. (2012a) ‘Developing plurilingual competence with young learners: we play and we learn and we speak in three languages’, in M. González Davies and A. Taronna (eds) Early Foreign Language Learning in Educational Contexts. Bridging Good Practices and Research , Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. — (2012b) ‘“English spelling is weird”: Developing children’s language awareness’, Language Learning Journal . Cummins, J. (1984) ‘Wanted: a theoretical framework for relating language proficiency to academic achievement among bilingual students’, in C. Rivera (ed.) Language Proficiency and Academic Achievement , Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

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— (2008) ‘Teaching for transfer: challenging the two solitudes assumption in bilingual education’, in J. Cummins and N. H. Hornberger (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education (Second edition), vol. 5, Bilingual Education , New York: Springer Science, 65–77. Deller, S. and Rinvolucri, M. (2002) Using the Mother Tongue. Making the Most of the Learner’s Language , English Teaching Professional: Professional Perspectives. González Davies, M. (2004) Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom. Activities, Tasks and Projects, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. — (2007) ‘Translation: why the bad press? A natural activity in an increasingly bilingual world’, Humanising Language Teaching (March). Retrieved at www.hltmag.co.uk/mar07/mart02.htm, Accessed 19 September 2011. — (2008) ‘Fairy tale retellings as translation: developing verbal and visual intercultural competence’, in M. González Davies and R. Oittinen (eds) Whose Story? Translating the Verbal and the Visual in Literature for Young Readers , Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 115–29. — (2011) ‘Engaging future generations in multicultural projects through the translation of literature for young readers’, in P. Clermont and B. Benert (eds) Contre l’innocence – Esthétique de l’engagement en littérature de jeunesse , Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 439–51. González Davies, M. and Oittinen, R. (eds) (2008) Whose Story? Translating the Verbal and the Visual in Literature for Young Readers , Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. González Davies, M. and Scott-Tennent, C. (2001) ‘Training in the application of translation strategies for undergraduate scientific translation students’, Meta 46 (4), 737–44. — (2005) ‘A problem-solving and student-centred approach to the translation of cultural references’, Meta 50 (1), 160–79. — (forthcoming) ‘Analysis of spontaneous use of L1 and translation in ALL within a CLIL context: when, how, what for and with what outcomes?’ Hanvey, R. G. (1992) ‘Culture’, in R. C. Scarcella and R. L. Oxford (eds) The Tapestry of Language Learning. The Individual in the Classroom , Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle, 182–92. Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1990) Discourse and the Translator, London; New York: Routledge. Hervey, S., Higgins, I. and Haywood, L. (1995) Thinking Spanish Translation , London; New York: Routledge. House, J. (2009) ‘Moving across languages and cultures in translation and intercultural communication’, in K. Bührig, J. House and J. D. ten Thije (eds) Translational Action and Intercultural Communication , Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. Leonardi, V. (2010) The Role of Pedagogical Translation in Second Language Acquisition , Bern: Peter Lang. Macaro, E. (2001) ‘Analysing student teachers’ codeswitching in foreign language classrooms: theories and decision making’, The Modern Language Journal 85 (4), 531–48.

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Marsh, D. and Wolff, D. (eds) (2007) Diverse Contexts–Converging Goals: CLIL in Europe , Bern: Peter Lang. Nida, E. (1999) ‘Language and culture’, Seminar at the Facultat de Ciències Humanes, Traducció i Documentació, University of Vic (Spain), May 1999. Nunan, D. (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O’Sullivan, E. (2005) Comparative Children’s Literature , London; New York: Routledge. Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Second edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Scott-Tennent, C. and González Davies, M. (2008) ‘Effects of specific training on the ability to deal with cultural referents in translation’, Meta 53 (4), 782–98. Skinner, D. (1985) ‘Access to meaning: the anatomy of the learning/language connection’, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 6 (2), 97–116. www.ncrcl.ac.uk [accessed 25 August 2011 from www.ncrcl.ac.uk/epbc/EN/index. asp?]

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Chapter 9

Towards Empowerment in Translator Education: Students’ Opinions and Expectations of a Translation Training Course Konrad Klimkowski and Katarzyna Klimkowska

1. Introduction The concept of empowerment (Kiraly 2000) in translator education has won recognition in the literature of the field (e.g. González Davies 2004, Kiraly 2005, Kenny 2008). It has become one of the most influential ideas used to discuss the interactions between the learner and the teacher in the classroom. Nevertheless, introducing it into everyday educational practice may be a longterm process. First, some time is needed for a new pedagogical concept to sink in among translation trainers; secondly, students will also have to modify the way in which they learn and practise translation. This chapter is a case study of the opinions, attitudes and beliefs expressed by MA students of the Department of Applied Linguistics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) in Lublin, Poland, concerning the course they attended, their teachers and their translation competences. The development of translator and interpreter training has proceeded for over half a century and has been subject to numerous debates in the literature.1 However, the emergence of translator and interpreter training as a subject of scholarly analysis and research came relatively later. For the purposes of this chapter, it will be assumed that the academic studies on translator and interpreter training started with the birth of the notion of translation competence. First attempts to define translation competence came in the mid-1970s (e.g. Wilss 1976) and were followed, from the 1980s onwards, by research on the cognitive approach to the translation process and the translator’s work (e.g. Holz-Mänttäri 1984, Krings 1986, Kiraly 1995, Shrev 1997). Research in the 1980s encouraged attempts to build empirical models of translation competence, its acquisition and assessment, and these efforts have continued until now.2 Building these empirical models was intended to enable the

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development and implementation of effective curricula for translator education.3 The threshold of the new millennium marks the beginning of the fourth stage, the most distinctive feature of which is the expansion of the scope of the debate regarding translator education to cover the management of the student-teacher interaction, in addition to the complex process of skill and competence building. One of the most prominent ideas in the field of translation pedagogy is the notion of empowerment, originally proposed by Kiraly (2000). In simple terms, the idea of empowerment may be described as giving the student and the teacher the power to act in accordance with the knowledge and skills they develop. The main assumptions of empowered translation pedagogy are discussed below. Inspired by Kiraly’s work (ibid.), we decided to research students’ opinions concerning the main assumptions of empowered translation pedagogy with the view to: (a) determine how ‘empowered’ our students are today, and (b) to foresee problems and develop solutions leading towards empowerment. In the conclusion, we concentrate on the facts describing students as young adults (psychopedagogical perspective) and comment on the impact of these facts on the educational process.

2. The Idea of Empowered Translator Education As mentioned above, the notion of empowerment was introduced into the literature of the field by Kiraly (2000). Below, the reader will find a brief presentation of the tenets of empowered education. However, the list of features defining the empowered pedagogical approach presented below may include elements that are only covertly mentioned by Kiraly (ibid.), or features that may be found in publications that inspired Kiraly’s theory. In other words, the presentation below is more of an interpretation than a mere description of Kiraly’s model. Kiraly’s idea of empowerment relies on constructivist philosophy, which means that knowledge and competence are not passed on from person to person (the master-to-apprentice metaphor), but is constructed through interpersonal interaction. As a result, empowerment introduces a balance between declarative and procedural knowledge (see e.g. Anderson 1983), often described as the balance between knowing ‘what’ and knowing ‘how’. In the case of Translation Studies, this balance is perhaps best described as a feedback reaction: students practise to develop translation skills, but they need to construe conceptual categories to be able to improve their practical performance. As knowledge and competence is developed and not transmitted, the persons entering this educational interaction will discover the most advantageous ‘ratio’ between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ kind of knowledge. Striking the balance between the two branches of knowledge has at least two strategic

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consequences for translation pedagogy. First, it helps students change the way they learn; secondly, the ability to apply knowledge is a key factor for students’ future active functioning in the marketplace. To illustrate the point concerning the change in the mode of learning that empowerment introduces, the authors wish to refer to the well-known metaphor of ‘deschooling translation’, expressed, for example, by Cronin (2005). Obviously, the metaphor does not signal the need to take translation and interpretation pedagogy beyond the context of formal education, but it implies the need to empower the formal programme by practices that will make it meet the cultural and socio-economic demands of the present. Nevertheless, the idea of deschooling translation is not only about changing the programme, but also about changing the student. At programme level, the most vital need, expressed by many scholars, practising translators and trainers, is to bring translation pedagogy closer to the business context. This can be done by introducing simulation of the business reality of the translator’s work into the classroom.4 As far as students are concerned, the idea of deschooling means changing passive addressees of ready-made knowledge into creative constructors of their own competences. When they construct knowledge, students will no longer learn in accordance with the ‘memorize-and-retrieve’ system, but will learn out of interest, in order to achieve a specific goal, solve a concrete problem and develop a working strategy. This redefinition of learning has a direct bearing on the students’ career: when their learning strategies are deschooled, they will find it easier to become life-long learners in the domain in which they work as translators and interpreters. Kiraly’s social constructivist stand brings about a fundamental reconfiguration of the educational process. First of all, his pedagogy promotes the so-called student-centred classroom , where the student is the central player in the educational arena, and where the teacher is assigned the role of a facilitator, and activities are defined as building scaffolding that will allow students’ development. Kiraly (ibid.) defines his approach as socio-constructivist, as it relies on the argument that social context facilitates the constructing of knowledge by an individual. As a result, he insists that the main method in organizing classroom interaction is a collaborative workshop: a real project, facilitated by the teacher, is realized by student teams acting as real translators. According to Kiraly (2000), collaboration is the ultimate level of human cooperation, and it differs from regular cooperation by the degree of synergy it produces: cooperation results in the creation of a final text that is a (more or less coherent) sum of individually translated pieces. Collaboration, on the other hand, means that translators produce one text, developed through team negotiation, conflict and problem solving. Finally, a distinctive feature of Kiraly’s proposal (ibid.) is the so-called transformative approach to education. The concept refers directly to the design of the student-teacher interaction in the (translation) classroom. Drawing upon

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Table 9.1 Miller and Seller’s (1985) dilemmas (after Kiraly 2000: 22) Transmission perspective

Transformation perspective

Knowledge is transferred Learner is a student and client Teacher should be in control Knowledge is public Motivation is extrinsic Learning is molecular Learning characteristics are shared Learning is individual Knowledge is content

Knowledge is constructed Learner is a whole person Student should be in control Knowledge is private Motivation is intrinsic Learning is holistic Every learner is unique Learning is social Knowledge is process

the work of Miller and Seller (1985), Kiraly distinguishes between the transmissionist and the transformative conception of learning, education and thus classroom management. The two approaches give opposing answers to questions regarding the nature of knowledge, of how the learner is defined and situated in the educational process, and of the relationship between the learner and the teacher, as presented in Table 9.1. The scope of this chapter renders it impossible for the authors to discuss the particular points (dilemmas) in detail, so the reader is referred to (in addition to Kiraly 2000) Boyd and Myers (1988), Mezirow (2000), Miller and Seller (1985) or Miller (2007), for further details. In general, the theory of transformative learning rests on a premise that education is possible only on condition that it involves the experience of significant change taking place not only on the level of knowledge or rationality, but also on the level of feelings, attitudes and actions. Metaphorically, the student and the teacher become ‘new’ people through their educational interaction. Although the assumption of the transformative relationship between the student and the teacher is not uncontroversial, its underlying idea is commendable: education is not only about what our students do, but it is also about who they are and who they will be, as well as who we (teachers) are and who we are likely to become.

3. Study In his vision of a transformative classroom, Kiraly (2000: 23) foresees that ‘learning activities will be marked by proactive students working in collaboration with each other and the teacher’. According to him, this vision is fully justified, on proviso that the students are proactive because the teacher has already employed a transformative approach in the classroom. It is interesting to ask about initial student motivation, that is at the beginning of the implementation of a transformative curriculum, since the (teacher’s) knowledge of student motivation at this early stage (in fact at all the stages of curriculum

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implementation) is decisive for effective student empowerment. If student’s initial intrinsic motivation is low (e.g. they are afraid of taking responsibility, often because of their fear of failure or a bad mark, and look for the safety of the transmission scheme, etc.5), empowerment-oriented, proactive classroom dynamics may bring unexpected, negative effects (e.g. passiveness, truancy, protests, obstruction). In an attempt to investigate these issues further, we decided to gather students’ opinions on Miller and Seller’s dilemmas (1985), as a marker of the degree of their empowerment. The research was conducted on first-year students of the two-year MA postgraduate course in Applied Linguistics at UMCS, Lublin, with a major in translation/interpreting. Out of the 53 students investigated, 50 were female, 3 were male, and the age bracket of the subjects was 22–23. On the one hand, this allowed insight into how empowering the students’ educational experience has been so far and, on the other, to foresee to what extent their prospective academic activities can be empowerment-oriented. As has been discussed above, the empowered model of academic education brings a redefinition of the roles of the student and the teacher in the educational process. The effectiveness of an empowered curriculum depends not only on the competences of the teachers, but also on their attitudes towards themselves as professionals, as people, as well as their attitudes towards the students, towards education, towards translation as a profession and towards the university. What is also needed for empowerment to take place is an attitude displayed by students that marks a departure from existing educational routines (concerning the educational model, the roles of the student and of the teacher) on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural levels. The empirical analysis undertaken in this chapter aims to answer three major research questions: (1) What is the student’s perception of translation classes? (2) What do the students expect of the teacher? (3) How do they define their role in the classroom? Although the research was diagnostic in nature, the authors’ experience in translation, translator education and education studies allowed the formulation of research hypotheses for the major research questions. In relation to Question 1, it was assumed that students would display many characteristics typical of a transmissionist model of education, with a dominating, active role assumed by the teacher, and a relatively active, but dominated, role assumed by the student. In relation to the other two questions, it was assumed that students would show a tendency towards a more empowered view, since they state that it is necessary in academic education. They would expect a larger degree of cooperation with the teacher in the process of planning, implementation and assessment of class activities. They would also expect a change in redefining the role of assessment: from a qualifying-disqualifying method, based exclusively on the teacher’s authority, towards more diverse assessment practices (self-assessment, peer assessment, teacher’s assessment), whose main aim would be to point out necessary and possible directions for development.

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The method of diagnostic survey and questionnaire and semantic differentiation techniques were used. Osgood, who is the author of the latter technique, defined its potential in the following way: In the typical semantic differentiation task, a subject judges a series of concepts (e.g., my mother, Chinese, modern art, etc.) against a series of bipolar, seven-step scales defined by verbal opposites (e.g., good-bad, strong-weak, fast-slow, hot-cold, fair-unfair, etc.). The concept is given at the top of each sheet, and the subject judges it against each successive scale by putting his checkmark in the appropriate position, e.g., +3 extremely good, +2 quite good, +1 slightly good, 0 equally good and bad or neither, -1 slightly bad, -2 quite bad, and -3 extremely bad. When a group of people judge a set of concepts against a set of adjectival scales, representing what we call a ‘semantic differential,’ a cube of data is generated. (Osgood 1964: 172–3) The questionnaire enquired as to the social and demographic characteristics of the subjects and the semantic differential was constructed with eight pairs of opposing statements concerning academic education, based on the dilemmas developed by Miller and Seller (1985), as quoted above. The subjects were to express their preferences as regards these opposing statements with the use of a six-grade scale of potential answers for each statement. The statements listed in the left column in Figure 9.1 represent the transmissionist extreme, whereas those on the right are typical of the transformative (empowered) approach.

The teacher is responsible for the __*____*___._*____*_.___*__ classes

The teacher cooperates with the students for the classes

The teacher assesses the students’ results

__*___._*____*___._*____*__

The teacher and the students assess the results of the other students

The teacher makes the ultimate decisions as regards translation

__*_.___*__.__*____*____*__

The students make the ultimate decisions as regards translation

The teacher knows answers to all questions

__*_.___*____*__.__*____*__

The teacher does not know answers to all questions

The teacher delivers knowledge

__*___._*__.__*____*____*__

The teacher and the students seek knowledge

The teacher defines how classes are organized

__*____*_.___*___._*____*__

The teacher cooperates with students in defining how classes are organized

Assessment helps students develop

__*_.___*__.__*____*____*__

Assessment hinders student development

Figure 9.1 Actual vs expected classroom management

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The data presented in Figure 9.1 implies that the subjects’ experience of academic translator education is predominantly that of a transmissionist environment. Pivotal in this model is the activity of the teacher as the creator of the educational reality. A prevalent number of students expressed their preference for a teacher who provides them with ready-made knowledge, and who plays the role of a ‘parent’ in confirming or correcting the students’ (‘children’s’) translation decisions.

4. Study Results: An Andragogical Perspective The data about students’ opinions also informs us about the teachers. Indirectly, the data shows that the teachers of the researched students preferred the transmissionist mode of work. Unintentionally, teachers seem to have imprinted in their students a feeling of uncertainty and lack of competence. This is because the teacher who adopts the role of ‘the one who knows all the answers’ makes it difficult for his/her students to develop a sense of professional autonomy: ‘I must be wrong (I am not sure), since my experience is inferior to my teacher’s’, ‘Translation is good only if my teacher says so’ – these are hidden scripts that ‘operate’ in transmissionist students’ minds and thwart their empowerment. If this ‘child-like’ model of students striving for safety, based on the presence of external stimuli, is ingrained in them, it may easily permeate other spheres of their activities and competences. This, in turn, may create barriers that the students – also as future translators – may experience when faced with challenging tasks. In this sense, the hypothesis in relation to research Question 1 was fully confirmed. The other two hypotheses were also confirmed. The subjects stated that the translation course should include training for the following professional competences: z z z z z z z z

ability to apply a variety of translation strategies and techniques (94.34%), language competence (90.57%), stress management (71.70%)*, effective note-taking (28.30%), effective research (26.41%), ability to use interpreting equipment (booth) (13.21%), workload management (11.32%)*, self-confidence (7.55%)*.

The figures indicate that, in the students’ opinion, the academic course in translation should not only focus on the ‘hard-skill’ competences, but the softskills as well (marked with * in the above list). Moreover, the data shows that

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students often expected their MA course to offer them a chance of further developing both translation as well as personality-related skills. With regard to the second research question (expectations that the students have of the teacher) and the third research question (the students’ perception of their own role in education), the data collected implies that the students would like to participate more actively in class, and to enjoy more influence in class planning, in order to make the curriculum better suited to their needs. These expectations match the basic assumptions presented by Kiraly (2000) in a one-to-one relationship. What is more, as presupposed in the hypothesis, the students would like to modify the way in which their work is assessed, as they currently find the assessment procedures stressful. In the questionnaires, students often point out that negative marks are de-motivating. Students admit that negative marks do give them motivation to act, but the main goal is no more than to improve the mark, and not to enhance their level of knowledge or competence. They also state that if they were allowed to actively participate (individually and in a group) in the assessment procedures: (1) their feelings of stress and anxiety would be reduced; (2) they would understand the idea, the elements and the purpose of assessment better; (3) their intrinsic motivation to develop would substitute an extrinsic one to improve marks; and (4) they would develop the skill of self-assessment, something which will be pivotal in their future career. Although the research questions have been answered and the research hypotheses have been confirmed, the overall picture resulting from the research is not entirely clear. Three areas, marked with stars in Figure 9.1 above, need highlighting. On the one hand, the subjects want to make their classes more attractive by being allowed to engage in the planning and organization of classes (the first star in the diagram). On the other hand, they point out that they want the teacher to be a more active player on the scene and, in fact, they claim that they expect the teacher to know all the answers (the second star), and to provide them with ready-made knowledge (the third star). Therefore, it can be concluded that although students are capable of recognizing the advantages of an empowered approach to education, they nonetheless expressed a preference for a purely transmissionist classroom organization. This diagnosis is perhaps a result of students’ previous educational experiences. On the one hand, their background in translation training (the BA course) gives them enough knowledge about which mode of education is more advantageous for the development of their translation competence. On the other hand, their experience of a predominantly transmissionist classroom makes them opt for a reality with which they are more familiar: it makes them feel relatively safe, even though they do not find it effective, inspiring or attractive. Under this view, the teacher is the one who knows what is important and what is not, and why. Students believe that this kind of knowledge is strictly

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restricted to the teacher and, consequently, a teacher who is ready to say ‘I do not know . . .’ inspires less confidence. From the perspective of developmental psychology,6 the students in the study display a considerable degree of psychological immaturity. In terms of age, they are young adults. In terms of psychological needs, they represent the stage of adolescence, clearly marked with an articulated need for safety and certainty (determinacy). To be precise, the presence of the above-mentioned needs is not in itself the marker of immaturity, but it is the fact that students want the teacher to be the source of safety and certainty that marks this clear lack of maturity.

5. Empowering Assessment: From a Statistical Figure to an Educational Instrument The complex matrix of psychopedagogical factors explained above suggests that an empowerment-oriented educational model is not something that may be ‘officially’ introduced as a leading educational methodology. Rather, it is a reality that needs constant building and rebuilding, looking for those aspects of the curriculum that need to be empowered at a given stage in its development. Particularly interesting in this context is the issue of students’ (and teachers) intrinsic motivation7 – a key notion in empowered, transformative (holistic), learner-centred education. In the authors’ opinion, the data presented above makes it clear that the students’ motivation levels need constant monitoring and care. In a holistic perspective, student intrinsic motivation leads to a boost in self-esteem, a feeling of safety (as guaranteed by myself for myself) and a readiness to explore. This, in turn, seems a condition sine qua non for a transformation from a student to a professional (in line with Fraser 1996) – a real marker of empowerment. The data presented above shows how many factors coincide and influence the rise or fall of student intrinsic motivation. An element of the course that could increase student motivation is a well-designed assessment model. The authors find it difficult to determine beyond doubt whether the problems described in this section are only typical of the Polish educational context, or if they are of a more universal nature. Nevertheless, we have observed that it is very frequent for students and teachers to reduce assessment to a procedure of granting a symbolic or statistical certificate allowing the student to ‘pass’, and the teacher to complete the appropriate university form. The problem is that assessment in the form of a statistical marker (a mark/grade) seems to have lost its functional nature almost entirely. Instead of being an educational tool, it often appears to be an unwanted and stressful necessity for both students and teachers. When devoid of its feedback function, assessment puts an end to an educational process, whereas in fact its main function is to inspire new

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educational processes. This is why assessment means giving feedback rather than giving a mark, and instead of focusing on this loaded and tense enterprise, the classroom participants would be better off concentrating on the flow of information that will bring them long-term educational benefits.8 All of the above observations lead the authors to the conclusion that formative assessment should prevail over summative assessment in the translation classroom. As observed by Race et al. (2005): Assessment should be formative – even when it is primarily intended to be summative. Assessment is a time-consuming process for all concerned, so it seems like a wasted opportunity if it is not used as a means of letting students know how they are doing, and how they can improve. Assessment that is mainly summative in its function (for example, when only a number or grade is given) gives students very little information, other than frequently confirming their own prejudices about themselves. (Ibid.: 3) Obviously, the above-mentioned stance cannot be understood as a call to abandon mathematical assessment altogether: teachers are generally obliged by university regulations to record their assessment in a statistic form (e.g. ECTS or other formally recognized marks/grades). Instead of eliminating the numbers or points system, teachers can do their best to make students understand the information behind the points and reasons for their scores.9 Formative assessment offers one more advantage, particularly important in the development of translation or interpreting skills: it helps to keep track of skills development from its early stages and throughout the course. This means that formative assessment focuses on progress rather than on singular performance. As regards cognitive skills, it is common knowledge that their growth is not linear, but goes through different stages of progression, regression and stagnation. Summative assessment fails to discern the nuances of this process, and it fails to offer students or teachers tools to understand and manage the educational process.10 Consequently, empowered assessment takes the form of a dialogue not a monologue. In accordance with the holistic, transformative approach, it is always based on student-teacher interaction. It is crucial that teachers and students do their best to understand the instrumental, taskoriented nature of assessment. It is also recommendable that through assessment, students and teachers learn to build their plans for future actions. Changing the way translator and interpreter trainers view and employ assessment tools is a difficult process. The authors have observed that proposals in this respect often cause apprehension and anxiety in both students and teachers. Students often fear exchanging the safe ground of struggling for marks for an unknown reality – the one where they need to understand feedback information and decide what to do about it. Of great help in making students comprehend the empowered assessment is peer assessment. Thanks to this kind of

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practice, students are trained in giving and accepting feedback. This experience helps them to overcome their fear of being criticized and their disappointment with their grade. In other words, they learn to distinguish between assessment of their progress and skills, and the perceived emotional, evaluative verdict about the student as a person. Another crucial advantage of peer assessment practices is that through collaborative interaction, students learn not only to assess others, but they also develop their own systems of self-evaluation – a factor crucial for self-esteem building and boosting motivation. The reservation that the authors of this chapter hear most frequently from teachers is their fear of losing control over the classroom, meaning a decrease in discipline, which leads to students becoming less hardworking and losing motivation. As a result, they are not ready to meet either educational or market demands. At this stage, the authors abstain from commenting upon these opinions, though they are definitely worth examining in more detail. In fact, we are planning to conduct a research study for teachers, based on criteria similar to the ones employed in this study. This future study will be conducted in order to determine how to help teachers empower themselves, and thus offer their students an empowered perspective on education. Race et al. (2005: 4) stress that ‘assessment should start as early as possible’ and that ‘ideally, feedback to students should be continuous’. This observation is in line with what has been said above: assessment must be integrated within classroom dynamics in order to prevent it becoming ‘a painful end to classes’, ‘settling the accounts’ or ‘looming doomsday’, etc. This integrative way of thinking takes into account the fact that assessment is an element of everyday communication between students and teachers. If this is so, students and teachers learn to express their evaluative statements in the classroom in a way that empowers learning. This is why developing communicative skills between students and teachers is perhaps the first and most indispensable rule of an empowered classroom.

6. Concluding Remarks Empowerment-based education offers many advantages. However, the mere listing of advantages is not enough for the successful implementation of an empowered curriculum. In this chapter, the authors focused on the students’ opinions about their curriculum, and – implicitly – on their attitudes to learning, teaching and assessment in general, since in the authors’ view these opinions and attitudes are a key factor influencing the success of introducing an empowered way of thinking and acting into the translation classroom. The study results give insight into a vast array of andragogical factors that have an impact on the functioning of students. They also allow observations to be made about the students’ level of intrinsic motivation to learn, which is a vital

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resource in empowered education and, as such, must be constantly catered for. A systemic tool suggested for this activity is classroom assessment based on a number of principles that help prevent the occurrence of de-motivation and disempowerment. The instrumental function of assessment reaches beyond the translation classroom. Its long-term objective is to equip translators with self-assessment skills as a tool for career building. Commenting on the notions of self-assessment (also referred to as ipsative assessment), Sawyer (2004: 106) states that ‘[i]deally, ipsative assessment continues throughout the professional career’. This is because the ability to assess one’s own actions and to react in accordance with this assessment is a key cognitive resource in translation. In fact, researchers in the field of education studies claim that self-assessment is part of self-directedness: a general ability to undertake actions – deliberately and responsibly – to realize one’s personal objectives. Thus, starting from the translation classroom and moving gradually towards the holistic concept of developing a human being, the authors make explicit the main rationale for empowered assessment in the translation classroom: it creates a chance for a positive holistic impact on education, career and the personal life of future translators.

Notes 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Hurtado Albir (2007), González Davies and Kiraly (2006), Kelly (2005), Pym (2009) are only a handful of the recent contributions to the field. This branch of research is best represented by the PACTE group. For the latest developments, see for example PACTE (2008) or (2009). In addition to papers by the PACTE group, please refer to Hurtado Albir (2007) or Kelly (2005) for more detail on the concept of a Competence-Based Curriculum. Apart from Kiraly (2000), such proposals are also to be found, for example, in Anderman and Rogers (2000), Fraser (2000), Gouadec (2008), Mackenzie (2004), Nord (1991), Vandepitte (2009), Vienne (2000) or Way (2009). A detailed outline of historical and recent studies of motivation in education may be found in Dörnyei (2001). For the purpose of this chapter, the authors mostly rely on Erikson’s (1980) theory of human development, and the terms he introduced: adolescence and young adulthood. Worth quoting here are also some other works within the broadly understood domain of developmental psychology, for example Bronfenbrenner (1993), Magolda (1992), Salzberger-Wittenberg et al. (1983), Sugarman (2001) or Youell (2006). The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation must be used with caution. Certain theories of human motivation promote a view that the apparent dichotomy should rather be seen as a dialectical relationship. This is the case with the self-determination theory, the most outstanding representatives of which are Deci and Ryan (1985, 2002).

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See Garant (2009: 10ff.) for a survey of objections to the points-based system of assessment expressed by participants of his research questionnaire on academic assessment (teachers), which corroborate the claims made by the authors of this chapter. Please also refer to Sawyer (2004: 6) for his discussion on Gipps (1994) and her appeal for comprehensive assessment as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in education. González Davies (2004: 31ff.) distinguishes between pedagogical and professional assessment. The former is based on numerical marking, while the latter relies on parameters used in professional assessment of translation: students are informed that their translation is acceptable, acceptable but it needs improvements, or that it is unacceptable (ibid.: 34). According to González Davies, both assessment regimes can be incorporated into a translation course, depending on assessment objectives or the character of the course (ibid.: 33). This point of view is in line with an appeal by Pym (2009: 9) that translator education be more process-oriented, rather than being exclusively productoriented.

References Anderman, G. and Rogers, M. (2000) ‘Translator training between academia and profession: a European perspective’, in C. Schäffner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 63–73. Anderson, J. R. (1983) The Architecture of Cognition , Cambridge, US: Harvard University Press. Baxter, M. M. (1992) ‘Students’ epistemologies and academic experiences: implications for pedagogy’, Review of Higher Education 15 (3), 265–87. Bell, R. (1991) Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice , London; New York: Longman. Boyd, R. D. and Myers, G. J. (1988) ‘Transformative education’, International Journal of Lifelong Education 7 (4), 261–84. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1993) ‘Ecological systems theory’, in R. Wozniak and K. Fisher (eds) Specific Environments: Thinking in Context , Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 3–44. Cao, D. (1996) ‘Towards a model of translation proficiency’, Target 8 (2), 325–40. Colina, S. (1999) ‘Transfer and unwarranted transcoding in the acquisition of translational competence: an empirical investigation’, in J. Vandaele (ed.) Translation and the (Re)location of Meaning. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminars in Translation Studies , Leuven: CETRA, 375–91. — (2003) Translation Teaching from Research to the Classroom: A Handbook for Teachers, Boston: McGraw-Hill. Cronin, M. (2005) ‘Deschooling translation’, in M. Tennent (ed.) Training for the New Millennium. Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 249–65. Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behaviour, New York: Plenum Press.

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— (2002) Handbook of Self-Determination Research , Rochester: University of Rochester Press. Dörnyei, Z. (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation , Harlow: Pearson Education. Erikson, E. (1980) Identity and the Life Cycle. A Reissue , New York: Norton. Fraser, J. (1996) ‘Professional versus student behaviour’, in C. Dollerup and V. Appel (eds) Teaching Translation and Interpreting 3: New Horizons, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 243–50. — (2000) ‘The broader view: how freelance translators define translation competence’, in Ch. Schäfner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 51–62. Gaddis, R. M. (ed.) (1987) Translation Excellence. Assessment, Achievement, Maintenance , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Garant, M. (2009) ‘A case for holistic translation assessment’, AFinLA-e Soveltavan kielitieteen tutkimuksia 1, 5–17. Gipps, C. (1994) Beyond Testing: Towards a Theory of Educational Assessment , London; Washington, DC: Falmer. González Davies, M. (2004) Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom: Activities, Tasks and Projects, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. González Davies, M. and Kiraly, D. (2006) ‘Translation: pedagogy’, in K. Brown (ed.) Elsevier Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics, Oxford: Elsevier, 81–5. Gouadec, D. (2008) Translation as a Profession , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Holz-Mänttäri, J. (1984) Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode , Helsinki: Mäntan Kirjapaino / Suomalainen Tiedekatemia. Hurtado Albir, A. (2007) ‘Competence-based curriculum design for training translators’, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 1 (2), 163–88. Keiser-Cooke, M. (1994) ‘Translational expertise – a cross-cultural phenomenon from an inter-disciplinary perspective’, in M. Snell-Hornby, F. Pöchhacker and K. Kaindl (eds) Translation Studies: An Interdiscipline , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 135–9. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Kenny, M. A. (2008) ‘Discussion, cooperation, collaboration: the impact of taskstructure on student interaction in a web-based translation exercise module’, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 2 (2), 139–64. Kiraly, D. (1995) Pathways to Translation , Kent: Kent State University Press. — (2000) A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education, Manchester: St Jerome. — (2005) ‘Project-based learning: a case for situated translation’, Meta 50 (4), 1098–1111. Krings, P. (1986) Was in den Köpfen von Übersetzen vorgeht: Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Struktur des Übersetzungsprozesses an fortgeschrifttenen Französischlernern , Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Mackenzie, R. (2004) ‘The competencies required by the translator’s roles as professionals’, in K. Malmkjær (ed.) Translation in Undergraduate Degree Programmes , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 31–8.

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Mezirow, J. (2000) Learning As Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress, San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Miller, J. (2007) The Holistic Curriculum , Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Miller, J. and Seller, W. (1985) Curriculum: Perspectives and Practice , Toronto, Canada: Copp Clark Pitman Division, Longman. Newmark, P. (1988) Textbook of Translation , New York: Prentice Hall. Nord, C. (1991) Text Analysis in Translation , Amsterdam: Rodopi. Osgood, C. E. (1964) ‘Semantic differential technique in the comparative study of cultures’, American Anthropologist 66 (3), 171–200. PACTE group (2008) ‘First results of a translation competence experiment: “Knowledge of Translation” and “Efficacy of Translation Process”’, in J. Kearns (ed.) Translator and Interpreter Training, London; New York: Continuum, 104–26. — (2009) ‘Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model: acceptability and decision making’, Across Languages and Cultures 10 (2), 207–30. Pym, A. (2003) ‘Redefining translation competence in an electronic age. In defence of a minimalist approach’, Meta 48 (4), 481–97. — (2009) ‘Translation training’, Pre-print text written for the Oxford Companion to Translation Studies . Race, P., Brown, S. and Smith, B. (2005) 500 Tips on Assessment , London; New York: Routledge. Salzberger-Wittenberg, I., Giana, H. and Osborne, E. (1983) The Emotional Experience of Learning and Teaching, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Sawyer, D. (2004) Fundamental Aspects of Interpreter Education: Curriculum and Assessment , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Shreve, G. (1997) Cognitive Processes in Translation and Interpreting, Thousand Oaks; London: Sage. Sugarman, L. (2001) Life-Span Development: Frameworks, Accounts and Strategies , London; New York: Routledge. Vandepitte, S. (2009) ‘Entrepreneurial competences in translation training’, in I. Kemble (ed.) The Changing Face of Translation , Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth, 120–30. Vienne, J. (2000) ‘Which competences should we teach to future translators and how?’ in C. Schäffner and B. Adab (eds) Developing Translation Competence , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 91–100. Way, C. (2009) ‘Bringing professional practices into translation classrooms’, in I. Kemble (ed.) The Changing Face of Translation , Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth, 131–42. Wilss, W. (1976) ‘Perspectives and limitations of a didactic framework for the teaching of translation’, in R. W. Brislin (ed.) Translation: Applications and Research , New York: Gardner Press, 117–37. Youell, B. (2006) The Learning Relationship. Psychoanalytic Thinking in Education , London: Karnac Books.

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Part 4

Global Perspectives on the Translation Process

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Chapter 10

Training of Professional Translators in Australia: Process-Oriented and Product-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Marc Orlando

1. Introduction Trainees in Translation Studies postgraduate courses in Australia generally join such programmes from different universities and backgrounds, and even different countries. Very often, they do not know much about the methods of evaluation used in the Translation and Interpreting (T&I) industry, about the numerous tasks beyond the linguistic transfer practitioners have to complete, or about the methodology requirements which allow translators to understand the translational process and identify their own weaknesses and strengths. However, during their training, they will have to be made aware of the professional practices and tools used by agencies and organizations worldwide, and learn best practices and methods to become efficient practitioners. This can be done consistently if different types of activities and evaluations are implemented in the course, mirroring the sector’s practices and norms, as well as the different learning stages, and if the evaluations follow appropriately the stages of the training and are carried out with both a formative and a normative view. Such tools have been introduced in the Master of Translation Studies at Monash University. Because the courses are taught by practitioners, academics and professionals, and because the curriculum is based on a balance of academic and professional activities, students are assessed throughout their training both in a formative way (assessment relevant to the training stage) and a normative way (assessment taking into account norms of the sector). Whether the student’s translation is assessed in a product-oriented way (entry test, practical test, final exam, accreditation exam, practicum work, etc.) or in a process-oriented way (assessed tasks with different objectives at different

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stages of the training, formative exercises), instructors need different tools which give them the possibility to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the trainees’ translation competences, and help them to choose appropriate remedial teaching strategies. How may we best assess translation trainees while respecting both pedagogical and professional constraints of an increasingly globalized working context? In an attempt to answer this question, this chapter will present evaluation tools used at different stages of the training and in different contexts. It will also discuss one of the main aims of training, that is to make future translators aware of practices and requirements of the translation and interpreting sector in the local and global market. First, the context of the training will be introduced. Secondly, comments on the difficulty in establishing an efficient evaluation system in an academic programme with both a pedagogical and a vocational purpose will be dealt with. Finally, two different evaluation grids for the different types of assessment are presented and discussed, along with an Integrated Translator’s Diary.

2. General Context 2.1 Australia’s geographical position As far as translation jobs are concerned, the geographical position of Australia may be an asset. Many agencies and clients based in North America or Europe employ translators based in the Asia Pacific region, the time difference often suiting their tight deadlines. Indeed, many global translation companies operate on a 24/7 basis and thus need translation platforms in different parts of the world. When these platforms generally managed by local project managers require translations, they contact translators in their time zone. Platforms based in Europe will send their translations to Europe-based translators, whereas platforms based in South America or in Asia will offer work to professionals based in these regions. The South Pacific region-based translators (e.g. in Australia, New Zealand) can therefore be asked to translate documents for a European client simply because of this geostrategic commercial arrangement and because their European counterparts are asleep when they are up. Consequently, one of our training aims as an Australian-based translator training programme is to ensure that students become efficient professionals in a local and a global market, and are aware of the requirements and the norms of evaluation required in the T&I industry both locally and globally. In addition, we aim to raise awareness of the different roles and functions required from translators in this field. Bearing in mind that students need to be well-prepared and well-equipped for the local and the global T&I market, and that they also need to be active participants in their learning process, various activities and evaluation tools have been implemented in our curriculum.

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There are two main tools which have been introduced in a student-centred approach. The first one includes different evaluation grids that combine didactic elements used in other fields of assessment as well as elements used by T&I agencies, by organizations worldwide and by the Australian National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). The other major tool is a translator’s diary, based on different drafts of the translation and on the revision steps, which helps students to justify their strategy or to refer to research. These evaluation tools aim to make future translators aware of the role of the translator as a thinking professional, of their own practice, of theoretical approaches relevant to their practice, but also of the normative demands of the T&I industry.

2.2 The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (trading as NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia, and the only agency that issues accreditations for practitioners who wish to work in this profession in Australia. NAATI’s primary purpose is to strengthen inclusion and participation in Australian society by assisting in meeting its diverse and changing communication needs and expectations. This is done through setting, maintaining and promoting high national standards in translating and interpreting, and implementing a national quality-assurance system for credentialing practitioners who meet those standards. NAATI credentialing provides quality assurance to the clients of translators and interpreters and gives credibility to agencies that employ practitioners who are credentialed appropriately (NAATI website, 2010). Any practitioner who wishes to work publicly in T&I in Australia will need to be accredited by NAATI. This can be done by sitting the appropriate test, by obtaining recognition (after having completed relevant T&I studies in a recognized overseas institution), or by being trained in a course approved by NAATI. The fact that Monash University’s Translation and Interpreting Studies programme is NAATI approved at Professional Level, and therefore that students can be recommended for accreditation on successful completion of the course, implies that assessment NAATI criteria and demands had to be followed when the programme opted for curricular renewal and a new design of its evaluation system.

2.3 Training context The Master of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Monash University, Melbourne, has been running since 2004. It aims to train translators and interpreters in various language pairs (13 languages for the translation stream,

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5 languages for the interpreting stream), and has been approved by the government-owned NAATI. The Master’s programme (3 semesters) attracts a significant and growing number of domestic and international students and provides learning opportunities for current and future interpreters and translators, combining in-depth knowledge of theoretical issues with practice through learner-centred, collaborative and problem-based approaches. The teaching team is composed of both academics and professionals; most are NAATI accredited practitioners (all are referred to as ‘instructors’ or ‘educators’). It is relevant to note that most students enrolling in the course have graduated from language programmes, and that some instructors teach in such programmes. As far as translation evaluation is concerned, this impacts on both trainers’ and trainees’ teaching and learning habits and expectations, as they are generally used to pedagogical translation evaluations (evaluations with mainly linguistic objectives).

3. Syllabus and Assessment Objectives of the Programme 3.1 On campus classes The core units of the translation stream at Monash focus mainly on different theories and concepts of Translation Studies applied to different text types in different contexts. For the first two semesters (26 weeks in total), the classes consist of a mix of weekly theoretical non-language-specific seminars (in English) and practical language-specific workshops where students develop generic and specific competences. The theoretical seminar lectures are generally given by academics who specialize in various areas of Translation Studies, but also by non-academic practitioners who often bring in another practical and professional perspective to certain key areas of the field (e.g. ethics of the profession). The language specific workshops are conducted by instructors (mainly NAATI accredited translators) who work either by language pair or language direction, depending on the number of students they have in their language group. During these workshops, students and instructors work on translations they have prepared beforehand and discuss how the seminar lecture of the week, or the readings given to them before the workshop, have helped them to produce their translation. The obvious aim of the activity is to apply theoretical and conceptual views to their practical work, and to show students that T&I theories can be particularly helpful in the translational process.

3.2 Practicum As part of their syllabus, and to provide students with opportunities to work from the beginning of their training with ‘real life’ material, students have

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to complete 80 hours of practicum over the first two semesters of their studies. They work on translations commissioned by real clients and supervised and checked by accredited professional translators, or work in-house in an agency and are supervised by professional practitioners and project managers. The practicum is a requirement for being recommended for NAATI accreditation and is aimed at helping students to gain real world experiences in the T&I industry. By working with professionals in the industry, students will be able to pick up useful skills that will help to prepare them for the transition from university to work place. Again, in applying the knowledge acquired in the classroom, students are able to develop a better understanding of the way in which theory relates to practice. Moreover, employers participating in the practicum may also become a useful recruitment resource for graduates of the programme. When completing these practicum hours, students are encouraged to draw conclusions about the way in which translators operate and about the criteria and skills involved in a practical working environment. These hours also help them to broaden their knowledge of this multi-faceted profession, at the crossroads of so many domains, and to make decisions about their careers in T&I. Practicum placements can occur in blocks (i.e. one whole working day, or a series of working days) or shorter attendances conducted weekly or monthly. The length of time will usually be determined by the organization. The translation practicum content is divided into several components that will typically include translation of a range of text types, such as the translation of legal materials through legal service providers, including general promotional materials, information on specific legal issues currently supplied to clients in English only, procedural information, legal documents that require translation during the process of advice provision to clients, the translation of Monash University materials, for example website-related information, materials for academic staff, ethics forms etc., or participation in large translation projects in collaboration with translation agencies/language service providers. During these tasks, students need to provide drafts of their translations to their language group instructor who will comment on the work, check it, revise it and certify it (if necessary) before the final translation is sent back to the commissioner. At the end of each semester, students must submit a practicum log which should include the following: new and useful skills acquired; understanding the work responsibilities; specific problems encountered (e.g. ethical dilemmas, difficulties with clients, challenges in translation etc.) and influence of the practicum on their interests in working in such organizations. After four years of existence of the practicum , students, instructors and employers recognize it as the indispensable complementary component of the oncampus seminars and language-specific workshops. In addition to the on-campus classes and the practicum , and in order to develop their knowledge of the local contexts, students also have to attend

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weekly ‘contextual studies lectures’ presented by staff or guest speakers where they gain social and cultural awareness of the T&I sector in Australia. The aim of this lecture series is to provide students with an overview of specialized translation (and interpreting) contexts in Australia. Our guests are highly experienced professionals working in fields directly associated with translation, interpreting and language service provision. Their presentations address topics such as legal, medical and community translation, as well as immigration, trade, policing, tourism and education.

3.3 Assessment approach The programme’s curriculum combines theory and practice of translation. The teaching team strongly believes that despite their different academic backgrounds, languages and cultures, and instructors in this course, students must be trained and assessed with as much equity and consistency as possible from one language group to another. In 2007, the programme decided to opt for a different evaluation approach, and asked me to ensure that this approach and the related tools would satisfy our objective to be both an academic and a practical, vocational programme. Instead of evaluating translations only in a product-oriented way based on assessment criteria tailored for the NAATI tests, a more formative, student-centred approach was implemented and applied in all language pairs. Throughout their training, students must be able to reflect on their own practice and become thinking professionals who understand the processes of translation. In a training programme with a formative approach, it is thus fundamentally important to inform trainees of the different stages and objectives of the course and therefore of the existence and significance of different assessment approaches. The following three different types of evaluation are therefore presented to students: formative evaluation , which is a transparent process based on assessments following the different training stages; summative evaluation , which allows the measurement of the ‘sum’ of acquired competence and knowledge at the end of a specific period; and normative evaluation , which is based on defined norms (T&I norms in this case) and aims at assessing an individual against these external norms (Scriven 1967). In the course of each semester, different individual tasks are assigned to the students and assessed with different evaluation tools. As mentioned above, students have to complete weekly translations for the workshop. These translations are not marked and assessed per se, they are collectively discussed. However, four times in the semester, students have to hand in translations which are assessed and marked in a formative way, and twice in the semester they have tests which are assessed and marked in a summative/normative way. These methods are further discussed below.

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4. Translation Evaluation As clearly discussed by Martinez Melis and Hurtado Albir (2001: 273–4), translation evaluation has long been a very subjective exercise. However, they show that in recent decades the academic world has seen the gradual introduction of objective criteria into translation evaluation, that analytical models of translation evaluations have been designed, and that the progress seen in Translation Studies has led to a better understanding of the translational process and of its evaluation. Despite such progress, educators working in the area of Translation Studies know how difficult it is to evaluate a translation. Scholars (Gile 1995, Kelly 2005) have discussed the nature of the problems encountered by translation assessors and have proposed different remedial strategies to overcome these. To present and justify the choices made by our team at Monash, I will not rehearse all the problems and possible remedies identified in numerous publications, but will focus on a few of them and show how, combined with other, solely contextual constraints, they influenced our strategies and decisions. When dealing with translation assessment, the first step is to define what a translation is. In light of Robert Larose’s view (1998: 6) that the term stands either for a transformation process of a source text (ST) into a target text (TT), or for the result of this transformation, it is crucial to make a clear distinction between the process and the product. Consequently, different assessment tasks and tools had to be implemented in order to take this distinction into account; this consideration strongly influenced the evaluation approach chosen. Another important element in the definition of the new strategy was the fact that most students come from language programmes where they had to perform translation exercises, mainly with purely linguistic objectives, and have therefore acquired certain habits and expectations in relation to assessment when they enrol in our programme. As Schäffner explains (1997: 4), a common practice in assessing translations in language acquisition courses is to count linguistic errors and deduct points for each error and add bonus points for good choices and solutions. But is a translation a simple exercise in vocabulary, grammar and syntactic testing against a model translation? Can the assessment of a translation in a professional training environment be limited to this linguistic approach? In a programme aiming at training future professionals along theoretical and practical lines, students and instructors must all understand that there is not just one way to evaluate translations; that the evaluation objectives and criteria may differ from one assignment to another; that a translation is always evaluated according to certain expectations (e.g. textual for the author and the reader, extra-textual for the agency, the client or the commissioner, both

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textual and extra-textual for an instructor, etc.). Students must be sensitized to this variety of expectations and situations.

4.1 Difficulties to defi ne the assessment components As is often pointed out (Gile 2005, Kelly 2005), the evaluation of translations is often considered a difficult exercise mainly because of the unstable nature of several of its elements, such as the objectives, the criteria, the methodology or even the assessor. To implement a system which minimizes such instability, the evaluation designer must carefully identify and define the nature of these elements. The methodology of the evaluation is one such unstable element which complicates the task of the assessor and must be thoroughly reflected upon when designing evaluation tools. Does the assessor compare the ST and the TT? How? Are the factors used objective or subjective? How is the difference marked and the factors weighted? If, for example, the view of Daniel Gouadec (1989: 53–4) that any translation error may be evaluated in terms of the damage it is likely to cause is applied to a specific task, how are the errors weighted? Does any scale – that the student is aware of – exist for these elements at the time of the evaluation? Does the student have an opportunity to justify his or her choices and strategy? In our programme, as in many others globally, the teaching team is also a variable element. Because the courses are taught both by academics and professionals, a high number of staff members are employed as ‘sessionals’ or on short-term contracts. The resulting turnover increases the instability of our evaluation approach. New personnel need to be trained to use the specific tools employed in the programme. Moreover, the higher the number of language pairs, the greater the variation. If one also considers that the background, or the field and specialty of the assessor have an impact on the evaluation, then all these combined elements complicate any evaluation approach and system. However daunting such variability may be, stable elements also exist in the translational process. The first one is the existence of a function for every translation. Training students to always clearly identify or define this function, the skopos, helps them to make appropriate decisions and choices (cf. Nord 1997, Schäffner 1997). The second stable element is somehow related to the effect of the transfer in the TT. Unless specified otherwise in the translation brief provided by the client of the translation, every translated text, as an independent new text in the target culture, must bear an impeccable syntactic and linguistic quality. As Gile (2005: 14) points out, students must realize that beyond their proficiency in the ST language, and their ability to transfer a text into another language, they must always pay special attention to the quality of their writing in the language of the TT. These ideas were also put forward by

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Hönig (1995) who stresses that the decisive qualification of translators is not their knowledge of a foreign language and their subject-specific knowledge, but it is their knowledge of what texts are used for, and how they achieve their effects. These elements – function, effect and quality – should therefore be considered when designing evaluation tools.

4.2 Evaluation in the T&I industry In order to design an evaluation system and relevant assessment tools which would allow instructors to assess their students in relation to the above theoretical and methodological elements and a more professional, industry-based approach, we carried out a collection and analysis of different grids used in the translation sector by various agencies, organizations and government departments that have quality assessment services. The fact that practitioners teach in the programme facilitated this collection, as grids are sent to them regularly by employers as assessment of their personal professional work. Unsurprisingly, the conclusion was that the majority of assessment services worldwide assess translations as products only, according to a balance of objective and subjective textual factors. Because of the vocational aspect of our training, we decided to design an evaluation grid which would be a reflection of what is used in the translation sector worldwide and would evaluate the translated text as a product. Elements such as function, quality, effect, appropriateness for the target audience, as well as respect of the brief of the translation, genre and style would be assessed along with more objective textual factors, such as comprehension of the ST, accuracy in the transfer, linguistic quality, etc. However, because of the academic, student and research-centred nature of our training, we were not satisfied with a product-oriented grid only. In the course of their training students gain a foundation in theories of translation/interpreting and receive training in methods of research in Translation Studies. Upon completion, they are able to conceptualize Translation Studies as an academic discipline in its historical, cross-disciplinary and intercultural contexts. It was therefore relevant to design a second evaluation grid to assess the translated text in relation to the students’ academic knowledge and the process of the translation, and taking into account extratextual factors.

4.3 Evaluation and metacognition: a teaching philosophy As an educationalist and instructor with teaching experience in various contexts, institutions and countries, I have developed the firm belief that the role of a teacher is to design the curriculum, activities and evaluation criteria, with a view to effecting, as the ultimate stage of training, his or her own ‘disappearance’. Teachers must, as Shirley Grundy put it (1987: 69), ‘take seriously

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the status of students as learning subjects, not objects in the curriculum event. This will mean that learning, not teaching, will be the central concern of the teacher’. The role of the instructor is to develop the autonomy of students in such a way that, at the end of the learning process, the trainees have acquired strong methods and methodologies and no longer need the instructor. Elaborating on Barthes’ idea that the birth of a reader requires the death of the Author (‘la naissance du lecteur doit se payer de la mort de l’Auteur’, Barthes, 1968), I would see the gradual ‘symbolic death’ of the teacher and the birth and emancipation of an independent individual as the objective of any learning process. As far as evaluation is concerned, this implies that whatever the task to be assessed, students/trainees will get involved in the process and should always know what the objectives, criteria and methodology of the evaluations are. They should always be given as much information as possible about the tools used and the expectations and outcomes of any exercise or task. In training future translators, our programme chose an approach based on an evaluation system that is explained to students at the very beginning of their training. In any programme training future professionals, no one would contest the benefit of evaluating students against various professional standards. However, as pointed out by Choi (2006: 276) in relation to the training of interpreters, such evaluation also ‘runs the risk of defeating the purpose of evaluation and assessment from a pedagogical standpoint’, hence the importance for assessment to be studied also from the student’s perspective. Self-assessment and metacognition play an important part when one wants to give students the possibility to reflect on their progress and become ‘actors’ in their own learning process; therefore, collective and individual assessment activities should be planned in any curriculum. As defined by Choi: Metacognition is described as thinking of thinking, knowing what we do and do not know, or learning how to learn. Metacognitive strategies include talking about one’s thinking, writing a thinking journal, self-evaluation and other strategies to solve problems that occur in the learning process. [. . .] Metacognition in learning can be described as the awareness of the learning process and the ability to adapt to challenges that occur during this process through effective strategies, thereby helping learners improve their learning capacity. (Choi 2006: 277) In order to fulfil the programme requirements and satisfy such pedagogical demands, it was therefore decided to develop and implement different resources for the different tasks students have to complete, at different stages of the training and in different contexts.

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5. Evaluation Tools Used in the Programme 5.1 Two evaluation grids Two distinct assessment grids were designed to be used according to the type of translation to be done and the type of evaluation to be carried out. The grids are complementary. They have been made up from a combination of elements used in the T&I sector, didactic elements and NAATI criteria and requirements. Because of the student-centred approach of the course, the students are familiar with the grids and always know whether their work will be assessed in a process or a product-oriented manner. As our course has been approved by NAATI, and as students who complete it successfully can be recommended for accreditation as professional translators without sitting the official test, some evaluation criteria specific to NAATI had to be followed when we elaborated these grids. The NAATI evaluation system for translation tests is product-oriented and based on scales of mark deductions. Errors made by candidates are judged as minor, signifi cant or serious, and in each category a certain number of points is deducted for a certain type of error. Factors considered for evaluation are objective and subjective textual factors (spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice, insertion, omission, retention, etc.) and are graded depending on their effect on accuracy, reliability, meaning and the level of distortion to the overall meaning. Both grids are composed of three distinct parts. Different elements of the translated text are examined and marked. Both grids mark the translation out of 100, but with a different breakdown according to the type of evaluation. The marking rationale is that points are not deducted but granted. The translation exercise part is used to assess and give feedback on objective textual elements of the translated text. The overall translation effect part focuses on more subjective textual elements related to the effect produced by the translated text. The third part is what differentiates the two grids the most in terms of approach and objectives.

5.1.1 Grid A: for a product-oriented evaluation This grid is used to assess the translation mainly on a textual and function/ effect basis without considering the translational process and extra-textual elements. In our programme, the grid is used twice in each semester, for the mid-semester practical test and end of semester exam, and also if an instructor decides to assess a translation done during the practicum . It can be used in other contexts for any final exam, accreditation test, professional competitive exam or even in the industry. See Table 10.1.

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Table 10.1 Grid A TRANSLATION EXERCISE Overall comprehension of source text (misinterpretations with more or less effect on accuracy) Overall translation accuracy / Transfer ST>TT (mistranslations with more or less effect on accuracy) Omissions / Insertions (with more or less effect on accuracy) Terminology / Word choices (affecting more or less the localized meaning) Grammatical choices / Syntactic choices (producing more or less distortion to the meaning) Spelling errors Punctuation errors Formatting errors

/60 0

2

4

6

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10

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0 2

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OVERALL TRANSLATION EFFECT

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8 8

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6

Question 1 Question 2

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OVERALL COMMENT:

FINAL MARK:

Appropriateness for target audience Readability/Idiomatic correctness Adherence to brief: z Function/Completeness z Style/Presentation/Genre z z

10 10

ETHICAL and CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS

/10 5 5 /100

The NAATI test and evaluation are product-oriented but also include questions on the ethics of the profession. Ethics of the profession have an important place in our curriculum, so this element was incorporated in the third part of the grid along with some conceptual questions. During their test or exam, students have to perform a translation but also to answer ethical and conceptual questions. The ethical questions asked are generally realistic professional dilemmas that translators could face. Students are therefore asked to analyse the problem and provide a possible solution, but also to relate it to the AUSIT Code of Ethics used in Australia. The theoretical or conceptual questions asked require answers from students which must be linked to the theories to which they have been exposed in the course of the semester.

5.1.2 Grid B: for a process-oriented evaluation With this evaluation grid, the focus is also on the inherent different stages of the translational process. The grid allows the assessor to evaluate the translation on the same textual elements as Grid A, but in the third part the strategy,

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Table 10.2 Grid B TRANSLATION EXERCISE Overall comprehension of source text (misinterpretations with more or less effect on accuracy) z Overall translation accuracy / Transfer ST>TT (mistranslations with more or less effect on accuracy)

/50

z

z z z

z z z

0

2

4

6

8

10

0

2

4

6

8

10

Omissions / Insertions (with more or less effect on accuracy) Terminology / Word choices (affecting more or less the localized meaning) Grammatical choices / Syntactic choices (producing more or less distortion to the meaning)

0 2

4

6

8

0

2

4

6

0

2

4

6

Spelling errors Punctuation errors Formatting errors

0 0 0

2 1 1

4 2 2

6

0 0

2 2

4 4

6 6

0 0

1 1

2 2

OVERALL TRANSLATION EFFECT Appropriateness for target audience z Readability/Idiomatic correctness Adherence to brief: z Function/Completeness z Style/Presentation/Genre z

/20 8 8

10 10

TRANSLATOR’S STRATEGY z z z z

INTEGRATED TRANSLATOR’S DIARY (Reporting of problems, actions, decisions) Use of material/Research Strategy / Justifications / Report (Relevance of choices) Revision / Proofreading

OVERALL COMMENT:

/30

0 0

2 2

4 4

6 6

8 8

10 10

0

2

4

6

8

10

FINAL MARK:

/100

the methodology, the use of material and research, and the revision process applied by the student are also considered. Instructors will refer to the student’s ITD (see Table 10.2) to assess these different elements. In our programme, this grid is used four times each semester. In addition to the translations that students have to prepare for their weekly workshop, they are given four specific translations which will be assessed in this formative way, and will be discussed extensively in the workshop.

5.2 The Integrated Translator’s Diary (ITD) To allow assessment of the translator’s strategy and the extratextual elements, students are asked to hand in their translation with an integrated translator’s diary. The idea to ask students to write a translator’s diary and to integrate

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it into their translation assignment comes from my personal experience as a translator and from different testimonies of professional translators who work in the programme. Experience shows that, in the ‘real’ translation world, it is crucial that translators keep a record of choices made and research undertaken. Indeed, they are often asked for justifications, sometimes months after the translation is completed and, without any record of the research done at the time to decide for one translation or another, they may be incapable of explaining their choice. It is thus essential to make future professionals aware of the need to keep a diary for most of the translations that they undertake. The didactic rationale for this diary stems directly from Gile’s use of IPDR (the Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting) as a translator training tool, and also from our considerations regarding the necessity to implement metacognitive strategies in the students’ training. Gile (2004: 1) states that ‘two important factors to achieve high efficiency in the translation classroom are awareness by trainees of what they are doing when they translate, and awareness by instructors of what trainees are doing, as opposed to awareness of the characteristics of the product’. The ITD is a report of the student’s strategies for one assignment. With any text to be translated, translators are almost always caught in the ‘literality vs adaptation dilemma’ – the translation should be as literal as possible but as free as necessary; or they have to do their translation following a specific brief imposed by the commissioner of the translation; or, because of the text’s cultural or stylistic specificities or function, they have to carry out deep and specialized research and make very specific decisions. Therefore, they resort to different translation strategies within the same text. If, for example, a student decides to omit or insert a phrase or an idea for a reason that is justified to him or her, the omission or insertion may not be the error or inaccurate transfer the assessor thinks it is. It may be perfectly justified. One way to know if the strategies chosen by the future translators are relevant is to give them an opportunity to justify their choice. The ITD helps students to realize that translation is far from automatic and that different phases, other than purely linguistic ones, are involved in the process (deep textual analysis, research, cultural awareness, proofreading, revising, etc.). Based on the drafts of the translation produced during the process, the ITD details the different problems encountered and presents the solutions found and the decisions made. The drafts are attached to the ITD, and the changes, made from one draft to the other with the Word ‘comments’ function, are commented on by the student and can easily be followed and reviewed by the assessor. In the diary, students are asked to provide information about the research they have carried out, the parallel texts they have found and their relevance, their approach and strategy to perform the translation, etc. They can also reflect on Translation Studies theories and explain whether they helped them to make choices. From one draft to the other, they

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also have the opportunity to show how they have thoroughly proofread or revised their translation. Undoubtedly, the ITD gives them the opportunity to reflect upon the process of translation, to justify and explain their strategy and their choices and to comply better with the concepts they have been taught. It offers them the opportunity to show that they have explored different possibilities in the translation of a given passage. One very positive aspect of feedback from students is that they come to understand better, with this formative approach, why they have to learn theories and how theories can help them in the translational process. The ITD is a tool which enables instructors to know their students better and to find adequate teaching and remedial strategies. It also gives the opportunity to conduct interactive and lively correction sessions, where, as suggested by Lörscher (1992: 160), the instructor and students can compare what they consider to be a success in their own respective translations. As it is clearly recommended by Gile in relation to the IPDR (2004: 4), our ITD is a three-phase pedagogical tool too. First, the students write and hand in their ITD with their translation. Secondly, the instructor reads, analyses and sums up the ITDs. Thirdly, the instructor presents the summary to the class and opens the discussion. Needless to say, the pedagogical effectiveness of the ITD depends on the implementation of all the phases, even if it tends to increase the workload of students and instructors.

5.3 Case study: example of an ITD The following ITD should not be seen as a good or a bad example of the exercise. It is simply an example to illustrate the above-mentioned comments and will give the opportunity to understand what students have to do when they hand in their translations assessed on the process. This was the first ITD of a new student who works from French into English. Usually a student’s ITD is composed of three commented drafts, the final translation and the ITD. Because of the word limitation for this article, I have decided to include only the translation brief (Table 10.3), the source text (Table 10.4), the fi nal translation (Table 10.5) and an extract from the student’s ITD (Table 10.6), which illustrate well the general principle. The above ITD is clear, concise and lists clearly what research was undertaken and what parallel texts were used to complete the translation. The comments Table 10.3 Translation brief A French company has asked you to translate the following ‘consignes de sécurité’ (safety instructions) section of a vacuum cleaner model for distribution in foreign markets. The text is aimed at the general public. Please translate the whole text below into English.

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Table 10.4 Source text Mode d’emploi Aspirateur Type: SP-ZSS-VC-0402 CONSIGNES DE SÉCURITÉ Lors de l’utilisation d’appareils électriques, il est impératif de veiller aux mesures de sécurité fondamentales suivantes pour éviter tout choc électrique, tout risque de blessure et d’incendie. Lire attentivement ce mode d’emploi avant d’utiliser pour la première fois l’aspirateur. Il fournit des consignes importantes sur la sécurité, l’utilisation et la maintenance de l’appareil. ATTENTION! Ne pas passer l’aspirateur sur des sols mouillés. Ne pas utiliser l’appareil à l’extérieur. Après utilisation et avant chaque nettoyage/maintenance, débrancher la fiche secteur. Lors du débranchement de l’appareil, ne pas tirer par le cordon de raccordement mais par la fiche. Tenir la fiche secteur à la main en actionnant le bouton de l’enrouleur de cordon. L’appareil ne doit pas être utilisé si le cordon de raccordement secteur ou la fiche est endommagé, si l’appareil ne fonctionne pas de façon irréprochable ou s’il présente un dommage quelconque. Dans de tels cas, renvoyer l’appareil au fabricant ou à son SAV à des fi ns de vérification, de réparation ou de réglage. Ne pas porter l’appareil par le cordon, ne pas le tirer au-dessus des bords coupants, ne pas le coincer sous des portes ou d’une autre façon. Le cordon ne doit passer ni au-dessus des tables ou des comptoirs ni être en contact avec des surfaces brûlantes. Ne pas laisser l’appareil sans surveillance lorsqu’il fonctionne. Cet appareil n’est pas un jouet et ne doit pas se trouver entre les mains des enfants. L’utilisation de cet appareil par un enfant ne peut s’effectuer que sous surveillance permanente, appropriée et responsable.

Table 10.5 Translation Instructions for use Vacuum cleaner Type: SP-ZSS-VC-0402 SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS When using electrical appliances, the following basic precautions should always be followed to avoid any type of electric shock, injury or fi re. Read these instructions carefully before using vacuum cleaner for the fi rst time. They contain important information on its safety, operation and maintenance. CAUTION! Do not use outdoors or on wet surfaces. Unplug from outlet after use, and before servicing and cleaning. When unplugging the appliance, pull by the plug rather than by the cord. Hold plug in hand when activating the auto cord rewinding mechanism. Do not use if cord or plug is damaged, or if appliance does not work as it should or is damaged in any way. In case of damage or malfunction, return appliance to its manufacturer or have it checked or repaired by an authorized service centre. Do not pull or carry vacuum cleaner by the cord, or allow cord to be caught under anything such as a door. Do not trail cord over tables or counters, and keep away from sharp edges and heated surfaces. Do not leave appliance unattended while it is running. This appliance is not a toy and must be kept out of reach of children. May only be used by children under close supervision by a responsible adult.

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Table 10.6 Extract from ITD As I have never done a translation like this before, with three separate drafts and a diary, the process is very experimental and will most likely change, as I try to fi nd a work process that I find useful and productive. Normally I would begin by reading the ST, then a second time underlining problem words or expressions, then look up those that impede my understanding of the text. Then I would probably start translating, paying more attention to words and expressions than sentence structure and building a ‘champ lexical’ for the topic, including in this draft all the synonyms and different ways of phrasing that I can find. Then I would go back through and, on the same draft, choose the options that best fit together and perhaps keep a list of the alternatives for future reference, but ending up with only one copy which of course leaves me with little trace of my thought process. Here is my attempt to do it in three drafts. 1st draft: Thorough reading of ST, then a first attempt at producing a similar text in English using only first impressions and instinct – without a dictionary and without getting bogged down in potential synonyms/alternative phrasing/nuances in the ST. This gives me an idea of how well I’ve understood the ST and how much I am capable of doing without reliance on external tools such as dictionaries, both of which I will hopefully get better at. It also makes it easier to just start and get a whole first copy done from which to work, rather than agonizing over small details and ending up doing a word for word translation rather than focusing on the overall text. As it turns out my instinct even in English is terrible, and I noticed often resulted in very literal translations that for some reason at the time seemed to make sense, but upon re-reading later (especially after reading parallel texts) are a bit embarrassing. I did instinctively use the more direct style more normal for English texts of this type, but in some places my first translation was much too wordy, probably in an attempt to say all the same things as the French text and in the same way. 2nd draft: Then I did some research into this type of text, searching on the internet for vacuum cleaner safety manuals in English (as well as some in French), to get an idea of the kind of language and sentence structures that are used parallel texts in the TL in order to produce a more authentic sounding TT that complies with the expectations of the target audience. It turns out that there were many set phrases that are frequently used, which I adopted when they matched the content of the ST and copied, colour coded, into the second draft in order to compare them with each other and with my original wording (which often seemed quite sloppy in comparison). 3rd draft: After taking a break, I worked through the second draft and chose the options that seemed to both best convey the meaning of the ST and read well in English, writing comments on the second draft about my choices of wording, where I had deleted certain alternatives in the third draft. I left a couple of things that were giving me issues and that I wasn’t 100% sure about, not wanting to eliminate them in case it was clearer when I re-read it later. Final copy: I had only intended to do three copies, but thought having a final one at the end would allow me to leave notes in the third draft as a record of the things that remained after I had sorted through the bulk of the wording and structural decisions.

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Table 10.6 Continued Reflections: – The general standard for instructions in French seems to be longer and more detailed than in English, which tends to read much more like commands. – I looked at other models of French instructions for vacuum cleaners to see if they differ from our sample, that is, if this is a standard example of this type of text or if there is anything unusual about it. It seemed to be fairly standard, if a bit less detailed than both French and English parallel texts that I read. Most included much more information about what not to use the vacuum cleaner for, as well as specific recommendations related to the particular brand. – There seems to be a specific standard passage relating to the use of the appliance by ‘persons (including children) with reduced physical, sensory or mental capabilities . . .’, which appears in almost every English manual I looked at. However the ST makes no reference whatsoever to ‘persons’ in this category other than children. It would presumably do no harm to include these in the safety specifications, especially as it seems the normal procedure to do so in English safety instructions of this sort. Does this fall into the category of ‘improvements’ or ‘clarifications’ I should make as a translator? I don’t think it matters too much in this case, so I decided not to, because the ST could have been more specific yet is not. It does not strike me as one of the cases where the standards or norms followed by the parallel texts in the target language need to be respected in spite of differences with the ST, because it is extra information rather than a structural or lexical change that could result in miscommunication, or misinterpretation by the target audience.

usually comprised in the drafts illustrate what the student’s thoughts were when changing one potential acceptable translated word into another. Insertions and omissions are also justified and revision steps can be followed. In this specific ITD, the student starts explaining and summing up her general usual strategy to complete a translation (reading the ST, building up a specific ‘champ lexical’ and producing only one copy). However, as this method of translation is new to her, she then comments on each of her drafts and movements throughout her translation. All the different steps and reflections are carefully reported, whether they are objective and relevant, or more subjective. Then the general and specific reflections show interesting research and decisions made from the research carried out by the students. Without such reported information, the assessor would not know why such choices were made. Having access to such elements obviously helps to understand the process of translation, the way the student works and to provide better feedback and remedial strategies to the student. This example clearly shows how both student and instructor may benefit from a more self-reflective approach to translation.

6. Conclusion To ensure a good understanding of the principles and teaching philosophy underlying the approach presented in this article, the grids, the ITD and the

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rationale for their implementation, are explained to the students at the beginning of their training. A special session on evaluation is held at the beginning of each semester during which the grids and ITD are presented and the different evaluation approaches (normative, summative and formative) are explained and discussed. The focus is put on the complementary nature of the tools. Students, but also staff members, who have been accustomed to different modes of evaluation are generally doubtful at best, and resistant at worst, to this new system which takes into account elements other than merely language transfer. Students often complain about the amount of work the ITD represents. It is generally only after the assessment of one or two tasks in such a process-oriented way that they recognize the value of the system. To ensure consistency in the evaluation of all the students in the course (about 60 students and up to 13 languages) and to limit the impact of the considerable turnover of staff members, as well as the resistance of some among them, new instructors are invited to attend the students’ session on evaluation. To facilitate their use of the different assessment tools, descriptors to which they can resort to when using the grids have also been designed. Moreover, to maintain openness and flexibility in the approach, staff meetings are organized each semester to consider and discuss the tools. There is probably no ideal evaluation system of translations, but three years after the implementation of these tools, the feedback from both trainees and trainers, in the context of our programme, is very positive. If one defines clearly the objectives, criteria and methodology of the evaluation; if one takes into account the unstable and stable elements of an evaluation, as well as its subjective and objective factors; and if one involves students in their own learning process, and then designs assessment tools for specific tasks at specific times of the training – then the evaluation may be pertinent and effective. The value of such tools in the training of future professional translators lies in the fact they have been created from a combination of theoretical, professional and pedagogical elements. In addition, the success of these tools depends to a large extent on the way they are presented to trainees at the initial stage of their training. If enough time is spent convincing them that the main objective of the approach is to ensure that they will acquire a good knowledge of their discipline, effective methods and the ability to work autonomously in both local and global contexts, then they will adhere to the approach and become the efficient professionals we expect them to be.

References Barthes, R. (1968/84) ‘La mort de l’Auteur’, in B. Roland (ed.) Le bruissement de la langue , Paris: Editions du Seuil, 61–7.

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Choi, J. Y. (2006) ‘Metacognitive evaluation method in consecutive interpretation for novice learners’, Meta 51 (2), 273–83. Gile, D. (1993) ‘The process-oriented approach in translation training’, Teaching Translation and Interpreting 2, 107–12. — (1995) Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. — (2004) ‘Integrated problem and decision reporting as a translator training tool’, JoSTrans Journal of Specialized Translation 2, 2–20. — (2005) La Traduction, la comprendre, l’apprendre , Paris: PUF. Gouadec, D. (1989) Le Traducteur, la traduction et l’entreprise , Paris: AFNOR Gestion. Grundy, S. (1987) Curriculum: Product or Praxis?, London; New York: Falmer Press. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome. Larose, R. (1998) ‘Méthodologie de l’évaluation des traductions’, Meta 43 (2), 163–86. Lörscher, W. (1992) ‘Process-oriented research into translation and implications for translation teaching’, TTR 5 (1), 145–61. Martínez Melis, N. and Hurtado Albir, A. (2001) ‘Assessment in translation studies: research needs’, Meta 46 (2), 272–87. Nord, C. (1997) Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Functionalist Approaches Explained , Manchester: St Jerome. Schäffner, C. (1997a) ‘From “good” to “functionally appropriate”: assessing translation quality’, Current Issues in Language and Society 4 (1), 1–5. — (1997b) ‘Skopos theory’, in M. Baker (ed.) Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London: Routledge. Scriven, M. (1967) ‘The methodology of evaluation’, Perspectives of Curriculum Evaluation 1, 39–55. www.arts.monash.edu.au/translation-interpreting [accessed 25 August 2011 from www.arts.monash.edu.au/translation-interpreting] www.ausit.org [accessed 25 August 2011 from www.ausit.org] www.naati.com.au [accessed 25 August 2011 from www.naati.com.au]

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Chapter 11

Addressing the Question of Ethical Dilemmas in Community Interpreter Training Łukasz Kaczmarek

1. Introduction One of the problems underlying any discussion on ethics in community interpreting stems from the fact that little consensus has so far been achieved regarding the role of a community interpreter in a triadic exchange. A possible reason for this lack of consensus is that the unpredictability of situations in which community interpreters perform seems to defy prescribing clearcut roles to them. In other words, the wide range of roles which community interpreters have to assume if they want to successfully perform in a triadic exchange makes it impossible for all potential ethical dilemmas to be covered in codes of ethics and codes of conduct. Therefore, it is imperative that community interpreters have an opportunity to become familiar with at least the most frequent sources of ethical dilemmas prior to becoming professionals, that is, during their training. It also raises a question as to whether current codes of conduct and of ethics are actually applicable in community interpreting practice, especially given that codes of conduct established by organizations associating community interpreters may differ from those proposed by agencies recruiting them. The overall aim of this chapter is to propose various ways of dealing with the question of ethical dilemmas during community interpreter training. The chapter starts with a brief overview of academic contributions to the debate on ethics in Translation Studies. It then comments on community interpreters’ professional situation in the United Kingdom with a view to focusing on code of professional conduct issued by the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI). The chapter then demonstrates how some of the academic findings (Chesterman 2001) are reflected in the NRPSI code. This is followed by an analysis of specific excerpts showing a small selection of dilemmas

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that community interpreters may face in the course of their professional work. Next, the chapter succinctly discusses the requirements which need to be fulfilled by candidates undertaking a DPSI examination, as proposed by the CIoL (2010), to show that if community interpreter training institutions in the United Kingdom draw on these criteria, ethical dilemmas are likely to be underemphasized during relevant courses. The main part of the chapter proposes various methods of acknowledging these and other dilemmas in community interpreter training. Finally, implications of these proposals for the training environment are explored.

2. Ethics in Community Interpreting – Academic Perspective Although a conviction seems to exist that Translation Studies has not yet ‘reached a clear understanding of or agreement about what an “ethical” approach actually means in the context of translation theory or practice, or the construction of the field itself’ (Inghilleri and Maier 2009: 100), one can enumerate various scholarly contributions to the on-going debate on ethics in community interpreting. For example, Gentile et al. (1996) prioritize a community interpreter’s obligation to focus on rendition of utterances without intervening in the course of interaction. The scholars acknowledge that community interpreters will be subject to various requests and expectations coming from the interlocutors, which may assume various forms, ranging from requests for advice to elicitation of opinion on a given matter. Advocating the community interpreter’s adherence to a faithful rendition, Gentile et al. (1996) claim that the only ethical reaction to such requests is refusal. A clearly different stance is taken by Clifford (2005), who analyses the dynamics of ethical values in healthcare interpreting. He claims, among other things, that if a community interpreter strictly follows a rule of only relaying the utterances exchanged between a healthcare practitioner and a patient, and of non-intervening in any other way, they will run the risk of leading to a collapse of communication between the two due to culture-specific differences in communication preferences. Clifford (2005: 237) proposes to solve this issue by putting forward an idea of three levels of trust between a practitioner and a community interpreter as determinants of the latter’s involvement in the interaction. The first level of trust is referred to as Cede Control over the Situation (Ibid.: 237) and refers to a scenario in which a healthcare practitioner, a patient and a community interpreter meet for the first time and in which a community interpreter, who enjoys limited trust from a healthcare practitioner, is expected to restrict themselves to utterance rendition only. The second level of trust, that is Provide Additional Information (Ibid.: 237), tends to be reached following a period of time (unspecified by Clifford) of common sessions, as a result of which the community interpreter may be asked

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to intervene in the flow of communication by providing pieces of culturally specific information. The final level of trust, Offer Assistance to a Team Member (Ibid.: 238), involves the community interpreter being viewed as a member of clinical staff contributing to a particular treatment. This level results in, for instance, the community interpreter being approached by the healthcare practitioner prior to an actual encounter in order to seek some advice about the patient’s culture, with a view to improving their treatment. A novelty in Clifford’s (2005) approach is his recognition of evolution and dynamics of ethical values and responses. Exploring the diversity of ethical values relevant for community interpreting, Rudvin (2007) claims that ethical values followed by community interpreters, as well as the interpreting strategies they employ, will strictly depend on the way they see their position in a society. In particular, she claims that: [i]f [a community interpreter’s] identity is primarily governed by the group rather than on an individual basis, his/her loyalty and impartiality will be determined by the group bond. When negotiating complex interpersonal group relationships with the other interlocutors, the interpreter might not be free to ‘simply translate’, especially in a hierarchical private or public institutional relationship, but may add/dilute politeness, withhold potentially insulting or otherwise damaging information, acquiesce to please the interlocutor or to seek favour or patronage, employ indirectness and politeness to foster self-respect, never say no, etc. (Rudvin 2007: 61) One of few contributions attempting to summarize and categorize views on ethics in Translation Studies is Chesterman (2001), identifying as many as four models of translation ethics (and their underlying values). Ethics of representation (value of truth) is related to ‘the idea of the faithful interpreter, and to the translation of sacred texts’ (Chesterman 2001: 139). Ethics of service (value of loyalty) entails a translator’s loyalty to a party commissioning a translation. An ethical translator needs to be loyal not only to a target audience and to an author of a text to be translated, but most of all to the individual who is a recipient of what is understood as ‘a commercial service’ (Ibid.: 140). Ethics of communication (value of clarity) breaks with the translator’s focus on source text or target text and focuses on a process and product of communication which should lead to understanding between the two parties trying to communicate. Therefore, an ethical translator’s activities need to lead to ‘understanding a translation [which] means arriving at an interpretation that is compatible with the communicative intention of the author and the translator [. . .] to a degree sufficient for a given purpose’ (Ibid.: 141). Finally, norm-based ethics (value of trust) refers to a model that derives from Toury’s (1995) descriptivism in Translation Studies and that draws on norms that are binding in a given culture. Thus, an ethical translator following this model

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of ethics is trusted to produce a translation that does not violate any norms prevailing in a particular culture (Ibid.: 142). Attempting to combine all main values from the four models and drawing on MacIntyre’s (1981) deontic force of excellence, Chesterman (2001: 153) proposes the model of professional commitment ethics, which allows him to put forward a draft of what he refers to as a Hieronymic Oath. The main principle underlying this model is the primacy of the value of understanding over other values (truth, clarity, loyalty and trust); otherwise expressed, translators who accept an assignment commit themselves to an oath accommodating values from the four models and highlighting what Chesterman (2001) thinks is the primary value of a translation profession, that is understanding in a broad sense, including understanding the client’s needs, understanding the source text, understanding readers’ expectations etc. Although Chesterman’s (2001) proposal focuses on translation, his model seems to be applicable to interpreting. For instance, one could assume that a court interpreter will conform to the values of truth and trust; that is, they will be trusted to comply with the norms operating in a courtroom, and to faithfully relay what is being said during a trial or hearing. In business interpreting, the value of loyalty, underlying an ethics of service , may be most applicable since, for instance, an interpreter will provide their service to a commissioner who wants to achieve a certain goal in business negotiations. As for clarity (of understanding), which is a key value in the model of ethics of communication , this seems to apply to community interpreting where interpreters tend to act not only as linguistic but also as cultural mediators in facilitating crosscultural communication. This discussion of selected contributions seems to point to a clear diversity in (or the lack of consensus on) an approach to ethics in community interpreting, as seen from the academic perspective. As will be demonstrated in Section 3, the professional perspective in the UK code of conduct for community interpreters (more commonly referred to as public service interpreters1) seems to mirror some of the conclusions arrived at in the academic debate.

3. Ethics in the UK Codes of Professional Conduct As far as UK codes of professional conduct regulating public service interpreters’ (PSI) practice are concerned, these are established by relevant membership organizations. The major organizations associating language service providers in the United Kingdom involve, among many others, the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and the Association of Police and Court Interpreters (APCI). At the time of writing this chapter (November 2011), a new membership organization is being established, that is the Institute of Public Service Interpreting (IPSI).

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One of the main differences between the newly emerging organization and the other three is that the former will associate PSIs only. The coexistence of various associations for PSIs may trigger potential conflict as far as interpreters’ compliance with codes of professional conduct is concerned. That is to say, if a PSI is a member of one of the above organizations, they may find themselves in a problematic situation if they are given an assignment by an agency which has its own code of professional conduct. For example, this may be the case in a situation when an ITI-registered PSI freelances for the UK Border Agency, which has a Central Interpreters Unit (CIU), regulated by its own code of conduct for interpreters (CIU 2008). This code seems to place a great emphasis on word-for-word renditions and on an interpreter’s non-intervention in the course of interaction (Ibid.: 4), unlike the ITI code of professional conduct which highlights the importance of effective communication, ‘including intervention to prevent misunderstanding’ (ITI 2010: 1). In such a scenario, the clash between codes of conduct may lead to a PSI refusing an assignment from a given agency. Another important institution which shapes the current situation of codes of professional conduct for PSIs in the United Kingdom is the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI). Formerly a CIoL subsidiary, the new NRPSI aims ‘to regulate the public service interpreting profession in the public interest (. . .) but it is designed to operate in the same way as other professional regulators’ (NRPSI 2011b). Currently, the NRPSI seems to include the highest number of PSIs, since the Register will contain links to those practitioners who are also registered with other organizations (CIoL, ITI and APCI), including the newly emerging IPSI (NRPSI 2011b). Similarly to the situation referred to above, a scenario in which PSIs are members of more than one organization may lead to potential clashes between codes of ethics. This chapter focuses on the NRPSI code of professional conduct, as all registered PSIs have declared they will abide by its terms, thus rendering it the most widely established code of professional conduct for PSIs in the United Kingdom. PSIs who want to be entered on the Register and to receive full-member status need to fulfil the following four criteria (NRPSI 2011c): (1) they need to hold a Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI), awarded by the CIoL after successful completion of an examination, or to have passed a Metropolitan Police Test after 1997 or to hold an interpreting degree having covered specific translation and interpreting modules; (2) they need to have at least 400-hour experience of interpreting in UK public services context; (3) they need to have an up-to-date security clearance and (4) they need to declare they will follow the NRPSI code of professional conduct, the violation of which may result in a PSI undergoing disciplinary procedures. The code itself consists of four main parts. The part entitled Definitions explains the main terms and abbreviations used in the document; General Framework briefly states the purpose and scope of the code; and Over-arching

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Principles presents the rules that practitioners’ behaviour should comply with; finally, Obligation to Principals deals with the nature of a PSI’s commitment to a party commissioning an interpreting assignment. A practitioner is referred to in Definitions as a person entered on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters. Over-arching Principles therefore refers to common regulations concerning all those who work in public service settings and who are on the National Register. The four sections (Definitions, General Framework, Overarching Principles and Obligation to Principals) are followed by five annexes, which contain complementary information on principles specific to a given profession. For the purpose of this chapter, this section will focus on Overarching Principles, Annex II (Interpreters) and Annex III (Public Service Interpreters) with a view to highlighting aspects in the code of practice that manifest Chesterman’s (2001) ethical models and their corresponding values. One of the relevant values that the code of professional conduct refers to (NRPSIa 2011) is that of faithfulness. In Chesterman’s (2001) categorization, this is referred to as the value of truth which can be seen in Excerpt 1, from Annex II (Interpreters): Excerpt 1 5.4 Practitioners shall interpret truly and faithfully what is uttered, without adding, omitting or changing anything; in exceptional circumstances a summary may be given if requested. Therefore, only ‘exceptional circumstances’ (which are not specified by the code) allow an interpreter to deviate from the verbal content of an interlocutor’s utterance. Otherwise, this principle can be interpreted as forbidding an interpreter to utter words that are their own during a given assignment. By the same token, an interpreter is not supposed to enter into a conversation with any interlocutor prior to an interpreted meeting, as stated in the same annex in Excerpt 2: Excerpt 2 5.9 Practitioners carrying out work as Public Service Interpreters, or in other contexts where the requirement for neutrality between parties is absolute, shall not enter into discussion, give advice or express opinions or reactions to any of the parties that exceed their duties as interpreters. The two excerpts are clear in delineating an interpreter’s duties, that is interpreters are expected to arrive at a given location where an interpreted session is going to take place for the sole purpose of linguistic mediation. The principles clearly forbid an interpreter to engage in any activity that is not defined as interpreting, let alone to socialize with an interlocutor.

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The code also seems to reflect the value of trust and that of loyalty, especially in the Obligations to Principals section, which deals with behaviour expected from all practitioners towards principals, that is individuals and institutions that commission a particular assignment. The value of loyalty is reflected in Excerpt 3: Excerpt 3 4.1 Practitioners shall at all time strive to produce work of the highest standard, and shall ensure that the Principal is aware of any factor that may affect the standard of the work produced. 4.2 Practitioners are obliged (3.12 above) to carry out all work contracted to them with impartiality and shall immediately disclose to the Principal any factor which might jeopardise such impartiality. This shall include any financial or other interest they may have in the work contracted to them. This indicates that a community interpreter needs to be loyal to a commissioner in terms of quality of their performance and their impartiality, and so loyalty in this case is viewed as a practitioner’s willingness to reveal potential circumstances affecting their performance or impartiality. The same section of the code includes a principle reflecting the value of trust, as in Excerpt 4: Excerpt 4 4.3 Practitioners are obliged (3.13 above) to treat work contracted to them with complete confidentiality and shall use their best endeavours to ensure that such confidentiality is also observed by others, whether checkers, revisers, editors or any other individuals employed by the Practitioner on a permanent or freelance basis or to whom work has been sub-contracted or delegated. The excerpt appears to refer to the values of trust, that is a community interpreter (and those who may cooperate with community interpreters) is trusted that they will treat their work as confidential (although the code fails to mention which aspects of this work are subject to confidentiality). Another value which seems to be reflected in the code of practice is that of understanding, which is treated by Chesterman (2001) as a value superior to the other four. As Excerpt 5 reveals, the value of understanding on some occasions supersedes that of truth: Excerpt 5 6.12 Practitioners shall not interrupt, pause or intervene except: 6.12.1 to ask for clarification;

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Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training 6.12.2 to point out that one party may not have understood something which the interpreter has good reason to believe has been assumed by the other party; 6.12.3 to alert the parties to a possible missed cultural reference or inference; or 6.12.4 to signal a condition or factor which might impair the interpreting process (such as inadequate seating, poor sight-lines or audibility, inadequate breaks etc.).

A community interpreter has some freedom in terms of intervening in an interaction as long as this intervention serves a purpose of enabling comprehension (or avoiding miscomprehension) between two interlocutors. The primacy of understanding is so vital that an interpreter is allowed to react not only to the aspects that concern the communication alone, but also to the situation in which it is taking place, that is inadequate seating of interlocutors or breaks between sessions, etc. Thus, the NRPSI code of professional conduct seems to reflect, to some extent, such values as truth, loyalty and understanding, and to highlight the primacy of the understanding value by stating that, although a public service interpreter is not, in principle, supposed to intervene in the mediated communication, they are allowed to do so if in their opinion understanding between interlocutors is impeded. As Section 4 will show, the reality of interpreting practice may be far more complex.

4. Community Interpreters’ Dilemmas in Practice This section will present and analyse excerpts from interviews conducted in the course of proposing a model of community interpreter competence (CIC) and testing some of its principles. The model is based on the model of intercultural communication competence proposed by Spitzberg (2009) and on an assumption that community interpreter competence has much in common with intercultural communication competence. Drawing on Spitzberg’s (2009) model, I have developed the CIC model that approaches community interpreter competence in terms of individual and subjective impressions triggered by a community interpreter’s performance in a specific episode of triadic interaction (Kaczmarek 2010). The process of testing the model consisted of interviewing all participants (service provider, service recipient and community interpreter) who had just attended a triadic encounter. The interviews were transcribed, translated from Polish where necessary, and subjected to analysis which revealed that participants’ perceptions of a community interpreter’s competence vary within and across sessions, depending on individual participants’ expectations. The

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excerpts analysed in this section highlight those fragments of the interviews which disclose that a given participant’s expectations may have led to ethical dilemmas for community interpreters who, if entered on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters, are required to follow the code of professional conduct (NRPSI 2011). The first set of examples comes from a session in which a patient, who has undergone a fracture treatment in a Manchester hospital, attends his fi rst rehabilitation session in a hospital gym. The session attended by the patient is run by a medical practitioner (physiotherapist) and is mediated by a community interpreter. One of the examples of a dilemma which the interpreter has almost faced is hinted at by the medical practitioner, who discusses her ideas for improving the interpreter’s performance in Excerpt 6: Excerpt 6 Researcher: ok (.) so how could his performance be improved? the interpreter’s? (.) Medical practitioner: well (.) maybe they could demonstrate the exercises but the fact is that they have no background knowledge of the exercises (.) so it would be difficult for them to (.) demonstrate effectively (.) you know (.) but (.) I mean (.) when you’re communicating you hope that they (.) they’re putting the same stresses on what you’re saying, cos sometimes that can make a difference (.) when you’re using an interpreter if they don’t stress the importance of a thing then the patient doesn’t fully get what you’re trying to achieve. Although the excerpt clearly shows that the interpreter did not decide to support his rendition of the medical practitioner’s instructions with an actual demonstration of exercises to the patient, the situation could have posed a dilemma connected with the choice between the value of truth and that of clarity. On the one hand, the interpreter would not be fully complying with the code of professional conduct (and the value of truth) by intervening in the communication process, even though they would do so at the medical practitioner’s request and despite the fact that it would serve the patient’s full comprehension of what is happening during the session. On the other hand, however, the interpreter’s adherence to the value of understanding would mean breaching the NRPSI code as far as the value of truth is concerned, since as shown in Excerpt 5, the value of understanding supersedes that of truth only in a limited range of situations (NRPSI 2011a: 5). The next example is an extract from the interview with the patient from the same session, who discloses the interpreter’s possible dilemma connected with the code forbidding him to add his own words in an interpreted session.

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The patient, who described the atmosphere during the session as friendly and pleasant, was asked what behaviour he expected from the interpreter and answered as in Excerpt 7: Excerpt 7 Researcher: i właśnie w takiej sytuacji (.) w takiej atmosferze (.) jakiego zachowania oczekiwał pan od tłumacza? well, in this situation, in this atmosphere, what behaviour did you expect from the interpreter? Patient: no (.) takiego przyjacielskiego (.) takiego swojskiego na zasadzie nie tylko od do przetłumaczy i koniec, tylko jeszcze cos od siebie powie friendly and familiar; not only interpretation from first word to the last one but also talking to me about other things Researcher: czy tłumacz się zachował tak jak Pan oczekiwał? did he behave as you expected? Patient: tak yes The patient’s account of the interpreter’s actions, which clearly were not restricted to interpreting only, shows that the interpreter had problems abiding by the principle presented in Excerpt 2, which forbids an interpreter to enter into any discussions with either party. The excerpt also shows that the interpreter’s manner of handling the social aspect of his performance may have contributed to the patient’s perception of the situation as pleasant and friendly. Although the patient’s account of the interpreter’s behaviour indicates a possible breach of the code, which forbids interpreters to have any ‘discussions with parties’ (NRPSI 2011a: 5), the fact remains that the interpreter’s compliance with that rule could have impeded the overall communication and understanding by the patient’s potentially ensuing reservedness and nervousness. The second set of excerpts comes from the interviews conducted after a session which took place in a Manchester advice centre, and which was attended by an advisor, a client and a community interpreter. The first example of a dilemma that the interpreter probably faced is to do with the principle of the code quoted in Excerpt 1, which deals with true and faithful interpreting. As Excerpt 8 shows, the interpreter’s relaxed attitude to this rule resulted in the advisor’s appreciation, which he expressed when asked about his impressions of the interpreting performance: Excerpt 8 Researcher: Right (.) so can you tell me about the interpreter’s work in this session. How do you think she (.) performed? (.)

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Advisor: She performed well (.) one of the things (.) that I did notice was that (.) the person she was interpreting (for) (.) did want to (.) go off and tell us the life story rather than (.) sticking to points which is a bit difficult if you’re in advice situation (.) when you really want to get down to what’s happened in the last few weeks (.) what the complaint is about (.) what the employer’s done (.) whereas this person wanted to go on about (.) where she’d been and (that) so she needed to be pulled back a bit (.) in terms of focusing on what the problem was. Researcher: did you expect her to perform that way (.) did you expect the interpreter to perform that way? (.) Advisor: yeah (.) I mean (.) the interpreter was good at it (.) it was just I think a bit difficult for her (.) when the person went off for two or three minutes to (.) to notice any sort of (point) where she could stop and say anything (.) it was like the interpreter had to listen (.) to all that was being said rather than say ‘no no that’s not it’ It is easy to conclude from this excerpt that the community interpreter did not decide to interpret truly and faithfully, potentially violating the value of truth (Chesterman 2001). While one could argue that the interpreter should have rendered everything exactly as was said by the client, and that it should have been the advisor’s decision to warn the client that she was not speaking to the point, an advisor-client interaction of this kind being relayed via the community interpreter might have increased the complexity and length of the session. The interpreter, therefore, may have faced a dilemma connected with the necessity to filter the information and seems to have chosen the value of mutual understanding over that of truth and fidelity. As for the client, her account of what happened reveals that the community interpreter performed some interpreting for the client even after the actual session was over, and when both of them were waiting in the reception for some documents. This is evident in Excerpt 9, in which the client is asked how the interpreting performance could be improved: Excerpt 9 Researcher: a jak można by ulepszyć (.) tłumaczenie dzisiejsze (.) czy ma Pani jakiś pomysł? and how could the interpreter’s performance be improved (.) do you have any thoughts on that? Customer: nie (.) nie dzisiaj nie mam (.) nawet w prywatnej rozmowie takiej tam towarzyskiej (.) gdzie nie byłam na boku tylko odruchowo w wolnym czasie tłumaczone miałam o czym na przykład była rozmowa miedzy pracownicami

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no, today I don’t; even in a private conversation, when I was standing on the side, she interpreted for me the content of conversation taking place between the employees Most likely, the interpreter’s summary of the conversation taking place between the two employees was a result of the interpreter’s concern about the customer’s possible discomfort caused by her inability to understand what was being said in the office. Although on the brink of code violation, since technically the interpreter did not enter into a discussion with the client, the community interpreter’s action definitely contributed to sustaining good rapport and understanding between herself and the customer. The excerpts quoted and analysed above are from a study focusing on impressions of community interpreter competence rather than ethical dilemmas. However, even if we assume that each of the interviewees revealed only their own perceptions of what actually happened, the excerpts showed that the community interpreters working in these particular situations faced dilemmas connected with the clash between what the code of conduct instructed them to do, and what they thought was appropriate in their pursuit of enabling mutual understanding between interlocutors.

5. Addressing Ethical Dilemmas in UK Community Interpreter Training As stated in Section 3 of this chapter, one of the formal requirements for a PSI to be entered on the Register is to have obtained a DPSI, which is awarded by the CIoL to a candidate who has successfully passed their examination. It is therefore the CIoL-established criteria concerning the DPSI examination that are likely to be taken into account by community interpreter training institutions in a process of designing relevant curricula. For this reason, an analysis of these criteria provides an insight into the aspects that are likely to be emphasized by training institutions. As stated in the DPSI handbook (CIoL 2010: 5), the examination leading to the award of the qualification in question has the format presented in Table 11.1. Table 11.1 DPSI examination format adapted from CIoL (2010: 5) Unit 01 Unit 02 Unit 03 Unit 04 Unit 05

bilateral consecutive interpreting and whispered interpreting into English and out of English sight translation into English in the public services sight translation out of English in the public services translation into English in the public services translation out of English in the public services

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As can be inferred from Table 11.1, the DPSI examination requires candidates to perform in various modes, that is consecutive interpreting, whispered simultaneous interpreting, sight translation and written translation. Since this chapter concerns ethical dilemmas in community interpreting training, its focus will now be placed on Unit 01, that is interpreting in a consecutive and whispered mode. The CIoL’s (2010) assessment criteria for Unit 01 are divided into four bands, from Band A to Band D (A being the highest). Those four bands are used to assess a candidate’s performance in three areas: Accuracy, Delivery and Language Use. The description of performance required to achieve a mark within Band A is presented in Table 11.2. If a community interpreter training course is designed on the basis of the criteria in Table 11.2, it is more than likely that such training will be dominated by activities focusing on accurate rendition, transfer of verbal content, good grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. Whereas Delivery displays

Table 11.2 DPSI assessment criterion statements – Band A (CIoL 2010: 11)

B A N D A

Accuracy

Delivery

Language use

Mark range 10–12

Mark range 10–12

Mark range 10–12

The candidate: – conveys sense of original message with complete accuracy – transfers all information without omissions, additions and distortions – demonstrates complete competence in conveying verbal content and familiarity with subject matter

The candidate: The candidate: – demonstrates complete – demonstrates excellent competence in language command of grammar, – switches effortlessly syntax, vocabulary, between languages specialist terminology, – interprets clearly and with minimum smoothly paraphrasing – reflects tone, emotion – chooses language and non-verbal signs and register entirely appropriate to situation appropriate to situation – displays a courteous and – has clear, distinct confident manner pronunciation – remains unobtrusive and – has an accent which in impartial no way affects ease of – handles intercultural comprehension references correctly – displays good management strategies, intervening appropriately and only when necessary to clarify or ask for repetition or prevent breakdown of communication

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certain elements that could be connected to ethics, for instance reference to such concepts as ‘obtrusive’ and ‘impartial’, it remains obvious that a training curriculum based on the criterion statement proposed by the CIoL (2010) will leave little if any room for dealing with the ethical dilemmas that a community interpreter faces in real-life assignments, examples of which have been discussed in the previous section. It is impossible to predict every single dilemma that may arise in the course of a community interpreter’s professional career; it is also next to impossible to offer ready solutions that will always be seen as ethical. However, the analysis of the excerpts in the previous section shows that there is a clear necessity for community interpreter training to go beyond focusing on an accurate transfer of utterances between the other participants with a view to addressing at least some ethical issues. Dealing with the question of ethical issues in the classroom could assume various forms. For example, a learning diary, which is widely used in, for example, clinical training to encourage a candidate to reflect on their own performance with a view to highlighting their strengths and weaknesses (Stengelhofen (1993) and Stuart (2007)), could serve the purpose of a candidate expressing their own ethical dilemmas arising during their training. Well-established in – and recommended by – pedagogical research (Boud 1985), this reflexive activity provides a candidate with an opportunity to express their own views to themselves, that is without having to disclose them to others, which can be useful if, for instance, a solution of an ethically ambivalent situation proposed by a given candidate could be regarded as too controversial. A learning diary could be used if a candidate has just taken part in a role-play exercise which involved a dilemma connected with complete transfer of the verbal content, similar to the one in Excerpt 8, in which the solicitor implies that the interpreter has decided to leave out parts of the client’s utterance that she regarded as irrelevant. Another advantage of a learning diary is the fact that, in the course of training, a diary is filled with examples of ethical dilemmas that are likely to repeat themselves, which may make a candidate think of possible solutions and their implications in real-life assignments. Moreover, as the training progresses, candidates would be encouraged (but not forced) to share their various entries in their diary with the whole group. This could easily lead to discussion or debate regarding a selection of entries to students’ diaries. A training course could hold diary-oriented discussions dealing with ethical dilemmas (and proposed solutions) which candidates have noticed and which they are willing to share with the rest of a group. This would be a very useful opportunity for trainees to express their views on the ways of dealing with a particular dilemma, which would lead to a discussion of solutions, as well as their justifications and implications. This seems particularly relevant as some dilemmas elaborated on in the previous section seem to defy one acceptable solution. For example, as inferred from Excerpt 9 in

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the earlier section, the interpreter helped the client to understand a casual conversation between the office workers, which took place after the assignment and was not part of the meeting with the solicitor. Although this account does not necessarily signal the existence of an ethical dilemma, it suggests that ethical dilemmas may loom ahead. If a community interpreter acts as a party that provides help ‘outside an interaction’, an immediate question that arises in the context of triadic exchange is which party will be or should be helped. Should it be an institutional representative, a client of an institution or both? If a community interpreter would like to help both, another question arises as to whether it is possible to help both to the same extent, or should one accept the fact that this help will never be distributed equally between the two interlocutors? These and many other questions and dilemmas could constitute a convenient departure point for a lively discussion among trainees, not only because it would allow them to address a variety of solutions, but also because it would be an excellent opportunity to indicate that on many occasions there is no one accepted solution. Therefore, rather than look for universally ethical behaviour, trainees would be encouraged to become accustomed to the idea that a number of decisions will have to be made on an ad-hoc basis, since no code (ethical or professional) will ever be able to accommodate every potential ethical dilemma, and that responsibility for these decisions will need to be taken by interpreters. Thus, focused in-class discussion would allow trainees to elaborate on both solutions to dilemmas and implications of the specific choices they make. Ethical dilemmas could also be dealt with in the classroom environment by means of introducing a role-play exercise. Widely used both in academic practice (Fry et al. 2009) and vocational training (Nestel and Tierney 2007), this exercise could be implemented in community interpreter training by, for example, asking students to act out an ethically ambivalent situation, which could be followed by trainees asking questions to a student acting out the role of a community interpreter. This could assume various forms; for instance, a role-play exercise could be inspired by Excerpt 6, in which the medical practitioner expected the interpreter to actually demonstrate the way of conducting exercises to the patient so that the patient is aware which elements of the exercise need to be emphasized. Although Excerpt 6 clearly indicates that this expectation was violated, it could be a good idea to plan a role-play exercise in which a candidate is asked to perform a task which is outside their common range of duties (and of which the candidate would not know beforehand). Following the role play in which this candidate would have had to face an unexpected dilemma of this type, they could be interviewed by a trainer who would encourage this candidate to reflect on a specific solution. This would involve the trainer asking the candidate about their justification of the action taken and about their awareness of possible implications resulting from this action. In addition, a similar interview could be conducted with the other two

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interlocutors of the simulated encounter, with a view to establishing how they felt about the action taken by an interpreter handling a specific dilemma. As pointed out by Kelly (2005), when using role play as a training activity, one should ensure that roles within this activity are rotated so that every candidate in a group will play the role of a community interpreter and face an ethically ambivalent situation. Although the above methods may be relatively effective in familiarizing candidates with possible dilemmas they may be facing in the course of their professional career, an apparent deficiency of these proposals lies in the fact that these methods are applied in simulated environment. One of the disadvantages of restricting training to classroom activities is that interpreter trainees will not have an opportunity to witness or deal with actual ethical dilemmas in real-life situations; in other words, if they perform an exercise in a role-play activity, they are aware that it is a role play and that, as a result, there are no real consequences or implications of their actions. At the same time, witnessing live performance in actual encounters, with authentic interlocutors, would definitely enrich their training with genuine experience. One way of introducing some authenticity would be to apply a technique of observation, that is, to create an opportunity for trainees to watch professional interpreters’ live performance. In research, there are various types of observations. For example, Denzin (1989: 162–5) distinguishes as many as four, depending on an observer’s identity. Complete participant (pretense) refers to an individual whose identity and role are not disclosed to a candidate/learner prior to or during an observation process, and who fully interacts with other participants in the field; participant as observer refers to an individual making themselves known to the subject and creating ‘a series of relationships with the subjects such that they serve as respondents and informants’ (Denzin 1989: 163); observer as participant concerns an observer making themselves known to the subject but forming only a formal and one-off contact with the subject via, for example, asking them to complete a questionnaire or via other highly formalized means; finally, the complete observer is completely detached from (but revealed to) a subject and focuses on observation of a phenomenon rather than participating in it. Although Denzin (1989) deals with observation as a technique applicable in research, it could be adapted to community interpreter training, except that this time it would be trainees who watch real professionals in actual encounters, which is not uncommon in other fields; for instance, clinical training often involves trainees being present during doctor-patient sessions. Regarding the four types of observation, the last one, complete observer, seems to be the most suitable one, since the other three involve various degrees of secrecy (and a likelihood of ethical issues arising). In practical terms, it would mean that an institution running a community interpreter course would have to hold formal arrangements with various places where community interpreters are active

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(hospitals, advice centres, etc.) which would allow trainees enrolled on this particular course to observe real interpreters in real encounters. Formal arrangements at the institutional level (i.e. relevant consent forms, CRB checks, health checks, etc.) are in this case necessary, since applying for permission to participate in these encounters as a third party can be time-consuming and cumbersome if it is done on an individual basis; therefore, making prior arrangements will ensure that all the conditions will have already been fulfilled when a given trainee is about to participate as an observer in a concrete session. Observations carried out by trainees would provide them with invaluable experience, not only because they would be able to witness genuine interpreting performance, but also because an observation can be followed up by other activities, such as making entries to a learning diary or interviewing participants, except that this time these would yield more interesting results than in simulated environment. For example, following an observation in which a trainee identified a possible ethical dilemma faced by a community interpreter, this trainee could have an opportunity to speak to the interpreter after the session to find out what motivated them to deal with a specific issue in the way they did. By the same token, the trainee could be permitted to speak to the other two interlocutors from the same session to find out what they think about the way in which the interpreter handled the given issue. Another idea for making trainees acknowledge the various ethical issues is to allow them to actually perform as interpreters in genuine sessions. Once again, this idea is not new in, for example, clinical training, which often entails a medical student conducting sessions with patients under an experienced practitioner’s supervision. In the context of community interpreter training, this would require even more inter-institutional arrangements (as discussed in the next section) but allowing trainees to experience all the aspects of interpreting practice during training would be an invaluable opportunity to raise candidates’ awareness of ethical dilemmas and issues in community interpreting. Similarly to an observation, interpreting in practice could be followed up by exercises already discussed above. In this case, an interview could be conducted by a trainer/supervisor present during a session to see if a candidate is aware of both the dilemma that has arisen during the session and the implications of the decisions that this candidate has decided to take. A method that could be easily applied, irrespective of whether a community interpreter candidate has performed in a simulated or authentic context, is a student presentation. Already used in translation training (Kelly 2005), the method could be used in a community interpreting context. Apart from its obvious advantage of a candidate improving their skills of, and confidence in, speaking to the public (other students and the trainer in this case), the method would also allow a candidate to share their reflections concerning some ethical dilemmas, which, in turn, would provoke some discussion and feedback from the rest of the candidates. Such presentations would be relatively brief

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(but structured), especially at the beginning of a training course, when a candidate would have relatively little to share. By the same token, at an early stage of a training course, the feedback and discussion initiated by the rest of the candidates could be succinct due to their lack of relevant experience. In such a case, a trainer could prompt a discussion by drawing candidates’ attention to specific dilemmas entailed in a given presentation. With time, candidates, and especially those who have already performed in real-life assignments, would become more alert to ethical dilemmas that are worth discussing in groups with a view to the same dilemma being looked at from various perspectives.

6. Implications of Proposals for Training Environment Incorporating the above methods of acknowledging ethical dilemmas in community interpreter training would mean dealing with further implications. First of all, if a community interpreter trainee was required to perform in authentic situations during their training, the whole training course would have to be divided into two parts. An earlier part would involve a trainee performing in classroom simulated environments, during which trainers would have an opportunity to assess when a candidate’s performance is satisfactory enough for this candidate to interact in authentic situations under a professional’s supervision. Once this candidate has achieved this stage, they would be awarded an interim status of a community interpreter, allowing them to perform in real-life conditions. This solution would require making certain arrangements between a CI training institution and an institution where interim community interpreters would perform. One of these arrangements would be to resolve a possible issue connected with service recipients’ well-being. That is to say, a jobcentre client who has already had a few meetings mediated by a CI may feel uncomfortable if, all of a sudden, an additional person (supervisor/mentor) is present during another meeting. This could be resolved by enclosing a consent form with a letter informing a service recipient about an interpreter-mediated meeting, asking them to sign the form and to bring it to the meeting if they agree to a third party’s presence during the meeting. This issue is even more complicated in the case of National Health Service (NHS) patients, who are regarded as vulnerable adults. Enabling a non-NHS individual to access a session in clinical settings is a lengthy and complex process, which involves not only CRB checks but also NHS ethics committee approval (NPSA 2007). An approval of this type is granted only after an application undergoes an extensive review, which involves contributions from various specialists at different stages, even if this application concerns a non-clinical research project (REC 2001). For this reason, handling necessary formalities connected with a candidate’s access to

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sessions involving service recipients of given institutions should commence as early as possible so that a candidate who has just received an interim status could immediately start performing in real-life conditions. These formalities would mean that a CI training centre could apply to an institution where a candidate could perform for permission to bring a candidate and their supervisor/mentor into a triadic interaction, and therefore start to deal with bureaucratic aspects involved in obtaining such permission. However, one of the possible problems in incorporating the above idea in a community interpreter training course is that its length and content will vary among institutions, some of which will offer short and intensive courses, while others will run longer ones, ending in a specific qualification or degree. As a result, the choice of the methods allowing acknowledgement of ethical dilemmas will need to be carefully considered, especially in view of the fact that the proposals involving genuine interpreting practice, such as observation, may incur certain costs. For example, short intensive courses may offer few or no opportunities for candidates to reach an interim status of a community interpreter, which is why only those methods proposed in Section 5 which relate to simulated environment would be applicable. Another factor to be considered in the case of incorporating genuine experience (i.e. observation and practice) in interpreter training is confidentiality. It is essential to raise trainees’ awareness of the sensitive and confidential nature of real-life assignments. Consequently, when drawing on their experience gained in authentic encounters, especially during in-class discussions and presentations, trainees need to know how much they can reveal when discussing what they think was an ethical dilemma in a given session they observed or worked in. This involves, among other things, keeping sensitive and personal information to oneself and talking about their experience in a manner that does not allow the audience to identify the participants of the interaction. Although perhaps implied in the NRPSI code of professional conduct, PSIs need to be explicitly aware of these practical but ethically loaded issues during training in order to make judicious decisions when entering the profession. Yet another implication of the proposals from the previous section is a necessity to decide at which stage various methods of acknowledging ethical dilemmas are to be implemented. This is even more important given the fact that, as stated above, lengths of different training courses will differ from one another. For example, a learning diary seems to be suitable throughout an entire course, no matter if its length allows inclusion of a candidate’s access to authentic triadic interactions, since this method will enable an assessor to have an insight into the development of a candidate’s awareness of their own progress. By contrast, role-play activities focusing on various ethical dilemmas could be emphasized during the first part of a course (i.e. before a candidate obtains an interim status of a community interpreter and access to genuine

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situations). By the same token, once a candidate is allowed to participate in real-life interactions, role-play activities could be considerably reduced in order to introduce as many exercises related to actual interpreting practice as possible. Furthermore, the fact that the proposals for acknowledging potential ethical dilemmas during community interpreter training are discussed as separate methods is far from implying that these cannot be integrated. As already stated, a candidate’s entries in their learning diary could be used as a basis for engaging other course participants in what could potentially be a fruitful discussion about how certain ethical issues could be approached by various individuals. One could take a step further by introducing and applying a concept of triangulation. Widely known and well established in research (Denzin 1989) and training in various disciplines (for instance, medicine (Stuart 2007)), the concept refers to investigating the same phenomenon from various perspectives. One of its subtypes is triangulation of methods, which in the context of community interpreter training would refer to integrating various methods so that the same dilemma could be explored by different means. One of the possible scenarios could be as follows; a role play is assigned to students to highlight an ethical issue from one of the learning diaries. Selected students act out the role-play scenario, whereas others use the technique of observation to note down their thoughts and impressions in their learning diaries. Following that, all students (including those who had acted out the scene) engage in a debate in which they express their views on how the role-play actors should (not) have behaved in this simulated and ethically ambivalent situation. In order to ensure a thorough and fruitful discussion, a trainer in charge of this exercise should emphasize not only candidates’ justifications of their ideas for ethical behaviour in this particular situation, but also their awareness of possible implications that these ideas are likely to generate. Following the debate, each candidate would be asked to prepare a short presentation for the following class to discuss their own reflections on the ideas of solving an ethical issue, which could include a discussion of the justification of the choice and its implications. Finally, if a given training course makes use of triangulation in order to explore the same phenomenon from various angles, it could also benefit from the fact that students of different nationalities are likely to attend a course. Even though most of the in-class activities may be centred around specific language pairs, it would be exceptionally useful to apply some of the proposals both within and across specific language pairs. This is dictated by the fact that some ethical dilemmas, and some implications of the decisions taken to resolve given dilemmas, may trigger various feedbacks from different students because some of the dilemmas will be connected with differences between specific cultures. For example, if a candidate gives an in-class presentation to

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discuss one of the dilemmas they have experienced when working in a specific language combination, the presentation could be attended not only by those working in the same language pair but also by those working in a different pair. A doubtless advantage of this solution will be a considerable diversification of feedback, which, in turn, will lead to a widening of candidates’ perspectives by enriching them with awareness that some of the dilemmas can be both individual and intercultural in nature.

7. Conclusion The analysis of the excerpts from the interviews conducted in the process of testing the model of community interpreter competence reveals that various participants’ expectations entertained towards community interpreters may lead to ethical dilemmas that are unlikely to be accommodated by the code of professional conduct. Although community interpreter training is unable to address every possible ethical dilemma simply because the variety of scenarios (and potential ethical dilemmas) is virtually unpredictable, the proposals for incorporating such ethical dilemmas in community interpreter training will have at least two advantages. First, they will make trainees aware that such dilemmas do exist and that they tend to assume various forms requiring various solutions. Moreover, trainees will realize that these dilemmas require them to make decisions defying actions and values prescribed by codes of conduct and codes of ethics (as already acknowledged by various scholars, for example Baker (2006), Maier (2007), Inghilleri and Maier (2009)) and that they will need to decide instantaneously what is and what is not ethical, as well as take full responsibility for what they have decided. The fact that community interpreters tend to breach their code of conduct often results from their decisions taken on an ad-hoc basis. These decisions follow community interpreters’ judgement that following the code would have negative effects on interlocutors’ reciprocal understanding. Therefore, one needs to ask a question about a point in having the code in its current shape. One of the answers could be to abandon the idea of codes of conduct which prescribe types of behaviour as being acceptable in various situations on the grounds that it is impossible to anticipate (let alone solve) every single ethical dilemma. Instead, a more constructive approach might be to emphasize a sense of responsibility on the part of community interpreters, who would need to be given more freedom in mediating interaction between two individuals coming from various cultures but who would also have to understand that however they solve an ethically ambivalent dilemma during a mediated encounter, it is themselves and no one else who will need to take responsibility for possible implications arising from this solution.

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Note 1

Public Service Interpreter (PSI) is a UK name for a community interpreter; the two terms will be treated as synonymous in this chapter.

References APCI (n.d.) About the Association of Police and Court Interpreters, Retrieved at www. apciinterpreters.org.uk/about_apci_interpreters.aspx, Accessed 25 November 2011. Baker, M. (2006) Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account , London: Routledge. Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (eds) (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning, London: Kogan-Page. Chesterman, A. (2001) ‘Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath’, The Translator 7 (2), 139–54. CIoL Educational Trust (2010) Diploma in Public Service Interpreting. Retrieved at www.iol.org.uk/qualifications/DPSI/Handbook/DPSIHB11.pdf, Accessed 24 November 2011. — (n.d.) About Us. Retrieved at www.iol.org.uk/about/about.asp?r=G2EMOESSAA, Accessed 24 November 2011. CIU (2008) Code of Conduct for UK Border Agency Registered Interpreters. Retrieved at www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/asylumprocessguidance/relateddocuments/Theasyluminterview/conductingtheasylumintervie2.pdf?view=Binary, Accessed 24 November 2011. Clifford, A. (2005) ‘Healthcare interpreting and informed consent: what is the interpreter’s role in treatment decision-making’, TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction 18 (2), 225–47. Denzin, N. (1989) The Research Act , New York: McGraw-Hill. Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, S. (2009) ‘Understanding student learning’, in H. Fry, et al. (eds) A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice , New York; London: Routledge, 8–26. Gentile, A., Ozolins, U. and Vasiliakakos, M. (1996) Liaison Interpreting: A Handbook , Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Inghilleri, M. and Maier, C. (2009) ‘Ethics’, in M. Baker and G. Saldanha (eds) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London: Routledge, 100–4. ITI (2010) Code of Professional Conduct (Individual Members). Retrieved at www.iti.org. uk/pdfs/newPDF/20FHConductIn_(06-11).pdf, Accessed 25 November 2011. ITI website (n.d.) About ITI. Retrieved at www.iti.org.uk/indexMain.html, Accessed 25 November 2011. Kaczmarek, Ł. (2010) Developing A Competence Model for Community Interpreting, a doctoral dissertation submitted in the CTIS, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, University of Manchester. Kelly, D. (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers, Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. MacIntyre, A. (1981) After Virtue. A Study in Moral Theory, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

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Maier, C. (2007) ‘The translator’s visibility: the rights and responsibilities thereof’, in M. Salama-Carr (ed.) Translating and Interpreting Conflict , Amsterdam: Rodopi, 253–66. Nestel, D. and Tierney, T. (2007) ‘Role-play For medical students learning about communication: guidelines for maximising benefits’, BMC Medical Education 7 (3). Retrieved at www.biomedcentral.com/1472–6920/7/3, Accessed 23 May 2011. NPSA (2007) Guidance for Applicants to the National Research Ethics Service . Retrieved at www.nres.npsa.nhs.uk/applications/overview/, Accessed 15 October 2009. NRPSI (2011a) Code of Professional Conduct . Retrieved at www.nrpsi.co.uk/pdf/ CodeofConduct07.pdf, Accessed 24 November 2011. — (2011b) Changes to the Organisation of NRPSI. Retrieved at www.nrpsi.co.uk/pdf/ Changes%20_to_NRPSI_Q&A.pdf, Accessed 24 November 2011. — (2011c) Criteria for Entry onto the National Register for Public Service Interpreters . Retrieved at www.nrpsi.co.uk/pdf/CriteriaforEntry.pdf, Accessed 24 November 2011. REC (2001) Governance Arrangements for NHS Research Ethics Committees. Retrieved at www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digital asset/dh_4058609.pdf, Accessed 29 January 2011. Rudvin, M. (2007) ‘Professionalism and ethics in community interpreting: the impact of individualist versus collective group identity’, Interpreting 9 (1), 47–69. Spitzberg, B. H. (2009) ‘A model of intercultural communication competence’, in L. A. Samovar, R. E. Porter and E. R. McDaniel (eds) Intercultural Communication: A Reader (Twelfth edition), Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 381–93. Toury, G. (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond , Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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Chapter 12

Tracing Strategic Behaviour in Translation Processes: Translation Novices, 4th-semester Students and Professional Translators Compared Susanne Göpferich

1. Introduction In recent translation competence models (cf. the overview in Göpferich 2008: chap. 6), strategic competence has been considered a central component of translation competence. What exactly constitutes a strategy in translation behaviour (cf. Jääskelainen 2009) and how the degree to which translators proceed in a strategic manner can be determined, however, has not yet been the object of systematic investigation. These are the questions that the present chapter focuses on. Drawing on the corpus of target texts (TTs) and process data collected in the longitudinal study TransComp1 (cf. Göpferich/ Bayer-Hohenwarter/Stigler 2008 ff., Göpferich 2009a and 2009b), this chapter compares strategic behaviour in the translation processes of 12 students of translation when starting their translation training, with that of the same translation students at the beginning of their fourth semester in the BA programme ‘Transcultural Communication’ at the Department of Translation Studies of the University of Graz, and that of 10 professional translators with at least 10 years of professional experience in translating and/or interpreting (for more information on the participants, see Göpferich 2009a: 25). First, a brief introduction is given to the experiment design including the variable ‘strategic behaviour’ and the indicators used, the population under study, the tasks administered and the data collection instruments employed. Then, the results of the analysis of data will be presented, which was conducted from both a translation product- and a translation process-oriented perspective. From the results obtained, two types of conclusions will be drawn: (a) conclusions

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concerning the participants’ strategic behaviour in their problem-solving processes and its development over time; and (b) methodological conclusions.

2. Experiment Design In their textbook Strategie der Übersetzung (The Strategy of Translation), Hönig and Kußmaul (1984) highlight the importance of the fact that competent translators translate in a strategic manner as opposed to a rule-guided fashion. The concept of strategy has, however, been used with many different meanings in the literature (Jääskeläinen 2009). For the purposes of the study presented in this chapter, the term strategic behaviour refers to behaviour that shows that a translator is aware of, or, in the process of problem solving (systematically) develops an awareness of the criteria or requirements that a specific TT section has to fulfil in order to be an adequate match for the respective source-text (ST) unit. Proceeding to translate in a strategic manner can thus be regarded as the opposite of guessing, conducting unsystematic searches and other nongoal-directed behaviour, to which translators frequently resort when they are not aware of the requirements that an adequate TT version has to fulfil (see also Göpferich 2010b: 11).

2.1 Variable and indicators To determine the degree to which translators proceed to translate in a strategic manner (variable), indicators are needed that reflect strategic behaviour in translators’ problem-solving paths. For the present study, the selection of these indicators was based on the following assumptions: 1. Translators who translate in a strategic manner translate faster because they immediately recognize an adequate rendering of a ST unit as adequate when it comes to their mind and, when they cannot find one without consulting external resources, their searches are goal-oriented and thus more direct because they know what requirements the solution they are looking for must fulfil. 2. Translating in a strategic manner presupposes an awareness of translation problems. Two indicators of problem awareness are the number of translation problems encountered and the number of errors reflected upon (for a definition of ‘errors reflected upon’, see Section 3.2). 3. Translators who proceed to translate in a strategic manner return less frequently to translation units they have reflected upon previously. Novices, however, may be expected to do so more frequently because they are unaware of which criteria should be applied to determine the appropriateness of a potential rendering. This makes them feel insecure, does not allow

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them to make an objective assessment of their solutions and leads them to resort to intuition. 4. Translators who proceed in a strategic manner make fewer mistakes and solve more translation problems. 5. Strategic behaviour is reflected in think-aloud protocols in the criteria used by translators in their problem-solving processes and in the relative scarcity of superfluous or non-goal-directed steps taken. 6. Strategic behaviour is also reflected in specific behaviour with regard to ST units which are, in the translator’s opinion, illogical. Based on these assumptions, the following indicators of strategic behaviour were selected: (a) translation speed (in words per minute); (b) error rate (number of errors per 100 ST words); problem rate (number of problems per 100 ST words); and percentage of errors reflected upon; (c) returns to translation problems; (d) type of translation problems and problem-solving rate; (e) problem-solving paths for a selection of different translation problems (for a definition of translation problems, see Section 2.4).

2.2 Study population The participants of the study were 12 student translators and 10 professional translators, who volunteered to participate in the study. At the time of the first experimental wave, that is, at the beginning of their first semester in the bachelor’s programme ‘Transcultural Communication’ at the Department of Translation Studies of the University of Graz, the student participants (11 female, 1 male) were aged between 18 and 22 years; 11 were Austrians, 1 was German. Their mother tongue was German, their first foreign language (L2) at school and in their bachelor’s programme was English. The grades they had obtained in German and English in their last year at school were either A (‘very good’) or B (‘good’) except for one student who had only obtained grade C (‘satisfactory’) in English. The 10 professional translators (7 female, 3 male) all held university degrees in Translation Studies, German and English being among their working languages, and they had at least 10 years (between 11 and 40 years) of professional experience as translators/interpreters.

2.3 Tasks and data-collecting instruments In the TransComp study, the 12 student participants and 10 professional translators were subdivided into two groups of 6 and 5 participants respectively (see Table 12.1 and Table 12.2). Each student had to translate ten English texts (eight extracts from popular-science texts and two extracts from operating instruction texts for household appliances) into German according to the

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Table 12.1 Translation schedule for students2 Group A (6 students: BKR, KNI, Group B (6 students: EVE, SFR, HHE, TDI, CHA) JZE, JTH, MLE, STO, THI) Beginning of 1st semester Text A1, Text A2, Text A3 Beginning of 2nd semester Text A4, Text A5 Text B1 (1 semester lag) Beginning of 3rd semester Text B2 (2 semesters lag) Beginning of 4th semester Text B3 (3 semesters lag) Beginning of 5th semester Text B4 (3 semesters lag) Beginning of 6th semester Text B5 (4 semesters lag) End of 6th semester Text A1 (6 semesters lag)

Text B1, Text B2, Text B3 Text B4, Text B5 Text A1 (1 semester lag) Text A2 (2 semesters lag) Text A3 (3 semesters lag) Text A4 (3 semesters lag) Text A5 (4 semesters lag) Text B1 (6 semesters lag)

Table 12.2 Translation schedule for professional translators Group A (5 professional translators: KEG, LEB, RAN, AIR, AEF)

Group B (5 professional translators: CAS, FLS, GEM, GOB, RCH)

Text A1, Text A2, Text A3, Text A4, Text A5

Text B1, Text B2, Text B3, Text B4, Text B5

schedule in Table 12.1. As shown in Table 12.2, half of the professional translators had to translate Texts A1 to A5, the other half, Texts B1 to B5. The results of the data analysis presented in this article focus on the translations of the two texts A3 (239 words) and B3 (277 words), which are highlighted in Table 12.1 and Table 12.2. Text A3 is an extract from a hand mixer manual; Text B3, from an operating instructions text for a refrigerator. The STs selected provide a range of different translation problems. Comprehension of the STs did not require any specialist knowledge. The texts were chosen because they are easy to understand, but difficult to transfer into the target language.3 These were translated using Translog (2006), which registers all keystrokes, mouse clicks and the time intervals between them. To guarantee ecological validity of the experiments, the participants were allowed to use the internet as well as any other electronic and conventional resources they desired. Use of electronic resources was registered using the screen-recording software Camtasia Studio; use of conventional resources was documented by observers. During the experiments, the participants were required to think aloud (level 1 and 2 verbalizations according to Ericsson/ Simon 1993: 79). They had been trained in this procedure during a trial session prior to the first experiment and had acquired some experience in at least two other experiments prior to the ones reported in this article (for the reasons why think-aloud was preferred to cued retrospection, see Göpferich 2009a). The participants’ process of thinking aloud and other activities (consultation of external resources, reading the assignment, drinking, etc.) were

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transcribed in ‘translation process protocols’ (TPPs) using XML mark-up.4 Immediately after the experiment had ended, all participants were required to complete a questionnaire on how they had felt during the translation process; on the problems they had encountered; and the extent to which they were satisfied with their results. In addition, they were asked to rate the difficulty of the STs on a scale from 1 (‘very easy’) to 5 (‘very difficult’) (Figure 12.2). All data collected (TPPs, Camtasia recordings, log files, TTs with and without evaluation mark-up) and the STs (including the translation assignments) are accessible online in the TransComp asset management system, where the TPPs and screen records can also be displayed side by side (Göpferich/BayerHohenwarter/Stigler 2008 ff.). Apart from the think-aloud and the participants’ activities mentioned above, occurrences of translation problems were also encoded in the TPPs as an interpretation category.

2.4 Translation problem indicators To determine which parts of the participants’ transcripts constituted instances of translation problems, an adapted version of Krings’s (1986: 121) classification of problem indicators was used. Krings differentiates between primary and secondary problem indicators: primary problem indicators provide clear evidence of translation problems, whereas in the case of secondary problem indicators, it may only be assumed that a translation problem exists. For this reason, Krings counts as translation problems only those phenomena for which there is either one primary problem indicator or for which there are at least two secondary problem indicators. Following Krings, in our study the phenomena that were counted as primary problem indicators were: (1) utterances by means of which the participants make clear that they have had a translation problem, for example, ‘I don’t know exactly what it means here’; (2) any consultation of a source of reference (printed or online dictionary, parallel text, etc.); and (3) gaps in the TT resulting from a participant not knowing how to translate certain ST units. Krings’s list of secondary problem indicators was adapted for our purposes. In TransComp, the following five phenomena in Krings’s classification were counted as secondary problem indicators: (1) alternative tentative translation equivalents; (2) negative evaluations of TT units verbalized by the translator; (3) unfilled pauses of a duration of at least 3 seconds; (4) certain vocalized nonlexical phenomena, such as sighing; and (5) the inability to think of a primary equivalent association. It is important to note that these were only secondary problem indicators, that is, unless they occurred in combination with at least one other problem indicator, the passage in the transcript was not counted as an instance of a translation problem. There was, however, one exception to this rule. If participants returned to a problem they had worked on earlier

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in the translation process, the earlier occurrence of the problem was counted as a problem indicator. Thus, one additional secondary problem indicator for the same item that caused the problem qualified that particular passage in the transcript as a recurring instance of a translation problem. Sections in which at least two secondary problem indicators occurred but where it was not clear what might have caused the potential problem were not counted as instances of translation problems. Comments on the difficulty of the text and on whether the participant liked it or not were not considered problem indicators.

3. Data Analysis Data collected from the experiments were analysed from both a product-oriented and a process-oriented perspective.

3.1 Product-oriented data analysis For the purposes of product-oriented data analysis, the TTs of all participants were analysed and errors in translation categorized. To do this, the error classification table in the appendix was used. First, all errors that occurred in the TTs were classified into the primarily linguistic categories that are listed and described in the appendix. Secondly, all errors were weighted following functional principles on a three-level scale (–0.5 / –1 / –1.5), depending on the degree to which they impaired the communicative function of the TT. Error identification and weighting were carried out by three raters each of whom holds a university degree in Translation Studies. 5 Where discrepancies in their assessments occurred, these were discussed among the three raters until consensus was reached. Errors were also classified into L1 errors (i.e. errors caused by shortcomings in L1 which would also have occurred in translation-independent L1 text production, and which could be remedied outside the translation classroom) and translation errors in the stricter sense. In those cases in which it was not clear whether errors were L1 or translation errors, for example, where an error could have been interference-induced, these were classified as translation errors (see Göpferich 2010c).

3.2 Process-oriented data analysis Process-oriented data analysis was based on the TPPs and the questionnaires completed by the participants after each translation task.6 First, the time taken by each participant to translate the texts administered was noted (translation time). No time limit had been imposed on the participants so that they themselves could decide how much time to spend on their

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translations. To make the translation speeds for the two different STs comparable, each participant’s translation speed was calculated in ST words per minute (see Göpferich 2010c).7 Subsequently, the participants’ TPPs and questionnaires were used to determine whether or not they had reflected on the items which, as a result of product-oriented analysis, had been deemed translation errors. An error was counted as reflected upon if a participant had generated at least one translation alternative for a specific ST unit (documented either in the TPP, in the log file or the questionnaire); had negatively evaluated the erroneous version, verbalized or shown doubt about it (in the TPP or the questionnaire); or had consciously decided not to translate a part of the ST which should have been translated. Errors which had been reflected upon were given as numbers in brackets (see Göpferich 2010c). All instances of translation problems identified were classified into three categories: comprehension problems, production problems and combined comprehension and production problems. The last category included all instances in which participants clearly had both comprehension and production problems, or in which it was not possible to determine whether a problem was one of comprehension or of production, or both. Classification was based on data obtained from the TPPs and the questionnaires. Each problem was then classified as ‘solved’ or ‘unsolved’. A problem was counted as ‘solved’ if no error related to the specific problem occurred in the TT segment concerned. In the case of combined comprehension and production problems, a problem was counted as ‘unsolved’ if an error in the TT section occurred, even if the comprehension process had been successful. How often participants returned to a translation problem they had already dealt with was also noted. To determine the extent to which the participants proceeded to translate in a strategic manner, their TPPs and questionnaires were analysed for the steps taken and reflections made when translation problems occurred.

4. Results The following results were obtained for each of the indicators under study.

4.1 Translation speed Figure 12.1 shows that, overall, the participants’ translation speed (words per minute) was higher for Text B3 than for Text A3. The 4th-semester students’ translation speed for Text B3 was, however, lower than that for Text A3 and also lower than the novices’ translation speed for Text B3. A tentative explanation for the fact that the participants’ translation speed

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Prof. translators B3

7.3

4.3

4th-sem. students B3

Novices B3

5.5

5.3

Prof. translators A3

4th-sem. students A3

4.4

3.6

Novices A3 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Figure 12.1 Translation speed (in words/min.)

4 3.7 3.5 3

3

Perceived text difficulty A3 Perceived text difficulty B3 2.7

2.5

2.3

2 1.6

1.4

1.5 1 0.5 0 Novices

4th-sem. students

Prof. translators

Figure 12.2 Perceived difficulty of texts

for Text B3 was higher than for Text A3 (with the exception of 4th-semester students) may be found in the perceived difficulty of Text A3 compared with Text B3 (see Figure 12.2). On a scale from 1 (‘very easy’) to 5 (‘very difficult’), the perceived difficulty of Text A3 was rated as 3.7 by the novices and as 2.3 by the professional translators, whereas Text B3 was rated as 1.6 by the novices and as 1.4 by the professional translators. Thus, both the novices and the professional translators achieved higher translation speeds for the text

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they perceived to be less difficult. The 4th-semester students, however, form an exception: their translation speed was lower for Text B3 than for Text A3, although they perceived it to be less difficult. It is interesting to note, however, that the 4th-semester students’ translation speed for Text B3 was even lower than the novices’ translation speed for this text and that this correlates with the fact that the 4th-semester students perceived Text B3 to be more difficult than the novices.

4.2 Error rate, problem rate and percentage of errors reflected upon Despite the fact that the students spent more time on their translations, they made more errors than the professional translators (see Figure 12.3). Whereas for Text B3 error rates decreased with an increasing level of training and experience of the participants, this is not the case for Text A3, where the 4th-semester students’ error rates were much higher than the novices’. In all three groups of participants, the total error rates were higher for Text A3 – the text perceived to be more difficult by the participants – than for Text B3 (see Figure 12.4). The novices’ and 4th-semester students’ problem rates (problems per 100 ST words) were almost three times as high as the professional translators’ for the text they perceived to be more difficult (Text A3) and almost twice as high for the text perceived to be less difficult (Text B3). The difference between the novices’ and 4th-semester students’ problem rates for both texts, however, was negligible. This may suggest that the students’ strategic behaviour had not

Prof. translators B3

4

4th-sem. students B3

5.7

Novices B3

6.9

Prof. translators A3

5.1

4th-sem. students A3

9.4

Novices A3

7.2 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Figure 12.3 Error rate

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6.6

Prof. translators B3

10.6

4th-sem. students B3

10

Novices B3

Prof. translators A3

5.7

14

4th-sem. students A3

14.9

Novices A3 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Figure 12.4 Problem rate

50 46 45

Total error rate Errors reflected upon (in %)

43.9

40.1

40

37.8

36.3 35

31.5

30 25 20 15 10

9.4 7.2 5.1

5

6.9

5.7

4

0 Novices A3

4th-sem. students A3

Prof. translators A3

Novices B3

4th-sem. students B3

Prof. translators B3

Figure 12.5 Total error rate (errors per 100 ST words) and errors reflected upon (in %)

developed significantly from their first to their 4th semester of training. This assumption is corroborated by the fact that the 4th-semester students reflected on a higher percentage of translation errors than either the novices or the professional translators both in Text A3 and Text B3 (see Figure 12.5). On the one hand, this high percentage demonstrates their problem awareness; on the other hand, however, it also suggests that this problem awareness does not

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help them to avoid more errors, presumably because they lack criteria for the assessment of their tentative TT versions. The difference in the students’ and professional translators’ problem rates should be considered in the light of the data elicitation method: with increasing translation competence, more and more mental processes become automatized and, according to the information processing model of Ericsson and Simon (1993), are then no longer accessible to participants for verbalization. Consequently, automatized problem-solving processes leave no traces in the TPPs and thus do not emerge in the statistics. The cognitive relief that ensues from automatized (and thus unconscious) processes may provide the professional translators with more memory capacity for solving more complex problems. Jääskeläinen and Tirkkonen-Condit (1991), for example, found that the problems which become the object of conscious decision-making processes change with increasing translation competence and do not necessarily decrease in number. This is confirmed by findings of other translation scholars, such as Gerloff (1988: 54 ff.), and also by findings from expertise research in cognitive psychology (Dreyfus/Dreyfus 1986, Ericsson/Smith 1991: 25 f., Anderson 2007). Furthermore, we know from expertise research that, with increasing expertise, more and more factors are taken into account in problem-solving processes. This consideration of additional factors, such as a wider context, may lead to a higher working-memory load, thereby reducing the working memory capacity that will be left for thinking aloud. As a consequence, not only automatized problem-solving processes, but also extremely complex processes, may occur without leaving any traces in the TPPs. If we take this into account, the difference in the numbers of translation problems between the students, on the one hand, and the professional translators, on the other, must be assumed to be smaller in reality than documented in the TPPs, and the types of translation problems experienced by the two different groups of participants (students vs professional translators) are likely to differ in quality.

4.3 Returns to translation problems Returns to translation problems may be considered an indicator of the absence of criteria necessary to evaluate potential TT versions. However, postponing the translation of certain ST units may also be a strategic measure. This is the case if translators postpone the translation of a unit, such as a title, in order to first learn more about the text so that they can return to the problem at a later stage and make more informed decisions. This type of postponement, however, can only explain first returns. Figure 12.6 shows that a hypothetical increase in strategic behaviour only led to a decrease in returns to translation problems in Text A3. In Text B3,

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25 Problem rate 6th occurrence Problem rate 5th occurrence Problem rate 4th occurrence Problem rate 3rd occurrence Problem rate 2nd occurrence Problem rate 1st occurrence

20

15

10

5

0 Novices A3

4th-sem. students A3

Prof. translators A3

Novices B3

4th-sem. students B3

Prof. translators B3

Figure 12.6 Rates of returns to translation problems

the professional translators had fewer translation problems than the students, but their returns to translation problems were on a level comparable to that of the students. This finding suggests that they have either not yet acquired the level of strategic behaviour that one should be able to expect of professional translators, or that the number of returns to translations problems is not an appropriate indicator of translation competence. The overall findings make the first assumption the more probable one.

4.4 Type of translation problems and problem-solving rate Figure 12.7 shows the total problem rate and the type of translation problems encountered by the participants. The total problem rates of the novices and the 4th-semester students differ only slightly, whereas the professional translators’ problem rate is considerably lower. In all three groups of participants (novices, 4th-semester students and professional translators) and for both texts, the number of comprehension problems decreases with an increasing level of training and/or practice. This tendency is probably not due to an increase in translation competence in the sense of a transfer competence that goes beyond the natural translation ability encountered in bilinguals (cf. Harris/Sherwood 1978: 155, Harris 1978, Göpferich 2008: 143 ff.), but to an increase in L2 competence, which is only a prerequisite, or one component of translation competence (cf. Shreve 1997: 120 ff.). The latter assumption is based on the fact that the students who participated in the experiments did not attend any translation classes before their

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252 16 14.9

Total problem rate Comprehension problem rate Production problem rate Combined problem rate

14

14 12

10.6 10

10 8.3

8

8

8.1 6.6 5.7

6

5.1

4.7

4.6

4

4

3.4 2

2

2.6

2.3

1.8

1.9 1.3

1

1.3

0.3

0.7

0 Novices A3

4th-sem. students Prof. translators A3 A3

Novices B3

4th-sem. students B3

Prof. translators B3

Figure 12.7 Distribution of problem types 120

76.4 70

66.3

67.9

44.4

57.1

62.3

65.9 47.9

60.7

69.5

78 50

51.8

57.8

69.1

63.6

62.3

61.5 60

75

100

94.3 72.9

80

72

100

Total problems solved (in %) Comprehension problems solved (in %) Productionproblems solved (in %) Combined problems solved (in %)

40

20

0 Novices A3

4th-sem. students Prof. translators A3 A3

Novices B3

4th-sem. students Prof. translators B3 B3

Figure 12.8 Percentage of problems solved

5th semester, and that their first four semesters focused on improving their language proficiency. The problem-solving rate (percentage of the total number of problems solved) in all three groups of participants (novices, 4th-semester students and professional translators) and for both texts differs only slightly (Figure 12.8).

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This would seem to suggest that the novices are as successful in solving their translation problems as the professional translators. However, here several points should be taken into account: 1. The professional translators had fewer translation problems. 2. The type of translation problems experienced by professional translators can be assumed to differ from those of the students. 3. Results based on the analysis of think-aloud cannot be compared directly between groups of participants with different degrees of translation competence because different levels of competence lead to differences in what is accessible for verbalization and what is no longer accessible due to processes of automatization. 4. The problem-solving rate only takes into account the participants’ success in problem-solving processes which can be identified by means of problem indicators. This means that translation segments in which errors occur without the participants being aware of a translation problem do not appear in the statistics used here. If we assume the novices’ problem awareness to be lower than the professional translators’, we may expect more unsolved problems to have gone unnoticed by the novices than by the professional translators. 5. Unsolved translation problems may have caused errors which are more or less detrimental to the TT function. In the analysis presented here, all weighted errors were included in a cumulative score without determining how often less serious and how often more serious errors occurred, that is, a total number of 9 errors may have been caused by few serious errors (e.g. 6 errors weighted as –1.5) or a larger number of less serious errors (18 errors weighted as –0.5). More detailed analyses are required here which are beyond the scope of this chapter.

4.5 Problem-solving paths for a selection of different translation problems In the following section, the steps taken and reflections made by the participants in the process of solving two translation problems in Text A3 are analysed. The translation problems were chosen because most of the participants had major difficulties in solving these and because they represented different types of difficulty. The first problem (‘control switch’) is a terminological one. The second (‘You can stand the appliance on its base while you are using it.’) is caused by a defect in the ST, or at least a clause that can easily be misunderstood. A detailed analysis of the problem-solving paths of all the novices and the professional translators for the translation problems chosen from Text A3 is provided in Göpferich (2010b).

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4.5.1 ‘Control switch’ The translation of control switch constituted a translation problem for 13 out of the 16 participants who had to translate the respective operating instructions text. Even among the professional translators, only 3 out of 5 rendered this item correctly. This was the reason why the participants’ approaches to solving this translation problem were analysed in detail. Before analysing the participants’ problem-solving paths, let us look at how a translator would, ideally, come to an appropriate solution for this translation problem. A translator specialized in engineering does not associate Kontrolle with control as, for example, LEB, HHE and TDI did, but knows that, in a technical context, to control should be rendered in German as steuern (without a feedback loop) or regeln (with a feedback loop) or, more generally, as bedienen (to handle), whereas the German kontrollieren usually has to be translated into English as to monitor. For reasons of comprehensibility, the switch should be designated according to its shape and/or function. To determine this shape and function, it is advisable to consult the illustrations provided in the operating instruction text to be translated and, if necessary, to read the cotext. The illustrations clearly show what the switch looks like. By using a reference letter, something that most participants did, the switch can be made easily identifiable to the reader. The cotext also makes clear that the switch is not just used for switching the appliance on and off but also to select the speed at which it is operated. As the illustrations and the cotext show, all other controls of the mixer are buttons. From this, it can be concluded that potential German equivalents for control switch are Schalter and Regler. These can, but need not, be specified according to its function as Geschwindigkeitsregler, Hauptschalter or Bedienungsschalter. Although the final expression is acceptable, it is actually redundant as every switch bedient (English operates) something. To determine how the translations produced by the participants were found, their problem-solving paths, as documented in their TPPs, were subdivided into individual steps. Table 12.3 shows the problem-solving paths of two participants. Plus signs (+) in the right-hand column indicate useful and goaloriented measures and decisions; minus signs (–) indicate measures which are not useful, not goal-oriented or wrong decisions; and zero signs (0) indicate decisions which may make sense to a certain extent but do not take into account everything that is relevant, or decisions which are difficult to define as goal-oriented, i.e. positive, or not, i.e. negative. These problem-solving paths shed light on the way in which the participants did, or did not, proceed in an efficient and goal-oriented manner guided by an awareness of the criteria by means of which potential renderings can be evaluated as adequate or inadequate. We can thus conclude to what extent an adequate rendering in the TT can be regarded as a matter of mere chance, and therefore not as an indicator of translation competence, or as the result of strategic behaviour guided

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Table 12.3 Problem-solving paths for two translators who both produced an acceptable solution for the translation problem ‘control switch’ Participant

Problem-solving path

KEG (professional translator)

verbalizes the goal to designate the switch according to its function (+); to find out the function of the switch, wants to have the mixer at his disposal (+); concludes from the cotext (probably from ‘With the control switch (D) on 0, the attachments can be removed . . .’) that it must be an ON/OFF-switch (Hauptschalter), so that the function is clear and the comprehension problem solved (+); rendering, however, is postponed; discovers the information ‘Speeds selected with control switch’ in the cotext provided which did not have to be translated, and correctly concludes that there is only one switch, which he then simply calls Schalter (switch), which solves the production problem (+) (strategic) searching for a common German term for control switch , she spontaneously associates Kontrollknopf and Hauptschalter, of which she prefers Hauptschalter (0); looks up control switch in the bilingual online dictionary Leo, in which she reads various potential equivalents, among them Hauptschalter, by which she feels confirmed in her preferences although this designation does not sound good in her opinion (–); participant ignores her personal preferences arguing that the fact that something sounds good or not is not a relevant criterion here (+) (strategic behaviour undetermined, see below)

KNI (1st-semester student)

by criteria used consciously by the participants in their problem-solving processes. Both participants produced acceptable solutions, but, as their problemsolving paths show, only the professional translator KEG proceeded in a highly strategic manner whereas the novice KNI’s solution seems to have come about by chance. The qualitative comparison of the two problem-solving paths in Table 12.3 clearly shows that the professional translator KEG proceeded in a highly strategic manner whereas there are hardly any indicators of strategic behaviour in the novice KNI’s problem-solving path. To objectify these impressions, it would have been desirable to find a method of quantifying the degree to which the participants proceeded in a strategic manner. Three possible approaches were contemplated: (a) determine the percentage of strategic steps taken in the whole problem-solving path, (b) determine the number of different problemsolving criteria used by the participants that coincided with those that an ideal translator would have used; and (c) determine the percentage of steps that were evaluated as non-goal directed (–) because these can be considered an indicator of (in-)efficiency – the higher their percentage, the less efficient the translation process. In practice, however, the approaches were not applicable

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for the following reasons: (a) the participants needed different numbers of steps to come to a conclusion, and not every step left a trace in the TPPs; results were therefore not comparable on a purely numerical basis; (b) it cannot be assumed that the participants verbalized all the criteria that they took into account. In extreme cases, a translator may produce an adequate translation without verbalizing any intermediate considerations. In this case, a translator would be awarded no plus points according to approach (b) although s/he may have taken into account all relevant criteria. Certain inefficient considerations may also leave no trace in the TPP, so that determining their percentage is no feasible method either. Qualitative assessment was therefore carried out using the following criteria: a) Problem-solving paths which led to an acceptable solution and contained more positive (+) steps (at least one) than negative (–) ones or as many positive as negative ones were classified as strategic. b) Problem-solving paths which led to an acceptable solution and which contained either no positive steps or more negative or neutral ones than positive ones were classified as indeterminable. c) Problem-solving paths which led to an unacceptable solution but contained more positive steps (at least one) than negative steps or at least as many positive as negative steps were classified as indeterminable. d) Problem-solving paths which led to an unacceptable solution and contained either no positive steps or more negative and neutral steps than positive ones were classified as not strategic. The results obtained for the three groups of participants for the translation problem control switch are presented in Table 12.4.8 Table 12.4 shows that the professional translators’ behaviour is dominated by strategic procedures. A comparison of the behaviour of novices and 4thsemester students does not reflect an increase in strategic behaviour. This may corroborate the assumption that students’ problem-solving competence has not yet undergone any positive development in their first three semesters of study. If we take the novices’ and 4th-semester students’ results together and compare them with those of the professional translators, strategic behaviour Table 12.4 Strategic behaviour reflected in problem-solving paths for ‘control switch’

Novices 4th-semester students Students (novices + 4th-sem. students) Professional translators

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Strategic

Indeterminable

Not strategic

2 out of 6 0 out of 5 2 out of 11 2 out of 5

3 out of 6 2 out of 5 5 out of 11 3 out of 5

1 out of 6 3 out of 5 4 out of 11 0 out of 5

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does not dominate in students’ problem-solving processes whereas in the professional translators’ processes, it does.

4.5.2 ‘You can stand the appliance on its base while you are using it’ Participants found this sentence difficult to translate for two reasons. First, they had terminological problems (base, appliance), and, second, the sentence was illogical or at least gave rise to potential misunderstanding. You cannot put a mixer on its base ‘while you are using it’ but only before or after you mix with it. Although only the second of these two problems will be dealt with, it should be noted that terminological problems that the participants encountered when translating this sentence may have led to interferences between the two problems and distracted the participants’ attention from the fact that the sentence is illogical. The phrase ‘while you are using it’ does not cause any translation problems itself. The only problem with this phrase is that it is illogical within the context. Recognizing this can be considered an indicator of strategic competence. The analyses of the participants’ problem-solving paths can therefore be limited to determining whether or not the participants were aware of this problem and, in addition, whether this awareness also led to a correction in the TT. Table 12.5 shows the German TT versions produced by

Table 12.5 ‘While you are using it’: TT versions, acceptability and awareness of the illogical nature of the phrase Participant

TT version and acceptability

Awareness of the illogical nature of the phrase

Professional translators AEF

AIR

KEG

LEB

RAN

Das Gerät kann während des Betriebs aufgestellt sein. (unacceptable) Während Sie das Gerät benutzen, können Sie es auf seine Unterseite stellen. (unacceptable) Wenn sie [sic] das Gerät benutzen, können Sie es auf seine Grundplatte (G) stellen. ??? (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät beim Arbeiten auf die Standfläche aufstellen [sic].9 (acceptable) Der Mixer kann zwischendurch senkrecht aufgestellt werden. (acceptable)

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No indicator of awareness.

Recognizes that the sentence is illogical and intends to ask the producer. (awareness) Recognizes that the sentence is illogical and intends to ask the producer. (awareness) Indeterminable.

Awareness.

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Table 12.5 Continued Participant

TT version and acceptability

Awareness of the illogical nature of the phrase

4th-semester students JTH

Während des Gebrauchs können Sie das Gerät mit der Hinterseite nach unten abstellen. (unacceptable)

JZE

Sie können das Gerät während der Benutzung auf die Standfläche stellen. (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät [sic] während Sie es benutzen [sic] hinstellen. (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät während der Verwendung auf den Sockel stellen. (unacceptable) Das Gerät kann während des Gebauchs niedergestellt werden. (unacceptable)

EVE

STO

THI

Seems not to question whether the phrase makes sense because she assumes that the appliance forms part of a kitchen machine (which is wrong). If this were the case, the phrase would make sense. (indeterminable) No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

Novices BKR

KNI

SFR

HHE

TDI

CHA

Sie können das Gerät auf seine Standfläche G stellen, wenn Sie es gerade nicht verwenden. (acceptable) Sie können das Gerät während des Gebrauchs auf die Halterung [sic] stellen. (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät auf seine Standfläche stellen, während Sie es benutzen. (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät während des Gebrauchs auf die Seitenfläche [sic] stellen. (unacceptable) Sie können die Gerätschaft während dem Gebrauch [sic] auf die Standfläche stellen. (unacceptable) Sie können das Gerät während [sic] Benützung auf seinen Sockel stellen. (unacceptable)

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Fully aware of the problem.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

No indicator of awareness.

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Table 12.6 Awareness of the illogical ST unit ‘while you are using it’

Novices 4th-semester students Students (novices + 4th-sem. students) Professional translators

Correct solutions

Aware

Unaware or indeterminable

1 out of 6 0 out of 5 1 out of 11 2 out of 5

1 out of 6 0 out of 5 1 out of 11 4 out of 5

5 out of 6 5 out of 5 10 out of 11 1 out of 5

the participants in the three groups for ‘while you are using it’, whether or not these were acceptable, and whether their TPPs indicated that they were aware of the fact that the phrase in the ST was illogical. Acceptable TT versions and versions produced by participants who were at least aware of the fact that the phrase was illogical are highlighted in Table 12.5. Table 12.6 shows how many novices, 4th-semester students and professional translators were aware of the illogical ST unit, and who provided an appropriate solution. The 4th-semester students would not appear to have increased their problem awareness when compared with the novices, whereas the problem awareness of the professional translators is clearly higher. As Schmitt (1999) points out, defects in STs are not a rare phenomenon. Strategic competence should include the ability to read STs critically, spot defects and correct them in the TT, or at least point them out to the commissioners.

5. Conclusion From the results obtained, two types of conclusions can be drawn: a) conclusions concerning the participants’ strategic behaviour in their problem-solving processes and its development over time b) methodological conclusions

5.1 Conclusions concerning participants’ strategic behaviour in problem solving The qualitative analyses presented in this chapter show that the professional translators (a) proceeded in a more strategic and efficient manner than the students and (b) were more sensitive to the coherence of the ST (cf. Shreve 2006: 35). To further objectify the results of the analyses for strategic behaviour, an attempt was made to quantify them by calculating the percentage of plus signs, minus signs and zero signs assigned to the individual steps in the

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problem-solving paths. This turned out to be impossible, however, because the participants need different numbers of steps to come to a conclusion, and not every step leaves a trace in the TPPs, so that the results are not comparable on a purely numerical basis. From a qualitative perspective, however, the professionals’ more strategic approaches are quite obvious as the comparisons in the tables presented here and in Göpferich (2010b) illustrate. If we look at the translations as a whole and not merely at the TT versions of the ST segments which were analysed in detail here, the professional translators translated faster, encountered fewer translation problems and made fewer mistakes than the novices. This is what was to be expected. What is surprising, however, is that, although the professional translators outperformed the students, they did not produce TTs that could be used on the market without prior revision. They all had at least ten years of experience as professional translators/interpreters, a time span that, in expertise studies, is considered necessary to achieve expertise, the highest level of competence, which is characterized by ‘consistently superior performance on a specified set of representative tasks for the domain’ (Ericsson/Charness 1997: 6). That the professional translators had not achieved expertise may have at least three potential reasons: (a) Although they may have accumulated experience during their professional lives, they may have lacked the necessary deliberate practice that only occurs when the translation tasks to be performed are challenging (Shreve 2006: 29); (b) Professional translators, in many cases, do not get the continuous feedback on their translations that would be necessary for their competence to develop continuously (Shreve 1997: 128; 2006: 29, 32); (c) Operating instruction texts were not among the genres that the professional translators who participated in the study were usually confronted with in their daily work. The professional translator RAN, for example, stated that the last time she had translated operating instruction texts was ten years earlier. The problems dealt with in this chapter, however, are not specific to operating instructions: terminological problems, as in the case of ‘control switch’, and passages in the ST which are illogical, as in the case of ‘while you are using it’, may occur in any genre. The problem-solving strategies illustrated in this chapter should belong to the repertoire of any professional translator, no matter what genres they have specialized in. This also applies to literary translators because these problems can occur in literary translation as well. Another reason for the professional translators’ poor performance might be that they applied criteria (e.g. equivalence-oriented ones) that deviate from our functional approach. This explanation seems plausible because the professional translators who participated in the experiments had been trained when the equivalence-oriented paradigm was still prevalent at translator training institutions. The finding that error rates, problem rates and strategic behaviour of the 4thsemester students were no better than those of the novices raises the question

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of whether the curriculum that the students followed at the Department of Translation Studies of the University of Graz and the way they were taught there should be modified. At the University of Graz, translation students do not start translating before their 5th semester (in the course ‘Translatorische Basiskompetenz I’) although they are confronted with linguistic and translation theory right from the beginning of their BA programme. Interconnecting the teaching of translation theory with translation practice can be expected to create synergy effects. The criteria that potential TT versions have to fulfil, for example, depend on the translation theory from which a translator starts. In translation classes, students should learn how to derive criteria from a theory to be applied, as this allows teachers to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of translation theories and how they can be used when translation problems are encountered. The examples above show how important it is in translation didactics to teach students how to develop an awareness of the criteria a TT version has to fulfil and to encourage them to do so before they start searching for potential TT matches or evaluating spontaneous equivalent associations. Familiarizing them with potential ideal problem-solving paths may be another measure to improve their problem-solving competence. This does not only apply to students but, as we have seen, also to professional translators, who might benefit from coaching seminars in which their problem-solving steps and strategies, but also their criteria, are discussed. Moreover, an understanding of the problems that translators encounter when translating their texts may also be enlightening for technical writers (who frequently produce the texts to be translated) and may help them to improve their text production competence. The cases in which participants produced acceptable TT versions which are more the result of guessing than of goal-oriented problem-solving indicate that product quality is not necessarily a reliable indicator of translation competence. Errors in the final product, however, do not necessarily point to a complete lack of translation competence. They may be the result of long chains of goal-oriented reflections in which only the last decision made was wrong. In conclusion, translation didactics should neither rely on a purely product-oriented approach of translation quality assessment nor on purely process-oriented assessments, but should take both product quality and cognitive processes into account.

5.2 Methodological conclusions The data collection methods used in the TransComp project were not ideal for the analyses presented here for the following reason. In many cases, the participants’ think-aloud and their answers in the questionnaires were not a reliable source of information of whether or not they were aware of the criteria

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that an acceptable TT version had to fulfil. If they did not mention certain criteria, this may have been due either to the fact that they were not aware of them, or that they simply did not mention them for numerous potential reasons. To obtain more complete data sets, and thus more reliable data, participants should be confronted with different types of translation problems in context, such as those analysed in this chapter, and be asked to first specify the criteria that an acceptable solution fulfil and then to translate the sections. Explicitly asking them for the criteria rules out the problem encountered with think-aloud that they may have been aware of the criteria but may not have verbalized them. In this way, the data collected from participants of different competence levels become more comparable. Furthermore, the effort involved in transcribing the think-aloud for the entire translation process can be reduced by just transcribing those sections connected to the translation of the segments in focus. The small numbers of participants whose translation behaviour was analysed in the present study do not allow generalizations about typical student or professional translator behaviour. The results, however, at least raise relevant questions about the relation between study progress, experience, translation quality and translation competence. Furthermore, the study provides methodological suggestions about how to operationalize the notion of strategic vs non-strategic behaviour.

Appendix: Error Classification Table Error category

Description/Example

Formal errors Punctuation (Zeichensetzung) Spelling (Orthographie) Formatting (Absatz)

missing or wrong punctuation mark spelling mistake which is not an obvious typo (e.g. Tauchen Sie das Gehäuse ihres Gerätes nie unter Wasser.) line break where there should be none (the participants were not required to do any other formatting in the text)

Lexical errors Semantic errors (Semantik)

Collocation (Kollokation) Blending (Kontamination)

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use of words and phrases which do not express the intended meaning either denotatively or connotatively; use of expressions which do not exist; omission of relevant information; wrong register at word level wrong collocation (e.g. schnelle Geschwindigkeit instead of hohe Geschwindigkeit) error caused by melding together parts of linguistic units or constructions which enter working memory simultaneously

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Error category

Description/Example

Preposition (Präposition)

use of a wrong preposition; use of a prepositional phrase instead of a genitive (e.g. von seinem Vater instead of seines Vaters)10

Grammatical errors Tense (Tempus) Case, number, agreement (Kasus, Numerus, Kongruenz) Mood (Modus) Syntax (Syntax)

Article (Artikel)

Modality/illocution11 (Modalität, Illokution) Infinitive (Inf.)

use of wrong tense use of wrong case or grammatical number, mostly after prepositions or in appositions; agreement error wrong mood, for example in indirect speech syntactic error; constructions which are hard to understand due to their length, long statements between brackets, etc. use of an article where there should be none; use of a definite article where an indefinite article should be used, etc. wrong illocutionary indicator, such as sollte (recommendation) instead of muss (instruction) grammatically wrong use of an infinitive construction (e.g. Das Wetter war zu schlecht, um schwimmen zu gehen.)

Text-level errors Text coherence (Teko)

incoherent text segments, for example logically wrong connection of clauses and sentences by the use of semantically inappropriate conjunctions; use of wrong pronouns; missing second part of correlative (twopart) conjunctions Functional sentence perspective wrong topic-comment structure (theme/rheme) (FSP) Rhetoric (Rhetorik) loss of communicative emphasis or effect (e.g. replacing a poem by a mere description of its content) Other Idiomaticity/genre conventions (Idiomatik/TSK)

Cultural specificity (Kulturspezifik)

unidiomatic expression which does not lead to a change of meaning but may make the text hard to understand and betray that it is a translation in a negative sense; use of expressions which do not conform to genre conventions (e.g. Das Bild ist kein Zufallstreffer instead of Das Bild ist kein Schnappschuss and Anfangend mit Namen as a title) missing adaptation to the target culture or missing cultural neutralization

Notes 1

2

TransComp was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as project No. P20908-G03 (September 2008–August 2011). ‘Lag’ indicates the time elapsed from the moment the relevant text was translated first to the moment it was re-translated for the purpose of comparison. MLE dropped out before the 4th-semester experiments started.

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264 3

4 5

6

7

8

9

10

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The difficulty of the texts was not determined in a formal procedure; it was assessed in self-experiments by two experienced teachers of translation. For details of the transcription conventions, see Göpferich (2009b; 2010a). Raters were members of the TransComp research group. It was thus possible to ensure they completely understood and applied the evaluation criteria in the same manner (see Hansen 2009). Another data source was the log files. For the analyses reported on in this article, the log files were only used in cases of doubt, for example to determine whether or not a participant had produced an interim version without verbalizing it. No significant difference was found between novices and professional translators in the subdivision of the translation process into a pre- or orientation phase, a main or translation phase and a post- or revision phase (Göpferich 2009a). These phases were therefore not considered separately. Translation time refers to the whole translation process from the beginning of the orientation phase (if existent) to the end of the (last) revision phase. The novices’ and professional translators’ problem-solving paths are documented in Göpferich (2010b: 23 f.; 27 ff.). This version was considered to be acceptable, though not ideal because ‘bei der Arbeit’ is vaguer than the phrase in the ST and could at least be interpreted correctly. Strictly speaking, this second type of preposition error should be classified as a grammatical error but since it is closely related to the use of prepositions, the subcategory ‘Preposition’ was not split into lexical and grammatical subcategories. Strictly speaking, these errors could also be classified as lexical (semantic) errors because they may have an effect on the meaning, and also as text-level errors (genre-convention errors) because the illocutionary indicators to be used may be determined by genre conventions.

References Anderson, J. R. (2007) Kognitive Psychologie (Sixth edition), Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer. Dreyfus, H. L. and Dreyfus, S. E. (1986) Mind over Machine , Oxford: Blackwell. Ericsson, K. A. and Charness, N. (1997) ‘Cognitive and developmental factors in expert performance’, in P. J. Feltovich, K. M. Ford and R. R. Hoffmann (eds) Expertise in Context: Human and Machine , Menlo Park; Cambridge, MA; London: AAAI Press, MIT Press, 3–41. Ericsson, K. A. and Simon, H. A. (1993 [1984]) Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data (Revised edition), Cambridge, MA; London (England): MIT Press. Ericsson, K. A. and Smith, J. (1991) ‘Prospects and limits of the empirical study of expertise: an introduction’, in K. A. Ericsson and J. Smith (eds) Towards a General Theory of Expertise. Prospects and Limits, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–38. Gerloff, P. (1988) From French to English: A Look at the Translation Process in Students, Bilinguals, and Professional Translators (Unpublished dissertation), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

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Göpferich, S. (2008) Translationsprozessforschung: Stand – Methoden – Perspektiven , Tübingen: Narr. — (2009a) ‘Towards a model of translation competence and its acquisition: the longitudinal study “TransComp”’, in S. Göpferich, A. L. Jakobsen and I. M. Mees (eds) Behind the Mind: Methods, Models and Results in Translation Process Research , Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press, 11–37. — (2009b) ‘Adding value to data in translation process research: the TransComp Asset Management System’, in I. M. Mees, F. Alves and S. Göpferich (eds) Methodology, Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research: A Tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (Copenhagen Studies in Language 38), Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press, 159–82. — (2010a) ‘Data documentation and data accessibility in translation process research’, The Translator 16 (1), 93–124. — (2010b) ‘The translation of instructive texts from a cognitive perspective: novices and professionals compared’, in S. Göpferich, F. Alves and I. M. Mees (eds) New Approaches in Translation Process Research , Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press, 5–55. — (2010c) Data documentation for the article ‘Tracing strategic behaviour in translation processes: translation novices, 4th-semester students and professional translators compared’. Retrieved at www.susanne-goepferich.de/datadocumentation-t1-t4-t8-A3-B3.pdf, Accessed 14 January 2011. Göpferich, S., Bayer-Hohenwarter, G. and Stigler, H. (eds) (2008 ff.) TransComp – The Development of Translation Competence. [Corpus and asset management system for the longitudinal study TransComp.], Graz: University of Graz. Retrieved at http:// gams.uni-graz.at/container:tc, Accessed 14 January 2011. Hansen, G. (2009) ‘Some thoughts about the evaluation of translation products in empirical translation process research’, in I. M. Mees, F. Alves and S. Göpferich (eds) Methodology, Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research: A Tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (Copenhagen Studies in Language 38), Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press, 389–402. Harris, B. (1978) ‘The difference between natural and professional translation’, Canadian Modern Language Review 34, 417–27. Harris, B. and Sherwood, B. (1978) ‘Translating as an innate skill’, in D. Gerver and H. W. Sinaico (eds) Language Interpretation and Communication , New York; London: Plenum Press, 155–70. Hönig, H. G. and Kußmaul, P. (1984) Strategie der Übersetzung: Ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch , Tübingen: Narr. Jääskeläinen, R. (2009) ‘Looking for a working definition of “translation strategies”’, in I. M. Mees, F. Alves and S. Göpferich (eds) Methodology, Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research: A Tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (Copenhagen Studies in Language 38), Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press, 375–87. Jääskeläinen, R. and Tirkkonen-Condit, S. (1991) ‘Automatised processes in professional vs. non-professional translation: a think-aloud protocol study’, in S. Tirkkonen-Condit (ed.) Empirical Research in Translation and Intercultural Studies: Selected Papers of the TRANSIF Seminar, Savonlinna 1988 , Tübingen: Narr, 89–109.

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Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (ed.) (2009) ‘Curriculum für das Bachelorstudium Transkulturelle Kommunikation an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz’, Mitteilungsblatt der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz . 73. Sondernummer. 15 July 2009. Retrieved at https://online.uni-graz.at/kfu_online/wbMitteilungsblaetter.display?pNr=132015, Accessed 27 July 2010. Krings, H. P. (1986) Was in den Köpfen von Übersetzern vorgeht. Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Struktur des Übersetzungsprozesses bei fortgeschrittenen Französischlernern, Tübingen: Narr. Mees, I. M., Alves, F. and Göpferich, S. (eds) (2009) Methodology, Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research: A Tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (Copenhagen Studies in Language 38), Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur Press. Schmitt, P. A. (1999) Translation und Technik (Studien zur Translation 6), Tübingen: Stauffenburg. Shreve, G. M. (1997) ‘Cognition and the evolution of translation competence’, in J. H. Danks, S. B. Fountain and M. K. McBeath (eds) Cognitive Processes in Translation and Interpreting, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 120–36. — (2006) ‘The deliberate practice: translation and expertise’, Journal of Translation Studies 9 (1), 27–42. Translog (2006) www.translog.dk [accessed 27 July 2010 from www.translog.dk]

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Index

action research 96 assessment 4–6, 15, 35, 40, 42, 60, 64, 96–126, 139, 168, 180, 184–5, 187–91, 197–200, 202–11, 215, 229, 261 formative 106, 117, 189, 197, 202, 209, 211 grids 199, 205, 207–9, 215 normative 197, 202 peer assessment 189–90 process-oriented 197, 208, 215, 261 product-oriented 197, 202, 205, 207–8, 261 self-assessment 187, 191, 206 summative 106, 117, 189, 202 Association of Police and Court Interpreters (APCI) 220 Australia 1, 30, 197–9, 202, 208 Bologna process 19–20, 26, 31–2, 50–3, 60, 62, 65 Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL) 218, 220–1, 228–30 children’s literature translation 161, 167–8, 174 China 147–54, 157–8 auto-translation 147, 150–2, 158 news translation 154–5 status of English 152 translation norms 147, 150, 153 translation tradition 148–9 see also Occidentalism; Orientalism; Official Chinese English Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) 162–4, 169

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community interpreting 217–38 codes of conduct 217, 220–6, 228, 231, 235, 237 competence 2–5, 11, 30–44, 47–8, 54, 56–66, 71, 73, 77, 88, 96–128, 137, 140, 161–82, 184, 186–7, 191, 198, 200, 202, 224, 228–9, 237, 240, 250–1, 253–4, 256–7, 259–62 constructivist approach 48, 71, 181–2 corpus 4, 20, 75, 79, 83–4, 91, 96–127, 158, 240 curriculum 1–5, 11–29, 53–64, 73, 97, 123, 128, 163, 166, 183–4, 188, 190, 197–8, 205–6, 208, 230 design 14, 16, 18, 24, 47, 52, 106, 163, 205 development 11, 17, 18, 25, 46, 50–2, 56 hidden curriculum 14–16, 25 ideologies 11, 13, 15, 16, 20, 22, 26 planning 14, 15, 168 studies 12–14, 23 deschooling translation 182 Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) 218, 221, 228–9 employability 18, 24 empowerment-oriented education 180–2, 184, 188–91 ethics 6, 33, 37–8, 200–1, 208, 217–39 evaluation 6, 15, 21, 62, 70, 72, 74, 89, 92, 96, 97, 99, 102–6, 123, 197–215, 244, 264 self-evaluation 5, 6, 102, 105, 108–13, 138, 190, 206 see also assessment

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Index

fidelity 153–4, 167, 169 foreign language learning 161–2, 164–5, 168 Communicative Approach 165 Direct Method 161, 164 functionalism 21–2, 48–9, 163, 167, 204 healthcare interpreting 218–19, 225–6 identity 148, 150–2, 219 ideology 1–6, 11–29, 147–51, 153 industry (T&I) 3, 6, 20–1, 25, 30–1, 36–43, 69–70, 75, 78, 81, 84, 90, 92, 128, 140, 151, 197–9, 201, 205, 207 Institute of Public Service Interpreting (IPSI) 220–1 Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) 220–1 Integrated Translator’s Diary (ITD) 199, 209–11, 213–15 intercultural competence 32, 34, 161–3, 165–6, 168–71, 174–5 interpersonal skills 32, 33, 35–6, 38, 40–2, 181, 219 attitude 4, 25, 37, 54, 57, 59, 61, 70, 72–4, 88, 90–2, 98, 101, 112, 117, 148–9, 158, 163–4, 174, 176, 180, 183–4, 190, 226 learning diary 103, 106, 108–9, 230, 233, 235–6 National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) 199–201, 207–8 National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) 217, 221–2, 224–6, 235 observation technique 232–3, 235–6 Occidentalism 147–8

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Official Chinese English 152–3 Orientalism 147–8, 153 practicum 200–1, 207 professionalization 30, 43, 52, 197, 199, 201 public service interpreting (PSI) see community interpreting quality 3, 5, 23, 30–3, 35–6, 38, 46–9, 53–4, 57–8, 60–5, 69, 107, 199, 204–5, 250 interpreting 223 translation 30, 40, 60, 81, 84, 88, 106, 114–15, 117, 150, 261–2 role-play exercise 230–2, 235–6 strategic behaviour 240–2, 248, 250–1, 254–6, 259–60 subtitling 56–7, 127–43 technology 3–4, 32, 34, 61, 69–92 CAT tools 56–7, 75, 84, 87–8 translation memory 4, 36, 70, 101, 116–17 think-aloud protocols 242–4, 253, 261–2 transformative approach 182–3, 185, 188–9 Translation for Other Learning Contexts (TOLC) 163–4, 166, 175 translation process 47, 49, 197, 200, 203–4, 208, 211, 214, 240–62 translation process protocols (TPPs) 244–6, 250, 254, 256, 259–60 transmissionist approach 183–7 triangulation 236 values 6, 11, 18, 21, 23, 26, 57, 61, 81, 148, 164–5, 167, 169, 175, 215, 217–39 system 14, 16, 22, 58, 167

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