I know languages, therefore, I can translate?

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Zlatnar Moe ◽  
Tamara Mikolic Juznic ◽  
Tanja Žigon

There is a large presence of translators without formal education in the Slovene market, partly because until the 1990s there were no independent translation programs, but also because of the popular notion that anybody who speaks a foreign language well, or has a degree in it, can translate. In this paper we present a comparison of four B.A. programs at the University of Ljubljana (in three foreign language departments and one department of translation) to shed light on what knowledge and competences are expected at the end of the B.A. studies, and to find out whether these departments actually train people to be translators. The paper also reports the results of a translation quality assessment of third-year students of those departments, who were given the task of translating a text into their L1. The students approached the task in different ways and produced very different results, which indicates that language competences alone are not enough for translation, and that specific additional instruction can give them a considerable advantage at the beginning of their careers.

Babel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
María Labarta Postigo

Abstract This study explores the metaphorical dimension of idioms in original filmic texts and their translations in subtitles, in order to shed light on strategies used in the translation process. The research focuses on a corpus of 20 films from the Library of Foreign Language Film Clips (LFLFC), at the Berkeley Language Center of the University of California, Berkeley. More specifically, I analyze films in German and Spanish with English subtitles from a cognitive and contrastive perspective. My goal is to explore how translation can affect understanding and reception by an audience with limited or no skills in the original language. Results of the analysis show a tendency towards reduction of metaphorical expressions in translated English subtitles, these varying according to the original language of the film. Contrastive analysis demonstrates that in translation from Spanish, the explicit meaning strategy is far more frequent than in translation from German. The findings of this study can be applied in foreign language teaching as a means of developing learners’ cultural awareness and language comprehension, as well as in the field of audiovisual subtitling translation.


Babel ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Rabadán ◽  
Belén Labrador ◽  
Noelia Ramón

Project) developed at the University of León (Spain) for identifying instances of low-quality rendering of grammatical features when translating from English into Spanish using translation universals. The analysis provides information about: i) the resources available (or absence thereof) in each of the languages to express a given meaning and their relative centrality; ii) the solutions favored by translators to bridge the cross-linguistic disparities and/or gaps; iii) the erroneous or non-existent uses and structures transferred from the source language into the target language. These results can be systematized in terms of simplification, interference, or unique grammatical features. Additional areas that can benefit from this type of research are translation practice, translator training and foreign language teaching (FLT). Assessing translation quality is generally seen as a difficult task because of the inadequacy of the tools available. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of a corpus-based contrastive methodology (ACTRES


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Qin Fangfang ◽  
Ding Ying

The 21st century is an era of globalization with rapid development of information technology and there are more and more close exchanges among countries. Under this background, the importance of translation is self-evident, and MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) teaching, which is closely related to it, has also attracted increasing attention. On the whole, after over ten years of development, translation teaching in China has begun to take shape. Both major foreign language colleges and foreign language departments of various comprehensive colleges have set up corresponding translation courses. But at present, the teaching effect of MTI is far from satisfaction. Based on the translation quality assessment model of Malcolm Williams, the necessity and possibility of the application of the translation quality assessment model in MTI teaching is explored, and the concept of the application of the translation quality assessment model in the classroom is put forward, aiming to establish an objective and effective evaluation system in MTI teaching so as to further promote the development of MTI teaching.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Merilyn Meristo

Abstract The aim of this paper is to shed light on promoting teaching and learning the French language and culture through the Olympiad, initiated by a group of practitioners in a community of practice. What makes this Olympiad rather unique is its main focus on cultural knowledge combining it with linguistic aspects. The Olympiad takes place in four different categories taking into account students’ age and prior experience in learning French (e.g. first or second foreign language). In addition, the regional round is organised in Moodle enabling more participants to take part and the national one in situ, at the University of Tallinn. Since the first Olympiad in 2014, the number of competitors has increased and both, private and municipality funded (public) schools participate. The paper provides a detailed overview of the olympiad process: how it was initiated and how it is annually run as well as a description of challenges faced by the organisers.


Author(s):  
Erda Wati Bakar

The Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR) has become the standard used to describe and evaluate students’ command of a second or foreign language. It is an internationally acknowledged standard language proficiency framework which many countries have adopted such as China, Thailand, Japan and Taiwan. Malaysia Ministry of Education is aware and realise the need for the current English language curriculum to be validated as to reach the international standard as prescribed by the CEFR. The implementation of CEFR has begun at primary and secondary level since 2017 and now higher education institutions are urged to align their English Language Curriculum to CEFR as part of preparation in receiving students who have been taught using CEFR-aligned curriculum at schools by year 2022. This critical reflection article elucidates the meticulous processes that we have embarked on in re-aligning our English Language Curriculum to the standard and requirements of CEFR. The paper concludes with a remark that the alignment of the English curriculum at the university needs full support from the management in ensuring that all the stakeholders are fully prepared, informed and familiar with the framework.


This article is devoted to the features and benefits of a professionally-oriented approach to teaching a foreign language in non-linguistic high schools on the example of engineering education. According to the latest standards of higher education (FSES 3++), students must have sufficient knowledge of a foreign language for business communication in oral and written forms. However, teachers of high schools face a number of difficulties in the formation of a foreign language communicative competence offuture engineers, namely: a constant decrease of a number offoreign language practical classes in a curriculum of a high school and a weak motivation of students. In our opinion, a professionally-oriented approach to teaching helps to solve these problems and make the process of learning a foreign language more intensive, focused and effective. That is, now, the development of strategies, methodological models and tools for teaching English, with a focus on professional communication, is an actual task for an English teacher at the University. This article presents some methods and techniques that stimulate students of engineering faculty to professionally oriented communication in English. Much attention is paid to both active teaching methods used during practical English classes, and individual work, which allows students to get more useful information and skills within the practical classes given, and also allows students to develop the need for individual knowledge acquisition and comprehension, thereby providing the increased interest of communication in a foreign language and increasing motivation to learn a foreign language.


Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 459-463
Author(s):  
Sam Morris ◽  
Sarah Mercer

In our June 2019 LAB session on Teacher/Advisor Education for Learner Autonomy, our featured interview was conducted with Sarah Mercer, Professor of Foreign Language Teaching and Head of ELT at the University of Graz, Austria. Sarah has published a wealth of papers in the field of language and teacher psychology, and co-edited many books including, most recently, New Directions in Language Learning Psychology (2016), Positive Psychology in SLA (2016), and Language Teacher Psychology (2018). Sarah was awarded the 2018 Robert C. Gardner Award for Outstanding Research in Bilingualism in recognition of her work. We were delighted that she was able to share her knowledge on the topic of language learner and teacher well-being with us during the session.


Author(s):  
Monika Dannerer

AbstractIn this paper, language policy (LP) at the University of Salzburg (Austria), a mid-size seemingly monolingual university, serves as an example to analyse (potential) language conflicts at the institutional level considering the roles played by German, English and ‘immigrant’ languages at the university. Language management, beliefs, and (reported) language use by different stakeholders in higher education (administrators, academic and administrative staff and students) are contrasted, also taking into consideration different linguistic backgrounds (German as L1, German as L2 and German as a foreign language). This offers an overall perspective on institutional LP that is still group sensitive, one that reveals two different hidden language conflicts: the non-addressed conflict between the two most important and visible languages at the university by far, German and English, as well as the neglected and negated conflict between German and the hidden “immigrant” languages. A consistent ‘internationalisation at home’ strategy would address these hidden conflicts and show backwash effects on ideas of language use in education as well as in society in general.


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