Former à la traduction multimodale

Many books designed for international distribution combine text blocks and images. Their layout offers hybrid messages organized on the visual space of a double page. Texts both in the original language and in translation must fit into limited spaces or boxes positioned around illustrations. Thus, translators practice multimodal translation, writing texts that preserve or enhance the cohesion between visual and textual messages. This skill requires some training. Unfortunately, while theoretical writings on pragmatic translation acknowledge its intersemiotic nature, few training programs address this aspect. The creation of a course on multimodal translation would be a valued addition to any translator training program. The concept of a hybrid translation unit offers a way of structuring material to introduce both intersemiotic and multimodal translation in professional curricula. The author draws on her professional experience to discuss the role of illustrations in grasping meaning through practical examples. She suggests generalizable translation strategies to strengthen text-image cohesion, or even generate text from images alone, while adapting the book in translation to its intended readership.

The translation field in Serbia 1960-1990

The paper presents a chronological overview of diverse translation related activity in Serbia be­tween 1960 and 1990 that led to a successful interplay of four types of perspectives on translation enquiry: Policy, Public, Scientific and Critical (Koskinen 2010). It is based on the data available in periodicals, conference proceedings and other publications issued by two major translator associa­tions and book-length publications on translation theory in Serbia during this period. The analysis presents the events, topics, participants and publications on translation as well as the role of state ideology in the promotion of translation activities. Finally, it is argued that the continuous dialogue between practitioners and scholars on numerous pragmatic questions (translator training, develop­ment of terminologies, the status of the profession and others), as well as on theoretical ones (on the nature of translation theory) led to the emergence of theoretical discourse on translation in Serbia.

Machine translation post-editing – Current situation and the future of translator training in Bulgaria

The current paper is an attempt to analyse the situation on the market for specialised translation services, and more precisely for Machine Translation in Bulgaria. It provides an overview of some of the generic MT systems and analyses the results coming from the translation of two types of text. The aim of the paper is to raise awareness about the results of Neural Machine Translation and to reveal the need for MT post-editing courses.

Innovative Dynamic Matrix-Type Learning Environment Based on the Example of the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation, Herzen University, Russia

The paper examines an innovative cluster-type matrix model for training interpreters and translators, based on recent developments in text and pragmatics theory, as well as on the scenario approach in education. The aim is to create a single, multifaceted space for open interpreter and translator training with an anthropological focus, drawing on the achievements in Russian teaching culture and best world practices, including a system of feedback from employers, to enable a flexible response to the needs of the society. To achieve the aim, an innovative interactive system of intensive interpreter and translator training has been developed based on a cluster principle and continuous education quality monitoring. At the heart of the system are a scenario strategy and a text typology approach. What is unique about the St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation (SCIT)’s project is the fact that it is not just an educational programme or a system or an algorithm, but a dynamic matrix-type learning environment.It is a flexible model for professional retraining that presupposes a range of basic skills and can fill any gaps in the general translators’ competence and current performance by applying the professional environment matrix. The cluster approach provides a combination of in-person, distant and independent learning components, as well as increased transparency of the educational and professional spaces, opening up future employment prospects.The ‘diffuse matrix’ version of the innovative matrix principle in education underlies the diversity of methods employed by SCIT: methodological pluralism, dominant in the process of training, implies a combination of diverse techniques developed by different authors for the matrix, making it most flexible and the whole approach – customer tailored. It should be pointed out that the external diversity is strictly regulated and targeted by the project’s creators by means of a monitoring mechanism.The future of the model is seen in its use in Russia and other countries to train highly professional interpreters and translators in other spheres (for example, audiovisual translation). It could also be used at the final stage of higher vocational training; as a standard mechanism for improving professional skills and retraining; as well as a social harmonising element (creating new links among academic, educational, and professional activities).

Facebook me!: Initial insights in favour of using social networking as a tool for translator training

This paper argues in favour of integrating and using online social networking, more specifically Facebook, within the translation classroom. This has numerous benefits in terms of aptly preparing trainees for the marketplace and also helping to foster a classroom community by encouraging a collaborative learning environment. A descriptive analysis of five undergraduate courses suggests that using online social networking as a teaching strategy has a significant impact: from engaging students through collaborative translation projects, to peer-reviewing assignments, to establishing ‘telepresence’, Facebook allows the trainer to ‘connect’ the classroom.

The role of automated evaluation techniques in online professional translator training

The rapid technologisation of translation has influenced the translation industry’s direction towards machine translation, post-editing, subtitling services and video content translation. Besides, the pandemic situation associated with COVID-19 has rapidly increased the transfer of business and education to the virtual world. This situation has motivated us not only to look for new approaches to online translator training, which requires a different method than learning foreign languages but in particular to look for new approaches to assess translator performance within online educational environments. Translation quality assessment is a key task, as the concept of quality is closely linked to the concept of optimization. Automatic metrics are very good indicators of quality, but they do not provide sufficient and detailed linguistic information about translations or post-edited machine translations. However, using their residuals, we can identify the segments with the largest distances between the post-edited machine translations and machine translations, which allow us to focus on a more detailed textual analysis of suspicious segments. We introduce a unique online teaching and learning system, which is specifically “tailored” for online translators’ training and subsequently we focus on a new approach to assess translators’ competences using evaluation techniques—the metrics of automatic evaluation and their residuals. We show that the residuals of the metrics of accuracy (BLEU_n) and error rate (PER, WER, TER, CDER, and HTER) for machine translation post-editing are valid for translator assessment. Using the residuals of the metrics of accuracy and error rate, we can identify errors in post-editing (critical, major, and minor) and subsequently utilize them in more detailed linguistic analysis.