Christina Schäffner

Aston University, Birmingham

Squaring the circle:

The contribution of universities to the

needs of the profession

Key findings of the Workforce research report on translation and interpreting:

(1) 14 out of 28 organisations (i.e. interpreting and translation companies/agencies) said their new recruits were job-ready, compared to 12 who said they were not but have immediate training needs.

(2) Only 52% of the individual translators and/or interpreters consulted had a formal qualification in translation and/or interpreting. Only a minority of employers were able to provide information on the qualifications and specialist skills of their staff.

Who are new recruits?

• New to the profession after different work? Diploma in Translation (Institute of Linguists)

• Straight from university?• Graduates of an undergraduate or a postgraduate

programme?

• Graduates of a language or a translation studies programme?

• BA/BSc translation programmes (very few in UK)

• MA/MSc translation programmes (growing, variety)

What does job-ready mean? Which are immediate needs?

• “The new recruits are generally job-ready in that they have the skills as translators, but need to learn a specific specialism.”

• “They need familiarisation with in-house procedures.”

• “They need thorough training on quality control and traceability and in seeing themselves as part of a larger process.”

• “The new recruits are too academically or literature focused.”

Has university training been wrong?

What do organisations mean by ‘skills as a translator’?

Translation competence:

1. linguistic competence

2. cultural competence

3. textual competence

4. domain/subject specific competence

5. (re)search competence

6. transfer competence

1. linguistic competence, i.e. knowledge of the languages concerned; comprising communicative competence and metalinguistic competence;

2. cultural competence, i.e. general knowledge about historical, political, economic, cultural, etc. aspects in the respective countries and communities;

3. textual competence, i.e. knowledge of regularities and conventions of texts, genres, text types; including typographical regularities;

4. domain/subject specific competence, i.e. knowledge of the relevant subject, the area of expertise; for specialist translators, this amounts to a working knowledge of the domain;

5. (re)search competence, i.e. a general strategic competence whose aim is the ability to resolve problems as prerequisite for decision-making; knowing where to (re)search (parallel texts, background information, Internet, corpora, people…)

6. transfer competence, i.e. ability to produce target texts that satisfy the demands of the translation task; including (critical attitude to) the use of (electronic) tools, including the ability to negotiate and collaborate with other translators and subject matter experts to accomplish the task at hand, i.e. the social aspects of the translation event

Translation competence:

knowledge (knowing what), plus

skills (knowing how), plus

ability to reflect (knowing why)

How can such a complex translation competence be developed in university programmes?

Variety of programmes, variety of modules and methods

The more you translate the better you are?

or

Develop awareness and reflective attitude!

Translation

= Cognitive decision-making in social context

Translators operate in social contexts - subject to social, cultural, ideological, institutional norms and constraints

Trainees need to become aware of these and be able to evaluate them

Aston translation programmes

• Introduction to Concepts and Approaches to

Translation

• Tools for Translators

• Terminology

• European Translation Traditions, …

“They need familiarisation with in-house procedures.”

“They need thorough training on quality control and traceability and in seeing themselves as part of a larger process.”

(How) can universities cater for these needs as part of training process?

Constraints:

the real world of higher education: HEFCE, QAA, TQA (reviews), RAE …

Time: BA/BSc: 3-4 years (after A-levels) MA/MSc: 12 months (after BA/BSc)

curriculum and syllabus: number of modules, credits, hours (national framework)

Infrastructure:IT, translation tools, lab equipments,staff expertise

University needs vs professional needs

=

Ivory tower vs wordface????

Squaring the circle????

universities Translation profession

Squaring the circle

Planning and delivering provision (teaching? examining? advising? authentic assignments)

translation professionuniversities

Scope for cooperationWhat can translation companies offer?

Provide the missing elements for the development of translation competence

Student placements (for BA and MA)gain experience and skills in – using IT facilities (VW, SAP …)– desktop publishing – marketing– customer care

What can universities offer?

• Graduates with basic translation competence who know how to approach the task (i.e. who know which questions to ask:

What? How? Why?

• Programmes to help practitioners to get a recognised

qualification

• Academic expertise to develop tailor-made programmes

and short courses to care for CPD needs

• Knowledge transfer partnership opportunities

Squaring the circle

universities Translation profession

Professional organisations

Dr Christina Schaeffner

School of Languages and Social Sciences

Aston University

Aston Triangle

BIRMINGHAM B4 7ET

tel + 44 (0)121 204 3790 (direct dial)

Fax: + 44 (0) 121 359 6153

email: C.Schaeffner@aston.ac.uk

http://www.les.aston.ac.uk/staff/cs.html