Knnstieteen laitoksen julkaisuja V Publications of the Department of Translation Studies V

Current Trends in Translation Teaching and Learning Volume II

Edited by Mikel Garant & Larry Walker

University of Helsinki Department of Translation Studies Helsinki 2008

Current Trends in Translation Teaching and Learning Volume II Editors: Layout: Mikel Garant and Larry Walker Petteri Tykk

Copyright: University of Helsinki Department of Translation Studies and Contributors ISBN: 978-952-10-4577-6 ISSN: 1796-0150 Helsinki University Press Department of Translation Studies University of Helsinki P.O. Box 94, 45101 Kouvola www.rosetta.helsinki.fi Sales office: Helsinki University Press P.O. Box 4 (Vuorikatu 3 A) 00140 Helsingin yliopisto fax (09) 7010 2374 phone (09) 7020 2363 books@yliopisto.fi www.yliopistopaino.fi/kirjamyynti

Editorial Review Board Alexandra Albuquerque, School of Accounting and Administration of Oporto ISCAP, Portugal Alya M.H. Ahmad Al-RubaiI, Al-Mustansiriyya University, Iraq Kadhim Ali, University of Basra, Iraq Omar Sheikh Al-Shabab, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia Hannah Amit-Kochavi, Bar Ilan University, Israel Jody Byrne, University of Sheffield, UK Marcos Cnovas, University of Vic, Spain Chrys Chrystello, Portuguese News Network, Portugal Defeng Li, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Elisa Calvo Encinas, University of Granada, Spain Juha Eskelinen, University of Helsinki, Finland Anna Espunya, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain Marco A. Fiola, Ryerson University, Canada Johan Franzon, University of Helsinki, Finland Irmeli Helin, University of Helsinki, Finland Pertti Hietaranta, University of Tampere, Finland Holly E. Jacobson, University of Texas-El Paso, USA Kenichi Kadooka, Ryukoku University, Japan Panayotis I. Kelandrias, Ionian University, Greece Jaroslaw Krajka, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland Kazuomi Kuniyoshi, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland Alexander Knzli, Stockholm University, Sweden

Victoria Lpez, UNED Univercidad Nacional a Distancia, Spain Marin Morn Martn, University of Granada, Spain Iulia Mihalache, University of Quebec in Outaouais, Canada Kathleen Moore, University of Tampere, Finland Kayoko Nohara, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Anastasia Parianou, Ionian University, Greece Encarnacin Postigo Pinazo, University of Malaga, Spain Ddac Pujol, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain Heidi Rontu, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Mara-Jos Varela Salinas, University of Malaga, Spain Richard Samson, University of Vic, Spain Peter Sandrini, University of Innsbruck, Austria Tarek Shamma, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA Paola Smecca, University of Catania, Italy Astrid Surmatz, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and University of Cologne, Germany Jos Lzaro da Silva, Translator, Brazil Ljuba Tarvi, University of Tallinn, Estonia Sergey Tyulenev, University of Ottawa, Canada Kelly Washbourne, Kent State University, USA Camilla Wide, University of Helsinki, Finland Hilkka Yli-Jokipii, University of Helsinki, Finland Inkeri Vehmas-Lehto, University of Helsinki, Finland

TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE F0R BETTER AND FOR WORSE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A DIPLOMA PROGRAM INTO MA STUDIES Rachel Weissbrod Miriam Shlesinger Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies Bar Ilan University, Israel WEB TEXTS IN TRANSLATOR TRAINING Miguel A Jimnez University of Granada, Spain University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA ON THE CURRENT USAGE OF ICT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING CONFERENCE INTERPRETING Diana Berber University of Turku, Finland bo Akademi University, Finland Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain 9

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39

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AN EXAMPLE OF A COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION PROJECT INCORPORATING MEDIATION INSTRUMENTS AS A MEANS OF ENCOURAGING SELF-REGULATION Francesc Fernndez Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain TEAMWORK IN TRANSLATION: A CHALLENGE FOR TRANSLATOR EDUCATION? Konrad Klimkowski Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COOPERATIVE TRANSLATION WITH CAT TOOLS Carles Teb Madeleine Cases Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain 173 153 121

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAGMATIC AND INTERPERSONAL EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATION Mara Jos Garca Vizcano, Montclair State University, USA DECONSTRUCTION IN UNDERGRADUATE TRANSLATION PROGRAMS: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS, LIBERAL EDUCATION Daryl R. Hague Brigham Young University, USA AUTHOR PROFILES 241 275 209

Current Trends in Translation Teaching and Learning 2008

Translation Studies as an academic field has struggled for definition while its borders are continually expanding. Its interdisciplinary nature does not lend itself easily to an all-encompassing theoretical framework that embraces the concrete textual concerns of fiction and non-fiction, the Arts or the Sciences. Decades earlier when the field appeared to be taking shape, we entered the age of information which has simultaneously brought the discipline into closer proximity with even more subjects while highlighting both local and global needs that have yet to be addressed. At the institutional level, at the Department of Translation Studies, University of Helsinki to take one example, translator training has adapted in a number of ways. Pioneers in the field will remember that a common method employed was for learners to work with two published dictionaries, one for the source and the other for the target language. The library was naturally one of the most popular places on campus where aspiring translators would sit for hours at end. Moreover, being a satellite campus located in the city of Kouvula some two hours by train to Helsinki, the library almost exclusively served students who majored in Translation Studies. Computers early on were available with prototype translation memory programs, but Internet that at the time was often ineffective as the technology for freely navigating information retrieval systems was not up-and-

10 running, nor were many of the commonly used resources today yet catalogued. The curriculum designed in the 1980s held up fairly well until the above technological challenges were overcome. The Department of Translation Studies at the University of Helsinki responded with an updated curriculum implemented in 2005. The concept and usage of the library itself has undergone much change and accordingly electronic resources, be it access to reference materials such as journal articles or online dictionaries, have altered methods of teaching. The curriculum is set to be further refined as the Department is integrated into the main campus with the other language departments later in 2009. On the other side of the world, incoming students for academic year 2008 at the Department of European and American Linguistic Cultures, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto Prefectural University now have the option of focusing their studies on translation and writing a graduation thesis on a related topic. The necessity for quality translation and interpretation is more prevalent than ever before. This is evident in international business, where trade is conducted between speakers of different languages in organizations such as the European Union, and where billions of Euros are spent every year on translations and interpretation services, as well as in local communities where immigration and tourism are now mainstays of these economies. Diplomacy in the international arena looks to translation and interpretation increasingly so it is no surprise that a growing trend toward degrees in the subject, and higher concentrations of translation content

11 within language programs, is evident at the tertiary level. Even with the importance of translation in the modern global community and its emergence as a discipline in many university programs, the teaching and learning of translation has not always been at the forefront of translation research. This volume has been in the making for the past year. It puts forward articles that focus on many of the current themes in translation teaching and learning. The articles that were selected for this publication represent both empirical research and theory focused on translator and interpreter education. Such explorations are adding depth to a field that has been challenged by its breadth. The first article in this volume by Rachel Weissbrod and Miriam Shlesinger addresses curriculum design and the transition of Translation Studies from being an element within a degree program to becoming an MA level degree in Israel. The integration of technology in the field is the focus of articles from Miguel A Jimnez, and Diana Berber and Rovira i Virgili, respectively. Collaborative and cooperative learning projects are represented by Francesc Fernndez, Konrad Klimkowski, and Carles Teb and Madeleine Cases, respectively. The issues of pragmatism and interpersonal equivalence are addressed by Mara Jos Garca Vizcano. In closing, the practical implications of deconstruction are examined under new light by Daryl Hague. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the following people: the writers for submitting their contributions to a blind review process, for without their

12 courage and effort an edited collection like this would not be possible; the entire editorial review board for their thoughtful and timely reviews; Leo Westerlund for his help in translating and editing; Professor Hikka YliJokipii for her guidance; Eric, Anna, Laura, Eri, Freeman and Puck for their support; and everyone else who has supported this project. Any errors which appear are our own. The Editors Mike Garant Department of Translation Studies University of Helsinki, Finland Larry Walker Department of European and American Linguistic Cultures Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan Department of Translation Studies University of Helsinki, Finland Kouvola, Finland March 28, 2008

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F0R BETTER AND FOR WORSE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF A DIPLOMA PROGRAM INTO MA STUDIES
Rachel Weissbrod Miriam Shlesinger Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies Bar Ilan University, Israel

Abstract
In 2002, the translation diploma program which had been operating at Bar Ilan University since 1972 was upgraded into a full-fledged postgraduate department granting a Master's degree. This paper sets out to discuss some of the challenges entailed in such a transformation. In particular, it focuses on four theoretical and pedagogical issues that have been the most controversial and may be of wider interest: 1) the problematics of offering an MA program where no undergraduate one exists; 2) the elusiveness of establishing objective, measurable criteria for the screening process and the need to reconcile the different candidate profiles that of potential researcher and that of potential translator and/or interpreter, upon admission and throughout the program; 3) the challenge of striking a balance between theoretical and hands-on components of the program; 4) the implicit responsibility towards the students, with an eye to their future, to provide an optimal repertory of practical, marketable skills. In addressing these issues we hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the nature and purpose of curricula in Translation Studies at the postgraduate level.

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INTRODUCTION
The Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bar Ilan University evolved from a postgraduate diploma program founded in 1972. Situated in the city of Ramat Gan (near Tel Aviv), Bar Ilan was "the first university [in Israel] to offer a fully fledged programme in translation and interpreting [] For decades, other institutes of higher learning went on offering at most a handful of courses in translation theory and/or workshops in practical translation within a variety of departments []" (Toury, 1998, p. 446). In its first thirty years, the program provided students with professional training in a wide range of native languages - Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, French and more - reflecting the country's multicultural reality but relatively little in the way of theoretical background. In 2002, the department underwent a significant orientational shift when, after seeking and ultimately receiving certification from the Council for Higher Education, it was upgraded from a diploma program into a postgraduate one, granting a Master's degree, with a choice between thesis and non-thesis tracks.1 Strikingly, some basic underlying assumptions were challenged along the way, including both the very legitimacy of
This transformation, the culmination of a process that lasted more than eight years, involved successive heads of department. Starting with an earlier proposal by Prof. Francine Kaufmann, the process was developed and spearheaded - and ultimately completed - by Prof. Elda Weizman (whom we thank for her comments on this paper.)
1

15 providing professional training in an academic institution and the disciplinary status of theoretical translation studies. Issues such as the discrepancy between descriptive and prescriptive approaches to teaching and research, as well as the multi-disciplinary character of the proposed studies were also debated. The long awaited transformation could not have taken place without the solid foundation that was already in place, including a team of teachers with a Ph.D. actively involved in research, both locally and internationally; and a wellstocked library, housing the largest collection in Israel of books and periodicals related to translation, interpreting and Translation Studies (TS). This paper sets out to discuss some of the challenges entailed in transforming a diploma program into an MAgranting one.2 In particular, we focus on four theoretical and pedagogical issues that have been the most controversial and may be of wider interest: * The problematics of offering an MA program when no undergraduate one exists anywhere in the country; i.e. the fact that students arrive with an academic background but with no prior exposure to TS or to the structured teaching of translation and interpreting as such; * The elusiveness of establishing objective, measurable criteria for the screening process and the need to reconcile different candidate profiles that of potential
2

In 2004, the department's mandate was extended to include supervision of doctoral students as well.

16 researcher, and that of potential translator and/or interpreter; * The challenge of striking a balance between theoretical and "practical" components, and of demonstrating not just the usefulness of theory but also its status as a legitimate object of study in its own right; * The implicit responsibility towards the students, with an eye to their future; i.e. the need to consider where all this education is taking them, and how certain we/they may be that a career in translation (whether academic or practical) lies ahead.

1. WHERE DO WE BEGIN?
Since there is no BA program in TS anywhere in Israel, students enrolling in our department must, in effect, start from scratch. Their BA degrees are in a variety of disciplines and very few have ever studied translation or translation theory. Thus, their two years in our program must somehow provide both the practical-professional and the theoretical knowledge that a modern translator cum translation scholar requires. It follows that the twoyear program is very dense, and the course load is extremely high: students enroll in as many as 20 twohour courses; i.e. approximately twenty academic hours a week (one academic hour = 45 minutes) during each of their two years. Considering that students at postgraduate level are usually in their mid-twenties or older and that the annual tuition is roughly equivalent to two months

17 salary, this is a highly demanding regimen. Scholarships are rare, so that almost all students must work full-time, and many have a family to consider. From our standpoint, there are of course significant advantages to the fact that students do not embark on their TS education before reaching the MA level. Their life experience and previous academic studies mean that they have the maturity which, we believe, is a prerequisite for understanding and internalizing the multi-faceted workings of translation, both as a skill and as an area of research. At the same time, this places a heavy responsibility on the faculty, which is called upon to cover the full gamut, from the very basics through to a level that will enable graduates to enter the profession all within a two-year period. Towards this end, we have received a special concession from the university to offer our students more hours than almost any other department, on the grounds that they are essentially getting two degrees for the price of one as practitioners and as would-be researchers. Courses include training in both translation and interpreting in one of four language tracks English, French, Arabic and Russian with Hebrew as the common denominator. As a matter of policy, first-year students are required to take courses in both directions of their particular language pair; second-year students may choose to specialize in into-mother-tongue translation or else they may choose to continue studying translation and/or interpreting into their second language as well. A few even manage to pass the very rigorous, noncompulsory qualifying exam into their non-native (as

18 well as their native) language. Written translation classes aim at imparting the strategies called for in tackling a wide variety of texts in various pragmatic domains commercial, technical, etc.; interpreting classes focus on improving concentration, listening comprehension, speed of response and fluent delivery; language-specific courses foster an awareness of stylistic nuances and deal with improving the student's own style; and other auxiliary courses include such subjects as translationrelated computer skills. All of the "practical" courses are taught by practicing professional translators or interpreters, and while the emphasis is clearly on the "real world", no such course is without its theoretical components, insofar as "theory" refers to a heightened awareness of norms and principles that come to bear on the practice of translation and of the value of analyzing texts in terms of their salient features, their skopos and their cultural context. In much of the literature that we have reviewed, such awareness is subsumed under theory.

2. SCREENING WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

How does one go about selecting students for a department with two discrete and arguably incompatible goals? Technically, admission requires fluency in at least two of the languages taught in the department and a BA degree with a grade average of at least 80% (roughly 3.00 in the U.S. grading system) for the non-thesis track or 85% (roughly 3.25 in the U.S. grading system) for the

19 thesis track. Overall language proficiency in Hebrew and in the candidate's other language is tested with an entrance exam, in which applicants are asked to demonstrate their comprehension of a moderately difficult text in each of their languages, their ability to discern and formulate the gist of a text (by writing a prcis), their passive vocabulary (by explaining twenty words/expressions presented in context) and their writing skills (by a composition). The latter, for which a choice of themes is given, also serves as an indirect indicator of the candidate's world knowledge and analytical skills. Those whose written exam meets the departments standards are further screened in an interview designed to test their oral proficiency as well as less tangible qualities. (While oral proficiency is seen as vital to success in the program, the interview is not intended to rule out candidates who seem unlikely to succeed at interpreting.) But is it necessarily the case that those who do well on the entrance exam will be capable of undertaking research as well? In other words, do the criteria for selecting potential practitioners correspond to those for potential researchers? True, would-be translators and interpreters must possess intellectual abilities too, as well as curiosity and analytical skills, but these elusive traits are not easily tested and do not normally comprise the focus of institutional screening. While the grade-average threshold is likely to filter out those who were not up to par even at the BA level, does it necessarily guarantee the capacity of academic work at the next stage? By the same token, proficiency in two or more languages is basic for both translators and

20 researchers in the field, but in research, a more passive command of the languages may suffice. One possible way of determining candidates' orientation towards either practicing translation or approaching it as an object of study (or maybe both) is by means of personality tests used for job placement purposes. Interestingly, the widely used MBTI (Myers and Briggs Type Indicator) tests, based on the Jungian theories of psychological types (Thompson, 1996) and dating back to the 1940s, refer to translators as being quite distinct, in terms of personality profile, from college professors. (The sixteen psychological types resulting from interactions among the preferences for either extraversion (E) or introversion (I), sensing (S) or intuition (N), thinking (T) or feeling (F), judging (J) or perceiving (P)3 are referred to by a four-letter codes: ISTJ, ENTP and so on.) Discovering a persons personality type is supposed to help him or her to lead a better life, choose a suitable career and even a mate. A career as translator or interpreter is among the options offered to types ENFJ and INFJ; in other words, it may suit both extraverts and
The meaning of each preference is as follows: Extroversion - focusing on the outer world; Introversion focusing on ones own inner world; Sensing focusing on basic information; Intuition adding meaning to basic information; Thinking making decisions on the basis of logic and consistency; Feeling making decisions based on looking at people and circumstances; Judging tending to get things decided; Perceiving staying open to new information and options. See: Myers and Briggs Type Indicator. Retrieved October 17, 2007 from http://www.myersbriggs.org/my_mbti_personality_type/mbti_basics/
3

21 introverts. The MBTI does not regard translating and interpreting as two distinct careers, and the jury is still out on the possible link between extraversion/introversion, on the one hand, and a preference for interpreting or translating as a career, respectively, on the other. (One of the few to study this issue, Henderson (1987) remained doubtful.) A career as college professor or researcher is in fact one of the options offered to types INTP and INFP (which differs from INFJ only in the preference for perceiving rather than judging).4 Notwithstanding the possible usefulness of such personality assessments, psychologists tend to question their validity (Hogan et al., 1996). In fact, it is only after the screening process that the differences between individual students become significant. Robinson (1997) surveys different learning styles which he classifies in terms of physical and social environment, input (some learn best by doing, others by listening or by watching visual images), information processing and response to the information processed (pp. 57-93). He convincingly argues that teachers should incorporate a variety of teaching methods to respond to the multiplicity of students' learning styles (pp. 283-285). Kurz et al. (2000), who used the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (Kolb, 1976) as a research method, found significant differences between would-be translators and interpreters as regards their preferred learning styles and concluded that
4

See the U.S. Department of the Interior site. Retrieved October 17, 2007 from http://www.doi.gov/

22 interpreting students scored well on "active experimentation", followed by "concrete experience" but did poorly on "reflective observation" and "abstract conceptualization"; translation students, on the other hand, scored highest on "reflective observation", followed by "abstract conceptualization", and did less well on "concrete experience" and "active experimentation" (p. 78). This finding has obvious implications for teachers who address "mixed" groups of students. However, if we trust more sociologically oriented approaches, it is probably not so much the student's predisposition that matters, as the habitus that s/he will develop, the socialized subjectivity (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 126) that results from internalizing the social order. This sociological vantage point sees society as consisting of fields and the habitus as fielddependent. Thus one can talk about the habitus of scientists, physicians, teachers, and so on. The concept has been transferred to TS by such scholars as Simeoni (1998), Gouanvic (2002), Inghilleri (2003) and SelaSheffy (2005), who seem to imply that whatever the personality profile of the student, s/he will eventually acquire the habitus of a translator, an interpreter or a university scholar depending on the cultural field s/he enters. The challenge of developing the foresight needed for selecting the most fitting candidates thus gives way to that of helping students to find out what will be expected of them and how they can best fit into their future habitat(s).

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3. THEORY-ORIENTED OR PRACTICEORIENTED?
The very notion of "theory" in the context of a translator training and translation studies program seems to mean very different things to different people. On one level, it refers to a theoretical component embedded in the skills oriented, hands-on classes in which practical skills are being taught. On another level, it includes the vast body of knowledge associated with contemporary Translation Studies. ("I am a translator, so nothing translational is strange to me") Both of these levels are underscored by the current curriculum, though only the latter requires separate classrooms hours. In an extended online discussion of different approaches to translator training moderated by Anthony Pym (Pym et al., 2003), theory seems to refer primarily to metalinguistic and meta-translational awareness as represented in the actual translation classroom. In this context, some of the participating authors go so far as to suggest that We should definitely separate theoretical and practical classes. [] The teacher has to start with a theory (or multiple theories) but students should not be encumbered with those theories: they should be introduced to theory just before leaving the university as a translator. (Gouadec, 2003, p. 17)

24 Others take a very different approach: It can't be emphasized enough that practice without a foundation of thought (about generaltranslational issues and problems) will not create the future generation of translators which we should be aiming at, namely, a generation in which the average translator is as good as the better translator of today. Translation school is the time to create such a foundation. (Mossop, 2003, p. 22) Similarly, Delisle (1988) declares: If teaching is to be effective, it must be based on a sound and coherent body of rules [sic] that, though not absolute, will provide a framework for learning to perform a complex intellectual activity. (p. 31) We agree with Calzada Prez (2005), who rejects the very notion of a dichotomy between theory and practice in the [practical] training of translators and interpreters. As she sees it, training is never free of theory, because teachers always have in mind a certain conception of the nature and goal of translation, and it is this that inspires their teaching. Following Pym (2003), her advice to teachers of translation is to be explicit regarding the theory underlying their courses. She also recommends that teachers expose their students to a variety of theoretical approaches and let them experiment with each. Robinson takes this approach one step further,

25 recommending that teachers encourage the students themselves to theorize about what they do, both in order to improve their problem-solving skills and to be able to defend their decisions to editors and clients. This does not mean that students start from scratch each time anew but that they establish dynamic relations between previous theories and their own ideas, which they develop while practicing translation. Indeed, it is Pym (1992) again who reminds us of the definition of translation as a process of generating and selecting between alternative texts, and recognizing [] that there is a mode of implicit theorisation within translational practice, since the generation of alternative TTs depends on a series of at least intuitively applied hypotheses. Even though this theorisation usually never becomes explicit, the ability to develop and manipulate hypothetical TTs is an essential part of translational competence. (p. 175) Rising to the challenge posed by Wagner and by countless practitioners, Chesterman points out that today's theorists "see themselves as studying the translators, not instructing them" and that "[] lots of bits of translation theory are nevertheless relevant to translators" (Chesterman & Wagner, 1998, p. 2). And as Wagner herself acknowledges later in the text: Many others have contributed to making practical translation a respectable academic subject, and there has been a boom in undergraduate and

26 postgraduate courses since the 1960s. Whatever one thinks of the courses most of which seem to teach both translation and interpreting, on the sensible grounds that students only find out which suits them best by doing it they have had a huge impact on the profession. (p. 34) (For an extended discussion of the pros and cons of teaching theory in the translation classroom, with particular reference to Ji Lev's questioning of its usefulness, see Bartrina, 2005.) The view of theorization as vital for translational competence runs through much of the Translation Studies literature, whenever didactic considerations are being discussed (e.g. Chesterman, 1997, Chapter 5), and is taken for granted in all of our "practical" courses, as is probably the case in a growing number of translator training programs elsewhere. However, our belief in the value of "theory" goes well beyond its immediate "usefulness" in the translation classroom and beyond any immediate, applied, didactically oriented sense. In fact, in its Mission Statement, presented to the Council for Higher Education, the department administration noted that a student who successfully completes all of the "practical" courses in translation and interpreting would still not be eligible to take the qualifying exams, so long as s/he had not completed the (theoretical) introductory courses and seminars as well. Theory in its own right extending beyond its ongoing place in the practical courses accounts for

27 approximately one third of all classroom hours (a total of 14 academic hours out of 40). This includes a choice of four introductory courses (out of six that are offered), presenting the fundamental theoretical and methodological aspects of TS, and a choice of four research seminars (again, out of six), in two of which students submit extensive papers. As often happens, seminars reflect the range of academic specializations pursued by the different lecturers in the department; thus, recent offerings have included such subjects as the translation of sacred texts; linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of the translation process; court interpreting; evaluation and quality control; the translation of "challenging genres" (poetry, drama and opera); crosscultural variation and pragmatics; inter-semiotic translation; translation and the media; and the history of translation into Hebrew. Generally speaking, the first semester of each seminar, during which the lecturer presents the theoretical underpinnings and highlights of the relevant literature, sets the stage for the second one, during which students present the beginnings of their own individual research projects (work in progress). As some of the topics mentioned imply, it is not only theory in the Popperian sense that is taught in the introductory courses and seminars but also the history of translation and its conceptualization by philosophers, critics and poets. Whenever students challenge us to explain the point of studying these subjects though fortunately, this has been happening less and less we wonder, should we try to convince them (and ourselves) that everything is grist for their mill in one way or

28 another, or should we perhaps insist that the very question of usefulness per se is the wrong one to ask? These quandaries have to do with the purpose of acquiring knowledge, in general, and of doing so at a university, in particular. Throughout history, thinkers and researchers have tried to define that purpose. In Aristotelian terms, we distinguish between the productive, practical and theoretical disciplines in terms of their telos (purpose, end result). Thus, the purpose of a productive discipline is to produce some artifact, whereas the purpose of a practical one is to attain practical wisdom in the realm of ethics and politics; and the purpose of a theoretical discipline is to pursue truth through contemplation (Carr & Kemmis, 1986, p. 32). Though it is doubtful whether Aristotle would have regarded translation as a theoretical discipline, one cannot disregard the impressive development of pure research in the field, namely research pursued for its own sake, quite apart from any direct practical application outside its own terrain (Holmes, 1988, p. 71). Herein one finds the very essence of the university concept, as echoed by Cardinal Newman, the first Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland in his seminal book, The Idea of a University (1852), who considered the main business of a university to be the cultivation of intellectual excellence independently of any practical use it may have. If we are to believe writers such as Nisbet (1970) and Bloom (1987), the 20th century decried the decline in the tradition linking the university with the ideal of

29 knowledge for its own sake. While their main concern lay with the infiltration of political and commercial interests into the academic curriculum, one wonders whether the need to train students for a profession too would not also have been perceived as compromising the lofty ideals of academe. Admittedly, Nisbet himself did not regard training for a profession as necessarily contradicting the pursuit of knowledge, being well aware that universities have always trained professionals in the realms of law, medicine and theology, but he did point to the danger of confusing professionalism, that is, providing broad socialization into the profession, with occupationalism, taking a "vocational school" approach that sees translation programs only in utilitarian terms, as a job mill (p. 106). Voting, as we do, for "professionalism" amounts to taking a stand in favor of the ideal of knowledge for its own sake. But is this ideal still valid in our postmodern world? Indeed, the very notion was called into question by such thinkers as Foucault (1980) and Lyotard (1984). Unlike Nisbet, who acknowledges the contribution of universities to the wellbeing of society, but thinks that it must remain indirect, Lyotard sees the accumulation of knowledge by universities as driven by the ambition to gain power. While we may regard this debate as rather far removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life at the university, it does nevertheless appear to have significant implications for a newly founded department trying to determine its key concerns. The criticism of universities by postmodern thinkers is not easily dismissed, but we suggest the following tentative answer:

30 changing the power structures of society is not in our hands, but being aware of these structures, we can try to act fairly. Distributing the knowledge we have acquired beyond the university walls, for instance in (nonacademic) translators' conferences and assemblies as we do, may hopefully be considered a step in this direction.

4. STUDENTS FUTURE CAREERS

From the time the new program was launched until the end of the 2006-2007 academic year, approximately 80 students completed their studies and were granted an MA degree. About one third of them were in the thesis track. An additional 20 candidates more are currently in the process of writing their thesis. The theses cover a broad range of methodologies and topics, including literary translation (e.g. Pushkins Eugene Onegin in Hebrew compared with Nabokovs English translation); pragmatics (The translation of irony Catch 22 as a case in point; The translation of irony in Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice); community and healthcare interpreting (Self-perceptions of liaison interpreters at HMOs serving Amharic-speaking immigrants from Ethiopia; Patterns of communication between foreign workers in Israel and medical staff: 'Physicians for Human Rights' clinic as a test case); court interpreting (Police questioning of translation-dependent suspects; Interpreting in military court); media studies (The pragmatics of TV interviews on Israel TV vs. Al-Jazeera); the study of canonical translation (The Christological verses in Isaiah and the disputes surrounding their

31 translation); cognitive processes (Self-corrections in simultaneous interpreting; Poetry translation from Hebrew into Arabic an introspective study) and directionality (Interpreting from C vs. interpreting from B); and many more. Not surprisingly, the gratification generated by the flurry of academic activity is tinged with new concerns. Being well aware of the difficulties involved in finding a job and earning a living as a translator or interpreter, on the one hand, and in working one's way into the academic world, on the other, how can we assume responsibility for sending new scholars out into the world, trained in a discipline that has yet to establish itself fully in Israeli academe? One way of doing so is through monthly colloquia meetings between our students and our alumni, many of whom have become professional translators, translation agency managers and staff translators providing students with the opportunity to discuss such topics as business competence in the translation market, current norms and demands, copyright laws, localization and the uses of relevant software. Another step in this direction has been the establishment of a modest in-house training arrangement with several translation agencies: in return for a week-long stint on the job, students are treated to a firsthand look at how a small agency operates, and are given personal feedback in the bargain.

32

CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have discussed the four main challenges posed by our MA status, which we and most (although not all) of our students regard as a definite improvement over the vocationally oriented diploma program. Hoping to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the nature and purpose of Translation Studies, we have offered the following tentative answers: * Providing a full TS program for students with no translational background is basically a constraint we have to comply with. However, there are advantages to the fact that students do not start their TS education before reaching the MA level. Their life experience and previous academic studies prepare them for dealing with the complexities of translation, both as a skill and as an area of research. * Screening two seemingly distinct types of students the majority, whose main interest lies in acquiring a marketable skill, and the minority, who are primarily interested in pursuing research is undoubtedly problematic. However, it is probably not so much the student's predisposition that matters, but the habitus of translator, or researcher, or both, the awareness of which we can help him/her to acquire in the course of his/her studies. * Theory-oriented courses are beneficial for would-be translators, but their merit goes beyond their usefulness. Advancing our students' (and our own) knowledge and

33 understanding of translation is also justifiable as an end in itself and is in accord with the raison d'tre of a university. * Finding a job and earning a living as a translator is not an easy task, and working one's way into the academic world is even more difficult. To meet the challenge of helping the students with their future careers, we need to think creatively about more options and flexible career models.

34

References
Bartrina, F. (2005). Theory and translator training. In M. Tennent (Ed.), Training for the new millennium: Pedagogies for translation and interpreting (pp. 177-189). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Bloom, A. (1987). The closing of the American mind. New York: Simon & Schuster. Bourdieu, P. & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Calzada Prez, M. (2005). Applying translation theory in teaching. New Voices in Translation Studies, 1, 1-11. Carr, W. & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and action research. London: Falmer Press. Chesterman, A. (1997). Memes of translation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Chesterman, A. & Wagner, E. (1998). Can theory help translators? A dialogue between the ivory tower and the wordface. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome.

35 Delisle, J. (1988). Translation: An interpretive approach. (P. Logan & M. Creery, Trans.). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. (Original work published 1980) Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977. Gordon, C. (Ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. Gouadec, D. (2003). Notes on translator training (replies to a questionnaire). In A. Pym, C. Fallada, J. Ramn Biau & J. Orenstein (Eds.), Innovation and e-learning in translator training (pp. 11-19). Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Gouanvic, J. M. (2002). The stakes of translation in literary fields. Across Languages and Cultures, 3:2, 159-168. Henderson, J. A. (1987). Personality and the linguist: A comparison of the personality profiles of professional translators and conference interpreters. Bradford: Bradford University Press. Hogan, R., Hogan, J. & Roberts, B. W. (1996). Personality measurement and employment decisions: Questions and answers. American Psychologist, 51:5, 469-477. Holmes, J. S. (1988). The name and nature of translation studies. In Translated! Papers on translation and translation studies (pp. 67-80). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

36 Inghilleri, M. (2003). Habitus, field and discourse: Interpreting as a socially situated activity. Target, 15:2, 243268. Kolb, D. (1976). Learning style inventory. Boston: McBer 7 Co. Kurz, I., Chiba, D., Medinskaya, V. & Pastore, M. (2000). Translators and interpreters: different learning styles? Across Languages and Cultures, 1:1, 71-83. Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge (G. Bennington & B. Massumi, Trans., F. Jameson, Foreword). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1979) Mossop, B. (2003). What should be taught at translation school? In A. Pym, C. Fallada, J. Ramn Biau & J. Orenstein (Eds.), Innovation and e-learning in translator training (pp. 20-22). Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Newman, J. H. (1976). The idea of a university. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Original work published 1852) Nisbet, R. A. (1970). The degradation of the academic dogma: The university in America, 1945-1970. New York: Basic Books.

37 Pym, A. (1992). Translation and text transfer: An essay on the principles of intercultural communication. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Pym, A. (2003). Redefining translation competence in an electronic age: In defense of a minimal approach. Meta, 48:4, 481-497. Pym, A., Fallada, C., Ramn Biau, J. & Orenstein, J. (Eds.). (2003). Innovation and e-learning in translator training. Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Robinson, D. (1997). Becoming a translator: An accelerated course. London & New York: Routledge. Sela-Sheffy, R. (2005). How to be a (recognized) translator: Rethinking habitus, norms, and the field of translation. Target, 17:1, 1-26. Simeoni, D. (1998). The pivotal status of the translators habitus. Target, 10:1, 1-39. Thompson, H. L. (1996). Jungs function-attitudes explained (M. T. Hartzler, Foreword). Watkinsville, Ga.: Wormhole Pub. Toury, G. (1998). Hebrew tradition. In M. Baker (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (pp. 439-448). London & New York: Routledge.

39

WEB TEXTS IN TRANSLATOR TRAINING

Miguel A Jimnez University of Granada, Spain University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA

Abstract
Web localization has been included in the majority of translator training programs due to its exponential impact over the last years. It could even be argued that web localization has become imperative to translator training. However there are several important aspects that have not yet been fully researched such as text selection, the importance of different text types and genres, the textual differences between traditional printed texts and hypertexts or what can be considered a "text" in the World Wide Web. This latter aspect is particularly important as not all texts found on the WWW represent the new textual model that has developed in this new medium. This article analyses from a textual and genre perspective how to set the limits of the seemingly unlimited hypertexts that can be found on the Internet, as well as how to improve the selection of the appropriate "unitary" texts for translator training from the web. The importance of defining web texts is essential since a global text is the basis for global coherence, the most important standard of textuality in hypertexts. This paper argues the reasons why a clear textual model is needed in web localization training.

40

1. INTRODUCTION
During recent years, web localization has been introduced in most translator training programs as an answer to the exponential increase in this specific translation process around the world (Lockwood, 1999). Web localization started in the 90s by adapting and modelling software localization processes. Hence, it is considered a branch of the latter but with its own practices and procedures (Yunker, 2003). The complexity of the localization process usually translates into a poor presence in translation curricula, and sometimes it is just taught as a single technical translation course, with an emphasis on its technical aspects, which are considered to be more complex than the translation process itself (Pym, 2004). This emphasis on technical competence has meant that other important aspects in this area have not been fully researched; that is the case of text selection (Mayor Serrano, 2006; Reinke, 2005), the importance of its different text types and genres, the textual differences between traditional printed texts vs. hypertexts or what can be considered a "text" in the World Wide Web. This latter aspect is particularly significant as not all texts found in the WWW fall within the new textual model developed in this new medium (Storrer, 2002). Limiting web texts is the basis for global coherence, and helps set the most important standard of textuality in hypertexts (Fritz, 1999). Therefore, a clear textual model needs to be applied to any web localization course. The aim of this article is to analyse from a textual and genre perspective how to define the limits of the apparently unlimited hypertexts that are found on the Internet, as well as how

41 to improve the selection of appropriate delimited web texts for translator training.

2. FROM SOFTWARE LOCALIZATION TO WEB LOCALIZATION

Localization is generally defined as "the process of modifying products or services to account for differences in distinct markets" (Lommel, 2007, p. 11). This process involves working on linguistic, cultural and technical areas. Localization is not isolated but needs to be understood in the context of a wider process called GILT, or Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation (Esselink and Cadieux, 2004). Localization began in the 80s in the field of software localization, predominantly from English into other languages, and was confined to only very specific areas of the United States (Esselink, 2003). During the 90's, due to the exponential increase in the use of the World Wide Web as a basic communication platform, most corporations found that their Internet global presence was a requirement in order to compete in the international arena (Lommel, 2007). The Internet, to a certain extent, levelled to some extent the international playing field and the localization industry became more decentralized (Dunne, 2006). This led to the development of a new field, web localization, which grew parallel to software and hardware localization. In fact, web localization was developed by adapting and modelling processes already set in place by the software localization industry. It is therefore considered a branch of the latter, but with its

42 own characteristics (Yunker, 2003). The new developments in web localization are further differentiating this unique process, with an extensive use of Global Content Management systems and the move from static web pages to dynamically-created content. The economic importance of web localization is also steadily growing, and according to some reports it is already greater than software localization (Schler, 2005). It could be argued that nowadays web localization has become imperative to translator training (Aula.int, 2005; Foralon, 2006). Bert Esselink rightly points out that web localization is to some extent less complex than software localization (Esselink, 2003), and it could be considered a first step in the localization process. Web localization does require a basic understanding of technical aspects in Html and Xml programming or an advanced use of translation memory tools, but it can be accomplished without complex and expensive Localization Tools such as Alchemy Catalyst or Passolo. Other course proposals include web localization before software localization, as this involves more textual aspects than technical ones (Austermhl, 2006, p. 69). Thus, web localization is shown to act as a first stage in tackling more complex software localization processes within translator training contexts, despite the fact that website localization historically originated from software localization (Dunne, 2006). The localization industry usually separates localization, a complex and exciting process, from a nave conception of

43 general translation (Pym, 2004, 2003). For the localization industry, translation is just a language problem (Brooks, 2000) or "translation of words (Esselink, 2003, p. 7), and translation scholars have rightly indicated that the technical skill needed for localization is only a complementary competence for present and future translators (Quirion, 2003). Nevertheless, it should be argued that web localization is a necessary component of Translation Studies and that the inclusion of a technical stage does not separate Web localization from technical translation as a whole.

3 WEB TEXTS OR HYPERTEXTS

Prior to introducing web localization into Translation curricula, a clear theoretical model is required. As Foralon (2006) states, this discipline is still in the process of becoming well-established and some basic aspects have not been fully researched. Some of the essential questions that need to be addressed are: how to define the limits of a text on the Internet; what specific language or textual conventions have been established on each locale; and what are the main characteristics of each digital text type and digital genre. To begin with, web texts are hypertexts and therefore a review on hypertext literature is required. Since the 60s, when the concept of hypertext first appeared (Landow, 1992), the various definitions have not been homogenous. It has never been clearly indicated whether a hypertext is a web page or the different

44 components of a web page, such as a web banner, or complete websites (Janoschka, 2003). Ted Nelson, who is renowned for having coined this term (Landow, 1992, p. 4), defined hypertext as non sequential writing-text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen (Nelson, 1981, p. 2). The first clear characteristics of hypertexts were the lack of linearity, its interactivity and the fact that it was not printed, but instead was used on a computer screen. Landow rightly pointed out that hypertexts represent a different textual model, organized as an open network, not-linear, and without a clear start or finish (1992). Both the structure of hypertexts and the effect on reception and processing are essential aspects of Web localization. In fact, the structure of hypertexts and their interactivity are the basic characteristics that separate them from printed texts (Fritz 1999, p. 222). Some authors argue that hypertexts do not just lack linearity, but instead are mutlilinear; users do follow a path, but this path is selfselected only within the array of interaction possibilities envisioned by the web site developer (Fritz, 1999). The first implication of this interlinked nature in translation training would be that the inclusion of single pages in a course (Das Foues, 2004) would not suitably represent the textual nature of these texts. It is therefore necessary to include both a global hypertext, and a complete website, as well as all the textual elements inside a single web page, such as the textual elements marked by <alt>, <Meta>, <OnMouse> , or <Title> tags. This approach would offer students an insight into global coherent and cohesive global texts.

45 However, it is often impossible to visualize the complete hierarchical structure of a hypertext, as it is often openended. Nowadays, due to the use of Global Management Systems (LISA, 2006), it can also be dynamic and a stable text may not even exist at a specific point in time. Janoschka (2003) reviewed previous hypertext structure proposals and presented a new structure that includes website navigation features in the context of the WWW. The author indicates the importance of multilinearity from the user perspective,1 the open-endedness of hypertexts, the inclusion of independent textual elements in most hypertexts and the diminishing importance of homepages, due to the fact that any website can be reached from any web page in the website structure through deep linking (Nielsen and Loranger, 2006). Therefore, even when homepages are conceptually the entry to any website, hypertexts are decentralized structures that cannot be conceptualized in a fixed linear way. The translation process does not follow a predetermined path either, since it usually involves translating textual segments that are not usually organized by communicative principles, but rather by computer programming criteria.

All hypertexts are multilinear and the user chooses his/her own path through the textual structure of the hypertext (Janoschka, 2003). Fritz (1998) claimed the importance of this "self-selected path" in hypertext coherence.

46

3.1 Hypertext classification

One of the main tenets of university translation training is introducing a variety of small to medium texts in different fields, such as general, journalistic, legal, scientific etc. Any course introducing web localization, and therefore introducing hypertexts, needs to clearly define what comprises a unitary text in this medium. The hypertext classification presented by Storrer (2002) can be extremely useful in order to establish what types of web texts are optimal in a localization course. The author separates hypertexts into three categories depending on their length and limits: Firstly, E-texts are texts with a sequentially organized text document available on the WWW. These are usually copies of printed texts that are made available online, such as newspaper articles, a thesis, instruction books, etc. These are usually published in .pdf or .html format as the Internet is an economic and effective way of distributing information. These texts can be part of global hypertexts. These documents would not entail a special translation process since translating here is similar to translating any other printed text, and therefore does not represent a good example of the kind of language or document structure that usually appears on the Internet. Secondly, a Hypertext is a network of nodes and links that serves a distinct text function and addresses a comprehensive, global topic. These hypertexts are open, as the developer can add any other nodes at any time.

47 Hypertexts differ from E-texts due to the text being structured in modular hypertext nodes connected by hyperlinks. Users can access the different nodes through hyperlinks embedded in nodes or through navigation menus. Hypertexts would therefore be the optimal text type to use in a localization course. Finally, Storrer introduces the concept of Hyperweb, which "interrelates a larger set of hyperdocuments and e-documents via hyperlinks" (Storrer, 2002, p. 156). On a large scale, the WWW itself may be considered a single, world-spanning hyperweb. The author indicates that, on a smaller scale, a web genre such as a portal can be a hyperweb, since it includes a number of hypertexts under a single global network. As aforementioned, if this model is to be applied to web localization training, the basic study unit would be hypertexts as they represent the minimal unit of global coherence and cohesion. Single web pages or E-texts could be used in order to illustrate the technical challenges of web localization, although they do not represent the new textual model that has appeared on this new medium. Research into digital genres has shown that the first type of hypertexts to be considered as established genres are homepages, such as personal, corporate and institutional web sites (Kennedy and Shepherd, 2005). Furthermore, corporate websites have proven to show a more standardized language, style and structure, and therefore could be the best type of hypertext to work with (Askehave and Nielsen, 2005). Corporate websites are structured exclusively through internal hyperlinks, and

48 therefore can be used in order to illustrate how to recreate the structure of a hypertext in a localized version. External hyperlinks, those directed to different hypertexts or websites, are almost non existent given that in this case the user leaves the hypertext, and this is contrary to their main objective (Nielsen and Loranger, 2006). Another point to take into consideration is that the use of complete websites introduces translation students to a real world scenario, and allows them to undertake different roles. This is one of the main objectives of translation programs as students need to be introduced to translation projects similar to those faced in a professional setting (Muoz Martin, 2003).

4. HYPERTEXT CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR IMPLICATION IN WEB LOCALIZATION COURSES

Web texts represent a differentiated textual population that has been defined by its communicative context and medium. These texts demonstrate a novel document structure model and a different specific language (Crystal, 2001) defined by conciseness, clarity and briefness (McGovern et al, 2002). The following list includes some of the main features of hypertexts and criteria on how to successfully apply these to Web localization training: Hypertexts are read on an interactive screen, and this makes their reading them more difficult (Pym, 2004). Usability studies have shown that it

49 is usually 25% slower than reading printed text (Nielsen and Loranger, 2006). These studies also show that readers do not "read" hypertexts, but scan them instead (Nielsen, 2000). This is why the language of hypertexts needs to be clear, concise and unambiguous. The text also needs to be clearly organized and preferably bulleted or numbered. Some web style guides indicate that rewriting texts for the Internet requires reducing them by 50% or more (McGovern et al, 1999). Most languages may deal differently with conciseness and clarity and students should be specifically trained on producing short, clear versions of their target texts. Also Web texts do not allow much room for expansion or explicitation;2 hence translated texts tend to be between 20 and 30% longer in certain language pairs such as Spanish as compared to English. For this reason, students should be trained in working on brief target texts.3 Most web texts include multimedia components such as audio, graphics, icons and videos that need to be localized into the target language. All
2

Vinay and Dalbernet define explicitation as the process of introducing information into the target language which is present only implicitly in the source language, but which can be derived from the context or the situation (1995: 8). 3 Most corporate websites nowadays display a so-called liquid layout that adapts the website to the user predefined browser preferences. Websites are therefore less rigid than software in terms of space for textual expansion. Nevertheless, if we take into consideration usability principles, web texts should be as brief as possible. Depending on how deep users browse into the website, they will not scan but rather read the page (Janoschka, 2003).

50 these elements are part of our concept of web "text" and therefore need to be addressed during the localization process (Tercedor, 2005). The localization of these components entails working closely with development teams, since it requires technical knowledge in order to, for example, include a different web page or change a Flash navigation menu. Students should be acquainted with the process of localizing layered graphics both from a technical perspective and a textual one. These textual elements embedded in graphics and banners represent instances of operative4 text types on the Internet and are essential to the overall function of websites. As far as the recipient or audience of the texts is concerned, web texts are usually aimed at a wide target population that is usually difficult to map. Any user can potentially arrive at the localized website. Usability studies on corporate websites show that it is extremely difficult to find a "unique average user" (Krug, 2005). The locale also plays an important role in identifying the audience for a given website and should therefore be an operative concept in localization courses. In the case of Spanish in the US, the inexistence of a clearly defined "International or Neutral Spanish for localized websites, or es-US for that matter, presents real challenges that could be researched or analysed within the course.
4

This textual typology is from Reiss (1971-1979)

51 Web localization in the professional world is drifting towards the gradual disappearance of the unitary text. Texts are developed, localized and updated through GCM and the intensive use of Translation Memory programs is compelling translators to work with reduced textual segments, not necessarily with complete texts (Shreve, 2006; Biau and Pym, 2006; Bowker, 2006). This aspect has received some attention of late. Given that the conditions in the classroom should replicate those of a professional environment to a certain extent, students should be introduced to non-linear translation and the post-edition of these text types. As mentioned above, the translators and users reading processes in this case are different because users self-select a path in any hypertext, and rarely use all text (Pym, 2004). However, translators will deal with all textual elements regardless of the textual organization or format in which the text is received. Web text updates are more common than software updates and a lot more common than in the case of printed texts (Mata, 2005). Deadlines for updates also must be factored in (LISA, 2006, p. 4), such as those for localizing promotions that expire in a couple of days. The localization industry responded to this challenge through the development of Content Management Systems (LISA, 2006; Yunker, 2003; Brooks, 2000). These systems leverage all previous translations

52 and produce a file of new textual segments that are sent to the translator. This sentence-level translation without the necessary context is gradually becoming more common and reflects the increased importance of the QA process of localized websites (Cheng, 2000). Students should be acquainted with this process and with a critical model of Translation Memory reuse, because even 100% matches may require extensive editing in order to incorporate differing contexts, register, etc. (LISA, 2004, p. 25). Web texts can be adapted for the target culture or locale, and this could include content changes. This can be achieved by introducing localization proper aspects of Skopos theory (Reiss and Vermeer, 1984), as, in certain cases, content and function changes are needed for the target text to be effective in the receiving locale (Pym, 2004). As an example, "privacy policy" pages in websites need to be adapted to the legal requirements of receiving locales. In Spain, for example, there is a Data Protection Law from 1999 - Ley Orgnica de Proteccin de Datos 1999-, that rules this aspect, and therefore, a single company is not unilaterally allowed to establish its own "policy" in this regard.

53

5. WEB GENRES IN TEXT SELECTION: A CORPUS STUDY

Text selection in translator training programs has been studied in several areas, such as scientific translation (Mayor Serrano, 2006) and software localization (Reinke, 2005). Other scholars have also included the concept of text type selection or progression in their work (Austermhl, 2006). Nevertheless, for many years, the concepts of "genre" and "text type" have been confused and used indistinctively in linguistics and translation studies. Nowadays, these concepts are differentiated as follows: genres are conventionalized text forms according to external criteria, such as the textual function, sociocultural environment or communicative situation, while text types can be conventionalized but in their internal textual aspects. Text types are limited, while, in principle, genres are unlimited. As an example, the textual typology presented by Hatim and Mason 5 (1990) comprises only three main textual types: argumentation, exposition and instruction6. As for textual genres, the advent of the Internet has led to the development of a myriad of new genres, such as corporate websites, entertainment portals, blogs, FAQs or search engines. In fact, these genres are in constant evolution, and new genres emerge gradually
5

Their textual typology was based on the typology presented by Werlich (1977). 6 Each of these main text types are subdivided into seven more categories: Argumentation is divided into counter-argumentation and throughargumentation, exposition is divided into narration, description and conceptual exposition, and instruction is divided into instruction with an option and instruction without an option (Hatim and Mason, 1990: 193-195).

54 (Miller,1984), such as the recent appearance of videoblogs or wiki sites7. Web genres in this respect are a prime example of genre evolution. The first classifications of web genres included the evolution from printed text to hypertext as the main classifying principle (Shepherd and Watters, 1998), following with the development of novel genres on the Internet that did not exist on any previous medium, such as corporate web pages or blogs. Genre theory also includes the existence of subgenres; genres that differ slightly in their communicative purpose or in the strategies used to convey it from the primary genre (Swales, 1990). For example, corporate websites can include an online store, but if the selling component (persuasive function) is the main purpose of the website instead of the primary communication platform between the company and clients, this website would be a subgenre of the general corporate website genre. In the context of a wider research project focused on the web localization process, a corpus of Spanish corporate web pages was compiled. This genre was selected due to the fact that according to recent research it constitutes the most conventionalized web genre (Askehave and Nielsen, 2005). This monolingual Spanish corpus was compiled using the Google Business Directory of Spanish corporate web sites. The first entry of each subdirectory was selected only if it complied with a set of strict guidelines developed for this study (Jimnez, 2007). This procedure guaranteed that the compiled corpus would be representative of this particular textual
7

Wiki sites are those which users collaboratively edit such as Wikipedia

55 population. The resulting monolingual corpus included 174 full Spanish corporate web sites that included 27,000 web pages. In the previous stages of the compilation process, it was necessary to establish a clear theoretical framework in order to compile hypertexts representing one specific genre. The following graphic shows our proposal for a genre-based approach to text selection in web localization courses.

Figure 1. Web genres in translation training. (Jimnez, 2007) According to this approach, traditional corporate web pages would be the best selection for web localization training since they have a more conventionalized language, style and text structure than other genres (Kennedy and Shepherd, 2005). The second genre that could be included, following criteria of importance in the localization world, could be institutional websites. However, finding an appropriate representative website for translator training or research purposes can be a daunting task. Texts need to be representative of the

56 global textual population that is studied or researched. In our corpus, the average number of web pages per site in the corpus is 162, with an average of 355.5 words per page, and an average of 205.5 words per web page in its body. This indicates, among other things, the importance of other textual segments to be translated in web pages, as the average number of words to translate in the body of a website represents only 57.8 % of the total word count. One of the main difficulties in order to introduce corporate websites in a localization course is that some of the websites sampled during our preparation stage included up to 26.000 web pages in a single website. Small companies in any given locale can be excellent examples of the corporate webgenre, provided that they include the compulsory or basic communicative sections8 for this genre. A communicative section from a genre perspective could be defined as a recurrent textual block in a given genre that contributes to the overall communicative purpose of the text. In web genres these communicative sections can be identified with the different independent web pages represented in a navigation menu or web map (Askehave and Nilsen, 2005). Our own research into this genre's superstructure demonstrated that corporate web pages in Spain should have the following prototypical sections in order of importance: startpage, contact, products or services, information about the company and legal section (Jimnez, 2007, 2006). In this genre, all of these sections
8

Genre theory deals with sections, moves, or steps in order to account for the progression of compulsory or optional textual parts that make up any given genre.

57 have 60% or more degree of prototypicality, or in other words, are present in 60% or more of all websites compiled. Other sections that are present in this genre but are considered "optional" would be corporate news or interaction sections, such as games or FAQs.

6. CONCLUSIONS
Web localization has become essential to most comprehensive translation training programs, in part because the future of text production and translation is inexorably moving towards a hypertextual model of text production and storage. Furthermore, web localization is becoming one of the most profitable segments in the translation market, and the need for qualified web localizers will continue to increase. This translation process can be considered a first step towards the more complex world of software localization, since the technical competence required is not as advanced or complex (Esselink, 2003). Research carried out prior to this paper, as stated by Foralon (2006), showed that localization as a discipline needs the cooperation of translation scholars and the localization industry. Until this discipline is fully established, its teaching will need to gradually implement a clear model of the process, and this is precisely what this paper intends. Hypertexts have existed for 40 years and during this time a differentiated textual model has emerged; this needs to be reflected in any web localization course. Hypertexts are multilinear, interactive, open-ended and include many

58 different multimedia components. Each of these aspects has clear implications for educators and students. The present paper argues that the use of independent web pages as a single unit of study corresponds to an oldfashioned view of hypertexts. During the first years of the Internet, users would post single web pages that only represented a unit of storage and information (Nielsen and Loranger, 2006). Nevertheless, single pages can not be contextualized without their cohesive ties to a global website. Additionally, a web page may also represent an E-text, a printed text that may have simply been "posted" online. It has been proposed that entire websites or Hypertexts (Storrer, 2002) are the minimal textual unit in a localization course, while criteria for selecting an appropriate text based on webgenre was established. In our opinion, traditional corporate web sites are the most appropriate genre to be included in a localization course, followed by institutional websites. Finally, hypertext characteristics have clear implications in the teaching of web localization that have been explored, such as those concerning their visualization on screen, their multimedia elements, their constant updates or the gradual disappearance of the textual unit due to the introduction of translation memory systems. Leaving aside the debate between the localization industry and translation theory, web texts are essential to the future of translation, especially given that this importance will only continue to increase. This needs to be reflected in translation programs around the world. Web texts are immersed in a new interactive medium that entails technical challenges, but as the usability guru,

59 Jakob Nielsen stated: "Plain text is the foundation of most web information.(Nielsen and Tahir, 2002, p. 48). No matter how much attention is paid to the technical aspects of localization, words and texts will continue to be the carriers of the most information, and creating web texts that are received as originally produced in the target language (LISA, 2003) involves training an increasing number of translators that have a clear understanding of all perspectives and aspects of the localization process.

60

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69

ON THE CURRENT USAGE OF ICT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING CONFERENCE INTERPRETING

Diana Berber University of Turku, Finland bo Akademi University, Finland Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain

Abstract
It is common knowledge that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are becoming standard tools in practically all professions; translation and interpreting being no exception. This descriptive study is a brief introduction to the current state of affairs regarding the usage of ICT in conference interpreting educational settings. We are taking into consideration the two main objectives of the tools: 1) tools used as a means -- pedagogical tools, or 2) tools used as support -- without a pedagogical objective. Also, we shall discuss the phase of the interpreting process in which they are utilized. This includes before the conference, in the booth, and after the conference, as well as looking into the Efforts Model (Gile, 1995) to identify which efforts ICT may support. This study aims to provide trainers with concise, up-to-date information that may help them eventually in curriculum development and course design.

1. INTRODUCTION
Globalization and wars have highlighted the need to train, more quickly and better, an increased number of professional conference interpreters. As a result,

70 conference interpreter training institutions have gone from a handful to a burgeoning number in some regions of the world, and the number of formal conference interpreting trainees has also increased around the world. On the other hand, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are a reality of today. Usage has increased at an amazingly fast pace: in 1988 fewer than 100,000 people were Internet users, but by 2001 there were at least 700 million users (ILO, 2007). However, are they affecting profoundly the essence of the profession of conference interpreting, and even more, the didactics of it? This descriptive study intends to look at the current state of affairs regarding the usage of ICT in conference interpreting educational settings, to understand how training institutions are responding to the challenges posed to them by rapidly changing technologies. The aim of this descriptive study based on a worldwide survey is to provide up-to-date information in order to develop awareness of the importance of ICT in the conference interpreter training classroom. ICT are out of reach for some institutions because of economic or even political factors, but these are not the only obstacles. There are other aspects to be taken into account, such as the human factor, the attitude of trainers, students, and institutions, the availability of the ICT in certain languages and regions of the world. For this reason, in our survey we have tried to elicit this information not only by asking direct questions, but also by asking open questions where the subjects could give

71 their opinions about the results obtained by using ICT in interpreter training. The answers have been analyzed statistically and discussed in relation to the objectives of the tools and to the phase of the interpreting process that they are, or potentially could, be used.

2. BACKGROUND
Although new technologies in general seem to be hot topics in Translation Studies (TS), until fairly recently, few papers on conference interpreting looked into ICT, particularly in relation to teaching and learning. In the first years of the 21st century, most books written about new technologies were focused on translation, such as Austermhls (2001) Electronic Tools for Translators, where he explains in detail the software and other ICT translators use today. The same holds for Torres del Reys (2005) La interfaz de la traduccin. Formacin de traductores y nuevas tecnologas, where from a philosophical standpoint he takes a look at the limits and posibilities offered by new technologies in translator training. The main difference between these two works is that Austermhl (2001) suggests tasks and activities in his work, with a view toward making it usable as a textbook for translator training. One innovation in the sense that it deals with ICT in interpreting is the work edited by de Manuel Jerez

72 (2003a), which focused precisely on new technologies and interpreter training, where the role played by new technologies in both training and in the professional environment is analyzed. Jimnez Serrano (2003), in the same work, describes some of the ICT tools and discusses their benefits, while stressing the absolute need of cooperation between conference interpreter employers and training institutions, as well as pointing out the need for more research in relation to pedagogical tools for interpreting. Since we started to look into the field of ICT in conference interpreting in 2005, the subject has increased greatly in popularity among research topics in IT (Interpreting Studies). The reason for its growing popularity is simple: the availability of ICT has multiplied in all disciplines and there is a greater public awareness of the advantages, and yes, disadvantages also, they represent. To confirm our initial assumptions, we decided to examine The CIRIN Bulletin (Conference Interpreting Research Information Network), a semestral listing dedicated to covering research and publications in the sub-field of conference interpreting, providing the titles, and in some cases abstracts and brief comments, of articles, theses, dissertations, reviews, books, and monographs. When analyzing the last seven issues of The CIRIN Bulletin (edited by Gile, from 2003 to 2006, 27 to 33), out of a total of 541 titles we were able to identify only seven related both to conference interpreting and ICT.

73

Chiaro and Nocellas (2004) study on the perception of quality in interpreting by the interpreters themselves was innovative because it was entirely conducted over the web, using it as a tool for their research, but not looking at it as ICT for interpreting. Two works concentrate on the disadvantages of ICT: the doctoral dissertation of Braun (2004), which focused on the adverse communication conditions when interpreting in videoconferences, thus pointing out the negative aspects of ICT. Moser-Mercer (2005) in her article discussed how remote interpreting is one of the major factors determining poorer performance, mainly because of the early onset of fatigue. She thus addresses once again the negative aspects of ICT. Two articles written in Spain dealt with ICT and interpreter training: de Manuel Jerez (2003b) wrote an article on new technologies and how they are changing, or potentially can change, interpreter training. After a general analysis of the technological innovations both in local markets and in international organizations, making a clear differentiation of their needs, he proceeds to describe and discuss a few specific ICT: Interpretations / The Black Box, IRIS, and Marius. An important point on which he ponders in his section of future research is that the usefulness of pedagogical ICT (CAIT - Computer Assisted Interpreter Training) depends on how they are selected for what pedagogical objective in order to avoid the risk of becoming counterproductive. Blasco Mayor (2005), on the other hand, addressed the concern of

74 introducing ICT in the interpreter training classroom, looking at the challenges faced by both institutions and instructors. Mouzourakis (2005) starts from a question posed some time before regarding the access to information in the interpreters booths and elaborates on how it has developed in the last 10 years, including technical aspects such as videoconferencing and remote interpreting, and the effects of the use of these technologies on the interpreter. By stating that interpreter training will have to undergo fundamental changes in order to adapt to these technological innovations, he basically agrees with de Manuel Jerez and Blasco Mayor. Djoudis (2000) unpublished thesis is the only work that concentrates completely on the assessment of a particular tool: the machine interpreter Talk and Translate. This means that only 1.29 % of all the 541 titles included since 2003 in The CIRIN Bulletin - the most comprehensive listing of research in conference interpreting - are related to research on ICT in conference interpreting, whereas only 0.36 % of them (de Manuel Jerez 2003b and Blasco Mayor 2005) are related specifically to ICT for interpreting training. Of these only de Manuel Jerezs (2003b) article asks a question similar to ours: are new technologies (ICT) actually changing interpreter training? Looking further into other publications, we find that other IS (Interpreting Studies) scholars involved in the practice of the profession, such as Stoll (2002), Will

75 (2000), and Sandrelli (2003, and Sandrelli and de Manuel Jerez, 2007), have addressed explicitly the issue of new technologies in conference interpreting. Stoll has worked on the development of the tools themselves and their technical characteristics, concentrating his research on what is happening in the booth on the professional side. Will (2000) has written about the use of PCs in simultaneous interpreting, also in the booth, and also on the professional side. On the interpreter training side, Sandrelli (2003) has also written too about new technologies related to interpreting, concentrating on the development of tools and programs for interpreter training. Sandrelli and de Manuel Jerez (2007) discuss the different categories of CAIT tools which have been developed in the field which began to develop in the mid-1990s. They discuss integrative CAIT (digital speech banks), intelligent CAIT (programs to create various exercises which can make training closer to real-life situations), and Virtual Learning Environments (technology that simulates reality in the same way computer games do). There certainly is no lack of interest on the part of the professional associations, institutions, and organizations in research on ICT. The AIIC (Professional Conference Interpreters Worldwide, the only worldwide association for conference interpreters [AIIC 2007]) published on its website as early as 2000 a Code for the Use of New Technologies in Conference Interpretation (AIIC, 2000a) as well as Guidelines for Remote Conferencing

76 (AIIC, 2000b), whose regulations and recommendations we wish to describe in the following paragraphs. The regulations brought about by the Code for the Use of New Technologies in Conference Interpretation (AIIC, 2000a) emphasize active participation of the interpreters regarding the planning of meetings where new technologies are to be used to ensure that requirements are met. The working conditions required, which must comply with ISO 2603 and CEI standards, are: a direct view of the conference room or at least highdefinition picture synchronized with the sound, and the quality of the sound which must be guaranteed the full frequency range of 125 to 12500 Hz. In view of the constraints of videoconferencing, which include being deprived of the general non-verbal context, eye fatigue caused by screens, no daylight, and extra stress, among others, they recommend that interpreters should not have to work more than two hours a day. These regulations consider unacceptable the practice of tele-interpreting in cases when the participants in a meeting are assembled in one place and the interpreters in a different place to interpret only from monitors or screens. On the other hand, the Guidelines for Remote Conferencing (AIIC, 2000b), although referring to remote conferencing, begin by stressing as best practice that all interpreters be at the same location as the speakers. Their recommendations for remote conferencing highlight the need for a coordinating interpreter, who should participate in the preparation of the conference together with the video and sound

77 technicians, and with the conference organizers or officers. The working hours recommended are three hours per day. Regarding the equipment, they also recommend the same quality of sound with a full frequency range of 125 to 12500 Hz which complies with ISO 2603. As to the images, these guidelines give a more detailed technical description of the equipment than the Code for the Use of New Technologies in Conference Interpretation does, by specifying: visual display units of at least 40 cm diagonal to show the images of the speaker, the audience, and the chairman and conference officers. If the interpreters have not received copies of a speech, the speech should be displayed on the screens for them, as well as any other visual material that may be shown to the audience or that can help, such as the list of participants, the agenda, etc. There should also be permanent lines available to the coordinating interpreter, to the Chair, to the sound and to the video controls. The Code and the Guidelines of AIIC, in fact, complement each other, although there is a slight discrepancy regarding the number of working hours recommended; two in the former and three in the latter. As a side effect of the enlargement of the European Union, the DG SCIC, now DG Interpretation (the Directorate General for Interpretation of the European Parliament), which is in charge of providing conference interpreting services to most of the European institutions (DG Interpretation, 2007), has become one of the pioneering institutions in the research of, and experimentation with, ICT in interpreting. The DG

78 Interpretation has published a paper on the point of view of SCIC regarding new technologies (Esteban Causo, 2000), giving an objective appreciation of the new technologies, stating that their benefits will depend on their use, but also reporting the health problems that have emerged because of their use. Other documents by DG SCIC discuss the use and future of new technologies such as Mouzourakis (2000), as well as detailed reports directly related to ICT in the profession (DG SCIC, 2003a, b, c, d). Considering that the Internet is the communications technology that has had the fastest growth ever (ILO, 2007) and from all the above discussion, we can elicit that the gap demanding new research lies in the lack of a broad panorama of what ICT are being used as of today around the world specifically in conference interpreter training. We are taking into account not only CAIT, but all ICT, and how they are being used with a pedagogical or a non-pedagogical objective. A typology of the ICT used in conference interpreting will also help clarify their use and open new possibilities for research. Further, as can be seen from the description of the research done in the field, little has been discussed regarding the phase of the interpreting process where they are useful and the efforts that they can back up.

79

3. AN HISTORIAL OVERVIEW OF ICT IN INTERPRETER TRAINING

If we look chronologically at articles or books on interpreting training or teaching, we can clearly identify the moment new technologies appeared in the field. In the early 1950s, Herbert (1952, p. 87-88) suggested the use of radio, films, and recordings to practice and evaluate performance. In fact, records for learning languages were already being used at the Berlin University in 1919-20, and at the League of Nations they used telephone interpreting, among other methods, for training interpreters (Baigorri, 2007). However, in practice in many places such equipment was not available. Dobosz (Bowen, Bowen & Dobosz, 1990, p. 23-33) attests to this lack of equipment in her interview about her training to become a diplomatic interpreter for Polish authorities who were sent to Korea for negotiations in the post-war era, that is, around the same time Herbert wrote his work (Bowen, Bowen & Dobosz, 1990, p. 26-27). Although the first major changes in technology, in the form of remote interpreting, after simultaneous interpreting equipment was introduced, occurred during the 1970s (Baigorri in Codina, 2004, p. 3), these were not introduced in interpreter training (Baigorri, 2007). In the mid- and late 1970s, the first major remote interpreting tests were carried out by international organizations. For example, the Paris-Nairobi experiment known as Symphonie Satellite carried out by UNESCO in 1976,

80 and the New York-Buenos Aires experiment carried out by the United Nations in 1978. (Moser-Mercer, 2005, pp. 732-733, and Heynold, 1995, p. 12) After the first major remote interpreting tests in the 1970s and other minor trials in the 1980s, the next noteworthy series of experiments were conducted in 1993 by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute as a pilot study on ISDN video telephony. In 1995, the Studio Beaulieu experiment was carried out by the European Commission, followed in 1997 by the first controlled experiment in remote interpreting, which was launched by the International Communication Union and the cole de Traduction et dInterprtation in Geneva. The United Nations also held similar experiments in 1999 and 2001. (Moser-Mercer, 2005, p. 732-733, and Heynold, 1995, p. 17) Pchhacker (1999, p. 157) claims that by the time he wrote his article, the training of simultaneous conference interpreters had undergone major changes. To prove his point he mentions various papers that discuss the use of videotapes in interpreter training (among them Kurz, 1989, p. 213, who informs that in 1987 this practice was introduced in the University of Vienna) and he comments on the use of audiotapes (Pchhacker, 1999, pp. 159161). We see, however, that the most important changes occurred only in the form of collecting and presenting the material. Tape recorders now had audiotapes or audiocassettes which are less cumbersome than the older tapes. The most important innovation is that the television, instead of functioning only as a reception

81 device, could now be controlled by being recorded and replayed as necessary. In the 21st century, audiocassettes are slowly but steadily becoming digital speech banks, where radical innovations in interpreter training may appear.

4. MODELS FOR INTERPRETER TRAINING

Gile (1989, p. 27) asked nearly two decades ago if there would be a way to improve on the training of interpreters, especially by improving their level of competence in preparation for the labor market. To everyone involved in conference interpreter training, this is still, and will continue to be, a major concern. Answers to Giles question have come in several ways since he put it forward, for example, the POSI (practical orientation of studies in translation and interpreting) project (Mackenzie, 2000, p. 220) had the same purpose. As a theory that supports Giles concern by giving it a general framework, we shall refer first to constructivism, since it assumes that training of translators and interpreters should reflect real-life practice (Kiraly, 2000, p. 123). If we take as a point of departure the initial premise of constructivism, which states that learning[is the] process of becoming increasingly proficient at thinking, acting and communicating in ways that are shared by the particular knowledge communities of which we are striving to become members (Kiraly,

82 2000, p. 4), the use of ICT, which is a fact in the professional practice as Stoll (2002 and 2005), and Will (2000) among others can attest, would only be a natural inclusion in the training of conference interpreters. On the other hand, coping strategies are a very fundamental practical skill in interpreting (Gile, 1995, p. 191). Scott-Tennent et al. (2000, p. 108) define a translation [or interpreting] strategy as the means to produce translation [interpreting] solutions for a range of translation [interpreting] problems which may be anticipated either at the micro-or macro-levels. ICT can eventually help in providing such solutions, since the problems can be anticipated and the necessary strategies adopted (Neunzig, 2001, p. 49). To begin with, the Sequential Model of translation (Gile, 1995, p. 101-130) is a model that can help the conference interpreter trainer explain to the trainee the path followed by the professional conference interpreter from the source-language text to the target-language text, going first through the comprehension phase and then on to the reformulation. ICT could help link the Model to actual practice by teaching the trainee how to solve the problems that are inherent to the job: access to the necessary information and time to access it, learning about decision-making and risk-taking (Gile, 1995, 108109). This leads us finally to the Efforts Model in interpretation (Gile, 1995, p. 159-190), which views simultaneous interpretation as a set of three Efforts: the Listening and

83 Analysis Effort, the Production Effort, and the Memory Effort. We have included the Efforts Model as part of our typology because it addresses the efforts we have to support, or eventually support, with ICT.

5. A TYPOLOGY OF ICT FOR CONFERENCE INTERPRETERS

Technologies can help increase human capacities, and as Biau and Pym noted (2006, p. 6), there are certain aspects they can affect, the two that most interest conference interpreters are: 1) communication, and 2) memory. These two aspects are fundamental for our study, as they are the capacities essential for training interpreters.

5.1. Existing forms of conference interpreting

Traditionally, conference interpreting has been divided into consecutive (CI) and simultaneous (SI) interpreting. There are, however, three forms, or modes, of doing CI and SI, namely, telephone interpreting, videoconferencing, and remote interpreting. Telephone interpreting, which had been used in the 1920s for training interpreters (Baigorri, 2007), is not commonly used in conference interpreting nowadays. It is mostly related to community interpreting such as health care, and also for court interpreting, which can be simultaneous with the appropriate equipment (see e.g. Rauch, 2007 and Ghusa, 2007). Private companies also

84 offer telephone interpreting for business meetings (see e.g. Applied Language, 2007 and Certified Languages, 2007). With the major innovations in telephone technology that is bringing video, computer communications, etc., to mobile phones, the day they become standard equipment for conference interpreting does not seem to be far off. Regarding video-conferencing and remote interpreting, for the sake of clarity, we define the differences, as stated by European Parliament staff interpreter Panayotis Mouzourakis (Buck, 2000, p. 2):
Remote conferencing generally refers to any meeting where all of the participants are not physically present in one place but are linked via video and/or audio. In the specific context of interpreting, this implies that interpreters work in front of a screen without direct view of the meeting room or the speaker. This is different from video-conferencing where the interpreter is still physically present in the meeting room where most delegates are gathered, except for one or more participants who are attending remotely via a video link-up.

This differentiation between remote and video conferencing is interesting since, as stated in the Code and the Guidelines of the AIIC (2000a and 2000b), remote conferencing was considered unacceptable and it was recommended that interpreters be located in the same room as the delegates not very long ago. Within video-conferencing and occasionally within remote conferencing, new varieties of working methods are being introduced, which eventually may also become training tools. Some of these would be interactive virtual

85 conferences, multilingual on-demand streaming, multilingual on-line Internet chat and web streaming or webcasting (DG SCIC, 2003a, b, c, d).

5.2. An effort to classify ICT tools available for conference interpreting

Given that conference interpreting is a communicative activity par excellence, it would presumably rely mostly on communications technology, but we have to start with the definition of each term in order to understand their relationship to the objectives and aims pursued, and the needs to be fulfilled, as ICT refers to the merging of computers and communications (ILO, 2007). Torres del Rey (2005, p. 5) observed that technological definitions are, per se, indefinitions, and to a certain extent we agree with him. However, fundamentally, two general types of technologies have been clearly differentiated based on the term ICT: Information Technology: computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware, which are generally connected to a computer but can also be stand-alone; that is, programs and electronic tools for terminology and knowledge management and development, such as training tools (CAIT), elearning platforms, terminology databases, DIY (do-it-yourself) corpora, pocket electronic dictionaries, video-conferencing and remote

86 interpreting equipment, mobile phones, voicerecognition programs, etc., and Communications Technology: technology and equipment related to the transfer of messages and information; represented basically by, but not limited to, Internet resources, such as search engines, parallel texts, on-line dictionaries, online encyclopedias, on-line terminology databases and corpora, e-mail, etc. (Torres del Rey, 2005, p. 110, and ITD, 2007).

Enrquez and Austermhl (2003, p. 227) developed a typology for translation and localization technology, with an approach that reflects the needs that arise during the different phases of the translation process. While taking as a basis Enrquez and Austermhls typology, we shall develop our own typology, taking into account the following: the above differentiation between information and communications technologies, the aims of the ICT tools (as a means or as support).

In order to reflect the two major objectives ICT have in conference interpreting, in Table 1, we have two major divisions: ICT for Training and ICT for the Practice of the Profession.

87 Table 1: A typology of ICT used in conference interpreting Information Technology

(Pedagogical use - Means) Tools to practice and develop skills (CAIT, such as Black Box, among others) (Non-pedagogical use Support) Tools they will use in professional conference interpreting: - Commercial CD-ROMS: dictionaries, encyclopedias, terminology data bases - Electronic norms manuals - DIY (do-it-yourself) corpora - Programs (such as voicerecognition programs or specific commercial brands for specific purposes)

ICT for Training

Communication Technology

(Pedagogical use - Means) Tools to deliver distance teaching, such as virtual learning platforms, Internet, email (Non-pedagogical use Support) Tools they will use in professional conference interpreting: - Internet: parallel texts, online dictionaries, encyclopedias, terminology databases, e-mail

88

Information Technology

ICT for the Practice of the Profession

(Non-pedagogical use Support) - Commercial CD-ROMS: dictionaries, encyclopedias, terminology data bases - Electronic norms manuals - DIY (do-it-yourself) corpora - Programs (such as voicerecognition programs or specific commercial brands for specific purposes) - Video conferencing (via LANs for example) - Remote interpreting - Telephone interpreting

Communication Technology

(Non-pedagogical use Support) Internet: parallel texts, on-line dictionaries, encyclopedias, terminology databases, e-mail - Video conferencing (Internet) Remote interpreting (Internet)

In Table 1 we can appreciate that ICT tools in the training setting have two major aims: the ICT which are meant for the actual practice of the professional interpreter as support for their work -, and the ICT used for pedagogy, which will have an impact on our way of teaching as well as provide new opportunities to interact with students (Gambier, 2003, p. 58). We find that Information Technology tools when used for pedagogy

89 have a didactic objective. These are known as CAIT (Computer Assisted Interpreter Training), and have become a field within Interpreting Studies (Sandrelli and de Manuel Jerez, 2007, p. 269). As examples of training programs and equipment mentioned in previous research, we can list: Black Box program, Interpr-It program, IRIS database, Interpretations program, all mentioned by Sandrelli (2003 and 2005), DigiLab (Stoll, 2002, p. 5), a voicemail program called PureVoice from QualComm (Pym et al., 2003, p. 91), and Tandberg Educational equipment, including Divace sound files (Blasco Mayor, 2005, pp. 2,6). There are also training resources for distance mode teaching and e-learning of interpreting, such as teleconferencing by telephone and videoconferencing through Local Area Networks (LANs) or via the Internet (Ko, 2006, p. 82), or virtual learning platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, Optima, etc., which help in the course management and support. More recently a specific study of technology-assisted consecutive interpreting of digital voice recording has been tested with positive results (Hamidi and Pchhacker, 2007, p. 276). The ICT used as support do not have a pedagogical objective, but are used in practice in the profession for terminology and knowledge management and development such as terminology databases, DIY corpora, voice-recognition programs, plus concrete commercial brands such as LookUp Professional, and it is reported that interpreters also use translation-related terminology systems such as Trados Multiterm (Stoll,

90 2002, p. 3). In Germany the de facto standard in the booth is LookUp Professional, with around 180 licenses altogether, although some CIs are using Word tables, among others (Stoll 2005). Possibilities for use in the booth can be easily identified: interpreters tend to use clichs and formulas in their speech, not just idioms but also more subtle ways of producing everyday expressions (Garca-Landa, 1999, p. 103), and these could be eventually recorded in the same way as specific terminology is registered. 1 As to the different stages of the interpreting process where they can be applied (pre-interpreting tasks, in the booth, and post-interpreting research), ICT are used mainly, but not exclusively, for pre- and post-interpreting research. Internet resources such as parallel texts, e-mail, on-line dictionaries, terminology databases and encyclopedias (several of which can be used simultaneously in a parallel search with systems such as the PC-library of Langenscheidt [Stoll, 2002, p. 4]), as well as CD-Rom dictionaries, encyclopedias, and terminology databases, are all widely used in preparing for interpreting, for pre-interpreting research, and also, to a lesser extent, for post-interpreting research. More and more professional conference interpreters, however, are using PCs and other ICT in the booth for consultation. The capacities that are represented in the Efforts Model (Gile, 1995, p. 162-169) are: 1) listening and analysis, 2)
1

Further information on the ICT mentioned in this article, including data of manufacturers whenever possible, is provided in the appendix after the references.

91 production, and 3) memory, plus the coordination of the three. Both Information and Communication Technologies, that is, software and hardware, and electronic communication, in general serve amply to support efforts 1 and 3. Aimed at effort 2, production, we can identify information technology in the form of interpreter training tools (CAIT), where the student can listen to him/herself repeatedly for self-evaluation and improvement of production skills. For the coordination of the three efforts, a combination of ICT including CAIT tools needs to be applied.

6. ICT IN THE CURRICULA REACHING OUT TO THE FUTURE?

For this study, we have contacted institutions representing not only the traditionally famous, such as Geneva (the first international school of Translation and Interpreting, founded in 1941 [Baigorri in Codina, 2004, p. 2]), Paris, Heidelberg, Saarbrcken, London, Moscow, but extending our survey to as many institutions in all regions of the world as we could find information on. We use descriptive statistics to explain the current state of affairs.

6.1. Methodology
In all, we sent out questionnaires to 177 institutions on all five continents. Only two of the 177 institutions contacted replied saying they did not have CI at all, while

92 22 (i.e. 12%) of our questionnaires were rejected automatically because of incorrect addresses or mailboxes being over quota. The regional distribution and percentages of institutions and of replies are reflected in Table 2.

Table 2. Institutions contacted and replies received

Region Africa Northern Africa SubSaharan Africa Americas North America Latin America and the Caribbean Asia Middle East Central Asia Far East Europe Nordic countries Central Europe Southern
Number of Institutions contacted Percentage of all Institutions contacted Number of answers received Percentage of answers received from that region Percentage in relation to all the answers received

8 3 5

4% 1% 3%

1 1 0

100 % 100 % -

4% 4% -

23 14 9

13 % 8% 5%

2 0 2

100 % 100 %

8% 8%

32 9 4 19 104 6 51 47

18 % 5% 2% 11 % 59 % 3% 29 % 27 %

6 3 1 2 17 3 10 4

100 % 50 % 17 % 33 % 100 % 18 % 59 % 23 %

23 % 11 % 4% 8% 65 % 12 % 38 % 15 %

93
Europe Oceania TOTAL

10 177

6% 100 %

0 26

n/a

100 %

The 26 replies received represent 15 % of the total number of questionnaires sent out. Although it is a low percentage, it still represents four of the five regions of the world where the questionnaires were sent.

6.2.Teaching and learning conference interpreting

The replies to our questionnaires, although brief in most cases, give valuable insight into the current state of affairs in practicing institutions. Traditionally, conference interpreter training is more often taught at the graduate level (after the first four or five years of university, after the first degree), in 57 % of the cases. More and more institutions are open to starting the training of conference interpreters at the undergraduate level. ICT can be either included as a specific subject in the curriculum (48 %), or not (44%). In one case, however, the subject ICT is not specifically for interpreters. Also, in 6 instances (30 %) it is mentioned that ICT are included as part of other subjects, that is, as part of the hidden curriculum using Sawyers term (Weller, 2006, p. 245). Whether there is a specific course on ICT

94 in the curriculum or not, there are certain limitations that need to be taken into consideration. Lack of interest on the part of the teachers (21 % of the answers) is surprisingly high, although it is noted that everybody uses ICT to a certain extent. On the part of the students, however, only in one case was lack of interest mentioned, with the same note that they all use ICT to a certain extent. Lack of funds, on the other hand, is an issue in some areas (13 %), where it can lead to limited, or even very limited, computer resources. In order to overcome this difficulty, institutions inform the students about the different kinds and applications of ICT and the students are encouraged and even asked to use them to the extent possible. Other limitations can be institutional or even bound to state rules, as in the case where the curriculum cannot be altered by the institution itself because it dependent upon the Ministry of Education. The limitations can also be language-based: when the assortment of languages available in the programs does not include a language that is pivotal for the courses. The names and objectives of the subjects related to ICT vary greatly, ranging from many that are more translatorcentered such as Computer-aided Translation, Machine Translation, Translating, Documentacin aplicada a la traduccin [Documentation applied to translation], Informacin aplicada la traduccin [Information applied

95 to translation], Traduccin e Internet [Translation and Internet]; to those that are meant for both translation and interpreting or which do not mention being only for interpreters such as Information Technology for Translators and Interpreters, New Information technologies, Technologisch-pragmatische Kompetenzen [Technological pragmatic competences], Strategien medialer Kommunikation [Strategies for mediated communication], Sprachdatenverarbeitung [Language processing]; and finally those meant specifically for interpreters such as Audiovisual interpreting, Technology and ICT Research Techniques for Conference Interpreters, Research on interpreting.2 It is important to note that no single technology mentioned in our questionnaire was taught by all institutions. The most popular technology was Internet on-line dictionaries, in 65 % of cases. On the whole, Internet on-line resources were taught more often: parallel texts (48 %), on-line encyclopedias (57 %), terminology data bases (61 %), and other Internet tools such as interpreting e-learning platforms (22 %). Students are taught or receive information about DIY (do-it-yourself) corpora in only 30 % of cases. CD-Rom resources are taught considerably less than Internet resources of the same kind: CD-Rom dictionaries (44 %), CD-Rom encyclopedias and CD-Rom terminology data bases both had 30 %. Regarding video-conferencing, it is dealt with, whether practically or theoretically, in 44 % of the institutions, while remote interpreting receives much less attention in either way at 26 %. Telephone
2

The translations of the subjects from German and from Spanish are ours.

96 interpreting is dealt with in a few cases (17 %), which came as a surprise since it is not being used very often in conference interpreting nowadays. It may be a way of reaching out to the future, since there are so many developments and innovations in telephone technology. CAIT tools, which could constitute a major aid to conference interpreter training and are often discussed in conferences and seminars, are only used in 30 % of the institutions consulted. Surprisingly, distance learning with the aid of ICT (as a means of delivering instruction, it gives the ICT a pedagogical objective) receives the same attention as telephone interpreting (17 %), a low figure that confirms Gambiers (2003, p. 59) observation that distance-learning and on-line translator training are still largely ignored in our field, although the number of initiatives is growing.

6.3. Results in relation to the ICT used

In relation to the type and brand of technologies available in the institutions for self-training and for teaching, we received a low input: only 57 % of the respondents replied to the self-training question and 52 % to the teaching question. The types of ICT which are being used for self-training are mainly traditional: booths, language lab, digital recordings, video and audio recordings, Internet, PCs and computers; but also innovative ones such as e-learning platforms. The specific brands of equipment or software mentioned are: X-Class, Melissi, Black Box, Sanako, DIALANG language tests, DEYA lab, Trados, Audacity, BNC Online, Brhler, Elice. This list is

97 interesting because it does not coincide with the brands mentioned in previous research (see chapter 5.2) except in two cases Black Box and Trados, a phenomenon that deserves to be studied on its own. Although only 39 % of the answers included comments on the results obtained with the ICT used, they were all very positive. Institutions and trainers seemed to be most satisfied with the improvement in the performance of the students in a fairly short period of time. Another important point is that the skills of conference interpreters cannot be limited to the conference room anymore. Other opportunities constantly arise, which involve new types of ICT. A prime example of this would be Live subtitling, known as Re-Speaking or speech-to-text, which is interpreting done by a human interpreter in short phrases which are suitable to be converted into subtitling directly. Given the fact that there was no unanimous consensus as to a single ICT taught or used by all institutions, we would not want to provide guidelines on specifically which technology to choose for interpreter training, nor how to deliver training with a specific technology. It is therefore our intention, in this descriptive study, to provide objective information about the present use of ICT in conference interpreter training around the world, and to raise awareness of the existence of a range of possibilities for use of ICT in conference interpreter training.

98

7. CONCLUSIONS
Not very long ago, ICT for conference interpreting was regarded as a dream, and even today it are considered, to some extent, artificial (Clare Donovan in Berber, 2006, p. 265). However, we cannot ignore it in training anymore, whether as support or as a means. Gouadec (2002, p. 343) found in his analysis of requirements for translation trainees (which could be extended to interpreting trainees) that in 87 % of the cases he surveyed, the market required mastering of technologies.3 This alone justifies the introduction of ICT not only as part of interpreter training, but as a crucial element of it in fact. It is important to consider ICT training not only for future interpreters, but also to update those conference interpreters who are already in the market but when they did their own training with no ICT available, meaning they have had to train on their own. A practice-oriented course for them taking into account their expertise would most likely be a very welcome one. ICT can help also students with impairments: we believe ICT can be particularly useful, for example, in the case of teaching conference interpreting for the sight-impaired (Palazzi, 2003 and Kellett Bidoli, 2003) or with other disabilities (Guenaga et al., 2007).

His survey was carried out in the French market.

99 On the basis of the results obtained through this survey, we cannot identify a single ICT to be included in the curriculum, nor can we recommend including a subject focused on ICT in interpreting, because there is no general consensus. However, seeing what other institutions in the different regions of the world are doing might be very useful when planning a curriculum. Just as teaching alone cannot ensure that a student will learn, learning alone does not constitute full preparedness for the profession. What needs to be done is to ensure the acquisition of skills by the trainees, and to develop their interest and curiosity to experiment with new developments in the field, in order to achieve more comprehensive competence.

100

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111

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112 (Arbeitsberichte des Advanced Translation Research Center (ATRC) an der Universitt des Saarlandes 1/2000)

113 Appendix This appendix provides a brief description of the various ICT mentioned in this article. Whenever possible, we are including the URLs of the manufacturers, producers, or managers for further information. In cases where no description or information was provided or found, only the name of the ICT and the country where it is reported as being used is provided. Audacity Software for editing and recording audio, which is free. Among its uses are live audio recording, converting tapes and records into digital recordings, cutting, copying and mixing sounds, changing the speed of a recording, removing background noises. (Audacity 2007). http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Black Box CAIT tool. An interpreter training module, developed a as a stand-alone program, with functions to create simultaneous, consecutive and liaison interpreting exercises (Sandrelli 2005, p. 9). www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2005_Pro ceedings/2005_Sandrelli_Annalisa.pdf BNC Online BNC connectors are interconnecting devices for radio telecommunications, computer, Precision Video, etc. (Bomar Interconnect, 2007). http://www.bomarinterconnect.com/bncproducts. htm.

114 Brhler Conference and meeting technology, such as sound and picture transmission systems (cameras, monitors, microphones, etc.). (Brhler 2007). http://www.braehler.com/. DEYA lab France. DIALANG language tests These are self-assessment tests of reading, writing, listening, grammar, and vocabulary in 14 languages (Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish). It allows the user to find what level he is at and where his strengths and weaknesses are. Feedback is provided, as well as advice, to improve the users own skills. It is based on the Council of Europes Common European Framework of Reference. (Dialang 2007). http://www.dialang.org/english/index.htm DigiLab An audio post-production facility, which offers dubbing, voiceover, etc., for the film, television, and multimedia industry, as well as universities. Based in Switzerland, it works in 20 languages (English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, and Swahili). (Digilab 2007) http://www.digilab.ch/english/services.html. Divace sound files Software for digital interactive audio video recording. It is a dual-track player and

115 recorder for interacting with multimedia material in various formats: one track for source material and another for recording the students input. (Divace 2007a and 2007b) http://divace.sanako.com/~userforum/tutorials/diva ceintro.html and http://divace.sanako.com/~userforum/tutorials/diva ce02.html. Elice. Elice (Enhanced Language Instruction Centre) is software for a digital system for audio-based exercises in the language lab. (Elice 2007) http://www.spe.com.my/language_labs/elice.htm. Interpretations Software developed between 1999 and 2002, as a result of the need for a multimedia environment in which training materials could be created for any language combination on the basis of the resources available to teachers. It was a prototype which was developed to verify whether CAIT was both viable and desirable. The users targeted were beginners in simultaneous interpreting who had already received training in consecutive interpreting. (Sandrelli 2005, p. 6) Interpr-It A package for teaching of liaison interpreting Italian-English, developed around 1995 by the Tell Consortium. It eventually was extended to other languages and became the basis for Interpretations. (Sandrelli 2005, p. 6).

116 IRIS database IRIS (The Interpreters Research Information System) software/hardware is a multimedia database for interpreter and translator training, through which written and oral texts on a wide range of subjects can be available, as well as context and background information on a given text. It also includes the possibility of recording and storing translations, glossaries, feedback, and glossaries. (Carabelli, 2003, p. 113)

Local Area Network (LAN) This means the language teachers computer is connected to the students computers. This makes it possible to create and distribute language-learning materials to students very fast. ,(Sandrelli, 2005, p. 8) LookUp Professional A terminology research and management tool conceived to be used during simultaneous interpreting, that is, in the booth. It supports up to five working languages. After selecting the A, B and C languages of the interpreter, projects and subjects are created to group words. When a term is entered, it is automatically assigned to the subject previously selected. To be used in the booth, you can click to display the terms of a subject, of a sub-subject, or a particular conference, or even only the terms for a session within a conference. To search for a term instantly, you enter part of a term, only three to four letters, and all words containing the search string are displayed. It is a tool that can be used also by translators, but its strong point is its

117 potential use in the interpreters booth. Retrieved July, 2005, from www.lookup-online.de. Marius A database developed in 2001 at the University of Granada in Spain, which collects material based on the seven types of communicative situations or hypertexts or conference typology differentiated by Franz Pchhacker (1995, p. 36): assembly of an international organization, scientific and/or technical congress, seminar, work/negotiations session, thematic forum, press conference, and special guest conference. Marius includes an eighth classification: solemn acts. All the material is divided then according to the duration of the speeches, number of words, words per minute, as well as the mode of presentation, the accent of the speaker, level of specialization, etc. This classification allows finding the level of difficulty of the text. (de Manuel Jerez, 2003b, p. 7-10) Melissi The Melissi Digital Classroom is software for multimedia teaching, developed as a language lab featuring audio, video, pictures, text, and instructions, access to the Internet, telephones, MP3, subtitling, etc. (Melissi, 2007) http://www.melissi.co.uk/overview.htm.

118

PC-library of Langenscheidt Electronic specialized dictionaries in German, English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Italian, intended for translators and professionals, which include various quick search options, pop-up function, and online updates. The subjects on which they have specialized dictionaries include mechanical engineering, plant manufacturing, architecture, building and civil engineering, biology, chemistry, medicine, technology and applied sciences, electrical engineering, electronics, business, commerce, finance, law, microelectronics and telecommunications. (Langenscheidt, 2007) http://www.langenscheidt.de/katalog/reihe_lange nscheidt_e-fachwoerterbuecher_475_996.html. PureVoice A voice recognition software a voicemail program - for use in wireless handsets, developed by QualComm. (QualComm, 2000) http://www.qualcomm.com/press/releases/2000/p ress266.html. Sanako Sanako is a Finnish company that produces language learning, multimedia learning, classroom management, and virtual classroom systems, accessories, and services, and sells them in various parts of the world. Among its products is a simultaneous interpretation training system, Sanako Lab 100 STS, which records the students output, as well as allowing the use of other sources for interpretation, such as CDs, cassette

119 recorders, MSU files, etc., integrating digital recording capabilities into interpreter training. (Sanako, 2007) http://www.sanako.com/?Deptid=1103 Tandberg Educational Tandberg is a company based in Norway and the United States which produces visual communication equipment, which includes videoconferencing and web conferencing systems. (Tandberg, 2007a and 2007b) http://www.tandberg.com/our_story/technology.js p and http://www.tandberg.com/products/webconferenc ing.jsp. Trados and Trados Multiterm Translation-related terminology systems. Trados is a translation memory tool. Trados Multiterm is one of the various modules which compose Trados. It is a dictionary or terminology solution where you can input a term with its translation into several languages, as well as the definitions. Another one of the modules that make up Trados is Trados WorkBench or TWB, which handles the translation memory, analyzing documents and segmenting them. They both work with Word, installing a Word template. (Trados, 2007) http://www.translationzone.com/en/products/sdltr ados2007.

120 Word tables A feature of Word that allows to create tables, using true rows and columns, as opposed to simply containing tabular text. It enables the user to add, delete, or amend data and categories that have been classified, without altering the text in a column of the table, for example. (Microsoft Word MVP, 2007) http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/TableB asicsContent.htm. X-Class Machine translation software which can translate html, pdf, and text documents, as well as Microsoft Office documents such as MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The number of words that can be submitted to the Customizer tool is 2 million words. It works in 19 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Polish, Arabic, Persian, Somali, Chinese, Korean, Hindi. (Language Weaver, 2006) http://www.languageweaver.com/Page.asp?LSM= &intNodeID=856&intPageID=995.

121

AN EXAMPLE OF A COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION PROJECT INCORPORATING MEDIATION INSTRUMENTS AS A MEANS OF ENCOURAGING SELFREGULATION
Francesc Fernndez Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Abstract
This paper presents an example of a collaborative translation project in a semi-face-to-face format undertaken within a general translation course framework (German-Spanish) with first year students responsible for completing an actual translation for publication in groups, with the assistance of an outside expert. Within this assignment, they collaboratively performed a set of tasks comprising not only translation tasks proper, with each source text being actually translated by one group and revised by another, but also pretranslation and post-translation tasks. The latter included completing a metacognitive guide. Their answers to its questions, along with the comments made on the translation drafts and translation notes to the final version, served as mediation instruments aimed at explicitily encouraging student self-regulation. The qualitative analysis of the data emerging from these instruments points to self-regulatory actions that move from evaluating and reassessing the translation to proposing translation strategies, thus characteristically confirming an incipient gain of control over the learning process after an initial self-awareness phase.

122

1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of this paper is to show how collaborative translation projects incorporating mediation instruments with a metacognitive component encourage selfregulation in first-year translation students by leading them to reflect on the learning process. Additionally, this research is intended as a contribution to the study of selfregulation processes in translation, a field where much empirical work remains to be done.1 Conceptually, Vigotskys socio-constructivism as applied to translation learning and the area of autonomy in learning in its relationship with self-regulation processes are the main theoretical references for this research. Methodologically, the collaborative translation project illustrated in this paper is the result of an action research carried out in the general translation classroom in qualitative terms and from an ethnographic standpoint.

According to Arum and Caada (2005, p. 229) this is also the case in other related disciplines such as consecutive interpreting and FL teaching. As for the latter, worth mentioning is the Spain-based DEICOMECU research project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (HUM2004-01923/FILO) and aimed at designing and studying the incidence of instruments for developing the strategic competence, and therefore students self-regulation in FL teaching at undergraduate level in Spain.

123 2. CONCEPTUAL REFERENCES

2.1 Socio-contructivism as applied to translation

learning According to Vigotskys (1978) socio-constructivist approach, learning is a social process of co-construction of knowledge mediated by language. This process results from the interaction taking place in the context of the classroom, understood as a community of apprentices whose activities are coordinated by the teacher. It is in this context that the learner, passing from the external to the internal, inductively acquires appropriate knowledge, using the teachers scaffolding, i.e. the help which will enable a learner to accomplish a task which he would not have been quite able to manage on his own. (Kiraly, 2000, p. 46). As applied to translation, understood as an interdisciplinary process of linguistic mediation to which constant decision-making is inherent (Gonzlez Davies, 2005, p. 68), the socio-constructivist approach is aimed at getting students to discover knowledge for themselves in a learner-centred environment by collaboratively participating in the authentic activities of professional translators (Kiraly, 2003, p. 28). Projects related to actual translation assignments based on teamwork and involving both professional translators and professionals from different fields of specialisation would follow these guidelines. Such collectively scaffolded projects, with the teacher acting as a facilitator, are therefore bound to

124 promote a negotiated, experiential learning progressively leading novice translators to gain expertise, making them increasingly autonomous at the same time.

2.2 Autonomy in learning and self-regulation

Drawing on Littles (1997) views on language learning, Arum and Caada (2006, p. 223) note that autonomy does not primarily refer to the way learning is organised (i.e. whether the learner works physically independent from the teacher) but to a persons capacity for taking [...] control of the cognitive processes related to the effective self-regulation of learning. Consequently, self-regulation can be understood as the maximum level of autonomy in learning (Esteve and Arum, 2006, p. 161) involving not only metacognitive processes relative to the knowledge about knowledge but also motivational and social-emotional processes (Veenman et al., 2006, p. 3-4) According to this social-cognitive perspective, the necessary transition from hetero-regulation to selfregulation, i.e. [] from a stage in which any kind of assistance was useless, to a stage in which external forms of mediation would improve task performance, to a final stage in which external mediation has been internalized (Lantolf, 2000, p. 81) must be socially mediated. This can be attained by resorting to instruments that enable the teacher to gradually transfer the control and consciousness of educational activities to the students and that must be fully incorporated into the sequence of

125 tasks (Arum and Caada, 2005, p. 226) to allow for reflective learning. Learning diaries and metacognitive guides are two such mediation instruments. Keeping a learning diary has been used as an introspective technique over the last few years in order to explore various aspects of language teaching and learning (Esteve and Arum 2006, p. 164). As for metacognitive guides, they include a series of more or less open questions related to the skills and abilities being developed (ibid.) that the students are asked to answer and comment on in writing. By doing so, they retrospectively go over the process they have followed in carrying out the task set (2006, p. 164) thus making it explicit and being able to reflect on it.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT 3.1 Research paradigm

The collaborative translation project deals with results from action research aimed at improving instruction. It features pedagogic actions meant to encourage selfregulation processes. As stated, this research has been conducted qualitatively and following an ethnographic approach based on classroom observation. Accordingly, the research, focused on a single group of students, attempts to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to

126 them (Denziln and Lincoln, 1994, p. 2) and does so in the descriptive language they themselves use (Watson and Gegeo, 1998, p. 582), in order to achieve a better understanding of the causes of these phenomena.

3.2 Setting of the project

The project considered was one of the four collaborative translation projects that were conducted simultaneously in a general translation beginners class at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona during the academic year 2005-2006. These projects were conceived of as a set of three types of tasks that are discussed in detail in section 3.5. Furthermore, each was based on different assignments and assessed by an outside expert closely related to the teacher, either a former pupil working now as a translator, a fellow teacher or a relative. The projects were carried out by the eleven students, grouped into four dyads or triads working interdependently.2 Each group was responsible for collaboratively translating text and for proofreading and commenting on the draft of another group. The students attended the second part of a German Translation Methodology course which is taught for ten weeks in the second term of the first academic year and consisted of four one hour sessions per week. These sessions were equally divided between face-to-face teaching sessions and distance teaching sessions, with the presentational
2

Hereinafter groups, for the sake of simplicity.

127 sessions held in the computer lab in a workshop format and the distance teaching sessions being devoted to autonomous work outside the classroom. This mixed format of the projects, drawing on E-learning pedagogy, was meant to blend face-to-face interactive sessions and online sequences (cf. Massey, 2005, p. 631). The latter developed not only between each group, the teacher and its respective outside expert but also among the groups themselves

3.3 The project chosen

The group chosen for exemplary description has been selected by the criteria established by Esteve, Arum and Martn-Peris (2006, p. 163) in order to objectively select subjects for qualitative empirical research, i.e. regular attendance, interest in the subject, active participation and an average profile in terms of learning progress and difficulties. These four criteria apply to the members of the team chosen, whose selection was also encouraged by the excellent group dynamics among them. Accordingly, they chose to humorously call themselves Mansania (an acronym echoing their first names) from the beginning of the project.3 This reflected their high level of motivation, which, as an affective factor, is bound to

Manzanilla (the Spanish word for camomile) and Mansania (the acronym of the group) are pronounced in a fairly similar way.

128 promote higher translation quality, as noted by Kelly (2005, p. 16). The selection of Mansanias4 project was also favoured by the characteristics of its outside expert, Mr. Csar Llorent,5 a Human Relations (HR) expert assigned to the group to help with questions related to the subject area of the source text, i.e. industrial psychology. Moreover, the fact that he was the teachers brother-inlaw and the only non-bilingual among the external experts made him particularly suitable for contributing to the groups self-regulation. His family ties to the teacher made Csar the closest possible outside expert. This made it more likely that Mansania would develop a confident, easy-going relationship with him and adopt a deeper approach to learning (cf. Kelly, 2005, p. 49), given the fact that such an approach proves to be most successful where a bond exists between learners and teachers (Massey, 2005, p. 630). On the other hand, having no command of the source language, Csar could only help the group through intralinguistic contributions. These thus became all the more relevant, as a means of retrospectively checking the correct rewording of the source text involving both target language and subject area competence. Consequently, the
4

Hereinafter referred to thusly, i.e. in the descriptive language the groups members chose to use themselves use (cf. supra). 5 Hereinafter also referred to as Csar, i.e. by his first name, as Mansania addressed him this way.

129 team members had to rely primarily on themselves for comprehension of the German source text, thus assuming more responsibility for their own learning process than the groups supported by bilingual experts.

3.4 Data collection and interpretation

The data on self-regulation processes were collected with two different mediation instruments. First, spontaneous comments made both by Mansania and the group that revised their drafts, including translation notes on Mansanias final version. Additionally, these data were also yielded by the more directed metacognitive guide that the members of the group completed in writing at the projects end. As for the interpretation of the qualitative data verbalized by the learners, I have used the discourse analysis method, letting the data speak for themselves, in keeping with the qualitative approach of the research. Judging from the speech acts present both in the comments on drafts and translation notes and in the metacognitive guide, I have focussed on those that, often in combination, seemed most relevant in accounting for self-regulation processes. In this process, I have interpreted these speech acts in their immediate context, considering significant verbs, adjectives, adverbs and connectors, as well as words in quotation marks with an attitudinal meaning. As a result I have tentatively classified the relevant speech acts in the following eight

130 groups, illustrated in each case by an example stemming from the collected data: 1) Expressing difficulties or doubts (We dont know if ). 2) Expressing needs (First, you need a general background...). 3) Expressing surprise (It surprised us that he dared to be ...). 4) Justifying decisions (We kept to sentimientos, since ...). 5) Negatively evaluating a proposal and making a counterproposal (Largumonos doesnt convince us. We propose instead ...). 6) Positively evaluating a proposal (We find it acceptable, however.). 7) Proposing options (Csar: We offer you three solutions with a different register...). 8) Proposing a strategy (We have followed the general strategy of...).

3.5 Description of the project tasks and data analysis

In the following sections, I describe the projects tasks while considering how they encourage self-regulation processes and correlating task description with the data obtained through the two aforementioned mediation instruments.

131

3.5.1 Pre-translation tasks

The pre-translation tasks include two different tasks. The first one consisted of organizing the projects collectively, by distributing source texts and building groups. This also meant taking into account both the time available and the necessary interplay among the four groups with each other, with the teacher and with their corresponding outside expert. The resulting timing plan is displayed in the following table, where tasks and sessions allocated to them are listed in the left and right columns respectively.
TASKS Once the four groups have collectively organized and timed the project work, each group analyzes its own translation brief and starts translating its respective original 1st draft Each group revises another groups first draft (1 2 and 3 4) and makes proposals for improvement 2nd draft Each group proofreads its corresponding second draft and e-mails it to its respective outside expert, asking him/her any questions they have 3rd draft Each group incorporates the outside experts proposals considered suitable into its translation, justifying its decisions and e-mailing the new version to the teacher for comments 4th draft The teacher e-mails to each group with his comments on its 4th draft, for its modification, producing a final annotated version Each group compares its final annotated version with the published translation and then completes a metacognitive guide. All three documents (the final annotated version, the published translation and the metacognitive guide, together with the previous drafts) are emailed to the other groups. SESSIONS 1st face-to-face session (workshop in computer lab) and 1st distance session (autonomous work) 2nd face-to-face session

2nd face-to-face session and 2nd distance session

3rd face-to-face session

3rd distance session and 4th face-to-face session 4th face-to-face session

132
Each group compares the other groups translation with their original and published translation, also evaluating the relevant information featured in the metacognitive guide. Each group shares its final annotated version in the plenary session, justifying their decisions and answering any possible questions raised by the other groups, for example, any having to do with the metacognitive guide previously sent to them. 4th distance session

5th and 6th face-to-face sessions (made into a single two-hour session)

The second task was designated as the first question to be answered in the metacognitive guide upon completion of the translation project. The task was meant to let the group trace back the general translation strategy followed. By doing so, they were expected to become aware of the importance of this as the factor governing the translation process (cf. Kelly, 2005, p. 16). However, the question asked by the teacher was offtarget.6 The students were asked to rewrite the translation brief given orally to the original translator, thinking of their own peers. This was obviously not specific enough for Mansania to go beyond the few suggestions concerning this brief given to it by the teacher. Like all other groups, Mansania merely reformulated the suggestions given by the teacher, failing to actually verbalize rhe overall translation strategy he expected, as shown in its documentary answer below.
6

Originally written in Spanish, all questions and answers contained in the metacognitive guide appear translated into English to facilitate comprehension.

133

METACOGNITIVE GUIDE 1. How would you rewrite the translation brief given orally to the original translator on the basis of the information provided by the teacher and the thoughts of your own peers? We have been asked to translate a PowerPoint presentation in German for Carlos Esteban, Head of the Human Resources Department of the Zurich Insurance Group in Barcelona. The presentation, entitled Gefhle in Vernderungsprozesse,7 will be the basis for a workshop to be held by Carlos Esteban, aimed at preparing Spanish managers of this company to cope with the mostly negative feelings that the rapid transformations arising in the insurance business create in the employees.

3.5.2 Translation tasks proper

The translation tasks proper involved two activities conducted in parallel: the search for background knowledge and the collaborative translation of the source text. As for the first of these tasks, it was aimed at making the students aware of the importance of familiarisation with the subject matter of the text. Like the prior case, it was done retrospectively by answering the second question in the metacognitive guide.
METACOGNITIVE GUIDE 2. What background knowledge is necessary, in your opinion, to comprehend or translate this text and what sources, if any, have your turned to for information? First, you need a general background in psychology to solve certain
7

Feelings in change processes.

134
vocabulary problems. Secondly, you must have some knowledge of industrial psychology and of German idioms and the context they are used in, as well as an excellent command of the Spanish language, especially idioms.

Unlike the first question in the guide, this one did engage the students in a self-regulatory process, as they consciously verbalized the need to know about industrial psychology as well as about idioms in both languages. Significantly enough, this self-regulatory perception concerning search competence comes closer to the possible general translation strategy adopted by the group than the task specifically aimed at that purpose, in that in its answer, Mansania points to the two most outstanding types of translation problem to be found in the source text. These are, on one hand, problems related to industrial psychology jargon, to use Mansanias phrase, and, on the other, the problems arising when rendering the considerable proportion of idioms and colloquial expressions present in the German PowerPoint presentation into Spanish. As for the actual translation, the interplay of Mansania with their peers responsible for revising the first draft, the groups outside expert and the teacher himself also encouraged self-regulation processes in its members, as is shown in their comments and translation notes.8
8

Although originally written in Spanish, these comments or translation notes will appear in English, slightly adapted, when necessary, to facilitate understanding, whereas source text and target text passages will be respectively reproduced in German (in italics) and Spanish (in quotation marks). However, when such passages are cited either in comments and translation notes presented as footnotes or within the subsequent text, key-

135

Both will now be discussed in relation to four examples of each of the two main types of translation problems in the source text. Due to space limitations, only one example will be discussed, although all of them can be consulted in the grid on the following three pages, where they appear numbered and labeled either as ICE, idioms and colloquial expressions, or as IPJ, industrial psychology jargon. This grid reflects the evolution of the translations as a result of the learning-through-revision process that the students engaged in while carrying out the collaborative work. Accordingly, the grid not only includes comments and translation notes by Mansania (especially as footnotes) and comments by the group revising its first draft, but also shows the changes (i.e amendments and suppressions) introduced between the first draft and the final annotated version.

word translations in English of both German and Spanish expressions will be provided in square brackets to ensure comprehension.

EXAMPLE (ICE/IPJ) ICE1:

FIRST DRAFT

SECOND DRAFT

THIRD DRAFT of

(revision by other (revision revision) group) No changes

FINAL VERSION PUBLISHED (possible proposals TRANSthe (possible proposals from teacher) LATION from expert) FOURTH DRAFT [los sentimientos] nos hacen tener un nudo en el estmago No changes [los sentimientos] nos hacen salir una lcera

No changes [los sentimientos] [Gefhle] nos revuelven kriechen ber las tripas 9 die Leber Nos hacen ICE2 cagar de miedo / dejan No changes machen Schiss nos helados de miedo / nos bloquean

No changes10

No changes / nos bloquean No changes11

nos hacen entrar cagalera

ICE3: Largumonos

With regard to kriechen ber die Leber rendered into Spanish by a somewhat inexact translation meaning churn your guts we had to find a Spanish expression close in meaning to the German one. Although this meant physically changing hgado liver into tripas guts , in practical terms both expressions come to mean the same. 10 Csar: we offer you three solutions with a different register for you to choose the most appropriate one. 11 As for nos hacen cagar de miedo (Schiss machen) make you shit your pants we were not sure whether we should remain faithful to the German expression, which would mean letting the register fall in the given context, or rather choose a pragmatically more suitable equivalent (nos dejan helados de miedo) scare you stiff].

[Angst, Unsicherheit] Nichts wie weg ICE4 :

Rehyelos en cuanto aparezcan / Largumonos

doesnt convince us. We propose instead: cuanto No changes ms lejos, mejor.

No changes12

No changes

Vmonos aqu No changes

de

La cabeza no No changes deja paso a lo Was das Herz que el corazn nicht hrt, lsst no escucha der Kopf nicht rein [frei nach Schopenhauer] IPJ1: Gefhle mobilisieren und energetisieren das Denken IPJ2: Los Mobilizan must sentimientos be written with v. mobilizan sic y Since energetizar energetizan al is a calque, we propose: son una sic fuente de energa pensamiento

El corazn no Lo que no oye el No changes escucha lo que la corazn no entra en mente no la mente comprende 13

Los sentimientos movilizan y energetizan al/son una fuente de energa para el pensamiento 14

Los pensamientos No changes movilizan y energetizan el pensamiento/ son una fuente de energa para el pensamiento

Los sentimientos activan y dan energa a los pensamientos

Es necesario compartir y Ohne eine No hay We find interac- Es necesario Es necesario comprender las si no se da una minimale comportamiento cin better than compartir un compartir y emociones los mnima empata
12 We had great difficulty coming up with an equivalent for nichts wie weg slightly improperly rendered by a Spanish expression meaning give them a wide berth . 13 We arent quite satisfied with the translation of this quotation.

gefhlsmige bereinstimmung is Kommunikation in einem gewnschten Sinn nicht mglich IPJ3: Bewusste Gestaltung des Abschiednehmens: Altes/Vergangenes wrdigen und wertschtzen

comportamiento, compartido posible sin un but dont know exactly how to mnimo combine it: denominador comn de interaccin sentimientos comn/compartida

mnimo de sentimientos para facilitar la interaccin comn

comprender las emociones de la otra persona para poder actuar conjuntamente

sentimientos de la otra persona para poder actuar conjuntamente

emocional la comunicacin como uno la desea no resulta posible

Procurar un despido humano: valorar y apreciar lo antiguo y lo pasado

It sounds ambiguous. We propose instead: una configuracin consciente de los cambios: quedarse con aquello del pasado que ha sido positivo/apreciar en su justa medida los aspec9tos positivos del pasado. it

Una configuracin No changes consciente de los cambios: quedarse con aquello del pasado que ha sido positivo/apreciar en su justa medida los aspectos positivos del pasado.

No changes15

Llevar a cabo una despedida consciente de lo antiguo y lo pasado aprecindolo y valorndolo

IPJ4: Drahtseilakt

find We mean that We the boss remains acceptable, the boss, but however. dont know how

Lograr el difcil equili- brio entre

We dont know if energetizar energetize is a technicism or a calque. Anyway, it may well be worth keeping. As for the expression Bewusste Gestaltung des Abschiedsnehmens, we could not translate it literally (estructuracin del despido consciente sic ) conscious dismissal structuring , as it would not have fitted the pragmatic context sic .
15

14

zwischen: a)Verstndnis zeigen, b)Brcken bauen, an positive gemeinsame Erfahrungen, Vorste-ungen, Visionen anknpfen

to express it: No changes Mantener un equilibrio entre: a) mostrar No changes comprensin b) tender puentes, fundamentarse en experiencias positivas compartidas

No changes

No changes

No changes

a) mostrarse comprensivo b) tender puentes remitiendo a experiencias, conceptos o visiones positivas compartidas

No changes

No changes

No changes

140 The revision of the first draft by the peer group (2nd draft), the proofreading of this revision by Mansania (3rd draft) and the accommodation by the group of possible proposals made by the outside expert (4th draft) can be found between them. For the sake of comparison, the final annotated version appears next to the published translation submitted to the client. With regard to the translation problems related to idioms and colloquial expressions, the self-regulatory actions emerging from the comments and translation notes contributed to either by Mansania or by the peer group are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Self regulatory actions by Mansania and the peer group concerning translation problems related to idioms and colloquial expressions
SELF-REGULATORY ACTIONS Expressing difficulties and doubts Justifying decisions Negatively evaluating a proposal and making a counterproposal Proposing options MANSANIA 50.00% 16.66% 0.00% 16.66% PEER GROUP 0.00% 0.00% 16.66% 0.00%

It should be noted that the average frequency of selfregulatory actions per problem is 1.5. There are a total of six, five of which (83.32%) were deployed by Mansania and only one (16.66%) by the peer group. This result underscores the fact that, where this type of translation problem is concerned, the initiative to reflect on the learning process was primarily undertaken by the group responsible for translating the source text. Along

141 these lines, Mansania mainly expressed difficulties or doubts, and to a lesser extent, proposed options and justified decisions, whereas the peer group merely contributed one counterproposal in one case, after having negatively evaluated one of Mansanias proposal. Interestingly enough, in two of the three cases in which Mansania resorted to the expression of difficulties and doubts as a way of becoming aware of them, its members actually coped well or fairly well with the translation problems involved, as shown in the second and fourth examples. The scatological difficulty of the second example ([Gefhle] machen Schiss) [feelings] make you shit your pants , i.e. the one chosen for exemplary illustration, led Mansania to ask the HR expert for help. They did so by proposing three different options for him to choose the one with the most appropriate register (see footnote 10). However, as the expert overlooked this enquiry, the members of the group decided to leave two different options in their final version: a slang expression (nos hacen cagar de miedo) make you shit your pants and a standard one (nos dejan helados de miedo) scare you stiff . In doing so they openly expressed their doubts as to the appropriateness of this decision (see footnote 11), but were in fact wrong in this negative perception, as their decision was, in fact, fully consistent with the translation brief. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the target text was meant for use in a similar PowerPoint presentation in Spanish by the head of the HR department who had commissioned it and was ultimately

142 responsible for the final wording of the Spanish version, including the choice of the register most suitable to his needs. The data from examples corresponding to the second type of translation problem related to self-regulatory actions prompted by these problems are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Selfregulatory actions by Mansania and the peer group concerning translation problems related to industrial psychology jargon
SELF-REGULATORY ACTIONS Expressing difficulties and doubts Expressing needs Justifying decisions Negatively evaluating a proposal and making a counterproposal Positively evaluating a proposal MANSANIA 22.22% 0.00% 11.11% 0.00% 0.00% PEER GROUP 11.11% 11.11% 0.00% 33.33% 11.11%

Judging from these data, we realize that this type of translation problem called not only for a wider range of actions than the previous one (five instead of four, with an average of 2.2 actions per problem), but also a much greater involvement of the peer group. Consequently, the peer group did not limit itself to simply making counterproposals (as before), but also helped by expressing difficulties and doubts, pointing to detected needs and even positively evaluating one proposal submitted to it by Mansania. This was because Mansania was unable to make proposals to the

143 outside expert, as these opportunities were restricted to the two self-regulatory actions deployed when dealing with the first type of translation problem, i.e. expressing difficulties and doubts and justifying decisions. This greater interaction not only between Mansania and the peer group but also between the group and its outside expert may have been due to the greater complexity of the translation problems being faced, which now concerned both target language and subject area competence. The example now chosen for consideration, i.e. the first one (Gefhle mobilisieren ... [Feelings mobilise ...]) is illustrative in this respect, in that its quite acceptable translation went through three different self-regulatory actions. The first of them was of a new type and involved the peer group drawing Mansanias attention to the need to write a word correctly. The second one was also undertaken by the peer group and consisted of making a counterproposal related to what the group assumed to be a calque, i.e. the verb energetizar [energetize]. Correctly supposing that this calque might be accepted in a text with specific HR jargon, Mansania expressed its doubt to the outside expert as the third action of the set (see footnote 14). His assessment proved decisive in the group members sticking to their initial solution.

3.5.3 Post-translation tasks

The post-translation tasks involved comparing Mansanias final version with the published

144 translation, as well as actually responding to the questions in the metacognitive guide. The first of these tasks, actually dealt with in the fourth question of the guide, was meant to facilitate the group members learning from the professional know-how of the teacher, who, therefore, acted as a representative of the community that the translators-in-training are going to join ( Kiraly, 2000, p. 70). With regard to the metacognitive guide itself, conceived of as the final, reflective phase of the collaborative translation project fully incorporated in the task set, I will now present all its questions and their answers, except those already considered, i.e. the first (translation brief) and the second questions (background search).
META-COGNITIVE GUIDE 3. What comments do you have on consultations with the outside expert? According to Csar, it wasnt customary to speak of sentimientos feelings , but rather of emociones emotions , or of la expresin de las emociones the expression of emotions in industrial psychology. However, we kept to sentimientos, since this was the term used by Luc Ciompi, a psychologist regularly cited in the source text. We doubted whether energetizar was an anglicism or a technicism. Csar told us that this term is widely used and fully accepted in the field of incompany training. In order to make the text more acceptable, Csar proposed that we use mental instead of cognitivo. We accepted this proposal.

145

4. What comments do you have regarding the comparison with the published translation? On the third slide of the PowerPoint presentation, Francesc16 decided to use a single verb, the generic hacer to make , in all of the speech balloons in it, as was the case with machen to make in the source text. Moreover, it surprised us that he dared to be so faithful to the source text, rendering machen Schiss as hacer entrar cagalera to make you shit your pants . Furthermore, his rendering of kriechen ber die Leber as provocan una lcera literally bring about an ulcer, meaning make you feel peeved seems appropriatr to us. 5. What have we learnt from translating this text? (Between 3 and 5 comments) 1. You have to search for background knowledge of the original subject matter, if you dont know nothing about it. Contacting experts (in our case, Csar) is one possible solution. 2. We can often solve the problem of translating German nominal compounds by resorting to paraphrases retaining the original meaning.. 3. German is always more specific. It is usually preferable to resort to a generalizing translation. 4. With regard to idioms, there is hardly ever an exact equivalent for them in the target language. In the case of terms such as Leber (hgado) liver (slide 3), the cultural, and even the physical context should be kept in mind. 6. Do you have any other comments? If so, list them When translating German nominal compounds we have followed the general strategy of first grasping the original meaning and then rendering it by use of paraphrases coherent with the resulting translation. For an example, see the translation of Drahtseilakt literally high wire performance, meaning balancing act on the 6th slide

As for the data yielded by these answers, they appear in the following grid, related to the self-regulatory actions applying to each of the questions in the guide, except the
16

The teacher

146 first one, which did not lead the students to any reflective process.
Table 3: Selfregulatory actions by Mansania as emerging from the metacognitive guide
Background search Consultations with the outside expert 7.7% Comparison with the published translation What have we learnt? Other Comm ents

Expressing difficulties or doubts Expressing needs Expressing surprise Justifying decisions Positively evaluating a proposal Proposing an strategy

15.04% 7.7% 7.7% 15.4% 7.7%

30.8%

7.7%

With regard to the different self-regulatory actions deployed in the guide, and aside from the expression of needs associated with the background search (question number two), it is worth mentioning that the consultations with the outside experts brought out the greatest number of such actions. In commenting on these consultations, the group members, on one hand, retrospectively mention their doubts as to the appropriateness of energetizar and their later acceptance of it after the assessment from the outside expert, as outlined above. On the other hand, they also justify their decision to actually discard a proposal made by the expert. Mansania rejected Csars suggestion

147 to replace sentimientos feelings with emociones emotions , considering such a change to be contrary to the intention of the source text author, who referred to a psychologist who made explicit mention of feelings. Significantly enough, the fact that the group members probably felt confident enough with the outside expert by virtue of his bond to the teacher, may well have favoured their interpersonal competence, leading them to act almost professionally by appropriately negotiating meanings with [] subject-matter experts (Kiraly 2000, p. 95). The comparison with the published translation was not only the origin of positive evaluating, as could probably be expected, but also of feelings of surprise which deserve further consideration. These feelings apply to the teachers daring (appropriately placed within quotes) to use vulgar language when rendering a slang German idiomatic expression into Spanish. They are also revealing, as strategic competence goes, in that they show the members of the group as unable to relate the teachers decision to the same translation assignment by virtue of which they had also used a slang expression when dealing with the same passage. The following question in the guide, written intentionally in the first person plural person so as to transfer the learning responsibility to the students, reveals the emergence of a new self-regulation action resulting from their internalised knowledge. In fact, all five answers to that question can be regarded as translation strategies concerning the translation competences felt to be more

148 relevant by the group. These are, on one hand, subject area competence, and, on the other, source and target language competences in relation with the two main types of translation problem encountered. Mansania significantly answers the last question in the guide (other comments) by referring to a general strategy for the translation of German nominal compounds, thus pointing to a successfully culminated process of self-regulation, however incipient, at the end of the collaborative translation project.

4 CONCLUSIONS
With all possible reservations, given the reduced scope of this research, the resulting data support the statement that self-regulation is promoted by the mediation instruments applied to the collaborative translation project illustrated, as shown by the increasing range of self-regulatory actions successively deployed in the course of the project. As for the actions detected in the learners comments on drafts and translation notes, they appear to be more frequent when applied to more difficult translation problems and distinct in quality, depending on whether they are deployed by the revising or by the translating group, accordingly showing a more evaluative or a more reassessive character.

149 With regard to the actions emerging from the metacognitive guide, two-thirds of them refer in fact to actions already taken up in the comments and translation notes, as a logical result of retrospective reflection on the translation process. Nevertheless, the remaining third corresponds to a new action that, significantly enough, proves to be not only the most frequent in the guide but also qualitatively different from the previous ones, in that it serves the purpose of explicitly formulating translation strategies. This points to the students incipient ability to exert a certain degree of control over their learning after the awakening of consciousness with which self-regulation always starts, as observed by Esteve and Arum following larger-scale empirical research on consecutive interpreting (2006, p. 178). As with the results of this (ibid., p 187-188) and of other research on FL learning (Arum and Caada 2005, p. 230), this project also provides proof of the usefulness of mediation instruments, particularly metacognitive guides. This usefulness is rooted in the fact that they encourage verbalized reflection on learning and thus lead to self-regulation, while proving the worth of valid teaching and research tools whose application to translation learning deserves further research.

150

REFERENCES
Arum, M. and Caada, M. D. (2005). Integrating the metacognitive dimension to encourage autonomous FL learning: Towards self-regulation. In M. Dez, R. Fernndez & Albach A. (Eds.). Debating Learning Strategies 8 (pp. 223-237). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Europischer Verlag der Wissenschaften. Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Esteve, O & Arum, (2006). Using instruments aimed at self-regulation in the consecutive interpreting classroom: Two case studies. In Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3, 2, 158-189. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from http://eflt.nus.edu.sg/v3n22006/esteve_arumi.htm. Gonzlez Davies, M. (2005). Minding the process, imroving the product. In M. Tennent (Ed.), Training for the new millenium (pp. 67-82). Amsterdam/New Work: John Benjamins. Kelly, D. (2005). A handbook for translator trainers. Manchester: St. Jerome.

151 Kiraly, D. (2000). A social constructivist approach to translator education, Manchester: St. Jerome. __ (2003). From instruction to collaborative construction. In B. J. Braer & G. S. Koby (Eds.), Beyond the ivory tower: Rethinking translation pedagogy. American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series. Volume XII (pp. 128). Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins.

Lantolf, J. (2000): Sociocultural theory and second language learning. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Little, D. (1997). Language awareness and the autonomous language learner. Language Awareness, 6, 283, 93-104 Massey, G. (2005). Process-oriented translator training and the challenge for e-learning, Meta, 50:2, 626633. Veenman, V. J. et alli (2006). Metacognition and learning: conceptual and methodological considerations. Metacognition and Learning, 1:1, 3-14 Watson-Gegeo, K-A. (1988). Ethnography in ESL: defining the essentials. TESOL Quarterly, 22:4, 575-592.

153

TEAMWORK IN TRANSLATION: A CHALLENGE FOR TRANSLATOR EDUCATION?

Konrad Klimkowski, Ph.D. Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland

Abstract
The main concept of this paper is that of teamwork in translation training. The main question posed is whether collaborative translation should be part of translator training. The answer is not necessarily straightforward, but the reader may find interesting a handful of arguments in favour of including teamwork within the range of translation training activities. The arguments come from the literature on the subject and from my own experience in coordinating teamwork translation projects. However, trainers should bear in mind that text types show different degrees of suitability for being translated by a team.

1. INTRODUCTION The topic of this paper focuses on collaborative translation, which seems to be gaining more and more applicability in professional translation practice. No translation agency may think of surviving the market competition if it is not ready to offer quick but reliable translation services to its customers. Quick and reliable are key words here, since it is the ability to handle largesize complex translation projects in a limited amount of

154 time and to ensure the quality of translation, which are the main advantages of teamwork translation. The growing importance of teamwork in professional translation makes legitimate the question of incorporating collaborative translation in translation courses. Still, it seems that the potential of teamwork in translator education remains largely unexplored. Not much substantial theoretical research or practical reports are yet available to help translators and translator trainers to take full advantage of team effort in translation and translation training. The objective of this paper is to shed more light on the potential benefits of teamwork in translation training, in relation to both the training process itself and to the professional practice of prospective translators. At the same time, a trainer who makes use of teamwork in translation training should be aware of the limits of the use of collaborative translation.

2. LITERATURE ON COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION TRAINING

As already stated, teamwork in translation practice and training has not yet been studied extensively. It is true that recently the list of works which highlight the notion of collaboration in translation training has been growing. Kiraly (2000) offered a holistic approach to translator education, based on the premises of constructivism, under which the success of the efforts that trainees take to construct their skills of translation depends hugely on their ability to collaborate. The collaborative

155 environment is the one in which humans learn more effectively, and which fosters their autonomy as trainees and consequently as professionals (see e.g. Kiraly 2000, p. 36). Kenny (2006) describes a very interesting report on an extensive programme of translation training organized as an e-learning course at the Dublin City University (DCU): students work on translation projects in a dedicated computer network. Most tasks discussed by Kenny are individual, but a number of small-group activities are also implemented. (2006, p. 34) The three above-mentioned publications, among others,1 make some, more or less direct references to teamwork, but there is hardly any noticeable debate on the nature of teamwork in translation itself: what elements make it up, what can be taught this way and what cannot? Or, in other words, what are the limits of the method, both in the educational and professional environments? In fact, I am familiar with only two contributions that address the issue of teamwork translation directly: Lengyel (2002) and Klimkowski (2006). Both papers discuss the advantages of teamwork translation and try to provide a working definition of the process. What I find especially interesting about Lengyels contribution is the concept of synergy that is typical of a well-designed and properly managed team effort. The term synergy is used by Lengyel (2002) to signal one of the most important
1

A proposal for an exercise in collaborative translation is included in one of the latest publications on translation training by Mary Gonzlez Davies (2004, p. 30). I abstain from discussing the exercise, since the book contains only a sketchy outline of the exercise, without any discussion on e.g. team set-up, particular actions and responsibilities in the team, etc.

156 advantages that teamwork translation has to offer, namely the fact that the effect of collaborative translation does not simply match the effort of several individuals sharing a task, but surpasses it by the added value that comes from the interaction, exchange of ideas and coordination of work in a team. Klimkowski (2006) attempts to define the set of basic constituents that make up the teamwork translation process (Source Text, Target Text, experience of the team members, position and role of the leader, implied recipient of the message). These constituents are established on the basis of observations concerning a number of teamwork translation projects and are meant as parameters that are adjustable, according to the needs of particular translation tasks. On the basis of the theoretical investigations presented above, and drawing upon my personal experience in teamwork translation projects,2 I would like to present and discuss the potential areas of application of teamwork in translation education, to show its benefits and limitations.

The scope of this paper does not allow any direct descriptions or summaries of these projects. Thus, the reader is referred for more details to Klimkowski (2006).

157

3. PROPOSALS FOR THE APPLICATION OF COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION IN THE CLASSROOM

As regards the method application, I would like to suggest that teamwork in translation training may be used in two major ways. The first type of training is the one closest to the professional reality in which teamwork is used, i.e. training how to handle large-size projects in a limited amount of time, not only without loss of quality but also with its potential enhancement through the synergy effect. In view of my rather limited experience with IT-supported teamwork translation projects, I need to rely on the account of such a project given by Kenny (2006). Her report excellently points out the main benefits from collaborative translation exercises.

3.1 Competence-based translator training

Firstly, it must be made clear that the above-mentioned course held at the DCU has the form of a project course: success strictly depends on tangible results of translators effort. Secondly, the course helps students develop their own time-management strategies, one of the crucial elements of building students autonomy, with obvious consequences for students future careers. However, what is really outstanding about the DCU course is that it provides students with an optimal environment for developing translation competence, as it offers them a dedicated network for communication with other students and with experts, who are hired by the

158 course organizers to help students solve their problems. This special emphasis on the role of the environment in translation training is, firstly, because it has been shown by most researchers in the field of translation training that the more translation trainers do to put the educational tasks in as natural professional environment as possible, the better the educational effect.3 Secondly, in my view, the curricula of translation training institutions in Poland which I am familiar with still lack an appropriate recognition of the translation environment and its role in translation training. In my opinion, some translation training courses in Polish academic institutions (e.g. philology courses) seem to neglect the professional context (knowledge base, contacts with peer-translators and experts) in which translations are made. In fact, it is sometimes the case that students are asked to translate quasi-specialist texts (e.g. political texts in an opinion-forming magazine) in closed examination tasks without access to any sources of knowledge. Tests are an effective instrument in translation training, provided they are applied properly. Translation projects test the overall capabilities of students as far as their translation skills are concerned. To do that effectively, they must allow for contextualization. Thanks to the course, DCU students not only learn about the functionalities of various IT solutions available to translators, but they also use them on a regular basis in
3

This is accepted in most recent works on translation training. See, e.g. Colina (2003), Gonzlez Davies (2004, 2005), Kiraly (2000, 2003), Vienne (2000).

159 order to complete their projects. The need for comprehensive training in IT-support for translators is more than obvious for any translator trainer today. The main task of this training should be that students switch to the computer assisted translation once they master the skills. Also, the DCU course helps students understand the complex issues of project management, at least in the part of the course which is dedicated to teamwork. As I understand it, teamwork translation constitutes part of the course, though it is not stated in detail how large this part is Kenny (2006, p. 34) mentions a number of small group activitiesthroughout a module. In my opinion, a course like this should be more evenly divided between individual and team assignments. One more comment at this point concerns a conceptual division between what I understand as teamwork translation and the notion of project management. Of course, there is a relation of inclusion between them, i.e. teamwork falls within project management. However, the reduction of teamwork in translation to the logistic issues of cutting a large project into parts, hiring a team of translators and putting the results back into one text may entail risks for translator education and for professional practice. Apart from details concerning project management, teamwork translation courses should also emphasize the psychology and social aspects of teamwork, its demands and benefits from the translators and not only the translation agencys point of view.

160

The other field in which teamwork may find its fruitful application are support exercises in translation training activities. In fact, professional practice often calls for collaborative solutions not only at the level of text transfer, but also in other aspects of translation project realization. One obvious case is terminology. It is a frequent practice at the Directorate General for Translation (DGT) at the European Union to hold such terminology meetings when domains in which translations are made call for collective expertise and solutions.4 This practice could be an inspiration for terminology classes, with the obvious benefit of activating students inquisitiveness and quest for knowledge, as a general attitude.

3.2 Extracurricular collaborative translation workshops

Another example of employing teamwork is in extracurricular workshops for students. I have a practical experience of a number of such initiatives, and I judge them highly advantageous, especially for those students who have no opportunity to participate in regular teamwork translation classes, or for whom translation is not the major educational choice. Workshop on Translation, a conference and practical workshop in literary translation, turned out to be a good idea for a lot
4

This observation is made on the basis of my own communication with translators at the DGT.

161 of students doing literary courses in philological departments in Lublin, Poland.5 In my view, the most important benefit of this type of workshop is that through collaboration, students disclose to others and to themselves their real translation skills: interpretation, transfer, negotiation of meaning and decision-making. Problems they encounter in their development are usually similar. Students find that a lot of the ideas they have about translating are similar, as are the strategies they come up with, and that the difficulties they encounter are not unheard of. Realizing these facts constitutes a strong positive incentive for students. Judging from the growing number of participants (usually the workshop starts with 10 members on the first day and ends up with over 30 on the last) the experience that the students get from the workshop is very positive.

4. BENEFITS FROM TEAMWORK IN TRANSLATION TRAINING

Having presented two major domains in which teamwork may support translation training, let me now present the most obvious benefits this support offers. Some of them have been presented above, and the ones below are more general in nature: they concern the process of translation competence formation seen holistically.
5

For more details on the conference, see Klimkowski (2006).

162

Thus, as observed in Kiraly (2000, p. 34) and perhaps even more so in Kiraly (2003, p. 16), teamwork in translation training, or in fact, in education generally, offers a chance for better professional development. Other authors also make the point that teamwork is a necessary element of the process of developing translation competence, in view of the present professional practice. A good example is Mackenzie and Vienne (2000, p. 127), who stress the translators need to cooperate with the client, a reviser, subject experts and possibly with other translators working on the same project in real-life translation projects. To these arguments one could add advantages relating to the development of translators psychological skills and abilities: teamwork is highly beneficial for enhancing translators self-esteem. This is mostly due to the abovementioned fact that teamwork causes the disclosure of hidden judgments of ones own capabilities, especially the negative ones. Then, through confrontation with other group members, teamwork gives students a chance to develop their positive attitudes to themselves as translators and to their prospective job. This enables them to find ways of overcoming the development barriers they encounter. Collaborative translation is always an effect-oriented task: each teamwork project leads to the final coherent text, accompanied with a collective summary of the project. That effect-driven educational actions are highly beneficial for students development is a truism. Let me only refer the reader to the observations made in relation

163 to effect-driven translation training made by Kiraly (2000, p. 57-73) and Vienne (2000, p. 93). They all highlight the role effect-driven teamwork has in ensuring that the conditions of training are as close to the professional environment as possible. A crucial advantage of teamwork in translation training is the development of prospective translators interpersonal skills relating to their roles in the team. There are at least three major areas of personal interaction involved in teamwork translation. The first concerns the relations within the team (horizontal interaction), the second, between the project manager and the translators (partly vertical, partly horizontal). 6 The scope of this paper allows only one example of both spheres of interaction. Thus, the benefits I choose to discuss briefly here are cooperation through conflict solving (for teamwork) and the need for feedback in communication (for the team project manager relationship). It is a frequently heard oversimplification concerning teamwork that its main driving force is cooperation. It must be borne in mind, however, that the greatest advantage of teamwork is reaching solutions through conflict solving. My experience with teamwork
6

For the sake of simplicity, I omit the role of revisers and reviewers in the process of target text production and abstain from discussing the third field of interpersonal relations: between the project manager and the client.

164 convinces me that it is conflict solving, rather than bland agreement with others, that constitutes the source of synergy (Lengyel, 2002) and the added value of the team effort.7 Thanks to conflicting points of view, team translation prevents translating texts automatically a danger each translator faces when working individually. However, taking an active part in problem solving through conflict requires training. The psychological barriers that people, especially young adolescents, face when confronted with opinions which are opposite to theirs should be worked through under the supervision of a trainer. This ability to express justified disagreement with the solutions suggested by others may be crucial in developing prospective translators responsibility for the project as a whole, and not only for their share of the work. Project managers at the DGT often observe that inexperienced translators find it difficult to question the decisions of their more experienced colleagues, even though they feel they have a different opinion on a given matter. A frequently reported problem8 concerns inexperienced translators work with terminological databases. When they are faced with a translation option developed by a more experienced translator, they choose to keep a low profile and accept the suggestion, despite
7

See the quotations from Tudge (1990, p. 159) and Dunlap & Grabinger (1996, p. 68) presented in Kiraly (2000, p. 36). Observations on the basis of my personal communication with translators at the DGT.

165 their conviction that for the given context a more adequate terminological solution is available. What is worse, they refrain from discussing such problematic cases in team briefings, which could help work out a consistent translation strategy for the whole document and for the whole team. The other sphere of interpersonal relations that translators will be engaged in is the relation with their project manager. Both sides in this relationship need to make sure, beyond doubt, that they understand one another, and that the information they acquire meets their expectations. A very useful tool in securing this outcome is the well-known technique of asking for confirmation (feedback). The most important objective of implementing this technique is to make students aware of the discrepancies in styles of communication that people employ. The need for mutual understanding in communication is a key issue in project management. A project manager must do his best to ensure that his instructions are not only clear, but also that they are understood and will be followed.

166

5. ISSUES TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING TEAMWORK IN TRANSLATION

The final part of this paper is devoted to the presentation of the potential limitations of teamwork in translation, in both the educational and the professional contexts. I think the most important limitation of the educational application of teamwork, concerns the cost and the logistic organization of training. A highly beneficial ITsupported course in teamwork translation, like the one referred to above, is a challenge for an average educational institution, especially in East-Central Europe. The costs of IT infrastructure, purchase and maintenance are exorbitant at the moment. The hiring of experts is another cost that should be allowed for when organizing a fully-fledged course. Thus, the limitations described here do not pertain to the method directly, but to the context of course organization and its costs. From the professional point of view, the applicability of teamwork in translation seems to be dependent on the type of text to be translated. One could easily observe that it is a relatively rare professional practice to have a literary work translated by a team. On the other hand, the example of the Workshop on Translation (Klimkowski 2006, Sokoloski et. al. 2001, 2002, 2003) shows that there can be no radical exclusion of literary translation from collaborative translation. In fact, the conditions that limits the use of teamwork in translation do not precisely relate to the texts being literary or non-literary a division which in itself is problematic. Perhaps a better

167 way to express this division is to refer to the text typology by Reiss (2000, p. 24-47), who distinguishes between three types of text: a) informative (Informative Textyp) with its main focus on facts and information offer, b) expressive (Expresiver Textyp) with its orientation on the message receiver and the artistic elements of the text, and c) operative texts (Operative Texttyp) meant to elicit opinions, behaviour and action from the receiver. Accepting this division, however rudimentary it is, we can state that collaborative translation can demonstrate advantages with text type (a). Its use for the other text types is rather questionable (at least when seen as professional practice). The translation of text type (b) seems to depend almost exclusively on the personality of the individual translator and their literary expertise, imagination, etc. This is why teamwork translation can hardly be regarded as an appropriate method for tasks of this kind. As for the category of operative texts (c), the applicability of teamwork translation is difficult to determine, and will not be discussed here. I have demonstrated the most obvious educational advantages of teamwork and its application to translation training. Perhaps, I could even cherish some hope that the examples I have presented here are of some benefit for the professional practice of teamwork in translation. Finally, I would like to restate the point, that by understanding the social and psychological aspects of teamwork students can make better use of the technological solutions they are taught. Although technologically supported project management is the

168 natural choice of translation agencies, faced with the growing demand of the market, translators-to-be may still need an understanding of the psychological and social mechanisms behind effective teamwork, before they launch their first networked translation session.

169

References
Colina, S. (2003). Towards Empirically-Based Translation Pedagogy. In B. J. Baer (et. al. Eds.), Beyond the ivory tower. Rethinking translation pedagogy (pp. 29-59). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Dunlap, J. & Grabinger, R. S. (1996). Rich environments for active learning in the higher education classroom. In B. G. Wilson (Ed.), Constructivist learning environments. Case studies in instructional design. (pp. 62-85) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Gonzlez-Davies, M. (2004). Multiple voices in the translation classroom. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Gonzlez-Davies, M. (2005). Minding the process, improving the product. Alternatives to traditional translator training. In M. Tennent (Ed.), Training for the New Millenium: Pedagogies for Translation and Interpreting (pp. 67-82). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Kenny, M.A. (2006). Delivering translation training online: The experience at Dublin City University. In J. Kearns (Ed.), Translation Ireland. New Vistas in Translator and Interpreter Training (pp. 23-43). Turin: Trauben.

170

Kiraly, D. (2000). Social constructivist view to translation education. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Kiraly, D. (2003). From instruction to collaborative construction. In B. J. Baer (et. al. Eds.), Beyond the ivory tower. Rethinking translation pedagogy (pp. 3-27). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Klimkowski, K. (2006). Team work as a method in translation. Across Languages and Cultures 7:1, 93-103. Lengyel, I. (2002). Group translation exploiting synergy. Retrieved October 17, 2007 from: http://www.uem.es/web /fil/invest/publicaciones/web/EN/autores/lengyel _art.htm Reiss, K. (2000). Translation criticism - The potentials and limitations. Categories and criteria for translation quality assessment. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. Sokoloski, R. & Duda, H. (Eds.). (2001). Warsztaty Translatorskie I Workshop on Translation I. Lublin-Ottawa: TN KUL SRG, University of Ottawa. [translations and papers from the 1st conference]

171 Sokoloski, R., Duda, H. & Scholz, J. (Eds.). (2002). Warsztaty Translatorskie II Workshop on Translation II. Lublin-Ottawa: TN KUL SRG, University of Ottawa. [translations and papers from the 2nd and 3rd conferences]. Sokoloski, R., Duda, H. & Klimkowski, K. (Eds.). (2003). Warsztaty Translatorskie III Workshop on Translation III. Lublin-Ottawa: TN KUL SRG, University of Ottawa. [translations and papers from the 4th conference]. Sokoloski, R., Duda, H. & K. Klimkowski, K. (Eds.). (in press). Warsztaty Translatorskie IV Workshop on Translation IV. Lublin-Ottawa: TN KUL SRG, University of Ottawa. [translations and papers from the 5th and 6th conference]. Tudge, J. (1990). Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development, and peer collaboration: Implication for classroom practice. In L.C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and Education. Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology (pp. 155-172). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vienne, J. (2000). Which competences should we teach to future translators and how? In Ch. Schffner & B. Adab (Eds.), Developing Translation Competence (pp. 91-100). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

173

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COOPERATIVE TRANSLATION WITH CAT TOOLS

Carles Teb Medeliene Cases Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Abstract
Computer-aided translation systems (CAT) based on Translation Memories (TM) are a widely diffused technology that uses database and code-protection features to improve the quality, efficiency and consistency of the human translation process. These systems basically consist of a textual database in which each source sentence of a translation is stored together with the target sentence (this is called a translation memory "unit"). New and changed translation proposals will then be stored in the database for future use. This textual database the kernel of the system is combined with a terminological database (TDB), which is used by translators to store independently terminological equivalences or translation units of particular value. In this paper the authors outline a first draft of a methodology for translating a computer manual in a technical translation classroom using CAT tools. All the processes involved in this cooperative translation are considered: from the role of the project manager receiving and organising the work, to the final draft sent to the translation agency.

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1. TEACHING TRANSLATION AND TECHNOLOGY STATE-OF-THE-ART

The professional environment of specialized translators has changed substantially in recent years, essentially by means of two technological revolutions: the Internet, and computer tools applied to translation. The Internet boom has motivated a number of substantial changes in that environment: (a) in the field of resources, translators at present have an infinite source of consultation, permanently updated in practically any language, which has led to the obsolescence of most of the available resources obtained, organized and catalogued by the translator him or herself.; (b) in the environment of work organization, the Internet has meant that most of the tasks of the translator be possible in an autonomous and cooperative manner, without the need of sharing a precise physical structure; every translator can thus relate to the customer and to other translators and collaborators directly through electronic media, making teleworking a widely implemented reality within professional environments; (c) in the publishing world, the Internet is currently the main medium for the publication of specialized texts, in such a way that what was originally meant as a vehicle for the dissemination of and access to information in the real world has eventually generated a huge bulk of translation with its own and specific needs which in most cases are not published in print anymore. Computer tools are the second axis for this Copernican revolution regarding the working conditions of the specialized translator. In summary: we are witnesses to

175 the widespread use of a number of different applications that either directly solve a translation - machine translation, or help the translator on the basis of previous work done assisted translation based on translation memories, which entails the fact that translators hardly ever start translations from scratch: in some cases, by editing and improving drafts provided by a machine; in other cases, by retrieving text segments that bear a certain degree of similarity with the text being translated, and it is the translators task to decide whether to apply these, adapt them or reject them in the new translation; (b) there are many other tools helping translators to solve tasks specific to specialized translation, such as text parsers, terminology extractors, terminological managers, style correctors that can be handled individually or might be integrated into wider environments; (c) as is the case with the Internet, the development on behalf of the translator of his or her own translation and language processing tools and their adaptation to different environments constitute a very dynamic field for development. Such technological changes are very weakly and loosely portrayed at present in the curricula of Translation and Interpreting Faculties; on the one hand, subjects of computer science applied to translation typically present students with a catalogue of available tools, and to the extent to which it is possible introduce practical sessions for the handling of some skills in the classroom. On the other hand, most specialized translation subjects have been gradually incorporating Internet resources use in

176 the curricula as part and parcel of the translation task itself. The difficulties regarding university curricula actually being able to include the necessary technical knowledge a specialized translator must learn has meant the emergence of a multiplicity of postgraduate courses having to do with the management of computer tools. This formal training is further complemented by a more specific supply coming from companies producing and distributing such software, thus teaching translators about the handling of these tools, and coming also from translation agencies and associations that will regularly organize specific training courses for members. Other institutions and organizations offer courses as well. This is the current situation, then, of the teaching of computer tool handling and management in the translation and interpreting studies of the Spanish Faculties of Translation and Interpreting. The main features are: (a) The generalized incorporation of the Internet as a basic resource in any translation task. (b) Teaching about the functioning of some computer tools helpful in translation (usually computer assisted translation tools) in some specific subjects with a highly technological content. (c) Teaching some specific tools in subjects closely linked to specialized translation (such as terminological managers in terminology

177 subjects), in order to solve specific tasks such as electronic glossary production. (d) Further complementary education concerning specific tools at the postgraduate level, taught either at the university itself or in other teaching centres. This summarized review of the current situation in the teaching of technical translation could be considered as the direct result of a slow but positive response of the academic world to a huge technological change. However, the present situation poses, we believe, some serious voids in translation teaching and, worse still, not always visible to the eyes of the teachers involved. Let us list the main drawbacks: 1. Teaching focuses practically exclusively on the mastery of the tools themselves, and not on learning new work processes with the help of tools available on the market. 2. The teaching of such skills is fragmented and scattered across different subjects and fields, all very poorly connected, which makes comprehensive, integrated learning very difficult for the students. 3. The tools are rarely used in their natural environment and context, which should be the translation subjects (and specifically specialized translation subjects). The work carried out in them is basically the same traditional method, with the inclusion of the Internet as a documentation source.

178 4. There is no room, then, for the critical training of translators concerning the management of such tools. And because of this, translators do not get the chance to truly assess the usefulness, performance, advantages and difficulties of the tools employed in their natural context. 5. Translation in the classroom is still the result of individual work: there is no awareness about the fact that specialized translation professional work is nowadays the work of a team, and no awareness either about the fact that most of the tasks are performed within a global context of project management, which implies close coordination between a number of professionals affecting each and every one of the stages of the translation process. Before building the experiment, some other experiencies were taken into account: Lykke Jakobsen (2002), Biau Gil and Pym (2003) and Arrouart (2005) carried out different experiments with students in undergraduate contexts with CAT tools; the papers written by Bowker (2005) and Orsted (2001) discuss the balance between efficiency/productivity and quality, which is a key point in any machine translation system, whether automatic or assisted; and Vintar (2001) and Dragsted (2005) evaluated certain CAT tools capabilities segmentation and term-extraction from parallel corpora which were considered useful for the purposes of our work.

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2. BUILDING THE EXPERIMENT

The kernel for the whole experience came from the fact that we realized translation students typically missed out on two essential skills: the use of computer assisted translation tools, something taught theoretically in previous subjects but not really put into practice; and the habit of working as a translation team, with the aim of completing a translation project, and not only the translation of some fragments that rarely have anything to do with real translation commission away from academic assignments. A second input to the didactic experiment came from the fact that we discovered there were many companies willing to collaborate with the university in a specialized translation project involving texts not previously translated, or not translated into the languages our students are proficient in. It was important to define from the beginning what the agreement would be: a group of students guided by their teachers translating a specialized text, with help supplied by the company owning the text regarding terminology, vocabulary, certain style aspects, and the will to eventually make the collaboration of the group of students visible as authors of the translation. We believe this is the new and not so new anymore professional environment in the world of specialized translation, and the idea further materialized upon discovering that students had very rarely worked together as a team.

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The translation project experience we designed takes place in the final 4th year specialized translation subject, when students are close to the end of their pre-graduate studies. The subject totals 40 hours in the classroom, generally divided at our Faculty into two hours twice a week. Students can be as many as 30 or as few as 10, and it is important to gage the length of the original text very accurately, and in our case about 450-600 segments per person seemed to be the best amount of work, as it allows for time spent on translation and also a correct terminological and style performance. In our case the experience is defined for the use of Transit XV (Star), but any other CAT software is equally valid, and the decision must forcibly depend on the teachers knowledge of one or another and also on the software owned by the university in which the experience is to take place. It is important to select a text not translated into the language or languages required, as the project must function closely like a real work experience. Right from the beginning, in the very first class in which the project is introduced and explained to the students, it is essential to explain what the different roles are in any translation project, and how these roles will be portrayed in the group. Thus, students are told about the translation commission itself, and who the client is that they will be working for in every instance it will be the company owning the technical text to be translated. In this case the teachers become project managers for the translation

181 (student) team, and the project manager role is clearly explained to the students, as we hope in all probability many will eventually work in such a capacity in their future professional life. The project, then, is explained: a whole text is to be translated by the whole group, and the translation assignment will require that the text be cut into equal chunks as stated, around 450 to 600 segments also respecting chapters or sections possibly contained in the original. In our case we believed it was important not to assign the difficult or easy parts (as perceived at a first reading) to good and poor students, as one of the goals is, precisely, for team work to succeed on the basis of good personal autonomy and excellent coordination. The essential part of this project is that the students will be working all the time with a common translation memory that is fed through their work at all times. This means as well that cross-referencing is an issue to be explained at the very beginning of the project. Students must understand that this is a translation memory that changes and grows before their very eyes every time they mark a segment completed as translated, the programme will commit that to memory. Thus, when another student is working on a very similar sentence, the programme will either pre-translate or find a match that the student must decide on. The same goes for words committed to the dictionary. Regarding terminology, this is something the students will learn a

182 lot about, as the role of the terminologist becomes clear when using the data bases and terminology tools. Before the translation actually begins, students are taught alignment procedures, usually with texts similar to the one they will be translating, but worked on previously by the teachers in order to make the alignment stage as didactic as possible. The translation project can be started then with a very modest operating translation memory, or with no memory at all at the beginning. For this set up to be feasible, teachers must in their role as translation project managers organize the work in such a way that the shared translation memory be accessible to all persons participating in the project, and making sure possible incidences related to the computer installation in the classroom are brought to the minimum. In our case, these were the steps we took to ensure a stable and running computer environment: Creating a work directory in a network unit (i:\) of permanent access, with reading and writing rights for all students Modification of the starting files of the application (starte.ini), redirecting all working directories to the network unit Inclusion of all students in the project, so that any intervention of the entered users (in the translation, in the glossary) will be recorded

183 This organization ensured the safety of the project, as it was then possible to safeguard any intervention in the work files of the project regardless of the classroom the students might be working in. FIGURE 1 shows the organisation of the project:

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3. STAGES 3.1 Criteria definition

This is the stage in which the original text is analyzed. Students must actively participate in deciding what type of text it is, what will the most probable translation problems be, identifying terminological issues, and, most important, deciding before they start to translate what problems they will be facing: grammar, style, register, syntax, standards, international conventions, local examples, and so on. Here the teachers tell the class that each person will be responsible for generating a text about a specific problem identified, defining the problem and contributing resource-based solutions that all the others must follow. The only task of the teachers here is to review such individual work and make sure that what eventually goes into this joint Style manual is correct and consistent. FIGURE 2 shows some of the subjects dealt with in the style guide (Catalan Version)

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GUIA DESTIL: TEMES

1. Temes convencionals 1.1 Majscules i minscules 1.2 Negreta, cursiva, rodona, versaletes 1.3 Signes de puntuaci 1.4 Numerals ordinals i partitius 1.5 Format de data i hora, adreces, nms telfon 1.6 Unitats de mesura 1.7 Tecles de l'ordinador 1.8 Carcters i smbols no alfabtics 1.9 Ttols i referncies creuades 2. Temes lingistics 2.1 Sigles i acrnims 2.2 Abreviatures 2.3 Sintaxi i passives 2.4 Gerundis 2.5 Estil instructiu 2.6 Economia lingstica 2.7 Formes de tractament i cortesia 2.8 s dels guions 2.9 Noms propis 2.10 Possessius i demostratius 2.11 Exemples 2.12 Noms d'arxiu, carpetes, eXpressions regulars 2.13 Manlleus

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FIGURE 3 shows some of the contents of one of the subjects (in Catalan) Estil instructiu [SG]
Lestil instructiu fa referncia a les formes verbals que sutilitzen en la comunicaci entre lordinador i lusuari. Quan s l'usuari qui s'adrea a l'ordinador, s'utilitzar sempre l'imperatiu en segona persona del singular (que correspon al tractament de "tu"). Aix ho trobarem sovint en els mens i en alguns quadres de dileg, especialment els d'opcions de configuraci. Exemples: Open:obre, Close: tanca, Edit: edita, Save: desa, copy: copia, find: cerca, paste: enganxa, print: imprimeix. En canvi, quan s l'ordinador qui s'adrea a l'usuari, donant-li informaci, fent-li una pregunta, etc., la forma que cal utilitzar s l'imperatiu en segona persona del plural (que correspon al tractament de "vs"). Aix ho trobem sobretot en alguns quadres de dileg i en la documentaci.

Examples: Open Language Pair: obriu el parell bilinge Select the project you wish to open: Seleccioneu el projecte que voleu obrir Save your translation: Deseu la traducci Seleccioneu una opci Select an option: Seleccioneu una opci Close the window: tanqueu la finestra Save and close the language pair: Deseu i tanqueu el parell bilinge

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3.2 Text Analysis And Recognition Stage

3.2.1 The Previous Analysis of the Text Text analysis tools currently incorporated into CAT environments make it possible to recognize a text against the translations previously rendered by the same translator. In such a way, very useful statistics are obtained, indicating de percentage of text segments that may be recovered from the memory and the degree of lexical repetition. As well as this, we can find out: segments recognized in the memory (that is, 100% identical) similar segments stored in the memory (the similarity percentage can be regulated by the user) segments not recognized in the memory. 3.2.2 Previous Terminology Analysis CAT packages currently incorporate terminological recognition tools, and, in some cases, rudimentary terminology extractors. After applying such tools, the translator obtains: a list of simple lexical units of the text, ordered according to frequency a list of the terminological units recognized in the glossary a list of term candidates (in the case of the extractor).

188 The joint result of the use of text and terms analysis and recognition tools provides translators with a series of analysis items useful for important decision-making processes when tackling the translation, such as: The extent to which the source text is new regarding the memory (there are many, few, practically no identical segments in the memory...) The extent to which the source text terminology is new regarding the glossary (there are many, few, practically no terms recorded in the memory...) The nature of some of the text translation units and their translational problem in some segments there might be extremely variable units, such as specific sentential units, adverbial units... The degree of lexical repetition of some units, and thus the weight of specific units in the translation. In this way translators can confidently visualize the type of problems to be solved, and anticipate the resources necessary for the task all in all, translators can calculate the efforts involved in a specific translation, even possibly recognizing the different tasks entailed As well as all this, translators can undoubtedly fine-tune the selection criteria for units that will stand as potential candidates for glossary identification and labelling: those most frequent throughout the text, those semantically more opaque before translation, those possibly polysemic, those possibly presenting geolectal variation, and so on.

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3.3 Pre-translation Stage

In the pre-translation stage the translator intervenes on the memorys parameters in order to activate the substitution of the source text segments. This stage does not entail any important qualitative intervention on behalf of the translator, as it is the programme which carries out the substitution autonomously; nevertheless, the consequences of this may be substantial, to the extent that the automatic translation of all the segments exceeding a specific preset similarity threshold means that the translator will not be reviewing such segments at any other later time and, even supposing such a revision takes place, it is possible for the translator not to detect many translation or terminology problems that would have been detected upon rethinking the translation of those segments. More specifically, during the pre-translation stage the translator may Automatically translate segments with a 100% similarity to the memory and mark them as translated. Partially translate those segments presenting a high degree of similarity and mark them as pretranslated or partially translated, pending verification. Substitute source text terminological units within each segment presenting equivalence in the target

190 language glossary. already recorded in the constituted

This latter option is very advisable from our point of view, as this will enable the translator to work applying the substitution test of the source language terms by terminological units of the glossary, and this in turn makes it possible to verify validity immediately during the translation procedure.

3.4 Translation Stage

This is the translation stage in which the translator, using an active target language window, and with all other translation environment elements conveniently activated terminology manager, note pad, Internet access starts to work on the correlative source language segments validating pre-translations, completing partial translations or translating from scratch, depending on each case. This is the stage in which the greater interaction takes place regarding the translation memory feeding every new segment to be translated with new suggestions and the terminological memory feeding, from the glossary, equivalence suggestions that coincide with a whole segment or, more frequently, with a unit within the segment limits In the translation stage, the interaction we describe is now bidirectional: on the one hand, as we have seen, the

191 glossary puts forward equivalence suggestions for the text that is being translated. On the other hand, the translator may decide to incorporate the equivalences he or she consider important into the glossary, from the text to the database administrator. The first interaction, then, goes from the translation memory and the glossary to the text, in such a way that the result has no direct influence on the glossary. FIGURE 4 shows this interaction:

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But the second possible interaction goes to the glossary, because the translator may introduce equivalences from the bilingual editor of the translation towards the database administrator. FIGURE 5 shows the second interaction:

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If the translator is interested in maintaining a terminological memory at the same time as a translation memory, it is essential to foresee the need of introducing such data during the translation process, as later on most of the terminological equivalences solved during the translation process will remain hidden within the particular segments, and it would not be possible to retrieve them for a new translation unless a segment

194 identical to the segment in the memory were found, or at least one with a very high similarity coefficient. The motivation for introducing a terminological equivalence in the glossary may result from a number of needs or criteria, on the basis of the personal motives of the translator. The most frequent instances are: The source language terminological unit appears very frequently in the text (this is detected during the analysis stage), and it is a question of work economy to isolate the unit in the glossary for it to appear immediately as a suggestion in the next segments of the same text. The terminological unit presents an equivalence in the target language which has been difficult to achieve (it might be a suggestion introduced by the translator, different from that recorded in other sources), and it is convenient to isolate and record it. The terminological unit presents different possible equivalences in the target language (geolectal reasons would account for this, for example), and it is then convenient to record all possibilities so the translator can visualize all options at once this way translation mistakes are avoided, or in any case the general impoverishment of the target text is prevented, as the different options would prevent tedious repetition.

195 The terminological unit in the target language presents a mistaken equivalence in the form of a false friend, a translation mistake in which the translator recognizes it may be possible to incur, so it is clearly convenient that the glossary remind the translator about the correct equivalence every time the unit appears in the source language.

3.5 Post-edition Stage

Once the translation is finished, the translator will have generated two products that must be carefully checked and reviewed: the translation in itself (for which a whole set of revision tools is available) and the glossary. We must be mindful of the fact that the glossary as it is created or fed during the revision process is, of course, incomplete, and a number of different revision tasks must be carried out. The most important are: 3.5.1 Verifying the Terminological Consistency between the Text and the Glossary This aspect of the revision should control that the terminological equivalences used in context that is, within each bilingual segment pair coincides with the equivalences present in the glossary. The typical situation is for this coincidence never reaching 100% because of the reasons explained above: it is perfectly

196 possible, for example, that the translator ignored a terminological equivalence suggestion coming from the glossary because he or she did not deem it adequate, and upon solving it on the basis of his or her criteria forgot to commit the new option to the glossary. This affects the terminological memory, as the inconsistency may affect the future terminological consistency of the new translations. For that not to be a problem, some programmes incorporate terminological consistency verification functions which make it possible to revise the translated text checking in every instance whether the target text equivalences and the suggestions of the glossary coincide. 3.5.2 Glossary Completion and Revision For future use, the glossary that was created or fed during the translation must be further completed with information items of a qualitative nature, most especially that facilitate later decisions made regarding the use of the equivalences contained. We believe the remarks about the use specifications of different options recorded, or an explanation about the different translation options according to the status of the term are of greater importance than simple definitions (easily obtained through the Internet) or contexts (the translation memory in itself enables consultation of such issues, that is, the placing of a term in its immediate use context).

197 3.5.3 Specification of the Application Domain A very important aspect made possible by CAT programmes is that of labelling the translated bilingual pairs according to a series of parameters enabling posterior filtering and selective retrieval. For example, the file of a translation memory can be labelled by the name of the customer who commissioned the translation, or by the subject area of the contents, or by the genre, amongst other criteria. In this way, a careful labelling of the translations according to these or other parameters makes it possible for the translator to configure and shape the translation memory to be used at different times, including or excluding parts of the memory according to them meeting to a greater or lesser degree the needs of a new translation project. In our opinion, in order to convert the one or many of the glossaries into a true terminological memory it would be necessary that the terminological units of the glossary/ies be labelled according to the same parameters, in such a way that for every translation need the translator has the most adequate terminological selection available. We should highlight the fact that such tools as we describe do not exist at present, and any operation entailing for example the subdivision of one glossary into two or more glossaries on the basis of one or many of the criteria mentioned above must be done manually,

198 labelling each unit and then exporting the units, or merging them with other glossaries. However, this option would make it possible, amongst other options, to retrieve the following from a terminological memory constituted on computer science texts: The standardized English-Spanish bilingual terminology of microprocessors. The verbal English-Portuguese collocations in software instruction manuals. Microsoft terminology versus Apple terminology All microcomputer science terminology used in the 1990-2000 decade. All homonyms in the field of image digitalization. Up to the present time, terminology work in translation was riddled with defects: ad-hoc equivalences, erratic selection criteria, lack of data consistency and systematicity, rigid format, zero integration with the translation process, insurmountable difficulties regarding time and effort in order to reuse such material in other translations, etc. And, on the other hand, terminology for translation, generated under the aegis of a rigorous systematic methodology ( a terminological trait in itself), is rather difficult in its current conception to apply and be useful for to the needs and aims of translation: unit selection criteria removed from real translation problems, emphasis on semantic coding aspects definitions, subject areas, use notes and scant contextualized information contributing practical

199 information about the behaviour of such units for the translator.

4. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE TRENDS

The teaching project as such was put into practice for the first time three years ago, and the three times have meant a similar experience with a new group of students every year. This means we were able to learn from our mistakes as the experience went on. Computer-related problems were common at first: however robust the CAT may be, universities are not computer science shrines, and the files take up a lot of space. Another problem we encountered was student commitment, in the sense that the project can only be completed and put together successfully if each and every one of the students works on his or her segments during the same period of time. This requires a very good distribution of the different groups of segments assigned to the students, as well as a good individual management of the terminological database: in fact, one of the spin-offs not contemplated initially was that all students gained considerable insight into the field of terminology, not one of the subjects most appreciated by the students initially. Other than the time spent together as a team in the classroom, it is important to offer students the possibility of being able to work individually outside class hours, when, owing to different reasons, their work has lagged behind.

200 An important question mark for educators is always the issue of assessing the work submitted by the students and marking accordingly. We believed an exam was out of the question, as the experience does not lend itself to quantitative comparisons, and students were proving to us by their very work that learning was a reality. We decided the pass/fail threshold should also depend on the students commitment, and the work then that clinches a good mark is the post-review corrections all students must individually introduce. That is, once the team translation has been completed, meaning that each individual student has completed his/her number of segments, the teachers go over the different parts of the translation and note the mistakes and modifications every student must introduce for the target text to be considered correct. During the examination period, a set number of days are given for students to introduce modifications. Once this has been done, every individual contribution to the Style manual is considered, as well as the individual terms committed to the dictionary. All such input eventually helps teachers assess the work of every student and mark correspondingly. We believe, however, that marks in this subject are really very unimportant. On the basis of three years practice, it is quite clear that students learn a lot through this experience and gain a high level of satisfaction. As we said before, the process as it develops turns out into a three-fold learning experience for the students: learning how to use a specific computer-aided translation tool; learning how to work as a translation team; and learning

201 how to discern between just transferring a source text into a target text and translating a text. In all three instances students respond very well, both regarding their learning potential and performance, and concerning their personal satisfaction. If anything, most students point out they would have liked the subject to have gone on for longer, that is, over and above the 40 hours contact teaching this subject stands for in the curriculum. From the educators standpoint, the project initially meant much time and effort, but the results have been to date extremely gratifying, and interesting enough for us to want to continue along the same path. From a methodological point of view, it must be said that the current physical separation between translated texts and terminological products perfectly illustrates the scattering of knowledge, the pigeon-holing of contents and the contradictions between basic ideas (production of glossaries with different methodologies and aims) that we have presented in our description of the current situation. To all this we must add that the possibility of reusing materials produced in other subjects is not taken advantage of, and the work flows that are most predominant in the present professional environment have no part in the classroom. Substantial advantages are entailed by the integration method we propose:

202 Integration would be conducive towards greater autonomy development of the students, as it will make it possible to start on the task of specialized glossaries and translations on the basis of accumulated knowledge, and will also help students to integrate skills and competences that are at present scattered amongst different subjects. Integration will allow for the reuse and enriching of the students work in such a way that the results generated in some subjects will be applied and used in others, and some of the tasks completed, such as terminological glossaries, may then be edited in html and disseminated through the Internet. Integration would fully link the learning of computer assisted translation tools in the work process of every subject in the curricula. Regarding future trends in the teaching of specialized translation and terminology, we believe that any important technological shift entails a whole array of uncertainties and fears, both amongst teachers and students, and it is the teachers responsibility to discuss these issues with the students in order to do away with biases and misconceptions, cautioning however about some consequences in the long term that may be less evident but essential regarding the professional ability and skills the students will eventually acquire.

203 Let us mention two examples of unreasonable fear that are sadly pretty common: (1) Computer aided translation programmes will replace human translators in the near future. This is a long-standing misconception (born in times in which expectation concerning machine translation was the rage). Very much to the contrary, all well-structured discourse and analysis on this subject point out that the translation market the volume of translated pages world-wide will grow at a fast and solid pace, aided and abetted by new technologies, even moving towards languages considered as not profitable. Translation will not be so expensive, and the work of translators will be of a better quality, because it will be possible to concentrate more on the resolution of the least repetitive and mechanical aspects of the text. (2) Translation will suffer and eventually become a sentence by sentence equivalence structure. Such forecasts forget that SMT applications are merely tools, not dictating a given work procedure, but rather managed and validated by the translator using them. It is the translators responsibility to know how to use the set of tools available, such as segmentation and alignment programmes, and translators should know about the consequences regarding the use of such tools in one sense or another.

204 Rather to the contrary, it is convenient that translation students and professionals training in new technologies are aware that technological change will entail consequences not visible in the short term but very important for their professional future. Two further examples: (1) Maintaining the translation memory and terminological memory. Translators must be aware of the fact that new TM environments demand careful maintenance and review, as they shall be the permanent basis on which new translations and glossaries will be carried out and perfected. Using the TM only as a short term productivity tool may considerably impoverish the results (and the work quality) of the translator. (2) The ownership of the translation memory. We consider this to be a key issue in the future which will determine whether the professional status and preparation of a translator will improve, or deteriorate according to circumstances. If a translator works most of the time with translation memories provided by agencies or corporations, the added value of the TM will be lost to the exclusive benefit of the recruiting side. Translators must understand that in times of technological change translation memories are their most valuable asset, and consequently should take professional decisions resulting in them being able to create and maintain their own translation and terminology resources, if their aim is

205 to become autonomous professionals in charge of their own decisions. All in all, we believe that specialized translation didactics must incorporate the teaching of computer aided tools within an environment in which technological mastery is achieved with an integrating outlook, highlighting the most qualitative and valuerelated aspects within a framework of collaboration with but not depending on, however, cutting-edge technological companies.

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207 Durieux, Ch. (1984). Fondement didactique de la traduction technique. Paris: Didier Erudition (Collection Traductologie, 3). Esselink, B. (1998). A Practical guide to software localization. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hahn, M. (1990). The key to technical translation. Vol. I & II. Amsterdam/Phildelphia: John Benjamins. Lykke Jakobsen, L (2002) Translation drafting by professional translators and by translation students. Copenhagen studies in language. O'Hagan, M. (1996). The Coming Industry of Teletranslation. In: Topics in Translation, 4, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters. Orsted, J. (2001) Quality and efficiency: Incompatible elements in translation practice? Meta, 46:2, 311-325. Rode, T. (2000) Translation memory: Friend or foe? International Journal for Language and Documentation, 12-13. Teb, C., Cabr, T. & Quiroz, G. (2002). La gesti de la terminologia en les memries de traducci. In: Translating Science. Proceedings: 2nd International Conference on Specialized Translation, pp. 175-185, Barcelona: PPU.

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Vintar, S. (2001) Using parallel corpora for translationoriented term extraction. Babel, 47:2, 133-157. Walker, D.G. (1993) Translation problems as they Occur in everyday practice. In: Klaus-Dirk Schmitz (ed.) Terminology and knowledge engineering. Frankfurt: Indeks Verlag.

209

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAGMATIC AND INTERPERSONAL EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATION

Mara Jos Garca Vizcano, Montclair State University Montclair, NJ, USA

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the importance of pragmatic and interpersonal equivalences in translating from English into Spanish and vice versa. These languages tend to use different linguistic politeness strategies to perform the same illocutionary acts in verbal interaction. In fact, most of the contrastive studies on politeness in English and Spanish (Hickey, 1991; Vzquez Orta, 1995; Garca Vizcano, 1998; Mrquez Reiter, 2000) have pointed out that English speakers tend to use linguistic politeness strategies oriented toward the negative face of the participants (Brown & Levinson, 1987), whereas Spanish speakers often use positive politeness mechanisms. These differences have important consequences in the field of translation: translators of English and Spanish should be aware of these two different orientations in politeness systems and the need to use different politeness strategies to reproduce the illocutionary force of the source text in the target text.

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1. INTRODUCTION: SEMANTICS, PRAGMATICS AND TRANSLATION

Communication is not just a process of codification and decodification, but it is also something else. This something else falls under the umbrella of what is known today as Pragmatics. There are hundreds of definitions of Pragmatics, but one of the clearest given so far is that of Leech (1983, p. 5). In order to more clearly define the term, Leech compares Pragmatics with Semantics by stating that both fields are concerned with meaning, but that the difference between them can be traced to two different uses of the verb to mean: Semantics would answer the question What does X mean?, while Pragmatics would answer the question What do you mean by X?. In other words, Pragmatics studies how utterances take on certain meanings in particular communicative situations. Although Semantics and Pragmatics are different disciplines within Linguistics, they complement each other and are both essential in the task of translation; translators should achieve not only semantic equivalence in the target text (hereafter TT), but also pragmatic equivalence. Semantic equivalence consists of conveying the same meaning from the source text (hereafter ST) into the TT. Pragmatic equivalence (or functional equivalence as it is called by Garca Yebra, 1997)1
1

La equivalencia funcional consiste en que el nuevo texto produzca en sus lectores el efecto ms aproximado al que se supone que el texto de la lengua original ha producido o produce en los

211 requires not only that the same meaning be conveyed, but also that the translation produce the same effect on the target readership that the ST produced on the original audience. In other words, a translation should do the same thing as the original text (Hickey, 1999). In addition to these semantic and pragmatic equivalences, a third type of equivalence is often neglected in the teaching of translation, though translators always strive for it: interpersonal equivalence. Interpersonal equivalence is closely related to the concept of pragmatic equivalence, but with a focus on politeness, which, according to House (1998), is one of the most important elements when doing and evaluating a translation. House (1998, p. 64) states that the operation of a number of pragmatic dimensions is to be seen as contributing to interpersonal functional equivalence with politeness being relevant on several of these dimensions. In other words, interpersonal equivalence refers to the ability of the translator to convey one of the most important contextual factors in a discourse situation: politeness. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the importance of achieving pragmatic and interpersonal equivalences in translation and the relevance of teaching these two components to our translation students. First, this paper
lectores nativos (Garca Yebra, 1997, p. 42) [Functional equivalence consists of making the new text produce the most approximate effect on the target reader as the source text has produced or still produces on the original readership.].

212 will illustrate the consequences of pragmatic equivalence for translators by applying it to Speech Acts, one of the cornerstones of Pragmatics. Second, to show the relevance of interpersonal equivalence and its implications in the field of Translation, as well as address Linguistic Politeness Theory and its crucial role in translating. All these concepts will be illustrated with examples that I have developed to teach English/Spanish and Spanish/English translation at Montclair State University.

2. SPEECH ACTS AND TRANSLATION

Speech Act Theory is based upon research conducted by J.L. Austin (1962) and later by his student John Searle (1969, 1975, 1976). Austin (1962) maintained that utterances are speech acts, that is to say, when we talk we do things with words: evaluate, ask, criticize, thank, apologize, etc. One of the most important contributions made by Austin to the Speech Act Theory was his distinction of three components in all speech acts: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary. The locutionary act is the act of saying something, i.e. Please, close the window. The illocutionary act is the act performed in saying something or the communicative intention of the utterance, i.e. the request. Finally, the perlocutionary act is the act performed by saying something. It is the effect or consequence of the act on the addressee, i.e. someone stands up and closes the window.

213 This illocutionary force is precisely the criterion that Searle used to classify speech acts. His taxonomy divided these acts in five categories (Searle, 1976). First, representative acts are those that state how things are: assert, conclude, state, etc (i.e. Paul is concerned about his job.). Second, directives are those acts by which the speaker wants the hearer to do something: ask, require, order, etc. (i.e. Bring me that book.). Third, commissives are acts by which the speaker commits himself to doing something: invite, promise, threaten, etc. (i.e. I promise you that I will go there on Saturday.). Fourth, expressives are acts that express feelings and attitudes: thank, welcome, apologize, etc. (i.e. Thank you for coming). And finally, declaratives are those acts whose utterance produces changes in the world: declare, nominate, pronounce, etc. (i.e. I pronounce you husband and wife.). Within the category of directives, it is necessary, especially in the context of politeness, to distinguish between those directives that involve an imposition for the addressee and those that do not (Haverkate, 1994). The former implies doing something for the benefit of the speaker such as in requests and commands (i.e. Please, close the door). The latter means doing something for the benefit of the hearer: advice, suggestions, recommendations (i.e. You should close the door.). Moreover, within the acts involving an imposition for the addressee we could say that there is a gradual scale of imposition since, for example, a request

214 (Can you close the door, please?) is not the same as a command (Close the door). The importance of this speech act theory for Translation can be illustrated with an example. In English, the verb try can convey two different illocutionary forces depending on the syntactic unit by which it is followed. If it is followed by an infinitive, the illocutionary act is a request or a command, in other words: a directive involving an imposition for the addressee and a benefit for the speaker as we see in (1). However, if try is followed by an -ing form, the illocutionary act is a piece of advice or a suggestion, that is, a directive involving no imposition whatsoever for the addressee but rather a benefit for him (2). (1) Try to remove the stain with this. (directive: request) (2) Try removing the stain with this. (directive: suggestion) The translator into Spanish should be aware of the fact that (1) and (2) are different illocutionary acts (1 is a request whereas 2 is a suggestion), that they convey different communicative intentions, and that they do different things. Consequently, the translator should look for the pragmatic equivalence in the TT to express these two different communicative purposes. In Spanish, the illocutionary force of a request can be conveyed with the periphrastic verb phrase intentar + infinitive (3) and

215 the illocutionary act of a suggestion with probar + a + infinitive (4): (3) Intenta quitar la mancha con esto. (directive: request) (4) Prueba a quitar la mancha con esto. (directive: suggestion) Therefore, by identifying first the illocutionary act of the utterance and then, by conveying the same illocutionary force into the TT, the translator has produced the same communicative intention of the ST and the same perlocutionary effect on the target reader. In (3) the reader is asked to remove the stain the way the speaker is saying, whereas in (4) the reader is recommended or advised to do so.

3. LINGUISTIC POLITENESS AND TRANSLATION

Linguistic politeness is an area within Pragmatics since it is a phenomenon that deals with the way speakers use the language to achieve certain goals in social interaction. There are many different models of politeness (Fraser, 1980, 1990; Fraser & Nolan, 1981; Lakoff, 1973; Leech, 1983; Spencer-Oatey, 2000, 2002; among others), yet one of the most influential theories that has become almost synonymous with the word politeness itself, as Eelen states (2001, p. 3), is Brown & Levinsons model (1987) (hereafter B&L). Despite the

216 numerous critiques of and reactions to their theory (or precisely because of them),2 B&Ls model is one of the most comprehensive, detailed, and widely cited. For this reason, we will use B&Ls model as our theoretical base in exploring the implications of Politeness in Translation. To summarize the essence of B&Ls theory, we should begin by explaining the two main concepts upon which the model is based: face and face-threatening acts (hereafter FTAs). The concept of face was first defined by the anthropologist Goffman (1967) as the set of basic needs and desires of human beings. These needs are mainly of two kinds: the desire of all individual members of society to be appreciated and approved (positive face) and the desire of every individual to have his or her own actions unimpeded by others (negative face). Clashes between individuals wants are inevitable in social interaction. Specifically, certain speech acts (apologies, requests, disagreements) may threaten the participants face, either positive or negative, or even both. These are the so-called FTAs (B&L, 1987, p. 25). In order to perform these FTAs without damaging the participants face, there are a number of linguistic strategies that addressor and addressee can use in interaction. These strategies can be oriented towards the

Some critiques have dealt with B&Ls concept of face (Gu, 1990; Ide, 1989; Mao, 1994; Matsumoto, 1988), the hierarchy of the strategies (Blum-Kulka, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Haverkate, 1983, 1994; Hickey, 1992), and the nature of the phenomenon itself (Garca Vizcano, 2005).

217 participants positive face (positive politeness strategies) or their negative face (negative politeness strategies). These strategies are chosen according to the contextual and extralinguistic factors of the communicative situation. Three of the social factors that B&L point out as crucial in linguistic politeness are the social distance between the participants, the power relationship (asymmetrical if they are superior and subordinate or symmetrical if they are equals), and the degree of imposition of the speech act. For example, we do not choose the same linguistic strategies when interacting with our brother as we do when interacting with a stranger or with our boss. Along the same lines, making a request for $50 is different than asking for $5,000. In addition to these factors, other scholars have pointed out the importance of variables such as age, level of education, and gender (Freed & Greenwood, 1996; Holmes, 1995; Nichols, 1983). Depending on these social and contextual factors, members of different societies chose different strategies. Many cross-cultural and contrastive studies in linguistic politeness have been conducted in different cultures and languages (Blum-Kulka, 1987; Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, 1989; House & Kasper, 1981; among others). In particular, contrastive studies of English and Spanish politeness (Daz Prez, 2003; Garca Vizcano, 1998; Hickey, 1991; Mrquez Reiter, 1997, 2000; Vzquez Orta 1995) support the generalization that English speakers tend to use more negative politeness strategies than Spanish speakers. These preferences in

218 politeness orientation seem to be related to the type of culture and society. For instance, both Anglo-Saxon and US cultures place a high value on independence and individualism and, as a result, English speakers often use strategies which are more oriented towards the freedom of action of the addressee and distance among the participants (cf. Wierzbicka, 1985, 2003; Hickey, 1991; Sifianou, 1989, 1993). On the contrary, Spanish speakers tend to use strategies that protect and foster the positive face of the hearer since their cultures seem to give more importance to the closeness and contact with the addressee in social interaction and social relationships in general (cf. Ballesteros Marn, 2001; Garca Vizcano, 2001, 2005; Haverkate, 2002; Hickey 1991, 2005). The fact that English and Spanish speakers tend to use different politeness strategies and have different orientations in their face-saving mechanisms is not only relevant, but crucial in both Translation and the Teaching of Translation. In the next sections, I will present three aspects of directives in English and Spanish that show how politeness works differently in these two languages and will highlight the implications for translators.

219

3. 1. Politeness strategies in English and Spanish directives 3.1.1. Orientation of requests

The different types of orientation in directives that involve an imposition for the hearer and a benefit for the speaker like requests, commands, and demands are one piece of evidence that English speakers tend to use negative politeness strategies, whereas Spanish speakers generally use more positive politeness mechanisms. While the English language usually orients these speech acts toward the speaker to protect the hearers negative face, Spanish directives are normally oriented towards the hearer. In order to illustrate this, in (5) consider the following request uttered in Spanish from one friend to another: (5) Me dejas tu coche un momento? If we had to translate (5) into English, the following literal translations would not be adequate from a pragmatic point of view (therefore, the * symbol): (6) *Are you lending me your car for a moment? or (7) *Do you lend me your car for a moment? There are two reasons why these literal translations are pragmatically inadequate. First, though in Spanish it is

220 very common to make requests by using interrogatives with the present indicative or even imperatives, in English the imperative mood is used for commands, not for requests. Also, English speakers would not use the present indicative for requests because that would be too direct and too much of an imposition (since it takes more for granted that the hearer will comply and do the act) for a culture that tends to give more importance to negative face in social interaction. Moreover, an utterance such as (6) sounds more like a request for information or even a sarcastic statement depending on the context. In any case, neither (6) nor (7) convey the requestive illocutionary force (5) does. Second, the hearer-orientation used by the Spanish language is more direct and imposes more on the hearer than the speakerorientation used in English. Therefore, in order to achieve pragmatic and interpersonal equivalence here, the translator should take two steps. First, she or he should use a more elaborate and indirect construction that expresses detachment, keeps distance from the hearer, and gives the hearer the option not to perform the request. In English the use of modals, which denote tentativeness and a lack of commitment, convey this meaning (Mrquez Reiter, 1997). Second, the translator should orient the request toward the speaker, not the hearer. From a syntactic point of view, the use of the first person singular as the subject imposes on the speaker who is the doer of the action, rather than the hearer. Obviously, however, the perlocutionary effect of the directive will be for the hearer who will lend him the car (or not).

221

Accordingly, the translation into English would be something like: (8) May I borrow your car for a moment, (please)? The same procedure can be applied to another example, an exchange between strangers whose power relationship is asymmetrical, in which the social distance between participants is greater than in example (5). In (9), someone is asking for a glass of water in a bar. If (9) had to be translated into Spanish, the literal translation (10), although grammatically correct, would not be pragmatically adequate for two main reasons. First, as previously explained, speaker-orientation in requests does not work in Spanish. Second, the use of the expressive (perdone), the non-imposition marker (por favor), and the conditional tense (podra) constitute too many negative politeness strategies for a culture and language that do not highly value the negative face of the participants. Therefore, (10) would not sound natural at all in Spanish. More feasible translations would be (11) or (12): (9) Excuse me, could I have some water, please? (10) *Perdone, podra yo tener algo de agua, por favor? (11) Me da un vaso de agua, por favor? (12) Podra darme un vaso de agua, por favor?

222

3.1.2. Indirectness as a politeness strategy in requests: the construction let + me + infinitive

Another example of the preference of the English language for negative politeness or the politeness of no imposition on the hearer is the use of the structure let + me + infinitive in requests. Let us consider example (13) in which a professor says the following to a student: (13) Please, let me know as soon as you find out. If we analyze the politeness strategies used to utter this FTA (a request), we observe that, apart from the politeness marker please, the speaker has used a periphrastic and indirect structure (let me know) to make the request instead of a direct structure such as tell me. If one tries to translate this utterance into Spanish as in (14) and (15) below, the literal translations are not totally inadequate (therefore, the ? symbol); nevertheless, the let + me + infinitive structure is not as frequently used in Spanish as it is in English. In Spanish, the construction let me know (djame saber or hzmelo saber) does not sound natural, but rather like a calque from English. Pragmatically, Spanish is more direct in these types of speech acts, and one would therefore translate (13) as (16) in which por favor would be enough to indicate it is a request, and not a command. The problem of translating (13) as (14) or (15) is that the TT would be more polite than the ST.

223

Consequently, the translation would sound more formal and distant than the original, and interpersonal equivalence would not be achieved. (14) ?Por favor, hzmelo saber tan pronto como lo sepas. (15) ?Por favor, djame saber tan pronto como lo sepas. (16) Por favor, dmelo/dgamelo tan pronto como lo sepas/sepa.

3.1.3. Indirect speech acts: the realization of requests through invitations in English
One more aspect of the realization of politeness strategies in English and Spanish requests is related to the notion of indirect speech acts (hereafter ISAs). There are several theories that explain the nature and concept of ISAs (Gordon & Lakoff, 1975; Haverkate, 1983; Morgan, 1978; Searle, 1975). The pioneer model of indirect acts was formulated by Searle in 1975. According to his theory, ISAs are those acts that are performed indirectly by way of performing others (Searle, 1975, p. 60). Thus, an ISA has two illocutionary forces: a primary (non literal) and a secondary (literal) illocutionary force. For instance, if someone at the table says to another person Can you reach the salt?, this would be an ISA because a request (primary non literal illocutionary act) is being made indirectly by uttering a

224 question (secondary literal illocutionary act). The perlocutionary effect that the speaker has in mind when uttering the question is that someone can pass him the salt, not respond Yes, I can without actually doing anything. The addressee will normally pass the salt (unless he wants to be sarcastic and simply answers yes), having understood that the utterance is a request and not a question. As many authors have pointed out (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Haverkate, 1983; 1994; Hickey, 1992; Leech, 1983; Lozano et. al., 1993; Searle, 1975; Thomas, 1995), one of the main reasons that speakers use ISAs is politeness. Therefore, ISAs have implications when one translates from a specific culture and language into another, and when the translator tries to achieve interpersonal equivalence. The following verbal exchange that took place between the security person in a private reception at a gallery in London (A) and a visiting Spanish diplomat (B) illustrates how ISAs function cross-culturally and their consequences for Translation: (17) A: Would you like to leave your bag here? B: Oh no, thank you. A: Well, we just had a theft here yesterday.

This exchange illustrates a misunderstanding produced by the use of ISAs and the use of different politeness

225 strategies in English and Spanish. The misunderstanding is triggered by the fact that A utters an ISA, that is, he performs a primary non-literal directive, a request (leave your bag here, please), through a literal secondary act, a commissive (an invitation to leave the bag). The Spanish visitor understands his utterance as a real offer or invitation. This is why the perlocutionary effect is that the visitor thanks him and does not leave her bag there. It is only when A explains to her that there had been a theft the previous day that she understands what he meant: he asks her to leave her bag and does not invite her to leave it. Taking into account the role that ISAs play in discourse as shown in (17), it is important to teach students how to face ISAs and politeness when translating. In (18) I will present a translation exercise from English into Spanish that I use in my classes. The context is that of a British tourist who is in Yazd, a small town in Iran, when his car breaks down. He goes into a little hotel to ask where he can find a mechanic. The hotel receptionist offers to go with him to find a mechanic on the outskirts of the town: (18) We went through Yazd, which isnt exactly the centre of the world, and out into the outskirts. There was a row of garages with a sparse collection of tools, oily floors and men in incredibly dirty T-shirts. We stopped at one and my guide said: - Mechanic, and pointed to a gentleman who spoke only Farsi.

226 I invited him into the car for a ride. It didnt take him more than fifty meters before he pointed to the right front wheel and said something that sounded like ball bearings. Two Spanish translations (19) and (20) were given to the students: (19) Atravesamos Yazd, que no es precisamente el centro del mundo, para llegar a las afueras, donde haba una hilera de talleres con una coleccin escasa de herramientas, suelos grasientos y hombres con camisetas muy sucias. Paramos en uno y mi gua dijo: Un mecnico mientras sealaba a un seor que slo hablaba farsi. Le invit a que diera una vuelta en el coche, y antes de recorrer cincuenta metros seal la rueda derecha de la parte delantera y dijo algo que se pareca a rodamiento. (20) Atravesamos Yazd, que no es precisamente el centro del mundo, para llegar a las afueras, donde haba una hilera de talleres con una coleccin escasa de herramientas, suelos grasientos y hombres con camisetas muy sucias. Paramos en uno y mi gua dijo: Un mecnico mientras sealaba a un seor que slo hablaba farsi. Le ped que diera una vuelta en el coche, y antes de recorrer cincuenta metros seal la rueda derecha de la parte delantera y dijo algo que se pareca a rodamiento.

227

There is an essential difference between the two Spanish translations of the sentence (21) below. Translations (22) and (23) differ in the fact that (22) translates literally (21), whereas (23) does not. What (23) is conveying is the non-literal illocutionary act of the utterance: a request. If we look closely to the ST, the speech act uttered in (21) is literally a commissive (an invitation), yet at the same time conveys a non-literal illocutionary force: that of a directive (request). In other words, (21) constitutes an ISA since what the tourist is doing in that situation is asking the mechanic to get into the car to check what is wrong with it. The tourist is not inviting him to do so for the mechanics benefit, but rather for his own. This is why (23) produces the same effect as the ST and maintains the communicative intention of (21). This way, translation (23) achieves both pragmatic and interpersonal equivalences. (21) I invited him into the car for a ride. (22) Le invit a que diera una vuelta en el coche. (23) Le ped que diera una vuelta en el coche. The example just presented is similar to the verbal exchange between the security man and the Spanish visitor at the museum (17). Nevertheless, if we had to translate that exchange into Spanish, we would not change the literal secondary act (the invitation) uttered by A as we would do in the case of the tourist in (21). The reason is that the perlocutionary effect of the exchange in (17) on the source reader is precisely the misunderstanding between the participants and this same

228 effect is what the translator should convey in the TT. If we translated the non-literal primary act of the request behind the invitation as in (24) below, then Bs answer would be rude when this is not so in (17), and we would be conveying a completely different perlocutionary effect on the target reader, thereby changing the overall communicative intention of the dialogue. (24) A: Por favor podra dejar su bolso aqu? B: ?No, gracias. A: Bueno, es que nos robaron ayer (y estamos pidiendo a los visitantes que dejen sus bolsas aqu).

Therefore, in this exchange the Spanish translation should keep the indirectness of the secondary illocutionary force (invitation) and convey the primary illocutionary force (request) at the same time in order to produce the same perlocutionary effect on the reader. This way, pragmatic equivalence is attained by communicating the same intention as (17) and interpersonal equivalence is also achieved by using indirectness in the realization of the speech act. In particular, the translator needs to use a linguistic mechanism that can be interpreted by the Spanish target reader as both an invitation and a request to communicate the same ambiguity as (17) and hence, the misunderstanding. One possibility presented in (25) is to use the present indicative quiere (wants) instead of the conditional querra (would like) since Spanish speakers tend to use more direct verb tenses in directives than English speakers do (Ballesteros Martn, 2001;

229 Hickey, 2000; Mrquez Reiter, 2002). Also, by using the verb querer (to want) instead of gustar (to like) the ambiguity of the communicative intention is maintained since querer is frequently used in both invitations and polite indirect requests in Spanish. (25) A: Quiere dejar su bolso aqu? B: No, gracias. A: Bueno, es que nos robaron ayer y estamos pidiendo a los visitantes que dejen sus bolsas aqu.

Finally, it is important to teach students the difference between the translation of (17) and (18). In the first case, we are translating locutionary acts, that is, the literal words uttered by someone, whereas in the second case we are translating the illocutionary force of those acts, that is, the communicative intention, not what was literally said. In (17), we are not interpreting the meanings of the words; we are merely reproducing the words of the speakers in another language, and it is the reader who interprets the illocutionary forces of the acts. However, in (18), we are not simply reproducing literal words, but interpreting those actual words for the target reader. It is especially in this second case that translators should apply their knowledge of cross-cultural politeness in English and Spanish to recognize the intention behind the words of the speakers and identify the illocutionary force of their acts.

230

4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, I have shown through several examples the importance of achieving pragmatic and interpersonal equivalences when translating and how the teaching of these two equivalences can be incorporated into our translation courses. The first step in achieving these types of equivalences in the TT is to reach a thorough understanding of the pragmatics of the ST. In order to do so, in the first stage of the translation process (understanding the text), the translator should undertake a comprehensive pragmalinguistic analysis of the ST by distinguishing the locutionary act (the words), the illocutionary force (the communicative intention), and the perlocutionary act of the utterance (the effect on the target reader).3 By doing this, the translator differentiates the underlying illocutionary force behind the act both from the linguistic strategy used to perform that force in the ST and from the intended effect on the source reader. After identifying these three aspects, the translator should convey the same illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect in the TT even, if it is necessary to employ linguistic mechanisms different from those used in the ST.

For the importance of a pragmalinguistic analysis of the ST based on the three components of speech acts, see Hickey (1999, 2000).

231 In addition to this pragmalinguistic analysis of the ST and its application to translation, it is essential to teach our students that different cultures and societies manifest their Pragmatics in different ways and use different linguistic mechanisms to perform the same speech acts and to attain the same goals in communication. At the same time that our students are studying translation techniques, they should also be acquiring a solid knowledge of the different politeness orientations of the source and target cultures and languages since translators should not only be bridges between languages, but also between cultures. Finally, this paper has highlighted some implications of the Speech Act and Politeness Theories in the field of Translation in the realm of directives in English and Spanish. The implications of Pragmatics for Translation extend to many other areas such as Grices conversational maxims, presuppositions, and Relevance Theory, just to mention a few, and may also be applied to other speech acts such as expressives (thanks, apologies) in the source and target cultures and languages. These topics constitute engaging and important material for future research in the Pragmatics of Translation.

232

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236 House, J. (1998). Politeness and translation. In L. Hickey (Ed.), The Pragmatics of translation (pp. 54-71). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ide, S. (1989). Formal forms and discernment: Two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness. Multilingua, 8:2:3, 223-48. Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness; or minding your ps and qs. Papers from the ninth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 292305. Leech, G.N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman Lozano, J., Pea-Marn, C. & Abril, G. (1993). Anlisis del Discurso: Hacia una Semitica de la Interaccin Textual. Madrid: Ctedra. Mao, L. R. (1994). Beyond politeness theory: face revisited and renewed. Journal of Pragmatics, 21, 451-486. Mrquez Reiter, R. (1997). Politeness phenomena in British English and Uruguayan Spanish: The case of requests. Miscelnea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 18, 159-167. Mrquez Reiter, R. (2000). Linguistic politeness in Britain and Uruguay: A contrastive study of

237 requests and apologies. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Mrquez Reiter, R. (2002). A contrastive study of conventional indirectness in Spanish: Evidence from Peninsular and Uruguayan Spanish. Pragmatics, 12:2, 135-151. Matsumoto, Y. (1988). Reexamination of the universality of face: politeness phenomena in Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 403-26. Morgan, J.L. (1978). Two types of convention in indirect speech acts. In P. Cole (Ed.), Syntax and Semantics, 9 (pp. 261-280). New York: Academic Press. Nichols, P.C. (1983). Linguistic options and choices for black women in the rural south. In B. Thorne, C. Kramarae, & N. Henley (Eds.), Language, gender, and society (pp. 54-68). Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House. Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech acts. An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Searle, J.R. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, 3 (pp. 59-82). New York: Academic Press.

238 Searle, J.R. (1976). A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 5, 1-23. Sifianou, M., (1989). On the telephone again! Differences in telephone behaviour: England versus Greece. Language in Society, 18, 527-44. Sifianou, M., (1993). Off-record indirectness and the notion of imposition. Multilingua, 12:1, 69-79. Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000). Culturally speaking: Managing rapport through talk across cultures. London: Continuum. Spencer-Oatey, H. (2002). Developing a framework for non-ethnocentric politeness research. In D. Bravo (Ed.), Actas del Primer Coloquio del Programa EDICE: La perspectiva no etnocentrista de la cortesa: identidad sociocultural de las comunidades hispanohablantes (pp. 86-96). Estocolmo: Institutionen fr spanska, portugisiska och latinamerikastudier. Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. London: Longman. Vzquez Orta, I. (1995). A contrastive study of politeness phenomena in England and Spain. Duisburg: University of Duisburg.

239 Wierzbicka, A. (1985). Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts: Polish vs. English. Journal of Pragmatics, 9, 145-78. Wierzbicka, A. (2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Guyter.

241

DECONSTRUCTION IN UNDERGRADUATE TRANSLATION PROGRAMS: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS, LIBERAL EDUCATION

Daryl R. Hague Department of Spanish and Portuguese Brigham Young University, USA

Abstract
When we speak or write, the words we produce may seem inevitable. Before our words appear, however, numerous possibilities play themselves out. Foreign-language students confront these possibilities, of course, but translation students do so with greater awareness. That awareness increases significantly when translation students grapple with deconstruction. Why? Because deconstruction addresses the play of languagethe contingency of meaning. In terms of practical value, deconstruction study offers translation students a singular opportunity to discard nave views of translation and explore possibilities they might not otherwise consider. Equally important, translation students awareness of linguistic possibilities can open the way to begin the adventures in self-understanding critical to liberal education. Those adventures begin as students confront linguistic contingency and the concomitant contingency of human being. This confrontation becomes acute when translation study includes deconstruction. If the purpose of liberal education is liberationopening our minds to new ways of thinkingthen deconstruction deserves attention in a universitys translation program.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Discussion about the translation-training syllabus has increased substantially during the past two decades. In particular, researchers have studied and debated how best to develop translational competence. Such competence includes understanding of translation theory. When researchers have addressed theory in the classroom, however, they have rarely included deconstruction. In this paper, I wish to address the value of deconstruction study in undergraduate translator training. That value is two-fold: (1) by challenging beginning students uncritical views of translation, deconstruction study provides practical application to translation study; and (2) deconstruction study gives students an opportunity to become educated rather than merely trained. This second benefit justifies translator training as liberal education at a university rather than simply vocational training. Vocational training is undoubtedly both necessary and laudable, but translator training in a liberal-arts program should go beyond that.

2. TRANSLATOR-TRAING CURRICULA
Translator education is not primarily designed to teach a foreign language. That is, translator training is not just anotheror even an advancedgrammar and composition class. Rather, translator training seeks to help students develop translational competence. This competence includes but is not limited to the skills

243 normally associated with linguistic competence. Anthony Pym, for example, defines translational competence as combining two abilities: The ability to generate a target-text series of more than one viable term (target text 1, target text 2 target text n) for a source text. The ability to select only one target text from this series, quickly and with justified confidence, and to propose this target text as a replacement of source text for a specified purpose and reader. (Pym, 1992, p. 281) The foregoing abilities involve several skills in addition to linguistic competence. Indeed, researchers clearly view translational competence as requiring, at minimum, knowledge of the languages, knowledge of the cultures, and domain-specific knowledge (Schffner and Adab 2000, ix). Translational competence requires the ability to apply such knowledge to generate texts for specific audiences and purposes. Translator-training manuals focus on helping students develop this text-generating ability. Manuals by Sonia Colina (2003), Daniel Gile (1995), Paul Kussmaul (1995), Mildred Larson (1998), and Wilhelm Weber (1984) illustrate this focus. To one degree or another, all these works suggest activities designed to help students improve reading comprehension, understand text types or communication situations, resolve common translation problems (e.g., figurative language), and

244 anticipate audiences. All of these skills contribute to students translational competence. While emphasizing translational competence, training manuals do not usually discuss much theory. Nevertheless, scholars recognize the need to introduce theory during training, particularly when theory is understood as different views of translation (Anderman and Rogers, 2000, p. 69)e.g. functionalist models, linguistic modelsrather than methods for solving common translation problems. In Aston Universitys four-year undergraduate program, for example, students take a course entitled Contemporary Translation Theories (Schffner, 2000, p. 147). Similarly, in Brigham Young Universitys four-year program, an advanced course combines practical translation work with instruction in contemporary theory. Given time constraints in one-year programs, the opportunity for theory is likely to be limited. In longer programs, however, theory provides students the opportunity to reflect upon what happens as they transform texts. Among the theoretical approaches addressed in translation studies, deconstruction has been an important topic for slightly more than two decades. For example, James Holmes (1985) suggested that deconstruction could illuminate the work of literary translators. Later, in the mid-1990s, the topic sparked some controversy. Specifically, Anthony Pym (1995) published a critique suggesting that deconstruction was not very helpful for translation studies. Rosemary Arrojo (1996) published

245 an impassioned response to Pym. Since that time, the weight of scholarly opinion has clearly favored deconstructions relevance to translation studies. Indeed, Kathleen Davis Deconstruction and Translation (2001) published as part of a series on translation theory edited by none other than Anthony Pymmakes a persuasive case for deconstructions place in translation studies. While scholars generally acknowledge deconstructions relevance to translation study, only Rosemary Arrojo has suggested how it might be introduced in translator training. Arrojo recommends that instructors emphasize translation, like any other form of reading or interpretation, involves a transformation rather than a mere recovery of predetermined meaning (Arrojo, 1994, p. 9). Of course, no modern translation theorist would define translation as the recovery of predetermined meaning. Nevertheless, beginning students often hold such nave views. A class informed by deconstruction will help students discard these views. Furthermore, if students can understand translation as a form of reading or interpretation, they will understand their role as creatorsnot recognizersof meaning.

3. A DECONSTRUCTION PRIMER FOR TRANSLATION STUDENTS

Arrojos recommendation suggests an attitude that could inform translator-training classes in general. She does

246 not, however, explain how translation instructors might present the specifics of deconstruction. The following section outlines some deconstruction basics and provides examples that undergraduates can grasp. Some readers may consider the examples redundant or superfluous, but as the title indicates, this section is simply a primer, a brief introduction. This primer shows that deconstruction basics are neither hopelessly opaque nor terribly difficult. Furthermore, the class time required to discuss this material need not be lengthy. As a result of studying deconstructions insights, students should abandon their uncritical notions of translation practice. When undergraduates begin deconstruction study, they should begin with a few basic terms: sign, referent, and presence. A sign represents or refers to something, which is known as the referent. The word pig, for example, is the sign for an animal (the referent) inhabiting the barn of our neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. By using the word pig, we can make Zuckermans pig present to us in conversation, even when he is not physically with us. We can do so because the very concept of a sign presupposes a concept of presence: a sign is always a sign of something present or presentable (Hart, 1989, p. 5). The pigs physical existence appears to guarantee that the word pig connects meaningfully with the world. However, signs alone cannot bring us to the world, to the things that exist prior to the human relations in which we engage them. That is, signs do indeed refer to something, but they require an act of referencesomething outside

247 the reference system called languageto make that reference complete (Faulconer, 2001, p. 22). The act of reference supplements language. Without that supplement, signs cannot refer to anything. Thus, signs alone defer the realization of reference that they appear to guarantee. This idea of deferred reference appears in diffrance, a neologism coined by Jacques Derrida. In addition to deferred reference, diffrance concerns how signs differ. Specifically, Derrida writes that that which is written is never identical to itself (Derrida, 1978b, p. 25). A sign, in other words, differs from its referent, from itself. Signs are not natural; they have no inherent meaning. Nothing inherently piggish about Zuckermans animal, for example, requires us to use the word pig. The term pig has meaning only because we have agreed that it does within the sign system called English. Furthermore, we understand signs by their relationship to each other. When we use the word pig, we understand that pig is different from rig (contrast by sound) and antelope (contrast by concept). An individual sign therefore differs from other signs as well as from its referent. The combination of differing and deferring (Kearney, 1995, p. 161) captured in diffrance illustrates how Derrida views reference. He does not deny but delimits reference; what he denies is reference-withoutdifference. Without diffrance (Caputo, 1993, p. 76). Reference, in other words, is not a perfect correspondence of sign and referent. Reference is not identity. Instead, a sign alone will always defer its

248 promised identity and differ from its referent. Identity reference without diffranceis not possible in the reference system we call language. Derrida argues that the very structure of signs makes identity impossible. The argument concerns how signs represent some presence while simultaneously remaining open to repetition and change. Kevin Hart summarizes the argument as follows: No context can circumscribe a signs meaning; the signs meaning will alter if repeated in a different context; but the sign is structurally open to repetition: therefore, alterity is a structural feature of the sign (Hart, 1989, p. 13). In order for a sign to be a sign, in other words, it must be repeatable. Repeatability, however, opens the possibility of repetition in a different context and therefore of changes in meaning. Such possibilities may not materialize, but they always exist. Furthermore, the signs animating presence (Hart, 1989, p. 13) cannot limit these possibilities. Why? Because they flow from the signs structure, its inherent repeatability, not its animating presence. The foregoing shows how a signs inherent openness to change co-exists with its animating presence. This coexistence suggests several important points about signification systems, especially what Derrida calls the trace: [First, the] presence in question cannot be signified purely and simply; further, there is no fixed point of any kind which can help us find an angle of deviation between what is signified and

249 what should be signified. In short, we must conclude that this pure presence has never been given to consciousness: all we can say is that it is a trace of a presence. (Hart, 1989, p. 14). The trace, reflecting diffrance and the very structure of signs, suggests why identity cannot be realized within signification systems. Nevertheless, we act as though identity is possible when we speak or write. That is, we assume the fictionthe constructof original presence, the fiction that our linguistic sign system enjoys a natural and unfettered connection to reality. In Derridas terms, this fiction centers language: it acts as a transcendental signified (Derrida, 1981, pp. 19-20). This transcendental signified imposes order, constructing signs meaning within a particular signification system. To help undergraduates grasp the function of a transcendental signified, metaphors can be helpful. For example, instructors can note that within sign systems, transcendental signifieds assume the role of an axis mundi. An axis mundi, as Mircea Eliade describes in The Sacred and the Profane, is conceived among certain primitive religious peoples as a cosmic pillar that unites the three levels of the cosmos: heaven, earth, and the underworld (Eliade, 1959, p. 35). This pillar may be represented by a sacred pole, a mountain, or a temple. Regardless of form, the pillar establishes the world. Indeed, Eliade notes, the pillar founds a sacred world, the only world in which religious people can genuinely exist (ibid. p. 64).

250 To illustrate how this cosmic pillar works, Eliade describes a nomadic Australian aboriginal group, the Achilpa. The Achilpa carry a sacred pole with them during all their journeys. By doing so, the Achilpa can remain in a sacred world even while pursuing a nomadic life. Without the pole, however, chaos ensues. Indeed, Eliade notes that the breaking of the pole is the end of the world (ibid. p. 33). On one occasion, for example, when an Achilpa clans pole became broken, the entire clan were in consternation; they wandered about aimlessly for a time, and finally lay down on the ground together and waited for death to overtake them (ibid. p. 33). The Achilpa expected to die, Eliade explains, because the broken pole thrust them from a sacred world into profane space. That profane space represented absolute nonbeing (ibid. p. 64). Essentially, profane space empties religious people of their ontic substance, the result being death (ibid. p. 64). This consequence illustrates the absolute need for a cosmic pillar or axis mundi. As a transcendental signified, the Achilpas axis mundi shares two characteristics with all transcendental signifieds: (1) it is absolutely necessary; (2) it is not actually transcendental at all. As to the first point, a transcendental signified undeniably holds a system together. Without it, the system cannot function. We have no language, for example, without the fiction of original presence. As to the second point, transcendental signifieds do not exceed the system itself. Instead, they remain part of the system. We treat them as if they were at once inside and outside the sign system (Hart, 1989,

251 p. 8), but their status as a fixed point outside the sign system is imaginary (ibid, p. 8). Transcendental signifieds, in other words, do not enjoy a natural connection to reality outside the system they ground. Transcendental signifieds lack of a stable connection to reality means that a systems signifiers likewise lack such a connection. This situation is somewhat analogous to the Achilpas broken pole. Once that pole was broken, the Achilpa were thrown into chaos. Similarly, linguistic meaning becomes fluid when we recognize that our linguistic axis mundithe fiction of original presence lacks stability. Because our linguistic axis mundi lacks a necessary connection to reality, meaning within our language systems is not rigid. Instead, meaning is slippery, always moving, difficult to grasp. Thus, in Derridas terms, the system contains play (1978a, p. 279). This phenomenon of play among signs reflects Derridas description of diffrance. The indeterminacy of diffrance indicates a place for deconstruction in translation courses. Of course, to appreciate diffrance, students need to understand transcendental signified, the trace, and play as well. All of these words represent an attempt to understand the workings of language in a monolingual speaker. Those workings are usually hidden. They are revealed, however, when people translate. That revelation marks deconstructions value to translator education.

252

4. DECONSTRUCTON IN THE TRANSLATION CLASSROOM: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

When students first encounter the notions of transcendental signified, trace, play, and diffrance, they may react as if Derrida advocated a brand of linguistic anarchy. They may assume, that is, that anything goes in translation. As a corollary, they may wonder aloud how their teacher can possibly grade their translation work. After all, if the source text contains no original presence, how can a teacher possibly gauge how well students have re-presented that presence in a target text? The best response to the anything goes argument is that Derrida consistently rejects it. Davis (2001, p. 15) makes this point clear: play, she notes, is often misunderstood as the idea that a signifier can ultimately mean just anything at all In contrast, Derrida notes the French jeu (play, give) recalls not simply the sense of the ludic, but also the sense of that which, by the spacing between the pieces of an apparatus, allows for movement and articulation (ibid. 15). This play means that language offers countless possibilities, but countlessness does not imply anarchy. As David Cowles notes: [L]anguage presents an infinite number of possibilities. But that doesnt mean that anything at all is possible in language. There are an infinite

253 number of numbers between 0 and 1 in our language of mathematics, but 1.2 is not one of them. Many of those who mistakenly take Derrida to be an utter relativist miss this point. Play has limits, despite involving infinite possibilities of interpretation and perception. (Cowles, 1994, p. 113). Answering students corollary about original presence and grading translations requires more explanation. Concerning translation, Derrida does indeed state that translators will never have, and in fact never have had, to do with some transport of pure signifieds from one language to another (Derrida, 1981, p. 20). Rather than transporting original presence, notes Derrida, translation is a regulated transformation of one language by another (ibid. p. 20). Contrary to student expectations, Derrida does not imply a suspension of reference. This point is crucial for responding to students corollary, because the corollary assumes that decentering original presence and affirming a suspension of reference are the same thing. Concerning this mistaken assumption, Derrida notes: It is totally false to suggest that deconstruction is a suspension of reference. . . . [Deconstruction] is, in fact, saying the exact opposite (Kearney, 1995, pp. 172-173). Indeed, Derridas description of the trace would be nonsensical if he also advocated a suspension of reference: we can have no trace without reference. While deconstruction decenters original presence and thereby exposes the limitations of reference,

254 deconstruction simultaneously acknowledges how the fiction of original presence makes communication possible. The fiction of original presence functions as the transcendental signified for human languages. Without this essential function, we have no language. Given that languages share this functional transcendental signified, Derridas description of regulated transformation becomes clear. Rather than focusing on transporting original presence, translation concerns languages relationship to each other. Diffrance characterizes this relationship: In the limits to which it is possible or at least appears possible, translation practices the difference between signifier and signified (Derrida, 1981, p. 21). As translators consider possibilities, they become aware of small nuancesthe play of differing and deferringbetween highly similar words. The practice of difference, therefore, occurs before the final translation choice is made, that is, in the moment before the naming takes place, while the thing still is not (Gentzler, 2001, p. 165). This moment marks the opportunity for translators to explore possibilities. Exploring possibilities reflects Suzanne Jill Levines affirmation that translators create continuations of the originals creative process (Levine, 1991, p. 167). Translators do so by recognizing languages polyvalence and choosing where the emphases lie, which meaning is most urgent (ibid, p. 159). Of course, choosing the most urgent meaning cannot occur in a state of linguistic anarchy; instead, translators must have sufficient knowledge to recognize distinctions. The act of translation, thereforeinformed by diffrance

255 encourages both creativity and meticulous attention to detail. A translation instructor who understands the foregoing would never engage in performance magistrale, which is an approach to translator training in which students review their translations sentence-by-sentence, correcting them where they differ from the instructors master copy. In reviewing instances of such teaching from Canada and West Germany, Kiraly (1996, p. 8) argues that this approach is extremely passive, thwarting the responsibility and independence that must be the foundations of professional translation (ibid, p. 9). Because deconstruction denies the very possibility of the master copy on which performance magistrale relies, a classroom informed by deconstructions insights should not fall into the trap of reducing students to being passive recipients of the instructors Ur-translation. Instead, students should feel encouraged to participate actively in their own learning and to think critically about translation practice.

5. UNDERGRADUATES REACTIONS TO DECONSTRUCTION STUDY

To illustrate how undergraduate students can eventually respond to the opportunity for exploring diffrance, I would like to share part of an undergraduate translation courses final exam. In that exam, I wanted to encourage

256 students to reconcile translation practice with theory. The question was as follows: Deconstruction theorists reject the idea of original presence common to traditional translation theories. Instead, deconstruction theorists argue that translation is simply language referring to language. Using the terms original presence, transcendental signified, play, and diffrance, you should explain why deconstruction theorists make that argument. Then, explain why deconstruction theorists might argue that the original text depends on the translation. Finally, describe the implications of deconstruction theory for practicing translators. Below are two student answers to the foregoing question. These answers are not short, but they are well worth reading. The first is rather poetic, while the other is more earth-bound. Both answers, however, demonstrate how deconstruction study has had a positive impact on students translation practice. Answer #1 (Jared Mott)1 Deconstruction is wonderful. It opens up all kinds of avenues in my mind to explain faith, free will, fate, feelings (emotions), aloneness, redemption from aloneness. Or at least it explains why I cant explain them. Mostly, deconstruction makes it impossible to
1

Because I teach at a private church-sponsored university, my students sometimes use religious terminology to frame their exam answers. This answer reflects such framing.

257 discredit these things, and makes it so that the only thing tying the world together is Spirit-Faith. That introduction seems not to have much to do with translation. But in my mind (and heart), it has everything to do with translation. The Fall [of Adam and Eve], the Atonement [of Christ], the Tower of Babel, . . . the Lord Himself, all are intricately involved in translation and deconstruction Because the gap between signified, signifier, and referent is so broad, we are all stranded, wandering around a world we cant even be sure is really there or [is really] what we think it is. It hurts. And we cant even communicate that hurt to each other adequately because, for one, we cant quite identify the hurt (language comes up with nostalgia, homesickness, lonelinessbut none of them can bring up an original presence we can work with), and for another, we cant communicate the hurt to anothers heart because of the irremediable gap our language puts between us. All our words are just words referring to other words referring to other words, never quite reaching the reality of our existence. Its all just sports, weather, and feigned piety. Its all circumlocution. Its all translation. But sometimes we get close. Our translations of reality almost hit the heart, the core of our existence. Thats when we cry, or laugh, or just stare blankly, wondering where that fleeting fairy of feelingthat fleeting glimpse of realitywondering where it went and how we lost it so fast. How did we get so close? Why arent we still there? Its context. For just a moment we catch almost all of the context of the absent presence,

258 and almost all of what we meant and what we didnt mean. But then its lost. Why? We lose the original presence, we lose that feeling, that glimpse of truth because when we see it (or almost see it) we revert to our translation, our language, our system of clumsy signs, to try to understand it. As soon as we do this we remove ourself (sic) from the truth, from the reality, by an eternity in what seems just a moment. Our original text, the universe, has become nothing but a translationlanguage referring to language. We cant see the original but through our translation. So what do we do now? Give up? Deny that we ever get close to feeling reality? Or just assume that there is no original presence, just translation? No. The only answer is to keep trying to translate better. We came close once because we understood a little more of the context, a little more of the meaning of our word. We could see all the play of one tidbit of language, of reality. But it was just a moment because Im stuck to my mortal language. So do I reject that language? No! I embrace it. I study it. I struggle with it. I play with it. I make it immortal someday. I try my damnedest to bridge the gap between the absent presence and the original presence. I cannot do it alone, and it will take forever, but thank goodness for the struggle. Without the problem of deconstruction, thered be no reason to have faith, no reason for a redemption, no reason for other peopleand horrible enoughno reason for God.

259 The foregoing answer reflects the problem of translatability in general. Specifically, Jared Mott describes the struggle to translate human experience through our system of clumsy signs. Indeed, he recognizes the gaps that exist among referent, signifier, and signified, illustrating that he understands how those gaps create the possibility of play. Interestingly, while he recognizes play, Jared simultaneously calls deconstruction wonderful; describes a nostalgia for original presence; affirms the existence of certain transcendental signifieds: truth and God, for example; and argues that we need to keep trying to translate better. Presumably because of these last affirmations, a colleague whom I respect criticized Jareds answer as hopelessly wrong, a prime example of the full-blown romanticism (my colleagues term) that Derrida sought to attack. I disagree. Instead, I believe Jareds answer and my colleagues critique represent different possible readings of Derrida. Specifically, my colleague sees Derrida at his most bleak, the Derrida who has provoked charges of masochism (Milbank, 2001, p. 65), coitus interruptus (Ward, 2001, p. 286), and nihilism (Smith, 1995, p. 415; Milbank, 1997, p. 266). These charges reflect a belief that Derrida somehow rejects the possibility of a transcendental signified. In contrast, Jared sees the Derrida who can quite rightly pass for an atheist (Derrida, 1993, p. 155), at least regarding the God of religious systems, yet has a passion for God and has spent his life translating Augustines beautiful and bottomless question: What do I love when I love

260 my God? (Caputo, 1997, p. xxii). For Jared, Derridas lifelong efforts to translate Augustines question translate being Derridas term (Derrida, 1993, p. 122) do not deny the possibility of a transcendental signified. Rather, those efforts simply suggest constant engagement with the trace. That constant engagement reflects an attempt to test the bounds of language, a recognition that though we can deal with only texts and text analogues, there is necessarily something more than any text (Faulconer, 2001, p. 23). Answer #2 (Will Carr) Deconstructionists argue that truth and reality cannot be known through language, that language is disconnected. They argue that language is not grounded to reality and the transcendental signified is rather a part of the system, not a central, anchoring idea. Traditional translation theory affirms that the deep meaning is what must be expressed in the translation, that the translator finds the ideas or original presence behind the original text and expresses that deep meaning in TL idiomatic form. Obviously, deconstructionists disagree. Derridas idea of diffrance states that meaning cannot be known through form because meaning is deferredit is dependent on context, and each context is dependent on other contexts ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Since meaning is out of languages reach, language becomes simply a chain of signifiers, independent of meaning. Translators, then, cannot be expressing deep meaning, transferring it to TL forms; they are instead creating a TL chain of signifiers that reflects the SL chain of signifiers: language referring to language.

261 Furthermore, deconstructionists argue, if language is separated from meaning, how can any text claim to be the original incarnation of the original presence? The original derives more meaning from the translation, since the latter provides context and thus approaches meaning more than the original. I myself subscribe to a somewhat limited form of this idea, since many times it is in translating a text that I reach my own understanding, and translations often provide greater insight. I also believe in the law of witnesses. As a translator, what all this deconstructionist theory means to me is: (1) Context does provide meaning; when meaning is unclear, context can clarify. (2) You can never understand too much context nor connect too many signifieds nor learn too many signifiers, since understanding, connecting, and knowing as many as possible will help the translator reflect the source text as well as possible (without reflecting the source forms, of course). (3) Language has play. The translator can use [this last point] to his advantage. Meaning is context-dependent, so using context and the play in language systems, the translator can create many more possibilities (perhaps unorthodox). In this answer, Will Carr analyzes the relationship between source texts and translations. Specifically, he notes how the translated text creates a chain of signifiers that reflects the source text. Furthermore, concerning translation practice, Will understands the importance of knowing as many [signifiers] as possible so as to grapple with the nuances that translation inevitably obscures and reveals. In particular,

262 Will notes the possibility of using such knowledge to craft unorthodox translations. Like Jareds answer, Wills is open to criticism. For example, Wills statements that context can clarify and that a translated text approaches meaning more closely than the original do not seem to correspond well with Derridas affirmation that there is no original presence behind the words we use. Wills statements, however, can also be understood as an attempt to grapple with the differing component of diffrance. That is, Will may simply be saying that since differing is unavoidable, understanding, connecting, and knowing signifiers helps us capture nuances or possibilities we might otherwise lose. Wills description of unorthodox possibilities and linguistic nuance fits well with Jareds effort to struggle with gaps and play. Indeed, these examination answers show how two undergraduates have begun to genuinely confront their own translation practice. Through that confrontation, they have recognized that translation underlies human communication. Such recognition necessarily helps these students pay attention to detailand consider new possibilities in their translation work. Equally important, however, is how recognizing translations role in human communication reflects the goals of liberal education.

263

6. DECONSTRUCTION IN THE TRANSLATION CLASSROOM: LIBERAL EDUCATION

Liberal education concerns investigating what makes people human. Michael Oakeshott, for example, describes liberal study as providing "adventures in human self-understanding" (Oakeshott, 1989, p. 27), opportunities for exploring what an associated set of human beings have created for themselves beyond the evanescent satisfaction of their wants (ibid. p. 28). Such adventures freeliberatestudents "from the distracting business of satisfying contingent wants (ibid. p. 28). Of course, satisfying contingent wantslearning to use a computer program, creating a contractis often the goal behind translation work. By emphasizing how people use the product of translation, therefore, one can characterize the act of translation as highly utilitarian and therefore not liberating in the sense Oakeshott describes. Critics might say, in other words, that translations utilitarian nature makes translator training a poor candidate for liberal education. Indeed, that is the very argument that German scholars have used in attempts to bar translation programs from universities, whether thirty years ago (Wills, 140) or today (Anderman and Rogers, 64). But this argument relies on a false identity: it equates product and process. The fact that translated texts often help satisfy contingent wants does not mean that translation study itself is not liberating.

264 The argument against translation as liberal education is remarkably similar to that leveled periodically against the foreign-language requirement at many universities. Every so often, critics claim that language study does not qualify as "an indispensable component of a liberal education" (Bugos, 1980, p. 303). This notion reflects a belief that language study requires excessive mechanical learning and focuses too much on satisfying contingent wants. Unlike language study, the argument continues, truly liberal subjects "call for 'evocative' modes of teaching featuring 'inquiry and discovery'" (Sudermann, 1993, p. 150). Opportunities for inquiry and discovery are supposedly lacking in the satisfying-contingent-wants world of language study. Language students can successfully shop for groceries, for example, but shopping for canned tuna cannot provide adventures in self-understanding. Critics assert, therefore, that language study cannot liberalize the intellect as quickly or easily as other subjects (Bugos, 1980, p. 303). Granted that language learners become capable of satisfying contingent wants, critics overlook an important point about language study and contingency. Specifically, language study forces students to confront their own contingency, thus prompting the kind of selfevaluation envisioned in liberal education. Concerning how language students confront their own contingency, Sudermann (1993, p. 154) notes that this confrontation occurs in three different ways. First, by losing their native cultural resourcesparticularly their

265 languagestudents feel a sense of isolation, a sense of existing in a state of nature. Such isolation helps them recognize that language and culture "ease isolation and exposure." Second, in addition to experiencing the loss of their culture, students recognize that without culture "the circumstances of existenceplace, time, culture, forebearsalso lack ultimate necessity" (ibid. p. 155). That recognition prompts anxiety about fate and the meaning of life. Third, on top of experiencing absence and anxiety, students will confront the fact that thousands of languages and cultures abound, "any one of which exists as a possible, though contingent, frame of reference" (ibid. p.155). Furthermore, and paradoxically, these numerous possible frames of reference appear inaccessible due to the tremendous variety of sound and expression in human language. Sudermann argues that genuine liberal education begins when students confront the foregoing forms of contingency. Those formsexperiencing cultural isolation, feeling anxiety about the meaning of life, and recognizing the existence of thousands of seemingly inaccessible languages and cultureswrest students from the comfort of home. That wresting prepares students to learn for two reasons. First, they become willing to go beyond what they know and explore the unknown. Second, while exploring the unknown, they will seek ways to adapt. By doing so, language students will have begun Oakeshotts adventure in selfunderstanding.

266 Translation study, particularly if augmented by the philosophical insights of deconstruction, offers similar opportunities for self-understanding. Indeed, translation study of this kind offers better opportunities than regular language classes. The struggle to translateto relate one language to anothercreates the very confrontations with contingency that Sudermann describes. Deconstruction, however, which is inexorably connected (Gentzler, 2001, p. 146) with translation, profoundly intensifies those confrontations. That intensity justifies translation study as liberal education.

7. CONCLUSION
In her well-crafted Deconstruction and Translation, Davis (2001, p. 2)states that deconstruction cannot be considered a translation theory. Similarly, Gentzler (2001, p. 146) writes that deconstruction offers no translation theory of its own. These statements are accurate in that Derrida and others have not proposed deconstruction as a translation theory per se. Nevertheless, translation scholars have unquestionably used deconstructions insights to approach translation in new ways. When translation scholars do so, they in fact treat deconstruction as a translation theory. Undergraduate students can benefit from such theory in several ways. First, as a practical matter, deconstruction study can encourage students to discard nave views of translation. As a consequence, they may be more

267 creative and pay greater attention to detail than they otherwise might. Second, as the student responses in Section 5 suggest, deconstruction study can help students think critically about translation practice. Third, from the point of view of liberal education, deconstruction helps students confront the contingency of meaning. That confrontation becomes acute in translation classes, where students actively critique how meaning is created. Such activity fits well with the Delphic Oracles charge to know ourselves as members of a human community. Liberal education pursues this very goal. If the purpose of liberal education is liberationopening our minds to new ways of thinkingthen deconstruction merits attention in a universitys translation program. Having noted the benefits of deconstruction study, I should acknowledge that instructors could achieve them without discussing deconstruction in class. That is, a successful instructor could dispel nave views of translation, encourage translator creativity, and promote critical reflection without ever mentioning deconstruction. Indeed, one could read Arrojos article (1994) as advocating just such an approach. Explicit classroom discussion of deconstruction, however, offers a highly concentrated assault on superficial views of translation that other approaches may not. That assault can shake the pillars of heaven, making the metaphor of the Achilpas broken pole particularly apt. Furthermore, as the primer in Section II shows, deconstruction basics simply are not that difficult, nor do they require significant class time to discuss. Given

268 deconstructions importance in translation studies, students deserve the opportunity to engage these ideas early in their educational experience.

269

References
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272 position in society (pp. 147-153). Vienna: Braunmller. Kussmaul, P. (1995). Training the translator. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Larson, M. L. (1998). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language equivalence (2nd ed.). New York: University Press of America. Levine, S. J. (1991). The subversive scribe: Translating Latin American fiction. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press. Milbank, J. (2001). On forgiveness: A roundtable discussion with Jacques Derrida. Moderated by Richard Kearney. In J. D. Caputo, M. Dooley, & M. J. Scanlon (Eds.), Questioning God (pp. 5272). Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Milbank, J. (1997). Postmodern critical Augustinianism: A short summa in forty-two responses to unasked questions. In G. Ward (Ed.), The postmodern God: A theological reader (pp. 265-278). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,. Pym, A. (1995). Doubts about deconstruction as a general theory of translation. TradTerm, 2, 11-18. Pym, A. (1992). Translation error analysis and the interface with language teaching. In C. Dollerup

273 & A. Loddegard (Eds.), Teaching translation and interpreting: Training, talent and experience (pp. 279-288). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schffner, C. (2000). Running before Walking? Designing a Translation Programme at Undergraduate Level. In C. Schffner & B. Adab (eds.) Developing Translation (pp. 143-156) Competence Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schffner, C., & B. Adab. (2000). Developing translation competence: Introduction. In C. Schffner & B. Adab (eds.) Developing Translation (pp. vii-xvi) Competence Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schffner & B. Adab (Eds.), Developing translation competence (pp. vii-xvi). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Smith, H. (1995). The religious significance of postmodernism: A rejoinder. Faith and Philosophy, 12, 409-422. Sudermann, D. P. (1993). Out of the labyrinth: The role of foreign language in general education. The Journal of General Education, 42, 3, 149163.

274 Oakeshott, M. (1989). The voice of liberal learning: Michael Oakeshott on education. T. Fuller (Ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. Ward, G. (2001). Questioning God. In J. D. Caputo, M. Dooley, & M. J. Scanlon (Eds.), Questioning God (pp. 274-290). Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Weber, W. (1984). Training translators and conference interpreters. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

275

ACADEMIC PROFILES
Diana Berber has taught in the Spanish Translation Department of the Centre for Translation and Interpreting of the University of Turku since she arrived in Finland from Mexico in 1990. She has been a fulltime lecturer there since 1999 and she has also been involved since 1995 in the European Masters in Conference Interpreting (EMCI) program as a speaker. She is currently a doctoral student of Translation and Intercultural Studies at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. Her area of research integrates her interests in interpreting and new technologies as well as diplomacy, which is based on her background in international relations. Since 1995, she has also been teaching Spanish at the Centre for Language and Communication at bo Akademi University, the Swedish-language university in Turku. At present she combines her research and teaching with translations and editing of translated texts. Madeleine Cases is Assistant Teacher at the Department of Translation and Interpreting, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Her teaching areas are scientific and technical translation, computer-aided tools for translation, and simultaneous interpreting. She is also the director of the Postgraduate course Catalan sign language interpreting expertise at the Institut dEducaci Contnua at the same University. Her main research interests are: interpreting and bilingualism, cultural and political issues in translation and

276 interpreting environments, and scientific and technical translation. Dr. Francesc Fernndez has taught German to Spanish Translation and German as a Foreign Language at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain since 1995. His scholarly articles focus on Translation Teaching and Learning and German Language Teaching, as well as on Contrastive Textology (comparative discourse analysis in Applied Linguistics). These are also his main research interests, together with collaborative learning leading to student self-regulation through mediation instruments. Dr. Mike Garant is originally from Tennessee and has been teaching Translation at the University of Helsinki since 1996. His scholarly books and articles have concentrated on in Translation Teaching and Learning, and English Language Teaching (ELT), Japanese, American and Finnish Studies and as well as Business and Organizational Communication. He holds the position of Senior Lecturer of English Translation at the University of Helsinki and, since 2001, adjunct lecturer International Business at Tampere University of Applied Science. He earned his BA in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, his MSc at Aston University, Birmingham England and his doctorate in Organizational Communication at the University of Jyvskyl, Finland and has been a Japanese National Scholar at Nara University of Education and Osaka University of Foreign Studies. He has been a visiting professor at many institutions all over the world.

277 Dr. Daryl R. Hague is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA where he directs the undergraduate translation program. He teaches courses in Spanish grammar and composition and in translation theory and practice. His principal research interests include translation theory, translator training, legal translation, and literary translation. His interest in legal translation reflects his background as a lawyer. Currently, he serves as a member of the Standing Committee on Court Interpretation for the State of Utah, which supervises the performance and training of interpreters throughout the Utah court system. Dr. Hague received his BA (Spanish Translation) from Brigham Young University, his JD from the University of Washington, his MA (Spanish Pedagogy) from Brigham Young University, and his PhD (Comparative Literature) from the State University of New York (Binghamton). Miguel A. Jimenez has taught Spanish, Russian and Translation at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Wake Forest University, USA. He is currently completing his dissertation on Web Localization at the Ph.D. Program in Translation Processes at the University of Granada. It is entitled "The web localization process: a comparable corpus study of the genre corporate homepage". His main research interests are localization, localization training, corpus-based translation studies and terminology. Dr Konrad Klimkowski is a translator/interpreter and translator/interpreter trainer and lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Maria Curie-

278 Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics, English word formation (2003). Interest areas are translator and interpreter training, curriculum design, collaborative learning and teamwork translation, translation as profession, and translator professional profiles. Dr. Carles Teb holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and is Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpreting, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. His teaching areas are scientifical and technical translation, terminology and computer-aided tools for translation. He is also a researcher at the Institut Universitari de Lingstica Aplicada at the same University. His main research interests are: conceptual variation and representation in terminology (polysemy, homonymy), terminological management in translation environments, terminography, and scientifical and technical translation. Miriam Shlesinger is Associate Professor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel, and an Honorary Doctor of the Copenhagen Business School. Her areas of research include cognitive processes in interpreting, corpus-based translation studies, literary translation, community and court interpreting, and translator training. She is coeditor (with Franz Pchhacker) of The Interpreting Studies Reader (Routledge 2002) and of Interpreting: International journal of research and practice in interpreting, as well as Associate Editor of the Benjamins Translation Library, former Board member of the European Society of Translation Studies (EST) and a

279 member of the Research Committee of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC). She is also a practicing translator and interpreter. Dr. Mara Jos Garca Vizcano is currently teaching Translation at Montclair State University (New Jersey) where she is also Director of the Certificate Program in Translation and Interpreting in Spanish. She studied at the University of Granada, Spain and her Ph.D. dissertation was a contrastive study of politeness strategies in English and Spanish. She has written articles in the fields of Pragmatics, Politeness, Translation, and Code-Switching. Some of her main publications include Consideraciones sobre la naturaleza y funcionamiento de la cortesa verbal en espaol peninsular (Revista Internacional de Lingstica Iberoamericana), Funciones pragmticas de Eso es y Efectivamente en espaol peninsular (Spanish in Context), and Translating Code-Switching in Chicano Fiction (Translation Studies in the New Millennium). She has also presented numerous papers at international and national conferences. Dr. Garca Vizcano combines her research and teaching with the profession of translation by engaging herself (and many times also her students) in different translation projects. Larry Walker is Associate Professor in the Department of European and American Linguistic Cultures, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto Prefectural University in Japan. Research interests in Translation Studies focus on the history of Japanese to English translation. A recent article, Kyoto Classical Literature in Adaptation,

280 Translation and Retranslation, (in Japanese) appeared in Japanese Literature Research Journal, Volume 1. (2007). Rachel Weissbrod is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Her areas of research include theory of translation, literary translation into Hebrew, translation for the media and inter-semiotic translation. Her Ph.D. (submitted in 1989) deals with literary translation from English into Hebrew focusing on the relations between canonized and non-canonized literature. She has published in Multilingua, Target, The Translator, Meta, Across Languages and Cultures, Jostrans and more. Her book Not by Word Alone, Fundamental Issues in Translation (in Hebrew) was published by The Open University of Israel in 2007.