Academic Translation Research Articles

Teaching the Professional Dimension of Translation in Academic Translation Programmes

Reform policies in higher education have brought about changes in attitudes regarding the education of translators. One of the latest challenges concerns the concept of professionalization of translation and the need for a type of training that would provide students with the specific skills required for the translator’s profession. Indeed, most translation programmes today aim at educating highly qualified translators on a competence-based training. Μore particularly, the emphasis is on metacognitive competence acquisition and the reflexive capacity development taking into account students’ motivation and expectations, their general background knowledge as well as individual learning styles. The present paper proposes a didactic approach on a professionally-oriented basis that would help students enter most effectively the translation industry by realizing at the same time the importance of acquiring a strong theoretical background on translation. Among the main issues to be addressed are the contribution of translation theory to the practice of translation, the role of the translator as cultural mediator, his social responsibilities as well as the translator’s psychological traits and their effect on translation quality. Finally, it proposes a variety of learning activities that are closely related to the act of translating together with a number of student assessment methods bearing a strong professional orientation.

Machine Translation-Friendly Language for Improved Machine Translation Output in Academic Writing

Academic writing aims to disseminate scholarly knowledge to a target audience in concise language. During this process, translators sometimes translate academic texts into foreign languages, so that the output of scholarly research can be read by speakers of different languages. In such cases, translators are to translate the source text into the target language in a clear and comprehensible language. This paper discusses how the authors of scholarly texts can structure their writing properly, so that they can help translators compose clear and concise translation output. Although the knowledge and skills of the translator are a key consideration in ensuring the quality of translated texts, the source text itself is highly influential in the quality of the output. Furthermore, although they might partially differ from one language to another, academic writing has some well-established conventions. Therefore, translators might experience some problems when they translate scholarly texts. This study aims to pinpoint such issues and to offer viable strategies that could be used for solving them before the translation process. Commonly encountered problems that impair the quality of the translation output are as follows: wordiness, ambiguous expressions, failing to consider the discourse structure of the target language while organising the source text, using conjunctions carelessly, using the passive voice unnecessarily, using indirect language to express ideas, using synonymous words sequentially, typos, and other similar problems. Though experience in academic translation can help solve some of these issues, it might not be possible to produce good translation output if the source text is poorly written. Success in academic translation can be achieved through collaboration between the author of an academic text and its translator. For this reason, it is necessary to raise the awareness of writers and translators on this issue.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence Translation Tools in Academic Translation: Faculties of Pure Sciences as a Case Study

The Role of Artificial Intelligence Translation Tools in Academic Translation: Faculties of Pure Sciences as a Case Study

Recommendations on the translation of academic texts in the social sciences and the humanities

These recommendations are addressed not only to translators, but to all users of translation, including authors and readers of academic texts, journal editors and publishers, as well as reviewers. They call attention to the translated nature of many works that are often viewed as originals, and through which English as the academic lingua franca is constantly produced and reproduced in a multilingual space. Rather than approaching translation as a hindrance, they seek to highlight its transformative potential and to call for more constructive approaches to the translation of academic texts. Academic translation, these recommendations maintain, relates to the particularities of the language of the social sciences and the humanities, as distinct from that of scientific and technical texts. Relying on a theory of translation as a procedure that involves specialized techniques for the rewriting of texts, they address the relationship between writing and translating, the collaboration between academic authors and translators, and relevant issues relating to the politics of translation in a highly unequal academic field.

Translating ‘understanding’/ understanding translation: A reflexive approach

This article has its starting point in an apparently marginal undertaking: Bridget Fowler’s translation of Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Comprendre’, a methodologically oriented chapter which appeared at the end of the collectively authored book La Misère du monde. Its objective is to show how translation, beyond its apparent marginality, is in fact a key component of sociological practice, and inseparable from sociological interpretation and theorizing. Because of this, translation can provide an original and unexpected point of view that sheds light on little considered sociological matters and relations which usually escape from critical consideration. First, Fowler’s translation is discussed in the context of her critical engagement with Bourdieu’s sociology. Second, sociological approaches to the mostly neglected craft of academic translation are examined. Third, the project of a reflexive sociology is related to that of reflexive translation through what can be characterized as a translational sociology.

RUSSIAN TRANSLATION STUDIES: TO BE OR NOT TO BE AS AN ACADEMIC SCIENCE?

The paper deals with the study of the problems of Russian translation studies formation as an academic science in its theoretical and applied forms. The formation and development history of the famous linguistic translation theory (LTT), which up to the present day has been an officially recognized institutional discipline for scientific and educational activities in the Russian Federation, is traced. In today’s Russian scientific community, along with LTT, new transdisciplinary scientific, theoretical and methodological types of research in the field of translation theory and practice are actively developing. At the current historical stage of development, translation studies is interpreted as a social and humanitarian transdisciplinary science at the intersection of linguistics, cultural studies, communication theory, comparative literature, semiotics, sociology, history, as well as philosophy, hermeneutics, ethnopsycholinguistics and cognitive science, information theory and other related academic sciences and phenomena like “localization” within the framework of algo-cognitive culture. Three groups of paradigms operating in modern Russian translation theory and methodology have been identified: (a) linguistic profile, (b) cognitive profile, (c) discursive profile. Groups “b” and “c” can form the basis for the academic translation paradigm. Three types of discourses are introduced into scientific circulation. 1. Translation studies discourse, associated with academic discourse in its theoretical and didactic varieties. 2. Translation discourse which is theoretically and practically based on the first one and serves the translator as their theoretical and practical basis for generating the third type, viz. translated discourse. The last one is a resultant product addressed to the recipients’ reflection sphere. As a result, the author’s “discursive-game cognitive-hermeneutic paradigm” has been proposed as a preliminary model of the desired “academic-type translation studies paradigm”.

Strategy choice, shaping factors and justifications: Perceptions of academic translators of Humanities and Social Sciences texts

AbstractScholars have conflicting views as to strategy choice between foreignization and domestication, and each view is supported by descriptive case analyses. So far, translation practitioners' voices on strategy use have not been heard. This study aims to explore translators' views on strategy choice, shaping factors, and justifications. The participants surveyed were translators of academic texts in Humanities and Social Sciences, a genre requiring substantial and creative interventions from translators in rhetorical norms and epistemological conventions. The results indicate that: domestication is used more often than foreignization; strategy use is translator-specific in that the translators are divided concerning the manipulation of the macro-level source-text features and content, though most of them agree to domesticate the micro-level features; eight factors (target readers' needs, authors, etc.) exert different degrees of impact on strategy use; and the current practices of justifying strategy use is invisible, harming the recognition of translators' contributions and their professional status.

Artificial Intelligence in Academic Translation: A Comparative Study of Large Language Models and Google Translate

Purpose. The advent of Large Language Model (LLM), a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model, in November 2022 has had a profound impact on various domains, including the field of translation studies. This motivated this study to conduct a rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness and precision of machine translation, represented by Google Translate (GT), in comparison to Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically ChatGPT 3.5 and 4, when translating academic abstracts bidirectionally between English and Arabic. 
 Methods. Employing a mixed-design approach, this study utilizes a corpus comprising 20 abstracts sourced from peer-reviewed journals indexed in the Clarivate Web of Science, specifically the Journal of Arabic Literature and Al-Istihlal Journal. The abstracts are equally divided to represent both English-Arabic and Arabic-English translation directionality. The study’s design is rooted in a comprehensive evaluation rubric adapted from Hurtado Albir and Taylor (2015), focusing on semantic integrity, syntactic coherence, and technical adequacy. Three independent raters carried out assessments of the translation outputs generated by both GT and LLM models. 
 Results. Results from quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that LLM tools significantly outperformed MT outputs in both Arabic and English translation directions. Additionally, ChatGPT 4 demonstrated a significant advantage over ChatGPT 3.5 in Arabic-English translation, while no statistically significant difference was observed in the English-Arabic translation directionality. Qualitative analysis findings indicated that AI tools exhibited the capacity to comprehend contextual nuances, recognize city names, and adapt to the target language's style. Conversely, GT displayed limitations in handling specific contextual aspects and often provided literal translations for certain terms.

Politics of translation: Assimilation and reflexivity in the transformation of academic texts

For many at the periphery and semi-periphery of the global academic field, translation or self-translation into English has become a prerequisite for the pursuit of an academic career. This article focuses on the academic translators who translate humanities and social science texts and the crucial but highly invisible role of their everyday translation practices in relation to the dominance of Anglophone discourses and concepts. It articulates an interdisciplinary theorization of the politics of translation through the concepts of assimilatory and reflexive translation, which are applied to an empirical investigation based on semi-structured interviews conducted with academic translators in the context of Spain. The analysis brings to light their backgrounds, professional profiles, and perceptions of their working conditions, as well as their views of science and good writing. Academic translators predominantly adopt an assimilatory translation strategy, reformulating texts to adapt them to Anglophone academic conventions. However, habitual collaboration between translators and authors gives rise to deliberation among both actors on how to recreate texts in the new linguistic situation. Such collaboration holds great potential for the development of more reflexive forms of translation in which an invitation to consider translation strategies and decisions is extended to authors and users of translations at large.

Translating academia. Implications for knowledge production in the social sciences and the humanities

This introduction to the special issue provides some context on the linguistic landscape that characterizes contemporary academia and on the significance of academic translation for knowledge production. It elaborates on how the adoption of English as academic lingua franca, one of the most pervasive aspects of a global university system shaped by neoliberalism, has led to the coexistence of differently placed languages in a competitive market. Most of the world’s researchers in the social sciences and the humanities today exist in highly multilingual spaces where the simultaneous use of different languages for research, writing and teaching has become routinized. However, the preponderance of English as the universal medium of what counts as globally relevant knowledge also determines the nature of mostly covert, yet widespread academic translation practices without which the functioning of the lingua franca would be impossible. These ordinary yet widely ignored translation practices are constitutive of knowledge production in a global academic space. Reflecting on the politics of translation in this highly unequal field becomes, in this context, a necessary undertaking. Such a reflection entails, on one hand, a recognition of the continuity and inseparability of writing, interpreting, and translating in shaping the production of social scientific and humanistic knowledge and, on the other, a critique of assimilatory forms of translation through which the dominance of plain English as the language of science is constructed.

Academics in the semi-periphery: Translation and linguistic strategies on the rocky road to publishing in English

Publishing in English is now essential for securing tenure and promotion in the social sciences and humanities in Spain, as academic performance is largely evaluated by number of publications in journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) or Scimago Journal Rank (SJR). This relatively new situation has forced academics with varying levels of English to dedicate significant time, effort, and money to obtaining publishable texts. This article investigates academic translation in terms of widespread and invisible translation and editing practices into English, providing a different perspective from previous studies of the transnational circulation of knowledge. Based on semi-structured interviews with scholars from sociology and translation studies, it reflects on their strategies, choices, and preferences for how their texts should be translated or edited, as well as the relationships and routines they develop with their trusted language professionals. All the interviewees expressed a preference for assimilatory strategies or, in other words, the assimilation of their texts into standard or ‘native’ academic English, which should be seen as a means to covet the prestige unfairly reserved for Anglophone scholars. One of the key contributions of this article is to move beyond the popular notion of epistemicide, exploring through empirical detail the linguistic, methodological, and structural issues that these semi-peripheral academics highlight in relation to publishing in the lingua franca for global academia.

The Impact of Google Translate Syntactic Strategies on Translation Quality: Translating Journal Articles from Indonesian to English

The prevalent use of Google Translate as a tool for academic translations, despite concerns regarding its quality, frames the core issue of this research. This research aims to classify syntactic strategies used by Google Translate in translating from Indonesia to English. It also aims to analyze the quality of the translation produced and how the syntactic strategies affected the translation quality. The data were collected from a journal article entitled “Pengaruh Bahasa Indonesia dan Bahasa Inggris sebagai Bahasa Pengantar dalam Pendidikan Formal” which was presented using a descriptive qualitative method. The findings of this research reveal there are several types of different syntactic strategies used by Google Translate. The result of this research shows that, out of 273 data collected, there are 123 (45.05%) data of literal translation, 2 (0.73%) data of loan and calque, 53 (19.41%) of transposition, 17 (6.23%) data of unit shift, 45 (16.48%) data of phrase structure change, 1 (0.37%) data of clause structure change, 18 (6.59%) data of sentence structure change, 1 (0.37%) data of cohesion change, 13 (4.76%) data of level shift, and no data found for scheme change. In addition, there are several different classifications found for translation quality. Out of 194 data analyzed, the results show that 163 (84.02%) data are accurate, 30 (15.46%) data are less accurate, and 1 (0.52%) data is not accurate. For acceptability, there are 179 (92.27%) acceptable, 14 (7.22%) data are less accurate, and 2 (1.03%) data are not acceptable. Finally, there are 180 (92.78%) data with high readability, 15 (7.73%) data are medium readability, and no data found for low readability.

Academic Translation: From Theory to Practice

Academic Translation: From Theory to Practice

Using online machine translation in international scholarly writing and publishing: A longitudinal case of a Chinese engineering scholar

AbstractScholars who use English as an additional language (EAL) worldwide are under increasing pressure to write and publish in English due to the pervasive publish‐or‐perish culture and the growing dominance of English in academia. While previous studies have focused either on textual differences between EAL scholars' writing and native writers', or explored the difficulties EAL scholars meet and strategies they employ in the process, this paper examines a longitudinal case of a Chinese engineering scholar using online machine translation (MT) to support his academic writing and publishing in English. Drawing from the technology acceptance model as the theoretical background, this study shows that online MT can be a crucial support for scholars with limited English proficiency in the process of preparing a manuscript, submitting it and communicating with editors and reviewers. Frequently occurring problems in machine‐translated academic texts include improper use of technical terms, use of informal language and the inclusion of grammatical mistakes. However, in the last decade, online MT has made great improvements in academic translation. We believe these findings can empower EAL scholars to effectively use online MT in academic English writing and inspire educators to help novice scholars mobilize various high‐tech tools such as online MT to support their writing and international publishing.

Социальная структура Улуса Джучи и тюрко-татарских ханств по материалам «Джами ат-таварих» Кадыр Али-бека

The aim of this study is to identify and determine elements of the social structure of the Ulus of Juchi and Tatar khanates in the 16thaand 17th centuries according to the materials of “Jami al-tawarikh” by Kadyr Ali-bek. Research materials: The article uses a new edition of “Jami al-tawarikh” by Kadyr Ali-bek – the latest academic translation of the “Compendium of chronicles”. Novelty and Results of the Study: “Jami al-tawarikh” is the most important source on the history of the Ulus of Jochi and Tatar khanates at the threshold of the modern era, but also an important testimony on the internal social structure of these states. Kadyr Ali-bek was not only a very high-ranking dignitary and aristocrat, but also a man who knew and recorded how this system functioned in practice. For him, the titulature and many important attributes of power were natural and full of meaning. Viewing this system through his eyes allows us to understand some points that have eluded researchers when analyzing it from other sources. Kadyr Ali-bek’s work mentions the most important elements in the social and class structure of Tatar society in the Ulus of Jochi and Tatar khanates, as well as the mechanisms behind their interaction, such as ruling clans, karachi-beks, atalyk, and emildyash (emildäš) foster-brothers.

Translation and interpreting research in Saudi Arabia: a bibliometric analysis (1990–2019)

ABSTRACT The first academic translation centre in Saudi Arabia was established in 1990 by King Saud University; since then, translation has been developing as a discipline in its own right. Despite the considerable attention given to bibliometric study of translation and interpreting (T&I) research in Translation Studies, the available literature to date has not explored the development of T&I journal articles in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to lay the groundwork for examining 30 years of Saudi T&I research activities by analysing the productivity of published journal articles between 1990 and 2019, prior to the establishment of The Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission (LPT) as a regulating body. The paper divides the examined period into three phases: early years (1990-1999), advances in academia (2000-2009) and advances in the industry (2010-2019). Drawing on bibliometric parameters of productivity, the dataset includes 180 journal articles collected primarily from King Fahad National Library and Scopus as well as three Arabic secondary sources. The findings suggest a significant increase of published articles in the third decade (2010-2019), a dominance of pedagogy-related studies during the three phases and shared patterns with contextual factors in Saudi Arabia; including the expansion of translation departments at universities and international scholarships.

«Дао-дэ цзин»: главный канон китайской философии в первом академическом переводе на русский язык

The Dao-de jing (The Canon of the Way-dao and Grace), or Lao-zi (The [Trea­tise] of the Master Lao / the Old Child), is the main canon of Taoism, which un­derlies its philosophy, mythology and religion, cult and psychophysical prac­tice, as well as the most original and popular work of all Chinese philosophy in the world, second only to the Bible in terms of publicity. For more than two millennia in China and neighboring countries hundreds of scientists and philoso­phers have been studying, commenting and interpreting it. For a century and a half in Europe, America, Russia, it has been consistently considered the great­est work of philosophical and religious thought in China, attracting the attention of major thinkers and cultural figures. Over the past half century, the outstanding discoveries of Chinese archaeologists have been the finds of its oldest manuscripts. However, until now, despite thousands of studies and hundreds of translations, the origin and authentic meaning of the Dao-de jing remain a mystery. This pa­per provides brief information about the current state of its study and the first academic translation in Russia, based on the textually most verified original and a scientifically based system of Russian-language equivalents for the categories and basic concepts of Chinese philosophy, as well as observing the unity of ter­minology when transmitting the same hieroglyphs used in the same sense. The most well-founded and detailed commentary text of the monument, published by China’s leading expert on classical Taoism, Professor Chen Gu-ying, is used as the original.

Sözlü Çeviri Edinci Ölçeğinin Geliştirilmesi (SÖZÇE) ve katılımcıların sözlü çeviri edincine ilişkin görüşleri

Even though the translation activity is as old as humankind's history, academic translation teaching started towards the end of the 20th century. The demand for interpreting has also increased with international relations, migration, asylum, and two world wars. The need to train interpreters has emerged in this field, similar to written translation. Accordingly, what kind of knowledge, behavior, skills, and perspectives must be gained by individuals who want to be interpreters has been researched by translation scholars. The concept of interpreting competence has also emerged in interpreting studies. Different studies regarding this concept have been performed, and an attempt has been made to create interpreting competence models, especially by the araştırılGerman scholars. This study basically intends to develop an interpreting competence scale by investigating the opinions of prospective interpreters and professionals regarding interpreting competence. Accordingly, a literature review was carried out in this area, and the developed interpreting competence scale was implemented. Through this developed scale, the situation of the interpreting market in Turkey in terms of the professionals and prospective students who have interpreting training at different universities were compared. In the study, it was concluded that the scale is valid and reliable (having four sub-dimensional and 22 items). In interpreting, a significant difference is available in favor of male participants in linguistic-cultural competence, and besides, the effect is positive. In addition, there is a significant difference in favor of those desiring to work in the interpreting market in the interpreting process management. Furthermore, it can be said that there is a significant difference in favor of participants considering interpreting their primary profession in interpreting process management. A significant difference is present in favor of those living in a country where a foreign language they know has been spoken for more than three months, and the effect can be positive- medium. For correlation values, participants' interpreting competence has a low significant relationship with sex and the status of living in a foreign country. In contrast, the relationship between age and students' grades can be either medium or positive. The study also found out a high and positive significant relationship between the desire to work in the interpreting market and considering interpreting the primary profession. Finally, those who want to specialize in interpreting must have a high level of dedication to the profession because interpreting is a practice-based process requiring intensive effort in a cognitive, intellectual, and affective sense.

ПЕРЕВОД КУЛЬТУРЫ В РУССКОЯЗЫЧНОМ ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ НЕРУССКОГО АВТОРА

The article examines a special translation of ethnic culture carried out by a non-Russian bilingual writer in a Russianlanguage fiction text. The authors hypothesize about a special kind of cultural translation that is not considered within the framework of academic translation studies. This type of translation is carried out by a non-Russian bilingual author who creates artistic texts in Russian about the culture of the people to whom s/he belongs by right of birth. Theoretical substantiations are summarized, which, from the point of view of the authors of the article, can serve as an evidence base for the hypothesis put forward. The most relevant theoretical foundations are the works of Y. M. Lotman, G. D. Gachev, G. P. Melnikov.

Al-Mas‘udi on the Important Personalities of the Arabic Olden Days. The Legendary Tradition about the Nizar’s Sons’ Partition of Fatherly Legacy

Among the materials of Murudj al-Dhahab wa Ma‘adin al-Djawhar (“The Meadows of Gold and the Mines of Gems”) by al-Mas‘udi (10th century), dedicated to pre-Islamic Arabia, one notes the legendary tradition about the sons of Nizar, the for-father of the so called Northern Arabs: Unable to comprehend their father’s testimony, they turned for help to the wise king al-Af‘a b. al-Af‘a al-Djuhumi. On their way to the sage and during their stay at his lodging Nizar’s sons manifested unusual power for insight, earned the host’s favour and managed with the king’s help to understand their father’s will. It appeared that the testimony later influenced Nizar’s sons’ descendants’ way of life, as well as that of the members of major Arab tribes and tribe unions. The author displays the folklore origin of the story under study and also shows that, from the viewpoint of al-Mas‘udi, Nizar’s sons proved to be the masters of kiyafa, the specific Bedouin art of divination. Some tribes and clans of their descendants were later renowned for practicing that sort of skill. In addition to the study the author presents an academic translation of al-Mas‘udi’s version of the legendary tradition under question, as it is framed by an important cultural and historical context. Besides, the legend as presented by al-Mas‘udi possesses uncontestable literary qualities. For the sake of comparison, the academic translation of the version, presented by al-Tabari (839–923), is also delivered.