Acquisition Of Translation Competence Research Articles

Assessing University Students’ Competence in Translating English Discourse Connectives into Kurdish

The present study sets out to assess university students’ competence in translating English discourse connectives into Kurdish. It also attempts to study the impact of teaching on students’ translation competence for rendering these elements. Discourse connectives are one of the main subcategories of textual metadiscourse elements which play a crucial role in text organization and the creation of cohesion. Their class is mainly comprised of conjunctions and adverbials which connect ideas at intrasentential, intersentential, and textual levels. Appropriate recognition, utilization, and translation of English discourse connectives are problematic and challenging for Kurdish EFL learners and translators. Moreover, some connectors are multifunctional and polysemous in nature. This paper aims at highlighting some of these translation problems and assessing students’ competence in their rendering at the pre-test and post-test. The research design is mixed method and employs a Translation Task and a Judgement Elicitation Task as two means for measuring translation competence. These tests were carried out on 40 Third-Year students at the Department of Translation, College of Languages, University of Duhok. The study concluded that students possessed enough translation competence for making judgements on the appropriate renditions of the discourse connectives. In contrast, they failed to appropriately translate besides, although, nevertheless, yet, provided that, otherwise, unless, for, thereby, and so that in the pre-test. Furthermore, holding teaching sessions on the classifications, functions, and translation of discourse connectives had a significant impact on the acquisition of translation competence in the post-test.

Examining the Acquisition of Translation Competence: Dynamicity and Translation Quality as Indicators

The purpose of the study was to examine translation competence acquisition using dynamicity and translation quality as indicators. The researcher adopted a mixed methods research design using a closed-item questionnaire, translation tasks, and semi-structured interviews to collect data from undergraduate translation students, translation instructors, and employers of translators. One hundred fifty-eight undergraduate translation students completed the questionnaire, and 50 undergraduate translation students completed the translation tasks. The researcher interviewed four translation instructors and four employers of translators. Statistical and qualitative analyses revealed that the undergraduate translation students sampled in the study have not acquired translation competence successfully as shown by the absence of statistically significant differences in the dynamic/static views of translation knowledge among them in addition to the nondiscriminating translation performance of the students on the translation tasks as well as the feedback obtained from the instructors and employers in the interviews. Due to their significance to translator training, the findings of the study may contribute to the design and development of translation programs and curricula—in pedagogical settings—and professional development and on-the-job training programs—in professional settings.

Exploring translation competence through retrospective self-reports – a case study

The aim of this paper is to explore the significance of self-reflection in the process of building translation competence in novice translators. The paper describes various concepts and models of translation competence that have emerged in recent years. When considering the acquisition of translation competence as a continuous process, it is important to precisely define its starting point. The tests used to assess students’ skills prove their proficiency, but they do not give any insight into the translation process itself. For this reason, this paper briefly presents the state of research on the translation process, with particular emphasis on the attempts to record this process through verbalisations of thoughts. The main part of the paper is a case study presenting the practical application of self-reports in the translation course. The conclusions of this study may be useful for designing translator training curricula and verifying educational results.

TEACHING SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS TO FUTURE INTERPRETERS

The article is devoted to teaching the main features of simultaneous translation in social networks, taking into account the specifics of this genre of communication. The relevance of the issue is that now more and more people are using social networks as a means to promote their business, and thus many experts and brands need translators, and especially simultaneous ones, who could help adequately represent products and services on the international market. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main challenges that translators face when working with text messages, comments and posts in social networks, namely the speed of reaction, the importance of context and non-standard formats. In addition, the peculiarities of translation in various social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and their influence on the process of simultaneous translation are considered. In the course of the research, such methods as observation, synthesis and analysis of information were carried out. The article presents an analysis of the main features of simultaneous translation, namely speed, brevity, informality, a large amount of visual content, emotional aspect, tone of voice and their structural-grammatical and lexical functions. The article contains recommendations for translators on effective and accurate simultaneous translation in social networks. Informational and explanatory functions, to which the whole article is devoted, are only its secondary purpose. The following main methods of simultaneous translation were also highlighted: functional substitution, transcription, transliteration, descriptive translation (explication), reduction, expansion and borrowing. In addition to this, we identified the main approaches used in simultaneous interpreting, namely targeting real-time, blogger, audience, social network and content. In addition, key aspects have found their way into translator training profiles and quality standards for translation services. Central to the acquisition of translation competence is reflection on decisions and actions during the translation process, as well as various process studies.

ASSESSMENT OF THE TRANSLATION COMPETENCE THROUGH A QUESTIONNAIRE OF DIDACTIC AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION IN TRANSLATOR TRAINING

This experiment aimed to explore the potential of Didactic Audiovisual Translation (DAT) for teaching specialized terminology in the translation classroom. A total of 55 participants were included in the intervention, which consisted of a specialized DAT lesson plan and an ad-hoc questionnaire designed to assess the students’ perception regarding the development of their linguistic and knowledge about translation sub-competences in accordance with the theoretical framework proposed by PACTE (Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation) research group . The main outcome of this study suggests that DAT can aid in the development of bilingual, knowledge about translation, and psycho-physiological sub-competences, and therefore, enhance the translation teaching experience. The results of this study indicate that the use of DAT can have a positive impact on enhancing and learning specialized terminology among translation students. Moreover, it was observed that DAT can lead to the development of a more holistic development of the competences identified by the PACTE research group. However, it is important to note that further research with larger samples and longitudinal designs is necessary to confirm these findings and fully realize the potential of DAT in the translation classroom. In conclusion, the present study provides empirical evidence that DAT can be an effective tool for teaching specialized terminology and developing linguistic and knowledge about translation sub-competences.

TRANSLATION OF OCCASIONALISMS IN MEDIA TEXTS: PHILOLOGICAL ASPECT

The aim of the study is to examine the functioning and translation of English occasionalisms into Ukrainianand vice versa in the media texts, namely a social media site Instagram. Information and explanatory functions, which arethe subject of the whole article, are only its secondary purpose. Communicative-pragmatic and functional features of socialnetworks are investigated and we analyze which translational transformations are the best to be used in a specific situationto achieve the goal, namely to influence the audience and be conducive to manipulating consciousness for useful purposes.The article presents an analysis of the fundamental aspects of the translation of occasionalisms, their structuralgrammaticaland lexical functions. As a result of studying the term “occasionalism”, the following main methods of itsformation are distinguished: affixal method (prefix and suffixal methods), composite, conversion, reduction, inverse derivation,fusion, borrowing from other languages and abbreviation. Also the following main methods of translating occasionalisms aredistinguished: functional replacement, transcription, transliteration, descriptive translation (explication), reduction, expansionand borrowing. In addition to this, we have assumed the main translation teaching methods of occasionalisms namelycognitive and audio-visual methods.The cognitive method is aimed at forming the future translator's cognitive skills, which make it possible to determine thetype and purpose of information, to highlight its main content, to build ways of solving problems while translating these lexicalunits, to be able to form them, to have some judgments and to show creativity. The audiovisual teaching method can be usedto build and test models of translation competencies that determine the knowledge and cognitive components necessary foreffective translation work. In addition, key aspects have found their way into translator training profiles and quality standardsfor translation services. Central to the acquisition of translation competence is reflection on decisions and actions during thetranslation process, as well as various process studies.

Translation competence and the translation job market in Saudi Arabia: investigating recruitment practices and job-market readiness

PurposeThe current study set out to examine the recruitment practices and job-market readiness of translators in Saudi Arabia in light of the Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation (PACTE) model of translation competence (TC). The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the outcomes of translator training programs are aligned with job-market requirements.Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted adopting a mixed-methods research design to collect qualitative and quantitative data using interviews and a questionnaire. Data were also collected from the analysis of 28 translation job advertisements. The questionnaire targeted employers, while the interviews were conducted with employers and professional translators.FindingsThe findings indicate that there is a gap between the outcomes of translator training programs and the needs of the job market with a particular emphasis on the importance of developing trainee translators' job-market skills as well as their awareness of the professional practice of translation.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the current study are limited to the sample from which data were collected.Practical implicationsThe study has significant implications for translators and translator training in Saudi Arabia. Although the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission and the Saudi Translators' Association were established in 2020, additional measures are needed to support the translation profession in Saudi Arabia. Such support may take the form of specialised accreditation for translator training programs as well as licensing requirements for practitioners. Implementing these measures will play a significant role in establishing benchmarks for translator training programs and promoting the integration of job-market requirements into translator training.Originality/valueAlthough TC has been examined in the Saudi context before, examining it in light of the PACTE framework sheds new light on the job-market readiness of translation program graduates and enriches the literature on the training of translators in Saudi Arabia.

Teaching the Metalanguage of Translation for Translation Learners as a Way of Promoting Self-Regulation

This research aims to link the teaching of the metalanguage proper to translation in an introductory translation discipline to the promotion of self-regulatory learning behavior. The general objective is to discuss not only the role of metalanguage in promoting self-regulation in translation learners, but also how the systematized translation metalanguage teaching can contribute to the transition of other-regulation to self-regulation throughout the student's learning process. This paper explores the specific metalanguage linked to the notion of Translation Competence (TC) and its Acquisition (TCA) and to the concept of self-regulation. I start from the understanding that the teaching of metalanguage allows increasing the metacognitive processes, more specifically, the student's self-regulatory learning behavior. The theoretical basis is informed by the translation concept presented by Hurtado Albir (1999, 2005, 2015); as a methodological foundation, this work uses the concepts of other-regulation and self-regulation (Wertsch, 1979, 1985) and the notions of spontaneous and scientific concept (Vigotski, 2018). The teaching materials are based on cognitive-constructivist premises (Hurtado Albir, 2015), drawing methodologically upon the translation task-based learning, and the tasks being organized into Teaching Units (TU). This methodological approach was chosen because the tasks provide students with the necessary instruments for the acquisition of Translation Competence and are permeated by the specific metalanguage of translation. The present work highlights some of the results obtained after investigations carried out in one of the courses taught at the ‘Curso de Letras’- Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) dedicated to the teaching of translation. Those results suggest a relationship between the teaching of metalanguage and the development of the learners' metacognitive processes, particularly the promotion of self-regulation. The metalanguage teaching helped learners to reflect autonomously on the translation process they performed.

A Bibliometric Analysis Visualization of Translation Education from 2011 to 2020

The purpose of this study is to reveal the tendency of research in the field of translation education with the analysis of scientific collaboration network, keywords co-occurrence and citations by taking into consideration of publication output, author, institution, country, keyword and citations. The Web of Science core collection database was used as the data source, and 652 recordings published from 2011 to 2020 were retrieved. VOSViewer and CiteSpace were applied for bibliometric analysis. The results were: 1) the publication increased with fluctuation from 2011 to 2020; 2) Olalla-Soler, Christian was the most productive author, and Univ Autonoma Barcelona was the most productive institution; 3) translation, language, working memory, and competence stand out in the research of translation education; 4) translation practice, implicit teaching, translation competence are the trending topics; 5) Kelly, Dorothy was the most influential author, Interpreter and Translator Trainer was the most influential journal, and “The Acquisition of Translation Competence. Competencies, Tasks, and Assessment in Translator Training” was the most cited article.

INTEGRATING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS INTO TRANSLATION CLASSROOM: A BRIEF PERSPECTIVE ON ITS SYLLABUS

This study is motivated by the fact that globalization has arrived. There are demands of skills and competencies that must be possessed by a global citizen in general and by students in particular. The current trend in our world is the issue of 21st century skills. As academicians, we need to be one step further to accommodate this demand. This study aimed to explore the 21st century skills and these skills can be integrated in Translation syllabus. The focus of this study is on the exploration of 21st century skills which are explained in relevant references and or literature and give a brief perspective on its possibility of integration in the Translation classroom. In order to achieve the said objectives, the writer used descriptive approach having its qualitative nature. The findings of this study are gained mostly in the relevant literature. The findings of this study showed that the 21st century skills are pertinent in the translation classroom. The writer revealed that the 21st century skills comprised of cooperation, communication, ICT skills, problem-solving, critical thinking, decision making, innovation, creativity, et cetera. It is also found that the 21st century skills can be integrated with translator competencies as stated by PACTE (Process of Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation). This study also embarked on demonstrating the possible strategies to integrate the 21st century skills with the translator’s competencies as follows: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity and bilingual, extralinguistic, instrumental, knowledge about translation, psycho-physiological competencies. Finally, as a recommendation, the writer suggests that the syllabus of the Translation should be changed, hence also changing the curriculum which accommodates the 21st century skills. 
 
 Keywords: integration, 21st century skills, PACTE competencies, Syllabus-design

Cosmetic Translation Competence – A Theoretical Model and Implications for Translator Training

In the last decade, cosmetic translation has become increasingly significant as the beauty and cosmetic industry has grown exponentially across the globe. The expansion of international cosmetic brands in many countries around the world necessitates commissioning competent, well-prepared translators, who are able to handle translation problems typical of various types of cosmetic translation, both specialized and those requiring skills specific to a more creative rendition. The main objective of this paper is to discuss a novel theoretical model of cosmetic translation competence, a type of translation which has so far not gained much popularity among translation scholars. The first part of this article offers a concise state of the art of the concept translation competence. Capitalizing on models of translation competence developed by PACTE (Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation), TransComp and EMT (European Master’s in Translation), an original model of cosmetic translation competence is presented along with its sub-competencies. The second part of this article focuses on implications for teaching cosmetic translation. The paper concludes with general remarks pertaining to avenues for future research into cosmetic translation competence and its acquisition.

The Development of Translation Skills and the Use of Translation in FL Teaching

In everyday communication, both in specialized and non-specialized contexts, translation plays a pivotal role. Although it was considered an outsider in language teaching for decades, translation has now been rehabilitated and should now be considered a major component for language teachers and students. This paper addresses the development of translation competence and the use of translation in teaching and learning modern languages and analyses the main theories and models which describe the acquisition of translation competence in translation training.

O estabelecimento de níveis de competência em tradução: primeiros resultados do projeto NACT

Este artigo tenciona apresentar o projeto de pesquisa realizado pelo grupo PACTE acerca da proposta de um Nivelamento de Competências na Aquisição da Competência Tradutória (tradução escrita). O objetivo do projeto é preparar uma proposta de descritores de nível, a qual se configura como um primeiro passo para desenvolver um Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência nos campos acadêmico e profissional da tradução. Trata-se de uma continuação da pesquisa experimental do PACTE sobre competência em tradução e aquisição de competências tradutórias. Representantes do mundo acadêmico e profissional da tradução participam do seu desenvolvimento que se estrutura em três fases. Na primeira fase, foi preparado um documento com uma proposta inicial de descritores de nível, que inclui uma escala de três níveis com subníveis e cinco categorias descritivas (competência linguística; competência cultural, enciclopédica e temática; competência instrumental; competência de prestação de serviços de tradução e competência de resolução de problemas de tradução). Esta proposta será avaliada por especialistas do mundo acadêmico e profissional. O presente trabalho apresenta o projeto e a primeira proposta de nivelamento elaborada.

Socio-Economic Level and its Influence on the Acquisition of Translation Competence

This longitudinal study (2006-2013), which falls within the field of empirical-experimental translation studies, was conducted in the Language School of the Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexico. The search for paradigms to explain the mechanisms by which students translate, and how to evaluate students’ development as they become experts, led me to select the holistic model proposed by the PACTE research group (Process of Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation; PACTE, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011), which breaks translation competence down into five sub-competences and a psychophysiological component. My working hypothesis was that the higher parents’ socio-economic level, the better their children’s academic performance. The object of study was the fifth semester of the bachelor’s degree in translation, and these variables were measured and analyzed with the aid of a pre-TOEFL exam and the Translog2000 software program. As part of this process, I isolated transfer sub-competence and linguistic sub-competence in L2, which were cross-tabulated with a socio-economic study that recorded monthly family income. The results showed that people with greater purchasing power have a more balanced development in their sub-competences (mainly in their transfer and linguistic sub-competence in L2) and a better holistic translation competence.

Factores que intervienen en la adquisición de la competencia traductora: el caso de la Facultad de Idiomas de la Universidad Veracruzana

El presente artículo refiere los principales aspectos de una investigación cualitativa, de tipo descriptivo, observacional y transversal, donde se abordan algunos puntos de vista sobre los factores que permiten adquirir la competencia traductora. La investigación se llevó a cabo en la Licenciatura en Lengua Francesa, de la Facultad de Idiomas de la Universidad Veracruzana, durante el semestre febrero-junio de 2007. El objetivo fue determinar el nivel de competencia traductora que alcanzan los estudiantes con el Plan de Estudios 1990. Se presentan algunos resultados y conclusiones del estudio.

Acquisition of English Tense and Aspect Translation Competence by Behdini Students: An Experimental Study

This study is an attempt to investigate the acquisition of translation competence of the English tense and aspect system by Behdini learners who are students at the Translation Department at the College of Languages in the University of Duhok. This paper is an experimental study that adopts the Translation Competence Acquisition model. There are many morphological and syntactic differences between English and Behdini tense and aspect and there are differences in terms of the usage of the tense and aspect between the two mentioned languages too. A Judgement Elicitation Task is employed as a tool to collect data in this study. 4o English sentences with their translations into Behdini are included in this task. Behdini learners are asked to make their judgements on each translated sentence. These test items are a mixture of four tenses: present continuous, present perfect, past continuous, and past perfect. Two subgroups of learners are involved in this study: the senior subgroup and the fresher subgroup in an attempt to investigate the effect of participants’ English language level and proficiency. Mixed-effects modeling has been used for analysing the data statistically. The lmer package (version is 3.3.1) has been employed with logit link function and binomial variance for the judgement data in R, which is an open-source language and environment for statistical computing. The main hypothesis of the study is that Behdini learners are not expected to attain a complete translation competence regarding the English tense and aspect system due to the differences between the two languages. The main results of the study show that while Behdini learners were able to attain a good translation competence in terms of accepting the grammatical translations, they failed to reject the ungrammatical translations. These findings implicate that Behdini learners’ acquisition of translation competence is not attained fully. It is also shown that Behdini students at lower proficiency levels employ their L1 grammar as the first stage of their translation process, but at later stages of proficiency parameter resetting becomes more possible.

A Formação do Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português:

Neste artigo, temos como objetivo apresentar uma proposta de Unidade Didática (UD) voltada para a formação do Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português a partir do arcabouço teórico-metodológico proposto por Hurtado Albir, coordenadora do Grupo PACTE. Sendo assim, este estudo é desenvolvido na interface de dois campos investigativos: a Competência Tradutória e a formação do Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português. No que tange à contribuição do Grupo PACTE, este estudo é informado pelo quadro teórico que ele adota, o qual se apoia em três bases, a saber, a conceitual, a pedagógica e a metodológica. A base conceitual salienta os conceitos de tradução, competência tradutória e aquisição de competência tradutória. A pedagógica utiliza uma composição conceitual que envolve Piaget, Vigotsky e Ausubel para assim advogar uma formação por competências. Já a metodológica tem como foco principal dar subsídios para uma organização curricular que sirva de inspiração na gestão de formações de tradutores de qualquer área ou par linguístico. No que tange ao Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português, este artigo perpassa por um complexo de discussões, dentre os quais destacamos a consolidação da Libras enquanto língua, a profissionalização da atividade de tradutor e intérprete de Libras-Português, o crescimento do ramo de Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português e a necessidade de propostas formativas que contemplem esse ramo específico. Por fim, como ilustração da proposta, esta publicação mobiliza as contribuições desenvolvidas por Hurtado Albir e pelo Grupo PACTE, e apresenta a elaboração uma UD direcionada para a formação Intérprete Educacional de Libras-Português.

Task-based approach in Second Language Acquisition and in the Didactics of Translation

Studies on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have been increasingly conducted in recent years, especially concerning the contributions of the so called task-based approach, which has been gradually undergone some adaptations, becoming a driving force for syllabus design. Within the field of Didactics of Translation (DT) the use of tasks has also, so far, proven to be an appropriate approach in the teaching and learning of translation. Therefore, in this article, I will discuss the differences regarding the rationale behind the definition of task as well as its application both in the SLA and in the DT environments. The method seeks to justify the choice of the discussed concepts, and presents the steps in the development a translation task here proposed. The discussion is grounded on this example of translation task and examines how the notion of task in SLA interfaces with the acquisition of translation competence in DT. The conclusion shows that SLA can inspire and contribute to DT concerning the task-based approach. Some of these contributions here discussed are authenticity, focus on meaning and on form, and planning. Furthermore, such contributions are applied in the development of a translation task, as a means of exemplification, and building a bridge between the areas of SLA and the DT.

Competence levels in translation: working towards a European framework

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the research project the PACTE group is carrying out on ‘Establishing Competence Levels in the Acquisition of Translation Competence in Written Translation’. A continuation of PACTE’s previous experimental research on translation competence and its acquisition, the project aims to propose level descriptors as a first step towards developing a common European framework of reference for translation’s academic and professional arenas, both of which are represented among its participants. The project is organized into three stages, the first of which involved the production of a first level descriptor proposal, including a three-level scale with sub-levels and five descriptive categories (language competence; cultural, world knowledge and thematic competence; instrumental competence; translation service provision competence; and translation problem solving competence). In the second stage, the proposal produced is to be evaluated by experts from the academic and professional arenas. In the third stage, the data obtained through the expert judgement process will be analysed and the proposal revised. This paper sets out the project’s objectives, our grounds for undertaking it, its conceptual framework and its methodology, as well as the results obtained in the first stage and the future direction of the research.

Translation competence from the acquisition point of view

Abstract This article discusses translation competence (TC) and its acquisition, introducing a framework, which depicts TC as a situation-based construct with interlingual skills at its core. In this framework, translation is defined as any mediation between different languages and cultures, from everyday conversations to professional translation practise. This view is assumed to reflect the acquisition of TC (ATC), since a rudimentary ability to mediate between two languages can be regarded as the first step towards professional translation skills. The model is built around interlingual text production skills, and it conceptualizes various types of extra-linguistic knowledge as task-specific: the extent to which they are needed in translation is situation-bound. The framework is designed to be used as a theoretical framework in empirical studies into ATC, an example of which is presented in the article.