Technical and Scientific Translation English_Portuguese

Code:

MTSL036

Acronym:

TTCIP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Language Sciences - Translation

Instance: 2015/2016 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Master of Arts in Translation and Language Services

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MTSL	23	MTSL - Study Plan	1	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Students who successfully complete this class will:

• be able to analyse scientific and technical texts of various types, paying special attention to terminology, phraseology, information structure, register and style;

• be able to carefully select and make effective use of the multiple resources used by professional translators: The Internet, information provided by experts in different fields, databases, CAT tools, electronic corpora, Machine Translation;;

• be able to specialize in different areas, i.e., be autonomous learners of specialized languages, with emphasis on personal interests

• be fully familiar with all the different phases of a professional translation project;

• be able to work in a translation team and to network with other language service professionals with a view to achieving better translation solutions.

• be aware of the need for the implementation of a quality assurance plan adapted to each translation project.

Learning outcomes and competences

By the end of the semester, students are expected to be able to translate specialized texts and be prepared to work as professional translators, both individually and in the context of a translation company.

Working method

Presencial

Program

Given that the expression “scientific and technical translation" covers an extremely vast range of text types and areas of knowledge, the focus of this class will be on helping students acquire and develop the skills that will enable them to specialize in one or more areas of their own choice. In-class work will be based on different text types (e.g., academic articles, abstracts, reports, user manuals, etc.) relating to the same topic. The guided discovery on how to deal with these translation projects, from the pre-translation and research phase to the production and post-translation phase, will then serve as a model for students' own projects in other fields. Students’ projects will comprise an extended translation assignment on a specialized topic of their own choice, as well as the making of specialized comparable corpora and glossaries.

Mandatory literature

Byrne, Judy; Technical Translation, Springer, 2006
Nord, Christiane ; Loyalty and Fidelity in Specialized Translation, Confluências: Revista de Tradução Científica e Técnica, issu 4, 2006

Complementary Bibliography

Göpferich, Susanne ; Comprehensibility assessment using the Karlsruhe Comprehensibility Concept, The Journal of Specialised Translation, issue 11, 2009 (http://www.jostrans.org)
Nord, Christiane; Translating as a purposeful activity. ISBN: 1-90065-002-9
Sager, Juan C.; A practical course in terminology processing. ISBN: 90-272-20778
Scarpa, Federica ; La Traduzione Specializzata. Lingue Speciali e Mediazione Linguistica, Hoepli, 2001

Teaching methods and learning activities

Students will be divided into groups that will create “Translation Companies”.

Each company will be responsible for:

• creating its own image through a webpage;

• deciding on each partners’ specific responsibilities (project management, translation, revision, overall quality control, etc.);

• managing each translation job in a professional manner (from answering requests for quotation and planning the project to building client- or topic-specific translation memories to delivering the final product and invoicing the client);

• acting as customers to other translation companies, therefore initiating translation projects, negotiating with potential service providers and managing the project, as well as providing feedback on translation and quality control checks.

The methodology above described is based on Don Kiraly’s social constructive approach to translator education. The theoretical underpinning for translation and translating is functionalism, with special emphasis on Christiane Nord’s model and the Skopos theory.

This methodology will enable students to complete all the phases of a translation project in a specific scientific and/or technical domain. The emphasis is on team work and networking with other students, teachers and professionals to achieve good quality translation solutions and a good overall product that satisfies the requirements specified in translation briefs. The students will thus be offered an opportunity to discuss and select the appropriate translation strategy, at macro level, and the most adequate translation solution at micro level, and will learn how to justify these choices resorting to suitable metalanguage;

The interests that the students may have in a specific scientific/technological domain will be taken into account when the “translation companies” are formed. The training of the students will thus be promoted having in view the work that they will hopefully do in the future, as translation professionals. The fact that they have to perform different roles in their translation companies will grant them a diversified and complete training, and will ensure their understanding of the fact that translation work far surpasses the mere production of a text in a different language. The proficient use of translation tools, as well as the construction of an individual translation memory, will provide students with an idea of how previous translation work may be used in order to maximize future work.

As the proposed methodology will contribute to develop competences that it is not possible to assess in a single exam, the only available evaluation will be “distributed evaluation”.  

Software

Memo Q
SDL Trados 2014

keywords

Humanities

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	10,00
Trabalho de campo	20,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Trabalho laboratorial	20,00
Total:	100,00

Calculation formula of final grade

Evaluation will be based on the following elements:

1.      Attitude in class: attendance and oral participation – 10%

1.      Individual translation tasks: on time presentation and quality of the works posted on Moodle 20%

1.      Collaborative work – 20%

1.      Individual portfolio – 50%