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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts

Date: 12-14 August 2004

Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea 

Panel 8: Teaching Translation - Global Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

Translation Teaching and the Real World of Translation

Defeng Li
Chinese University of Hong Kong

As the result of technological advances, translation as both a profession and a discipline has undergone considerable changes over the last decade. Nowadays, machine translation and computer-aided translation software are often used by professional translators in their daily work; translators are receiving more assignments for software localization and web-translation; some teachers have started to use corpora and the internet to assist their translation teaching (e.g. the corpus-based approach to translator training and web-based approach to translation teaching). Information technology has also affected translation research, as witnessed by the rising interest in the corpus-based approach to translation studies. Such changes have brought about both opportunities and challenges for translation and translator training alike. One key question today is how translator training should respond to these changes. Based on his empirical research on professional translators (Target 2000), translation students (Meta 2002), and administrators of translation agencies (2003, Malaysia), the present author argues that to cope with the imminent changes and challenges in translation, translator training needs to be brought closer to the real world of professional translation and thus needs assessment, as a first step, is of crucial importance.

References 

Li Defeng. “Tailoring Translation Programmes to Social Needs: A Survey of

Professional Translators”. Target, 12:1, 2000. 127-149.

Li, Defeng. “Translator Training: What Students Have to Say.” Meta, 47:4, 2002.

513-531.

Li, Defeng. Translator Training: A Survey of Administrators of Translation Agencies.

Paper given at the 9th International Conference in Translation. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sept. 2-4, 2003.

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Special Panel 8: Abstracts for this Panel Dorothy Kenny: Translation memories and bilingual corpora – challenges for the translation trainer Mira Kim: Analysis of Translation Errors Based on Systemic Functional Grammar: An Application of Text Analysis in English/Korean Translation Pedagogy Monika Smith: How Can We Combine Traditional Language Teaching with the Training of Professional Translators? Carol O’Sullivan: Teaching Literary Translation as Creative Writing Zhong Yong: A Post-Accuracy Typology of Teaching in Translation/Interpreting Palma Zlateva: Teaching Translation in a Non Language Specific Way: The Working Paradox Gabr Moustafa: Toward Re-Professionalization Of Translation Teaching Dorothy Kelly: The Construction of Translator Identity: Interpersonal Competence in Translator Training Defeng Li: Translation Teaching and the Real World of Translation Hassan Mustapha: Teaching the Unteachable: The Case for Translational Awareness Pham Phu Quynh Na: Errors In The Translation Of Topic-Comment Structures Of Vietnamese Into English