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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
Hassan Mustapha Participants in
undergraduate classroom-based translation activities are not always fully
aware of the luxury they enjoy as they play the role of translators in the
unreal comfort of their university or institutional environment. In many
cases their role as classroom-based translators is restricted in view of the
experience they bring to class with them. The artificiality of the
environment, the generally low level of language proficiency, and the
limited opportunity to develop linguistic versatility and a range of
translation skills are some of the characteristics of classroom-based
translator training. In dealing with such demands and pressures participants
tend to seek ‘model’ answers i.e. translations that are perceived as
‘correct’ in some way or another. An important side-effect of this is that
it may be conducive to the development of an unsafe certainty on the part of
all classroom participants: teacher and student. One practical way of
utilizing the environment they enjoy, while also working with their actual
level of language proficiency, knowledge, and experience as required by the
profession, is for the translation sessions to be seen initially as
transitional Language Awareness classes. Thus translation sessions function
as a vehicle for raising language and translational awareness to a level
where braver attempts at translating can be made in accordance with demands
made by the profession. Key Words/Concepts are suggested and used in order to
counter an approach, indeed an informal system, valorizing stock source
language units, harbouring a love-hate relationship with exams, and
perceiving the “teacher” as the owner of exam-oriented knowledge. Thus
participants become involved in a problem-solving activity where they spot
and work out an issue (linguistic, conceptual, or experiential) in the
source text and then in the translation process and product. The issue is
given a name: a key word or a key concept as the case may be. Each of these
is arrived at through discussion in the language pairs. Slowly and gradually participants compile their own
individual list of key words and concepts. These are then arranged, grouped
and further tested on other texts. One end-result is that participants find
themselves equipped with their own “tool kit”. They gain confidence and
self-knowledge. As the programme progresses the “teacher” plays an
increasingly invisible role.
Panel 8: Teaching Translation - Global Challenges for the Twenty-First Century
Teaching the Unteachable: The Case for Translational Awareness
Translation &
Language Studies, Ajman University of Science & Technology
© IATIS 2003