OPTIMALE (Optimising Professional Translator Training in a Multilingual Europe)

Margaret Rogers, Vassilis Korkas
Erasmus Academic Network involving 70 partners from 32 different European countries (including 27 within the EU).
Project number: 177295-LLP-1-2010-1-FR-ERASMUS-ENWA.
Duration: October 2010-September 2013.
Lead Partner: Université Rennes 2, France
Project Partners

Project Background
Multilingual skills and high quality translation are key to creating and maintaining a multilingual and multicultural Europe. Trained professional translators still play a vital role in that process despite the recent advances in machine translation and multilingual information processing.
Professionals and academics specialising in the field of translation studies have been addressing the issue of advanced translator education and training for many years. This has now resulted in internationally recognized professional quality standards and quality control criteria and benchmarks. The official launch of the European Masters in Translation Network (December 2009), under the auspices of the Commission’s DGT, is the latest move towards the recognition of a Europe-wide reference framework for the high level training of translators.
However, work still needs to be done. Optimale therefore aims to build on and feed into the work being undertaken by the European Masters in Translation (EMT), extending the geographical scope of the surveys and monitoring process, and strengthening ties with institutions and professional bodies outside the circle of universities currently in the EMT network.

The detailed workshop programme is available here. For pdf versions of the presentations, please follow the links below:

• Margaret Rogers
• Cristian Buchiu
• Anu Carnegie-Brown
• Elliott Polak
• Mary Breen
• Joanna Gough
• Aileen Cowen
• Gunnhildur Stefánsdóttir

IVY – Interpreting in Virtual Reality (2011-12)

Sabine Braun, Margaret Rogers
EU Lifelong Learning Progamme, Project 511862-2010-LLP-UK-KA-KA3MP
The rise of migration and multilingualism in Europe requires professional interpreters in business, legal, medical and many other settings. Future interpreters therefore need to master an ever broadening range of interpreting scenarios and skills. This is difficult to achieve with traditional teaching methods and in times of reduced teaching contact hours. Also, in many of the emerging interpreting scenarios, a client-side understanding of what working with an interpreter involves is crucial, but efforts to educate potential clients of interpreters are scarce and normally separate from interpreter education. Addressing the needs of future interpreters and users of interpreters in higher education, vocational training and adult learning contexts, this project will use the exciting features of 3D virtual environment technology to create an adaptive 3D virtual environment that supports the acquisition and application of skills required in interpreter-mediated communication.
Project partners: University of Surrey (UK, co-ordinator), University of Bangor (UK), University of Cyprus (Cyprus), University of Poznan (Poland), University of Tübingen (Germany), Steinbeis GmbH & Co. KG für Technologietransfer (Germany), Bar Ilan University (Israel).
Duration: 2011-12

AVIDICUS – Assessing videoconference interpreting in the Criminal Justice System

Sabine Braun, Margaret Rogers
Research Fellow: Judith Taylor
EU Criminal Justice Programme, Project JLS/2008/JPEN/03
Videoconference technology is now widely used in criminal proceedings to speed up cross-border communication, reduce costs and increase security. The emerging settings – e.g. video links between courtrooms and witnesses abroad, between police stations and prisons – also involve bilingual communication and therefore require interpreters to be integrated into the videoconference setting. Moreover, videoconference technology offers a potential solution for shortages of qualified legal interpreters, especially for minority languages. Remote interpreting via video link using interpreters at distant locations, possibly abroad, is gaining momentum in criminal proceedings. While these developments are changing the practice of legal interpreting, virtually nothing is known about the viability and quality of videoconference and remote interpreting, and training for legal practitioners and interpreters in this area is almost non-existent. The AVIDICUS project addresses the issue of viability and quality and the need for training in this context. The project aims to investigate the viability and quality of videoconference and remote interpreting in criminal proceedings and to use the findings of this study to develop recommendations for the use of videoconference/remote interpreting in criminal proceedings (benefits, risks, guidelines for best practice) and training modules for legal practitioners, practicing interpreters and interpreting students.
Project partners: University of Surrey (UK, co-ordinator), Lessius Hogeschool Antwerp (Belgium), Local Police Antwerp (Belgium), Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, Legal Aid Board (Netherlands), TEPIS Polish Society of Sworn and Specialised Translators (Poland); Internal Evaluator: Mrs Ann Corsellis, OBE.
Duration: 2008-2011
Project website
Project symposium 17th-19th February 2011

BACKBONE – Corpora for content-and-language-integrated learning

Sabine Braun, Margaret Rogers
Research Fellow: Catherine Slater
EU Lifelong Learning Programme, Project 143502-LLP-1-2008-1-DE-KA2-KA2MP
The context for this project is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), an innovative pedagogical approach which opens up new opportunities for language learning/teaching and for the development of language proficiency in interpreter/translator training. The effective implementation of this approach is currently hampered by a lack of appropriate pedagogical resources. A solution can be obtained from the use of electronic corpora containing authentic language samples from relevant subject areas. Whilst much corpus development to date has focused on written language corpora and on the needs of linguistic description, the Backbone project proposes a pedagogically motivated corpus approach centring around spoken discourse in cultural and professional contexts. The project aims to compile a set of video-based corpora of conversations, interviews and presentations, and to develop a methodology for their pedagogical exploitation. CTS will be the leader of the "Research, Assessment and Evaluation" workpackage, which involves research into the pedagogical foundations of corpus compilation and exploitation. The findings of this research will be used for the development of the project corpora and their enrichment with communicative and exploratory tasks and exercises for language and interpreter training. CTS will create the corpus of British regional and sociocultural varieties and enrichment materials for business and community interpreting contexts, and will pilot and use the project corpora with its UG and PG interpreting students.
Project partners: University of Tuebingen (Germany, co-ordinator); University of Surrey (UK), University of Murcia (Spain), Erciyes University (Turkey), Academy of Humanities and Economics in Lodz (Poland), University of Limerick (Ireland), Steinbeis GmbH & Co KG für Technologietransfer (Germany), Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie du Jura (France)
Duration: 2009-11
Project website

Scholarly activities and peer review

Centre for Translation Studies colleagues are highly engaged with many scholarly activities in Translation Studies.

We act as reviewers for major peer-reviewed journals such as Fachsprache - International Journal of Specialized Communication (Braumueller) Translation Studies Abstracts, The Translator (St Jerome), Terminology (Benjamins), LSP and Professional Communication (DSFF, Copenhagen) , Terminology Science and Research (IITF), System (International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics; Elsevier), InJAL (International Journal of Applied Linguistics; Blackwell), ReCall (CUP) and New Voices in Translation. Margaret Rogers is also on the Editorial Board of Terminology Science and Research, and is a member of the Advisory Board for LSP and Professional Communication, Terminology and Fachsprache.

Sabine Braun and Margaret Rogers have acted as referees for research councils such as the AHRC, and also served on many scientific committees for major conferences such as AILA, GAL, and the European Symposia on Language for Special Purposes.

Margaret Rogers was an invited member of the International Terminology Awards Jury (2001-2005) and is an elected member of the International Institute for Terminology Research Board (since 1999). She has also examined a number of doctoral theses across several European countries.

Margaret Rogers (until recently together with Professor Gunilla Anderman † April 2007) is editor of the Multilingual Matters series, Translating Europe and of the Palgrave Macmillan series on Translation and Interpreting.

From IELTS to Graduation: an investigation into IELTS as a predictor of postgraduate academic success at the University of Surrey

Andrea Dlaska, Ewan Dow, Sarah Michelotti

This study, funded by the British Council looked at IELTS scores in relation to final degree outcomes and aimed to establish whether IELTS is an adequate predictor of academic success.  The sample consisted of Masters degree students at the University of Surrey, mainly from the School of Management.
The methodology included both quantitative and qualitative methods, the latter to explore perceptions of students and lecturers towards IELTS, as well as attitudes towards studying at a British university

When the quantitative and qualitative findings are taken in conjunction with each other, there is an indication that IELTS can, to a certain extent, predict the chances of a student’s academic success.   There is also an indication that attendance at English support classes may have an impact on a student’s degree result.  

Qualitative data revealed some interesting divisions between the expectations and the reality of study at a British university.  Both students and lecturers recognised the importance of IELTS as a benchmarking tool for university entry levels.  However, perceptions indicated a misconception on the part of both groups that once students had achieved the required minimum score for entry to their degree programme, they would be adequately prepared for study in the UK.  Students and lecturers were in agreement that this did not reflect the reality of the situation.

It was felt that some rich qualitative data had been collected from students, giving a clear indication of some of the challenges international students face during their studies in the UK.  Final conclusions and recommendations included a few tentative suggestions for the continuing development of IELTS and possibilities for further research into areas highlighted by the study.