Course description
Overview
Key benefits
• Practical training in translation and interpreting
• Teaching by staff who are practising translators and interpreters as well as leading researchers
• Opportunities for short professional placements during the programme
• Training in professional skills, use of terminology-management and machine-assisted translation software (e.g. TRADOS)
• Electives in theory and practice of translation
• State-of-the-art facilities for translators and interpreters
• Regular teaching contributions from specialist Chinese and English native speakers and working translators and interpreters
• The opportunity to refresh your English language skills and acclimatise to British culture before commencing the MA, through the School’s own pre-sessional English programmes
What’s it about?
This programme is designed to serve the needs of students who are planning careers as translators or interpreters, or seeking to gain high-level translating and interpreting skills in a coherent academic setting. It would also be ideal for students who envisage undertaking a PhD in this field.
Which main languages can I study?
English and Chinese.
How will I learn?
The programme offers a combination of core modules and electives (please see programme structures) designed to develop practical Chinese/English/Chinese translating and interpreting skills. You will also attend keynote lectures and seminars on specialised translation and business practice, delivered by invited professionals in the field. Topics and documents relate to fields covered in professional translation, such as economics, transport, telecommunications, medicine and international organisations. A series of research skills lectures, together with research seminars on translation and interpreting studies, are organised for you if you are progressing onto the MA. They provide a solid training in more theoretical aspects of translation for those students wishing to go on to doctoral research.
How will I be assessed?
Most of the modules are assessed by a combination of coursework and exams. Others are assessed by projects.
Career progression
Graduates can expect to pursue careers as translators, freelance or in a translation department or company. Some may take up academic posts teaching translation at university level or go on to PhD study.
Modules
Core Modules:
Translation from English into Chinese
This course aims to familiarise students with the techniques and strategies involved in translating different types of texts (expository, narrative, technical, argumentative) and with different degrees of specialisation in a range of subject matters (business, legal, semi-specialised, medical, etc) from English into Chinese at a professional or equivalent level.
Translation from Chinese into English
This course aims to familiarise students with the techniques and strategies involved in translating different types of texts (expository, narrative, technical, argumentative) and with different degrees of specialisation in a range of subject matters (business, legal, semi-specialised, medical, etc) from Chinese into English at a professional or equivalent level. To develop an awareness of translation issues through the handling of texts.
Business Interpreting
The aim of this module is to equip students for work as bilateral interpreters in the business context, and to develop bilingual communicative and linguistic skills in order to enable students to absorb and render the contents of business negotiations. Students will be able to note down and render orally delivered information, and to manage the parties to a linguistic exchange in order to ensure maximum efficiency in interpreting. The course involves both summarising and dialogue interpreting.
Lexicography and Terminology
This course provides a practical and a theoretical framework to the study of lexicography and computer assisted collection of terminology, an essential adjunct to the work of both the translator and the interpreter.
Principles of Translation
This course aims to provide a methodological background to the practice of translation and to analyse the process and problems of translation with particular reference to audio-visual and specialised translation. It is expected that awareness and knowledge of translation acquired through this module will be reflected in the translation projects and assignments submitted by the students.
Information Technology and Professional Skills for Translators
This module introduces students to the use of computers and on-line resources in translation, and to the principles of Machine/Computer-Assisted Translation. It enables students to develop an advanced degree of proficiency in the use of IT for translation purposes and provides preparation for the complexities of managing real translation projects.
Academic English Writing
The course aims to equip students with necessary knowledge and skills of academic English writing so that they can write acceptable academic English prose with effective awareness of register and style.
Option Modules:
Subsidiary Languages
This option offers students the opportunity to gain a threshold knowledge of a further foreign language. French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish are available.
Extended Translation
This option is an integral part of the course and is intended to give the student the opportunity to deal with a lengthy passage in some depth, so that she/he has to contend with the problems of finding the most appropriate version of a specialised text in English.
Audiovisual Translation
This option aims to familiarise students with the theoretical and practical issues associated with audio-visual translation (subtitling, dubbing, commercial video material). Students will have the opportunity to develop the skills required to translate commercial video material.
Translation Studies
This option aims to provide a theoretical framework to the translating and interpreting processes as well as to introduce the relevant concepts and terminology. The ways in which interlingual communication is described by various approaches will be examined.
Consecutive Interpreting
This option aims to enable students to analyse the ideas and the information conveyed in speeches, so that they are able to transfer those ideas from English into Chinese, and from Chinese into English with ease, at both linguistic and cognitive levels, in the professional context of conference interpreting.
Translation from a second language into English
This module is only available to students that have a degree-level qualification in French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Students will work on a range of semi-specialised texts, with special emphasis on terminological and stylistic difficulties.
Also:
Keynote Lectures
The lectures are given by experts in their field and topics relate to the various fields likely to be covered in professional translation and interpreting such as economics, transport, telecommunications, medicine, international organisations, agriculture, energy, media etc.
Business Practice Seminars
These seminars are held by practising translators and interpreters and aim to give an insight into the requirements of the professions such as codes of practice and how to set up as a freelance translator or interpreter.
Specialised Translation Seminars
Classes are given by Visiting Professional Translators. Documents treated will normally be of a highly specialised nature, e.g. contracts, agreements, specifications.
Research Seminars
An annual series of (6-8 per year) Research Seminars on various aspects of Translation and Interpreting studies are organised within the European Studies Research Institute. Students opting for the Translation Studies Module and /or wishing to proceed towards the MA will be expected to attend these seminars.
Dissertation
During the summer vacation following the completion of the taught course, students wishing to proceed to the MA prepare a dissertation. This should be written in English and be between 12000 and 15000 words in length. The student will be given assistance in the selection of a suitable topic and a supervisor will be appointed to guide him/her in the research.
