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The Local Organizing Committee of the 7th IATIS Conference is pleased to announce the following pre-conference workshops, scheduled on the 13th of September 2021.
Online-registration for the pre-conference workshops will open in January 2021. Participation is free of charge, but registration is required to give the organisers an idea of the number of participants.
Workshops
Convenors: Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland), Sabien Hanoulle (University of Antwerp), Sonia Vandepitte (Ghent University) & Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki)
Time: 14:00 − 17:00
Workshop 2: Indirect translation in translation practicum: 101 course for translator trainers
Convenors: Hanna Pieta (University of Lisbon), Rita Bueno (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) & Ester Torres-Simon (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
Time: 14:00 − 17:00
Workshop 3: Methods and concepts for researching post-editing of machine translation
Convenors: Sergi Álvarez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) & Antoni Oliver (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Time: 14:00 − 17:00
Workshop 4: Audio description: If your eyes could speak
Convenor: Joel Snyder (Audio Description Associates, LLC)
Time: 14:00 − 17:00
Workshop 1: Integrating translation ecology into translator and interpreter training through collaboration: An introduction to the INTEAM teaching methods database
Convenors: Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland), Sabien Hanoulle (University of Antwerp), Sonia Vandepitte (Ghent University) & Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki)
Translation and interpreting teachers today need to prepare their students for acting as critical, self-reflective and ethical professionals who thoroughly understand the implications of Translation Ecology (Cronin 2017): translators' role in the natural, socio-cultural, digital and linguistic environments, and translators' potential to impact issues of Translation Ecology, from climate change to linguistic and human rights.
However, integrating these themes into translation teaching in a pedagogically meaningful way can require a great deal of effort and experimentation that may be beyond individual teachers. While an externally funded project could provide a temporary solution (cf. PICT, eTransfair), such projects typically have a limited duration followed by stagnation in interaction and outcomes, which ill suits the rapid evolution of today’s world.
Believing that collaboration is the most effective way for translation teachers to share their expertise and develop innovative teaching practices, we have created a SharePoint site to facilitate this: INTEAM, or INterpreting and Translation TEAching Methods (Ruokonen, Hanoulle, Vandepitte & Kuusi 2019). As all INTEAM members can freely make contributions and comment on and modify them, this facilitates a rapid development and dissemination of teaching solutions (cf. Palmer & Schueths 2013).
Inspired by a similar Finnish Database of Teaching Methods in Translation and Interpreting and established in autumn 2019, INTEAM currently includes some 25 descriptions of different tasks that can be quickly put into practice in translation and interpreting teaching. The topics include, among others, working on BA and MA theses, audiovisual translation in accessible filmmaking, and transcreation involving social engagement and sustainability.
References
Cronin, M. (2017). Eco-Translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene. New York: Routledge.
Palmer, N. & Schueths, A.M. 2013. Online Teaching Communities within Sociology: A Counter Trend to the Marketization of Higher Education. Teaching in Higher Education 18(7):809-820.
Ruokonen, M., Hanoulle, S., Vandepitte, S. & Kuusi, P. 2019. INTEAM. An Interpreting and Translation Teaching Methods Database. Presentation at The European Master's of Translation Network Meeting, Brussels 10 October 2019. https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8635285/file/8635288.pdf
The workshop will proceed as follows:
- A brief introduction to the basic principles of INTEAM;
- A brainstorming session about central themes of Translation Ecology and integrating them into T/I teaching;
- Group sessions: in groups of 3 or 4, participants will choose one idea from those produced by the brainstorming session and develop it into a systematic description of a teaching practice (aims, realisation, materials required);
- Presentation of results, discussion, ideas for further collaboration.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained new insight into putting Translation Ecology into practice in their classes, as well as established new networks for sharing their expertise or strengthened existing ones.
Time of the workshop: 14:00 − 17:00 (3 hours)
Maximum number of participants: 30
Devices and materials to be brought by participants: Notebook computers
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Workshop 2: Indirect translation in translation practicum: 101 course for translator trainers
Convenors: Hanna Pieta (University of Lisbon), Rita Bueno (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) & Ester Torres-Simon (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
This train-the-trainer workshop will be about indirect translation , understood as translation done via a third language. It will provide translator trainers with tips about teaching how to translate with a subsequent translation in mind, and how to translate from translation.
Today ITr is widespread (audiovisual, institutional, news translation, etc.) and nothing suggests a loss of energy in the foreseeable future. If delivered to the level required, ITr can be an empowering aid that allows speakers of low-diffusion languages to access important information and be heard on the global stage. High-quality ITr thus plays a crucial role in achieving the agenda for sustainable development, in which everyone has the same access to opportunities, regardless of the language they speak. Because it creates particular challenges that require specific competences, some years ago several researchers and trainers stressed the importance of specific training in indirect translating (Gambier 2003; Shlesinger 2010). By teaching how to translate for or from translation, trainers contribute to this aspiration for global sustainability.
However, our recent survey of translation courses, trainers and coursebooks suggests that ITr is not as widely taught as it should be (Torres et al. forthcoming) and that there is a shortage of training aids for trainers who want to teach hands-on practice in ITr. To address this gap, this workshop is designed as a brief introduction to ITr training, after which trainers will be better equipped to develop their own modules and activities.
Topics to be covered (with greater or lesser focus, depending on participants’ interests):
- brief outline of current ITr practice, research and teaching (domains, pivot languages, etc.)
- overview of main ethical, technological, legal, etc. challenges for ITr
- overview of specific translation competences needed to better translate indirectly
- how to teach translating from translation (sample activities, pitfalls trainers may run into and possible workarounds)
- how to teach translating from translation (sample activities, pitfalls trainers may run into and possible workarounds)
- how and where to locate teaching material relevant for my translation domain and working languages?
The information provided during the workshop will be based on our experience teaching, researching and practicing ITr in Poland, Portugal and Spain. The workshop will also draw on the contents of our forthcoming coursebook on the same topic, to be published by Routledge. The workshop will be in English, with audiovisual, literary, technical and scientific translation examples in Catalan, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Polish and Spanish. These will be contextualized to illustrate situations in various linguistic/geographic settings, so the knowledge of these additional languages is not required. Since this topic addresses the practices of both peripheral languages (often in the position of translating for) and dominant languages (often the pivot languages translated from), the workshop is intended for all trainers, regardless of the language combinations they teach.
Time of the workshop: 14:00 − 17:00 (3 hours)
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Workshop 3: Methods and concepts for researching post-editing of machine translation
Convenors: Sergi Álvarez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) & Antoni Oliver (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
In the last years, post-editing of machine translation has become a very common practice in the translation industry. It has been included as part of the translation workflow because it increases productivity, it reduces costs and turnarounds. Yet, many professional translators don’t feel comfortable post-editing because many times it entails a considerable effort. This has boosted the research interest in machine translation and post-editing.
This workshop provides an overview of the research methods used to study post-editing as well as the most frequently used tools. It includes hands-on exercises to calculate different automatic measures of MT quality and to collect quantitative data of post-effort temporal and technical effort using a newly developed tool (PosEdiOn).
By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained:
- Familiarity with current research methods in post-editing;
- Knowledge of the possibilities and difficulties of the different approaches;
- Hands-on experience calculating automatic measures for evaluating machine translation: BLEU, NIST, WER, Edit Distance;
- Practical experience collecting post-editing effort indicators.
Time of the workshop: 14:00 − 17:00 (3 hours)
Maximum number of participants: 20
Devices and materials to be brought by participants: Notebook
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Workshop 4: Audio description: If your eyes could speak
Convenor: Joel Snyder (Audio Description Associates, LLC)
Audio Description is a translation of images to words — the visual is made verbal. Audio describers use words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative to convey the visual image from television and film that is not fully accessible to a significant segment of the population . You will find audio description these days at arts events—theater, opera, dance, museum exhibits, broadcast television, DVDs, streaming media and first-run feature films—but also at conferences, in classrooms, weddings, parades, rodeos, circuses, sports events, on cruises, for karaoke performances – even at funerals.
What follows is a review of the skills that a describer must develop in order to make the visual verbal:
1) OBSERVATION - An effective describer must increase his level of awareness and become an active ""see-er,"" develop his ""visual literacy,"" notice the visual world with a heightened sense of acuity, and share those images.
2) EDITING - Next, describers must edit or cull from what they see, selecting what is most valid, what is most important, what is most critical to an understanding and appreciation of an event.
3) Third, LANGUAGE - We transfer it all to words--objective, vivid, specific, imaginatively drawn words, phrases, and metaphors. Here, where I live (Washington, DC), is the Washington Monument 555 feet tall or is it 50 stories tall or is it as high as 55 elephants stacked one on top of the other or is it almost as tall as two football fields set up vertically?
The best audio describer objectively recounts the visual aspects of an exhibition. Qualitative judgments get in the way they constitute a subjective interpretation on the part of the describer and are unnecessary and unwanted. Let listeners conjure their own interpretations based on a commentary that is as objective as possible.
So you don't say "He is furious" or "She is upset." Rather, "He's clenching his fist" or "She is crying."
4) And finally, vocal skills. In addition to building a verbal capability, the describer develops the vocal instrument through work with speech and oral interpretation fundamentals. Even when the description is voiced by someone other than the author of the descriptive language, the description writer must be aware of how critical the voicing of the description can be to conveying meaning. The voice must always be in consonance with the event or image we’re describing. We make meaning with our voices.
There is no good reason why a person with a visual disability must also be culturally disadvantaged. In the United States the principal constituency for audio description has an unemployment rate of about 70%. I am certain that with more meaningful access to our culture and its resources, people become more informed, more engaged with society and more engaging individuals—thus, more employable.
Time of the workshop: 14:00 − 17:00 (3 hours)
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.