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- Volume 3, Issue, 2014
Translation Spaces - Volume 3, Issue 1, 2014
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2014
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Developing psychological skill for the global language industry: An exploration of approaches to translator and interpreter training
Author(s): David P. Atkinsonpp.: 1–24 (24)More LessThis article presents a teaching methodology aimed at helping trainee translators and interpreters to increase their psychological skill. Psychological skill is here defined as the effects of self-efficacy, explanatory style, and locus of control, all of which shape their decision-making and courses of action. By increasing their level of psychological skill, I aim to help translators and interpreters better cope with the challenges of an increasingly automated and highly globalized profession.In particular, this article explores three general approaches for teaching and improving psychological skill, namely theoretical discussion, modelling, and role play. I will also describe examples for practical activities that might be carried out in translator/interpreter training.The overall aim of the article is to provide a research-based foundation for teachers and trainers so that they can implement teaching methodologies and strategies to help their translation/interpreting students to graduate with better psychological skill. A particular focus will be on psychological challenges arising from the globalized nature of our profession and the changes brought about by technological developments.
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Translating Shanghai: The Untranslatable in the translation of a city
Author(s): Chen Wangpp.: 25–50 (26)More LessThis essay problematizes the translation of one city as another: Shanghai for instance as ‘New York’ or ‘Paris.’ Such tropes have long been popular in literature and journalism. By viewing the issue through the lens of translation, the essay proposes to question the equivalence between cities that such statements presume. Behind the presumption of equivalence are political, cultural, and social ‘Untranslatables’ that emerge at the moment of translation. The paper focuses also on issues of intersemiotic translation that arise in the multimedia book, Disappearing Shanghai. The essay discusses how multiple translations of Shanghai co-operate with, conflict with and defy one another, leading to a constantly changing perspective on the city.
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Subtitling, video consumption and viewers: The impact of the young audience
Author(s): David Orrego-Carmonapp.: 51–70 (20)More LessThe emergence of international audiences and the activities of prosumers are modifying international media flows. Consumers have become active mediators in the distribution of audiovisual contents through the Internet, overstepping official distribution channels. As an efficient way to overcome linguistic barriers, non-professional subtitling plays an important role within this framework. In order to analyze how the new environment is altering users’ behavior and attitudes, this article looks at the case of video consumption and non-professional subtitling use in Spain. By drawing on questionnaires, interviews and documentary sources on the Internet, the article aims at providing a general picture of current consumption habits of audiovisual material in a globalized society. It explores users’ engagement with audiovisual content, their attitude towards subtitling and non-professional subtitling, and how they manage their expectations and adapt to the new conditions.
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Translation policy in the media: A study of television programs in the province of Kurdistan in Iran
Author(s): Esmaeil Haddadian-Moghaddam and Reine Meylaertspp.: 71–98 (28)More LessAlthough Persian is the official language in Iran, legal provisions are available for the use of minority languages in the media. Recent scholarship describes ‘Persianization’ as the ‘building block’ of language policy, overlooking the use of minority languages in official media. This paper examines the scope of this minority language provision in the television programs broadcasted by the state in Kurdistan. It illustrates the use of translation and bilingualism working alongside official monolingualism, calling into question the issue of Persianization. The article first describes the use of non-Persian languages in Iranian state media and shows their proportion vis-a-vis official Persian. Second, it examines the use of Kurdish and the weight of translation in the television programs under study. Advocating translational justice, the paper calls for a clear translation policy and more translation to be offered for programs broadcasted for Kurdish minorities to ensure equal access to media.
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Open, web-based internationalization and localization tools
Author(s): David Lewis, Qun Liu, Leroy Finn, Chris Hokamp, Felix Sasaki and David Filippp.: 99–132 (34)More LessAs many software applications have moved from a desktop software deployment model to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model so we have seen tool vendors in the language service industry move to a SaaS model, e.g., for web-based Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. However, many of these offerings fail to take full advantage of the Open Web Platform, i.e., the rich set of web browser-based APIs linked to HTML5. We examine the interoperability landscape that developers of web-based translation tools can benefit from, and in particular the potential offered by the open metadata defined in the W3C’s (World Wide Web Consortium) recent Internationalization Tag Set v2.0 Recommendation. We examine how this can be used in conjunction with the XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF) standardized by OASIS to exchange translation jobs between servers and Javascript-based CAT tools running in the web browser. We also explore how such open metadata can support activities in the multilingual web processing chain before and after translation.
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“Feeling” audio description: Exploring the impact of AD on emotional response
Author(s): Marina Ramos Caro and Ana María Rojo Lópezpp.: 133–150 (18)More LessThere is evidence suggesting that watching movies usually provokes an emotional response in the audience that may differ according to the type of film viewed. For example, Grodal (2009) argues that the type of response provoked by mainstream cinema is different from that elicited by avant-garde films. In visually impaired audiences, the emotional impact of films is inevitably mediated by the Audio Description (AD) provided. In most countries AD norms do not cater for variations between different types of films. There exists, therefore, the possibility that the emotional impact of the film could be affected or altered by the AD. This paper aims to explore possible differences in the response of sighted versus unsighted audiences when watching avant-garde and narrative films. A pilot study is designed to measure the emotional response through self-response questionnaires. Our results indicate that differences between both types of audience are more prominent for avant-garde films.
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Moving up the value chain?: The economic theory of factor price equalization and its implications for the translation profession
Author(s): Andy Lung Jan Chanpp.: 151–165 (15)More LessIn this age of globalization, and as a result of the advent of information, communication and translation technologies, translation tasks tend to be outsourced or even crowd-sourced to countries with lower wages, and translation fees seem to be on a downward spiral. Downward pressure on translation rates appears to confirm the factor price equalization theorem, a key derivation of the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model in economics. This famous theorem in labor and international economics argues that the prices of factors of production such as wage rate (or return on human capital) are equalized across countries as a result of international trade activities. This paper begins by presenting the theoretical framework of the factor price equalization theorem. It then examines how this theorem can be applied to analyze certain recently observed phenomena in the market for professional services in general and in the translation market in particular, and discusses implications for professional translators, language service providers and translator training institutions.
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Rethinking translation studies
Author(s): Sanjun Sunpp.: 167–191 (25)More LessSince Holmes’ founding statement for translation studies in 1972, four decades have passed. During that time some trends seem to have developed in the discipline, and it is time to stop and take stock. This paper touches upon issues essential to understanding translation studies today, such as (1) the nature of translation; (2) the research scope of translation studies; (3) interdisciplinary orientation and its implications; (4) research methods; and (5) the relationship between translation theory and practice. An examination of these issues indicates that the discipline of translation studies is increasingly subject to opposing or competing research approaches and is exhibiting a kind of disciplinary fragmentation. There are imbalances in the research methods used and in the topics that emerge in the research literature. There is a growing gap between translation theory and practice. This paper tries to examine the reasons for these trends and offer perspectives on ways to reach some common disciplinary and professional ground.
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“A tiny cog in a large machine”
Author(s): Joss Moorkens
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Training citizen translators
Author(s): Federico M. Federici and Patrick Cadwell
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