Towards Transcultural Awareness In Translation Pedagogy

This volume gathers a wide range of voices in Translation Studies offering theoretical insights and practical ideas on how to tackle the cultural dimension in translation pedagogy. Issues range from curriculum planning to evaluation methods. The volume illustrates that the practice of 'translating culture' in the classroom goes beyond the translation of so-called realia. It also promotes the notion that translation teachers should foster transcultural awareness among their students, whereby intercultural differences and similarities may be negotiated and transcended in the act of translation. Julie Deconinck, Philippe Humble, Arvi Sepp and Helene Stengers are affiliated to the Applied Linguistics Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

This book explores the ways in which transcultural pedagogies can support learning and literacies in critical, creative and socially just ways, highlighting research initiatives from across the globe. Each chapter provides a different and innovative perspective with respect to reimagining language and literacy pedagogies in conjunction with students’ diverse literacies and resources. Presenting a collection of classroom and community-based research, the book addresses the intersections of plurilingualism, identity and transcultural awareness in various contexts, including schools, universities, as well as local and Indigenous communities. These settings have been deliberately chosen to profile the range of research in the field, showcasing transcultural, plurilingual, translanguaging and community-engaged pedagogies, among others.

In this anthology renowned scholars working in the area of legal translation studies (LTS) focus on current issues and challenges in legal translation emerging from today’s globalisation and internationalisation. Considering both theoretical and practical points of view the contributions present interdisciplinary approaches to legal translation dealing with legal systems in national, EU and international settings, and include civil law and common law as well as supranational and private international law. In addition to the historical evolution of legal systems and of legal translation the papers discuss specific features of legal language and challenges in legal translation, as well as new didactic strategies to deal with the future profiles of legal translators.

The central aim of language teaching is typically to prepare learners to communicate through the language learnt. However, much current language teaching theory and practice is based on a simplistic view of communication that fails to match the multilingual and intercultural reality of the majority of second language (L2) use. This Element examines the relationship between language and culture through an L2 in intercultural and transcultural communication. It puts forward the argument that we need to go beyond communicative competence in language teaching and focus instead on intercultural and transcultural awareness. Implications for pedagogic practice are explored including intercultural and transcultural language education.

Fereshte Teyfouri's writings focussing on Sufi thought and mystical concepts are presented with the original Persian texts and an English translation to introduce her poignant view of existence to a wider audience. The poetic miniatures muse on existentialist concepts, stemming from the perspective of her life in Iran and later Germany - and a visceral sense of not belonging - but with the dilemmas of alienation and displacement counterbalanced by the sentiments being expressed using Sufi terms, but sometimes from the standpoint of inanimate objects: tar, blotting paper, the cleansing nature of an eraser. Fereshte Teyfouri, lecturer in Persian at the Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat, Munster, Persian author and editor, translator for the German courts. Natalie H. Shokoohy (translator) architectural historian.

With the implementation of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the demand for translators and interpreters continues to grow in China. The breakthrough in artificial intelligence, which has contributed to an enormous improvement in the quality of machine translation, means challenges and opportunities for translators and interpreters as well as studies of translation and interpreting. Studies of translation and interpreting have been further expanded and diversified in the era of globalized communications. The interrelation between translation and globalization is essential reading for not only scholars and educators, but also anyone with an interest in translation and interpreting studies, or a concern for the future of our world’s languages and cultures. By focusing on the connection between the two, various researches have been conducted in all forms of communication between languages, including translation, interpreting, cross-cultural communication, language teaching, and the various specializations involved in such activities. This has resulted in The Third International Conference on Globalization: Challenges for Translators and Interpreters co-organized by the School of Translation Studies, Jinan University on its Zhuhai campus and South China Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, November 16-17, 2019. The response to the conference was once more overwhelming, which was partly attributed to the previous two conferences held successfully under the same title. Apart from five keynote speakers, over one hundred and fifty participants came from universities, institutions or organizations from mainland China, Spain, New Zealand, as well as Hong Kong and Macao to attend the event, contributing over 130 papers in total. Among the keynote speakers are internationally renowned scholars in translation studies, such as Dr. Roberto Valdeón, professor of English Linguistics at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and the Chief Editor of Perspective: Studies in Translatology; Dr. Sun Yifeng, chair professor of Translation Studies and head of the English Department at the University of Macau; Dr. Tan Zaixi, distinguished professor of Shenzhen University and Chair Professor of Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Professor Emeritus of Hong Kong Baptist University. After careful evaluation and compilation, 90 papers have been selected for this conference proceedings, which was summarized into the following four topics: “Translation and Interpreting Theory and Practice,” “Translation and Cross-cultural Studies,” “Evaluation of Translation and Interpretation,” and “Studies on the Teaching of Translation.” By no means is it difficult to find some interesting and thought-provoking papers under each topic. For example, concerning “Translation and Interpreting Theory and Practice,” “To Translate or not to Translate? That is the Question----On Metaphor Translation in Chinese Political works” (by Dong Yu) explains that in judging whether or not a Chinese metaphor can be translated into English, an indispensable step is to decide whether or not the two cultural connotations can be connected. But this can easily be influenced by subjective factors. Yu has suggested some ways in which subjective factors could be controlled to some extent so that the translator could be more confident in his or her decision. He has also suggested three steps. The first step is to assume that the cultural connotation of the Chinese metaphor can be connected with that of its English version. For example, the metaphor ???? in ??????????? could be translated as rain or shine; The second step is to find out whether or not this translated version is acceptable both linguistically and culturally in English. The third step is to consider the systematicity of the metaphor in regard with the context in both the source and target texts. This involves a process of recontextualization. When it comes to “Translation and Cross-cultural Studies”, “On Translation of the English Guide-interpreter from the Perspective of Intercultural Communication” (by Fengxia Liua and Xiaoning Bi), points out that inbound tourism serves as a window through which foreign tourists get to know China, so the interaction between the guide-interpreters and foreign tourists are the typical activity of cultural communication. Foreign-language-speaking guides are usually regarded as “people-to-people ambassadors” or “cultural ambassadors”, who have played an essential role in the international tourist industry. Therefore, they argue that it is extremely important for tourist guides to cultivate their cross-cultural communication awareness, enhance their overall communicative competence, observe and distinguish east-and-west differences with multi-dimensional perspective, transcend cultural barriers and learn to use translation skills. “Studies on the Teaching of Translation” is another interesting topic that has attracted enormous attention, such as “Business Translation Teaching from the Perspective of Metaphors” (by Dandan Li) which explores application of conceptual metaphor theory in the translation process of business lexicons, business discourse and business English culture so as to provide a new perspective in business English pedagogy. Another study entitled “Cognitive Studies in Translation” (by Xin Huang), analyzes the cognitive studies of translation / interpreting processes over the past three decades, with focus on the issues examined, the findings reached as well as the recent development. She explains that cognitive studies of translation process examine the translation competence, on-line translation behaviors such as how the eye gazes and how the words are typed and the brain activities when doing translation. Special interests are paid to the working memory, problem-solving, the executive function and some linguistic relative factors such as text difficulty. Over the past thirty years, the interest in the field has been gaining considerable momentum and increasing issues have been involved. Finally, she concludes that with the advancement of technologies and interdisciplinary approaches, the black box, the previously unforeseeable cognitive activities of how human process translation, can be unfolded. Considering the importance of integrating theory with practice, the proceedings are therefore compiled in such a way as to be balanced and inclusive in the hope of summarizing current accomplishments as well as providing certain insights for teaching and further research in the field of translation and interpretation studies.

This volume brings together the voices of a number of translation and interpreting scholars and educators representing several different cultures and language combinations, in order to present their views on, and experiences with, authentic experiential learning in professional translation and interpreting programmes. Readers who happen to be translator educators and who have not yet explored the possibility of incorporating authentic experiential learning into their teaching will be encouraged by this short collection of chapters to consider, or reconsider, this pedagogical option. In addition, the volume will inspire new and up-and-coming translator educators to reflect on their own understandings of what it means to know, to learn and to teach as they set out to educate translators competently and wisely in this still-new millennium. Finally, it also provides a context and justification for experiential learning on the wider canvas of teacher development and organizational learning. This second edition includes two new chapters (Chapters 10 and 11) and updated versions of many other chapters from the first edition.

Originating at an international forum held at the University of Vic (Spain), the twelve essays collected here attest to important changes in translation practice and the assumptions which underpin them. Leading theorists respond to the state of Translation Studies today, particularly the epistemological dilemma between theories that are empirically oriented and those that are inspired by developments in Cultural Studies. But the volume is also practical. Experienced instructors survey existing pedagogies at translator/interpreter training programs and explore new techniques that address the technological and global challenges of the new millennium. Among the topics considered are: how to use translation technology in the classroom, how to construct a syllabus for a course in audiovisual translating or in translation theory, and how to develop guidelines for a program for community interpreters or conference interpreters. The contributors all assume that translation, whether written or oral, does not occupy a neutral space. It is a cross-cultural exchange that produces far-reaching social effects. Their essays significantly advance the theoretical and practical understanding of translation along these lines.