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PL50818: English to Chinese translation I

[Page last updated: 05 August 2021]

Academic Year: 2021/2
Owning Department/School: Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
Credits: 6 [equivalent to 12 CATS credits]
Notional Study Hours: 120
Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Period:
Semester 1
Assessment Summary: CW 75%, EX 25%
Assessment Detail:
  • Coursework (CW 25%)
  • Coursework (CW 25%)
  • Coursework (CW 25%)
  • Examination (EX 25%)
Supplementary Assessment:
Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Requisites: This unit is only available to students on the MA in Interpreting and Translating and the MA in Translation with Business Interpreting (Chinese)
Aims: This unit is designed to equip students with the fundamental skills and techniques required to embark on a career as a professional linguist in this particular field. The aim is to maximise each student's potential so that as many as possible of the group achieve the standard necessary for professional work.

Learning Outcomes: After completing the unit, students will have obtained a comprehensive understanding of the principles and techniques applicable to their work of this area of professional work. They will therefore have a critical awareness of the problems arising in a translation process and will be able to tackle and solve them in a range of translation assignments with confidence and success.
In this respect, they will have developed an expertise in the topic areas covered that enables them to work autonomously to produce work at a professional or equivalent level.
Students will also have gained a conceptual understanding of the role of translators. They will thus be able to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively and make sound judgement to adapt themselves to a professional environment. They will have been familiarised with key concepts in translation theory and will be able to apply these to their own work.

Skills: The main intellectual skill developed in this unit is the ability to make the kind of linguistic judgements that will produce a satisfactory end product for the client. By applying this in practice, students are able to build up the expertise required for professional work.
Translation is an exercise in communication that involves transferable key skills such as written expression, self-direction and an awareness of one's own performance, as well as IT and information retrieval abilities.
These skills are developed gradually through classwork, marked assignments and constructive feedback.

Content: This unit adopts a practical approach to translation, using materials of an increasingly challenging nature. These will be selected with the specific needs of the translation market in mind; the balance between business, scientific, political, social, economic and legal texts will be tailored to this particular language combination. During this process, the following issues, in particular, will be addressed and discussed:
* the practical principles to be applied to translation work in general;
* the intended end-user of the text and the kind of style/register that is involved;
* the reference tools or sources that could be used;
* where to look for guidance on translation and/or language issues;
* how to organise working processes so as to produce the best possible translation in the time available;
* how to ensure consistency in translation, use of language and presentation;
* how to apply basic concepts from translation theory in practical translation exercises.

Programme availability:

PL50818 is Compulsory on the following programmes:

Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
  • THPL-AFM31 : MA Interpreting and Translating (Path 2 - Chinese)

Notes:

  • This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2021/22 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2022/23 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2021/22.
  • Programmes and units are subject to change in accordance with normal University procedures.
  • Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.
  • Find out more about these and other important University terms and conditions here.