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PL50817: Chinese to English translation II

[Page last updated: 02 August 2022]

Academic Year: 2022/23
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 2
Assessment Summary: CW 75%, EX 25%
Assessment Detail:
  • Coursework 1 (CW 25%)
  • Coursework 2 (CW 25%)
  • Coursework 3 (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)
Learning Outcomes: After completing the unit, students will have obtained a comprehensive understanding of all the principles and techniques applicable to their work of this area of professional work. They will therefore have a critical insight into the problems arising in a translation process and will be able to tackle and solve a wide 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 level.
Students will also have gained a conceptual understanding of the role of translators. They will thus know how to meet the expectations of the end-user and be able to deal competently with all the various practical issues that these entail.
They will be familiar with advanced concepts in translation theory.

Aims: This unit is designed to further equip students with the range of skills and techniques that are 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.

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.
Students will be able to act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional level. They will be able to demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems.
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 advanced concepts in translation theory to practical translation exercises.

Programme availability:

PL50817 is Optional 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 2022/23 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2023/24 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2022/23.
  • 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.