Teaching Translation at ILR level 3 SOME Thoughts and ideas

1. Teaching Translation at ILR level 3SOME Thoughts and ideas Claus Mathiesen Head of Language Training Section Institute for Languages and Culture Royal Danish Defence College

2. the intuitive approach….. Student to me: • ”Translation? But, Claus, isn’tthat just to…?”

3. ILR SKILL LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS FOR TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE (Preface) • “A successful translation is one that conveys the explicit and implicit meaning of the source language into the target language as fully and accurately as possible. • From the standpoint of the user, the translation must also meet the prescribed specifications and deadlines.”

4. ILR SKILL LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS FOR TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE (Preface) • “Competence in two languages is necessary but not sufficient for any translation task.  Though the translator must be able to • (1) read and comprehend the source language and • (2) write comprehensibly in the target language, the translator must also be able to • (3) choose the equivalent expression in the target language that both fully conveys and best matches the meaning intended in the source language (referred to as congruity judgment).

5. ILR SKILL LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS FOR TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE (Preface) • “A weakness in any of these three abilities will influence performance adversely and have a negative impact on the utility of the product.  Therefore, all three abilities must be considered when assessing translation skills.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ • (One) conclusion: When translating between two languages, you can only reach the level of your reading/writing skills in the two languages. • From a foreign language into your own: 3(?)

6. Level 3 (Professional Performance) • Can translate texts that contain not only facts but also abstract language, showing an emerging ability to capture their intended implications and many nuances. • Such texts usually contain situations and events which are subject to value judgments of a personal or institutional kind, as in some newspaper editorials, propaganda tracts, and evaluations of projects. • Linguistic knowledge of both the terminology and the means of expression specific to a subject field is strong enough to allow the translator to operate successfully within that field. • Word choice and expression generally adhere to target language norms and rarely obscure meaning. • The resulting product is a draft translation, subject to quality control.

7. SOME USEFUL TOOLS TO INCLUDE IN DISCUSSIONS WITH STUDENTS • MEANING • INFORMATION • FUNCTIONAL STYLES----------------------------------------- • TRANSLATION NORM(S)

8. 1) Semantics – Meaning - DISSECTION • Contextual • close • wider • Extralinguistic • time/place • Lexical • referential • pragmatic • intralinguistic • Grammatical • morphological/grammaticalcategories • syntactical

9. EXTRALINGUISTIC SITUATION(time, place, surroundings, subject matter, participants etc.) CONTEXT – close - wider LEXICAL MEANING PRAGMATIC- style (neutral, spoken, written, poetic, term)- register (colloquial, informal, neutral, formal, ceremonial)- emotional colouring (negative, neutral, positive)---------- word order---------- metaphors- connotations(?) REFERENTIAL 1) completely coinciding2) partly coinciding3) no coinciding INTRALINGUISTIC- rhyme, rhythmic, allitterations etc.- word play, nicknames etc. - such as: number, gender, case,aspects, time- syntactical meanings (active, passive) - OPTIONAL or- OBLIGATORY? GRAMMATICAL MEANING

10. 2) TYPES OF INFORMATION • cognitiv • emotional-expressive • dynamic • aesthetic

11. COGNITIV INFORMATION”descriptive”compressed APPELATIVE INFORMATION”prescriptive” AESTHETICINFORMATION EMOTIONAL INFORMATION”subjective”metaphorical TEXT TYPES can be differentiated by the dominating type or the mix of types of information they contain

12. 3) TYPOLOGY oF STYLESFive (six) ”functionalstyles” NON-FICTION FICTION Official/business Written Literary Scientific/technical (monologic,prepared) Colloquial Publicistic/newspaper (”no conventions”, ”individual style”) (conventionalized) Spoken (dialogic, unprepared)

13. 4) TRANSLATION NORMS • equivalence – adequacy • targetlanguagecorrectness • style and genre • (super)pragmatics

14. Hierarchy of Norm(s) PRAGMATICS STYLE – and GENRE TARGET LANGUAGE EQUIVALENCE/ADEQUACY

15. GUIDELINES for ”DECISIONMAKING” • the dissection of meaning • the idea of the dominance of one kind of information beingtypical to different kinds of texts • the understanding of the hierarchy of norms in translation • provide goodtools for the students, whendecidingwhich of, normally, (too) manychoiceswillbe the best in a given situation

16. MethoDOlogical APPROACHES-1 • defining the recipient(s) • picking relevant textsrepresentingincreasingcomplexity • providing general guidelines to the students • setting time limits/”deadlines”

17. DefinING the recipient(s) • individual/group/collective? • ”persons, whoareinterested in the country and what is going on there, but who do not possessanyspecialisedknowledge of the country’sbackground or reality” • of utmostimportancewhendeciding to whichextent it willbenecessary to makeimplicit meaningexplicit • ”State Duma” – ”PtasieMleczko”

18. PICKING THE RIGHT TEXTS-1publicistic/NEWSPAPER style Publicisticvs. newspaper style • the goal of the publicistic style: ‘views’, i.e. to shape the audience, to influence public opinion, to make the audience accept the speaker’s point of view • the goal of the newspaper style: ‘news’, i.e. to inform the audience • shares features with the scientific style: coherent and logical syntactical structure, careful paragraphing, expanded system of connectives • shares features with the style of belles-lettres: words with emotive meaning, imagery

19. PICKING THE RIGHT TEXTS-2publicistic/NEWSPAPER style Lexical Features • emphasis on accessibility and easy understanding > paraphrasing rather than special terms • only established and generally understood terms (e.g. Cold War) • evaluating adjectives (e.g. the strongest pressure, growing menace, elementary blunder) • traditional, unoriginal metaphors and similes • newspaper clichés • numerals, abbreviations, symbols Syntactical Features • coherent and logical syntactical structure • carefulparagraphing • simple rather than complex sentences • expanded system of connectives • brevity of expression • abundant use of modifiers (adjectives, adverbs)

20. PICKING THE RIGHT TEXTS-3publicistic/NEWSPAPER style • short news items (preferablycompletetexts) • start with reports on events thatcouldhappenalmostanywhere • caraccidents, fires, official visits • continue with texts with a more ”local” flavour • anniversaries, social matters, etc. • move on to texts with a highly ”local” flavourincluding references, comments, elements of criticism, irony, humor, evenpoetry, etc. • 15-20 texts for translation totally

21. STUDENT Guidelines-1 • The purpose of reading the textbeforestarting to translate • general idea, intention of the author, ”tone” etc. • ”pre-translation analysis” • The first part of the translation is the most time-consuming • Main difficulties/challenges • Standardizedexpressions • situational, unseparable, clichees • Metaphors • Terminology • References to source-language reality • geography, institutions, history, culture • ethnography (dress, food, tools etc.) • intertextuality (in the broadestsense) • note: references canbe ”historical” or contemporary • Poeticlanguage

22. STUDENT Guidelines-2 What to avoid? • ”argot” or ”semi-translations” • ”translator’s remarks” • formulationsinfluenced by the source language • punctuationinfluenced by the source language(!)

23. STUDENT guidelines-3 • on translitteration • on titles, names • on usingdictionaries • on using the internet • on using web-basedresources

24. MethoDOlogical APPROACHES-2 • makeyourown ”reference translation”, beforecorrecting the output of the students • correct the students’ translations, providinggood and exact guidance • discuss (a few) general challenges in the translation with the class • developcritical/self-criticalawareness in smaller groups/pairs

25. Approaches to bedeveloped in the workingprocess • takingfull responsibilityfor the translation • thoroughnes (firstlanguagecompetence etc.) • handling time pressure • languageawareness in general • translation awareness • ”the discussionsduring the processare more importantthan the result” • the possibilities of the internet have raised the bar regarding the quality of translation significantly! • ifyousearch, youwill find (almostanything)!! • ”hunting instinct”

26. Translatability • Is it possible to translateeverything? • Yes, • but not alwayswithoutloss of meaning, • whichmightevenbesignificant.

27. ”word-to-word” or ”sense-to-sense”?(the oldest of all discussionsabout translation) • as ”word-to-word” as possible(”imitating”) • as ”sense-to-sense” as necessary(”recreating”) • but first of all NATURALLY!

28. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED… • ”Claus, now I really understand, WHY translation is NOT just to…” (Yeah, and you be glad, it’s only a DRAFT, too, you little i….!)

29. FURTHER STEPS • the describedway of working with translation has proved to be a good ”steppingstone” for training: • translation to a foreignlanguage • translation of militarytexts • althoughtheymainlybelong to the scientific-technicalfunctionalstyle • interpretation in general