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Translator’s Tools

Vak
2023-2024

This course is open only to students registered for the Translation specialization.

Description

Translators have a wide variety of sources and tools that they can use in their work. Their problem, in the Internet age, is not that information is lacking, but that it is difficult to find because there is so much of it. The Translator’s Tools is a heuristics course in which students will learn how to find and use reference tools, including CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools, corpora and machine translation, and how to conduct and write up translation-related research. Furthermore, the course explores how other disciplines, such as terminology management, semantics, pragmatics, rhetoric, stylistics and culture studies can help the translator. Finally, the relationship between post-editing and machine translation will be dealt with in theory and practice.

Course objectives

  1. Use the most relevant IT applications, including the full range of office software, and adapt rapidly to new tools and IT resources having critically assessed their relevance and the impact of change on their work practices
  2. Make effective use of search engines, corpus-based tools, text analysis tools, computer- assisted translation (CAT) and quality assurance (QA) tools where appropriate
  3. Pre-process, process and manage files and other media/sources as part of the translation workflow, e.g., web and multimedia files
  4. Understand the basics of MT systems and their impact on the translation process, and integrate MT into a translation workflow where appropriate
  5. Post-edit MT output using style guides and terminology glossaries to maintain quality standards in MT-enhanced translation projects
  6. Ability to conduct and write up translation technology-related research.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar

  • Independent work on the Translation Lab

Assessment method

Assessment

Written assignments:

  • Machine translation research paper (50%)

  • One in-class CAT-tool assignment (50%)

Weighing

  • Machine translation research paper (50%)

  • One in-class CAT-tool assignment (50%)

Resit

There will be a resit opportunity for each of the course components. All components have to be at least 6.0. Students can only resit a course component if the mark for the component is a fail.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

Reading materials will be available through [Brightspace (https://brightspace.universiteitleiden.nl/).

Registration

Enrolment through My Studymap is mandatory

Contact

For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar

For questions related to the content of the course, please contact the lecturer, you can find their contact information by clicking on their name in the sidebar.

For questions regarding enrollment please contact the Education Administration Office Reuvensplaats E-mail address Education Administration Office Reuvensplaats: osz-oa-reuvensplaats@hum.leidenuniv.nl

For questions regarding your studyprogress contact the Coordinator of Studies

Remarks