Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen (IÜD), Universität Heidelberg

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Professor Dr. Bogdan Babych, Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen, Universität Heidelberg, Plöck 57a, 69117 Heidelberg, Tel +49 6221 547230, email bogdan.babych@iued.uni-heidelberg.de

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Prof. Dr. Bogdan Babych

Professor of Translation Studies, Department of Translation, Communication and Technology

Institute for Translation and Interpreting, Universität Heidelberg

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Course descriptions

I teach courses on translation technologies, translation theory and methodology of research in Translation Studies:

1 0945MUE8202 Research colloquium: research for MA Thesis, MA colloquium, 3rd semester Forschungskolloquium MA, 3rd Sem, 3 Credit Points, Research colloquium, Mon 10:15 to 11:45

M.A. Übersetzungswissenschaft (Sprachkombination AB | ACCC | ABC)

Course description:

In a modern working environment translators need skills for systematic analysis and interpretation of data, such as textual information or corpus-based evidence. Nowadays the value of such strong research skills goes beyond the academic field, as translation workplace increasingly values translator’s ability to understand and clearly formulate a problem, systematically select and analyse the evidence, set-up experiments, apply research skills creatively to non-trivial tasks in new areas.

The research colloquium is aimed at supporting students’ preparation of their MA theses. The topic of your written assessment for this course (an essay up to 2000 words) will typically be on the same (broad) topic, as your MA thesis. It will normally cover motivation for the choice of your research topic, your methodology, an outline of your critical literature review and identification of a gap in existing research on the topic. You will be expected to formulate your research problem and research questions, justify its relevance for the field of translation and/or interpreting (e.g., its practical or theoretical value for translators and/or researchers), to identify material for your study and (ideally) present preliminary results of a pilot analysis or experiment. The first weeks of the course will cover an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches to research in translation studies. The course will also introduce methods of selecting, sampling, linguistic annotation and statistical analysis of research material for projects in translation studies, methodology of corpus-based translation studies. Later in the course we will focus on student-lead presentations of assigned reading articles and chapters or literature review of the student projects. Students will then be asked to find a supervisor for their MA thesis and to book regular one-to-one tutorials with their prospective supervisors and with the course tutor, leading to presentations of their projects to the class in the final weeks of the course.

Learning outcomes: After completing the course the students will be able to orient themselves in modern research methods of Translation Studies, they will be able to formulate and communicate the relevance of their research problem, to link their chosen research topic with an appropriate methodology, materials, literature review, analysis and interpretation of the data, to define the scope and to understand limitations of their approach, and to identify directions for future research.

Course assessment: An essay or a case study on the topic of their MA thesis, up to 2000 words, to be submitted in 3 weeks after the last class (100% of the final mark for the course).

Language of instruction: English

2 0945BUT02202 Technical foundations of professional translation: BA practical, 1st semester Medientechnische Grundlagen der Fachübersetzung, BA, 1st Sem, 2 Credit Points, Practice class, Mon. 12:15 to 13:45

B.A. Translation Studies for Information Technologies (Studienanteile Heidelberg)

Course description:

Modern collaborative translation workflows, and also the work of freelance translators, nowadays heavily rely on translation technologies and tools, which include Translation Memory (TM) systems, Machine Translation (MT), electronic dictionaries, interfaces to large linguistically annotated corpora. These tools increase translators’ productivity, consistency of translation, facilitate collaboration within the teams and communication between translators, project managers’, technical writers, clients and users of the translations. Some tools and functions are specifically designed to support different stages of translation projects, such as terminology management, translation quality assessment, revision and quality assurance, quote calculation and invoicing, distribution and coordination of tasks within the project team, and management of translation resources (such as term banks, translation memories, corpora) during and between the projects.

The course will introduce core technological components for the modern translation process and typical scenarios of their use. We will work on realistic translation tasks, using specific computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools and applications (desktop and cloud-based, such as Memsource, MateCAT, OmegaT), standard file exchange formats (tbx, tmx), tools for preparing and managing translation resources for specific subject domains, for querying corpus to find terminology and translation equivalents (e.g., the SketchEngine), preparing quotes and invoices for the clients, finding translation equivalents, collecting, annotating and querying parallel and monolingual corpora.

Learning outcomes: The students will understand the core principles of using translation technologies in their work as freelance or in-house translators, will familiarise themselves with free open-source CAT packages and cloud-based services. They will also be able to orient themselves in literature on the subject, and will build technological competences to independently learn more advanced systems and technologies required by specific employers or clients (DejaVu, Trados, MultiTerm, MemoQ).

Course Assessment: Project report on the development of translation resources and evaluation of their use in translation workflow (up to 1500 words, due in 3 weeks after the last class)

Language of instruction: English

3 0945MUE1202 Translation and Culture - Ideology, evaluative language and intervention in translation: MA main seminar, 1st semester Translations- und Kulturwissenschaft I, MA, 1st Sem, 6 Credit Points, Main Seminar, Mon. 14:15 to 15:45

M.A. Übersetzungswissenschaft (Sprachkombination ACCC)

Course description:

Recently several theoretical models in translation studies received great practical significance, specifically in response to societal and political changes, such as the growing use of evaluative language in the source texts and translations, the need to translate and respond to ideologically charged propaganda, post-truth and manipulation of public opinion in mainstream mass media, as well as in user generated content such as comments, and on social media networks. Translators are often becoming active participants in inter-cultural communication, they are increasingly involved in making decisions about the choice of the text to translate, in determining specific way how they translate these texts and how they manage ‘visibility’ of the translator, in response to ideological positions expressed in the source texts. As a result, translators pro-actively influence public opinion or respond to expectations of their target audience and the commissioner of the translation, via the choice of their translation strategies, methods and specific translation equivalents, evaluative linguistic resources, ideologically charged words, etc.

In the course we will discuss contemporary theories of evaluation in translation, relevant concepts from modern functional translation models, appraisal theory, textual cohesion and coherence, systemic functional linguistics, modern approaches to translation as ‘intervention’ and pro-active role of translators in shaping political and ideological discourse within and across cultures. We will explore methods for collecting, analysing and interpreting corpus-based evidence of ideological bias in the source texts and in translations, via exploring existing corpus collections and creating own corpora of recent political texts, using tools such as the SketchEngine. In the first weeks of the course we will introduce central theoretical concepts and explore several case studies that illustrate relevant methods for analysis. Further classes will focus on student-lead presentations of chosen articles or chapters from literature.

Learning outcomes. The students will develop awareness of different ways of translating texts on ideologically charged topics (such as refugees, the future of the European Union, healthcare, political and military conflicts, values of the societies, interpretation of history, etc.). They will understand the resources for managing differences in expressed political attitudes of the authors, translators, commissioners or publication venues and the target audience. They will be able to orient themselves in recent literature on the topic and to discuss open theoretical problems, e.g., whether it may be possible for translators to remain neutral and objective while translating politically biased texts, or to produce their single ‘correct’ translations; the changing role of translators in modern society, role of language and translation in responding to propaganda threats or ideological manipulations and ensuring society’s ‘content security’. The students will be able to identify and analyse manipulative language usage patterns, biased presentation of facts, resources for creating ‘alternative reality’ via specific sentence structures or argumentation resources and to consciously choose strategies to address such issues in their translations.

Assessment: Student presentation of a chosen article of chapter for the class (20% of the mark) and an Essay or Case study on one of the topics of the course (up to 2500 words, due in 3 weeks after the last class, 80% of the mark)

Language of instruction: English

4 0945BUE36202 Advanced topics in translation studies - Translation quality, critical evaluation and justification of translation decisions: BA main seminar, 5th semester Übersetzungswissenschaft, BA, 5th Sem, 5 Credit Points, Main seminar, Tue. 10:15 to 11:45

B.A. Übersetzungswissenschaft

Course description:

Understanding translation theory, core methods and approaches to translation studies is essential both for academic research and for practical translation work, in particular – for justifying own translation choices and decisions, as well as – critically evaluating, comparing or revising existing translations, for ensuring stylistic, genre and terminological consistency, adherence to clients’ corporate voice guidelines, for systematically evaluating translation quality, post-editing and revision efforts within large collaborative translation projects.

The course will address advanced topics in theoretical translation studies, specifically focussing on methods and approaches for such critical analysis and justification of translation decisions. We will explore theoretical foundations of audience design, understanding text genre, style and register of the translated texts and their interaction with the purpose of translation. We will analyse how these textual parameters inform the choice of a translation strategy for a given text, its target audience and its purpose, and how such strategy selects specific translation methods and guides individual choices of target language resources and available translation equivalents. The course will also explore how corpus-based evidence can support such translation decisions, including the choice of suitable general-language and terminological translation equivalents.

In the course the key theoretical concepts will be introduced during the first few weeks. Further classes will focus on student-lead presentations of chosen articles and chapters from the literature that explore specific topics.

Learning outcomes: The students will be able to critically analyse translation decisions and justify the choice of a suitable translation strategy, in relation to the expectations of the target audience and the purpose of translation. They will be able to orient themselves in the current literature on the topic; to discuss open advanced questions in translation studies, such as the nature and possibility of translation equivalence, principles of evaluation translation quality, types and limitations of modern theoretical models of translation, the (im)possibility of a single ‘correct’ translation for a given text and the need of different ‘fit for purpose’ translations for different audiences, usage scenarios, historical epochs, societies and/or cultural environments; the pro-active role of the translator in cultural mediation and the concept of ‘translation’ as ‘intervention’.

Course assessment: Student’s presentation for the class of a chosen article or chapter on a specific topic in translation studies (20% of the mark) and a translation commentary or an essay (up to 2000 words, due 3 weeks after the last class, 80% of the mark)

Language of instruction: English

5 LSF 330838 Translation Technologies: MA main seminar, 1st or 3rd semester Translations- und Kulturwissenschaft I und II: Translation Technologies, MA, 1st Sem or 3rd Sem, 6 Credit Points, Main seminar, Tue. 13:15 to 14:45
This on-line English language course is offered to students of Universität Heidelberg, partner universities of our 4EU+ Alliance and partners of our Cooperative Network Philotrans. See this pdf document for the complete list of courses and registration details

M.A. Übersetzungswissenschaft (Sprachkombination AB) | M.A. Konferenzdolmetschen

Course description:

Course syllabus

Course Assessment: Article | Chapter presentation (due Week08/09, up to 10 slides | 10 min, 20%); Case Study on usage / evaluation of translation technologies (due + 3 weeks after last class; up to 2500 words, 80%)

Learning outcomes: Students will learn foundations of modern corpus-based methods and translation automation tools, acquiring practical skills of building, using and evaluating resources and technologies for their own translation projects and also – within collaborative translation workflows. Students will be able to design experiments to systematically evaluate and compare the quality and usability of different technologies and applications; they will understand how they work. The students will be able to understand existing evaluation methodology for different technological components in the translation process and to design their own evaluation experiments. They will be able to orient themselves in modern literature on the topic and will create a practical project relevant for a specific translation scenario or industrial application.

Short course structure: topics to be covered in each week

W01: Introduction
W02: Resources for collaborative translation workflow
W03: Alignment of TMs and creating parallel corpora
W04: Equivalents in parallel & comparable corpora
W05: Corpus-based terminology
W06: Introduction to script programming for translators
W07: Advanced topics in terminology and corpus linguistics

Christmas break

W08: Assessment Part 1: Presentations of Articles
W09: Assessment Part 1: Presentations of Articles (contd.)
W10: Machine Translation: principles of design and applications
W11: Machine Translation: usage scenarios and Controlled Language
W12: Evaluation methods for Machine Translation: human and automated evaluation of MT
W13: Advanced topics in Machine Translation
W14: Case Studies: Principles of experiment design and requirements for assessment

Syllabus: Topics

Week01: 02 Nov – 08 Nov 2020: Course Introduction

Week02: 09 Nov – 15 Nov 2020: Resources for collaborative translation workflow

Week03: 16 Nov – 22 Nov 2020: Alignment of TMs & creating parallel corpora

Week04: 23 Nov – 29 Nov 2020: Equivalents in parallel & comparable corpora

Week05: 30 Nov – 06 Dec 2020: Corpus-based terminology

Week06: 07 Dec – 13 Dec 2020: Introduction to script programming for translators

Week07: 14 Dec – 20 Dec 2020: Advanced topics: terminology & corpus linguistics

Christmas break: 21 Dec – 10 Jan (3 weeks, no classes)

Week08: 11 Jan – 17 Jan 2021. Assessment Part 1: Presentations of Articles

Week09: 18 Jan – 24 Jan 2021. Assessment Part 1: Presentations of Articles (contd.)

Week10: 25 Jan – 31 Jan 2021. Machine Translation: design and applications

Week11: 01 Feb – 07 Feb 2021. Machine Translation: usage scenarios

Week12: 08 Feb – 14 Feb 2021. Evaluation methods for Machine Translation

Week13: 15 Feb – 21 Feb 2021. Advanced topics in Machine Translation

Week14: 22 Feb – 28 Feb 2021. Case studies: Requirements for assessment