Compulsory Module Descriptions
80 of the 180 credits on this course are made up of Compulsory modules.
Translation Practice and Principles (30 credits)
This module helps you develop professional-level translating skills, using translation 'principles' to guide your translation 'practice'. In Principles lectures and seminars, you look at how translation happens between languages, texts and cultures. You cover areas such as:
- Terminology, web reference and dictionaries
- Translation factors & distances
- Working modes: agencies, in-house work, localization teams
- How words mean, connotation and collocation
- Translation quality and the translation professional
- Reading between the lines: translation and pragmatics
- How texts mean: discourse and levels of meaning
- Translating processes & strategies
- Culture, domestication, foreignisation
- Academic writing for translation studies
In Practice classes, you analyse, translate and revise texts, working mainly from your second (B) language into your A (first) language: English>>French, English>>German, English>>Spanish, French>>English, German>>English, or Spanish>>English. Here you specialise in two to four professional genres (e.g. Journalism and Society, Science and Technology, Law, Business and Finance, Medicine).
Translation Workshop (20 credits)
This module, following on from Translation Practice and Principles, further develops professional-level translating skills. You analyse, translate and revise texts, working mainly from your second (B) language into your A (first) language: English>>French, English>>German, English>>Spanish, French>>English, German>>English, or Spanish>>English. You specialise in two to three professional genres (e.g. Journalism & Society, Science & Technology, Law, Business & Finance, Medicine, Information Technology, Literature). Genres are decided between staff and students, but otherwise the module is largely student-planned, enabling students to select texts to suit their own interests and professional needs.
Professional Issues in Translating and Interpreting (10 credits)
This practically-oriented module raises your awareness of career-management skills and professional characteristics of work in translating and interpreting. You cover areas such as:
- Introduction to professionalism and professional organizations
- Expertise and the technical/commercial translator
- Working as a freelance translator
- Editing, copy-editing and proof-reading
- Localization
- Conference interpreting
- Community interpreting, including healthcare and refugee interpreting
- Legal, courtroom and police interpreting/translating
- Setting up translating and interpreting teams
Research Methods in Translating and Interpreting (10 credits)
This module aims to prepare you to research in translating and interpreting. It also shows you how to write a Dissertation or Project Commentary in translating/interpreting studies. You cover areas such as:
- Types of research, key concepts. Structure of dissertations.
- Questionnaires and interviews.
- Think-alouds, case studies.
- Questionnaire poster presentations. Research ethics and dealing with people.
- Text studies. Aims, objectives, hypotheses. Planning research.
- Sources of information: library skills and databases.
- Endnote: organising reading & references.
- Sampling, variables, validity, reliability.
- Descriptive statistics with Excel: graphs and charts, mean, standard deviation, etc.
- Introduction, Literature Review & Methods/Procedures chapters.
- Results, Discussion & Conclusion chapters.
Translation Studies 2 (10 credits)
This module builds on the knowledge gained in Translation Practice and Principles. It focuses on principles of translating and interpreting, especially in terms of how people communicate across languages rather than how texts change between languages. It examines various world traditions of translating/interpreting, and the role that translation and interpreting have played in world history. We also look at the social role of the translator/interpreter, the psycholinguistic processes involved in interpreting, information technology for translation, and key issues in translator training and translation-based language learning. The module is non-language-specific.