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Inverse specialized translation (Catalan-English)

Code: 101307
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Translation and Interpreting OP 4

Contact lecturer

Name :
Roland Keith Pearson
Email :
roland.pearson@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

On starting the course students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate their knowledge of strategies and techniques for translating into a foreign language.
  • Apply this knowledge to translate texts for the specialised inverse translation market.
  • Collect and interpret information related to the specific problems of inverse translation and make judgements on decisions adopted to solve them.
  • Use technological and documentation tools for inverse translation.

This subject requires a native or near native level of Catalan and a very high level of English (e.g. CEFR level C1)

Objectives

The purpose of this subject is to develop the ability to produce translations of specialised texts in a foreign language which meet translation market standards.

On successfully completing this course students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate that they know the strategies and techniques involved in specialised translation into a foreign language.
  • Apply this knowledge to translate texts for the specialised inverse translation market.
  • Collect and interpret information related to the specific problems of specialised inverse translation and make judgements on the decisions adopted to solve them.
  • Use technological and documentation tools for specialised inverse translation.

Learning outcomes

  1. Implementing strategies in order to produce written texts of different fields and with specific communicative purposes: Implementing strategies in order to produce written texts of different fields and with specific communicative purposes.
  2. Applying lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge: Applying graphical, lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge.
  3. Producing written texts from different fields and with specific communicative purposes: Producing written texts from different fields and with specific communicative purposes.
  4. Solving interferences between the working languages: Solving interferences between the working languages.
  5. Implementing strategies in order to understand written texts from different fields: Implementing strategies in order to understand written texts from different fields.
  6. Comprehending the communicative purpose and sense of written texts of several fields: Comprehending the communicative purpose and sense of written texts of several fields.
  7. Applying technological resources in order to solve translation problems: Applying technological resources in order to solve translation problems.
  8. Students must demonstrate they know the techniques and strategies needed to solve translation problems: Students must demonstrate they know the techniques and strategies in order to solve back translation problems of different types of non-specialised written texts and specialised texts addressed to a non-specialised public.
  9. Appropriately following the different phases for the creation of a translation and carrying out the assigned tasks: Appropriately following the different phases for the creation of a translation and carrying out the assigned tasks.
  10. Finding the most appropriate translation solution in each case: Finding the most appropriate translation solution in each case.
  11. Applying lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge: Applying graphical, lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge.
  12. Producing written texts that are appropriate to their context and possess linguistic correctness: Producing written texts about personal and general topics from well-known areas that are appropriate to their context and possess linguistic correctness.
  13. Incorporating topic-based knowledge in order to solve translation problems: Incorporating topic-based knowledge in order to solve translation problems.
  14. Applying terminological resources in order to solve translation problems: Applying terminological resources in order to solve translation problems.
  15. Identifying the specific translation problems of each field: Identifying the specific translation problems of each field.
  16. Using the appropriate strategies and techniques in order to solve translation problems: Using the appropriate strategies and techniques in order to solve problems of audiovisual translation and localisation.

Contents

  • Methodological principles governing the practice of specialised inverse translation.
  • Fundamental problems, techniques and strategies in specialised inverse translation.
  • Solution of translation probelms for specialised genres: medical, business, administrative, legal, financial, technical and scientific.
  • Use of advanced technological and documentation tools for specialised inverse translation.

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Documentation searches 15 0.6 5, 6, 12, 13
Exercises 25 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
Tasks related to important aspects of translation 25 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
Supervised work and tutorials: individual and group translations supervised by the teacher. 10 0.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
Preparation of translations and other tasks inidivually and in groups 40 1.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
Exercises and other tasks related to important aspects of translation 20 0.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13
Debates and activities to reflect on important aspects of translation 4.5 0.18 1, 4, 6, 11

A range of active methodologies are used.

Possible methodologies:

  • Carrying out translation tasks
  • Carrying out translation projects
  • Exercises
  • Presentation of individual/group work
  • Debates (classroom or online forums)
  • Cooperative learning techniques

Teaching activities are organised in three blocks, according to the level of autonomy required by the students:

  • Directed activities: these activities take place as a planned programme of activities within the timetable and require the presence of both students and teacher.
  • Supervised activities: these activities may require the supervision of a teacher from time to time e.g. tutorials.
  • Autonomous activities: students organise their work in their own time individually or in groups.
Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Translations and translation projects: Translation 1 20% 1.75 0.07 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Exercises and other tasks related to important aspects of translation 20% 5 0.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Translations and translation projects: Translation 2 20% 1.75 0.07 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Translations and translation projects: Translation 3 20% 1.75 0.07 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Presentations 20% 0.25 0.01 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15

Continuous assessment

The information about evaluation, the types of evaluations and their relative weight is for orientation purposes only. The lecturer coordinating this subject will give specific details at the beginning of the course.

Revision

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing evaluated activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

Re-evaluation / Resit

  1. Students must fulfil the following requirements to be eligible to resit the final evaluation / final evaluations: 1) have completed a minimum of 66.6% of the evaluated tasks for the course, 2) have a global average between 3.5 and 4.9. The student can only resit the final evaluation / final evaluations which they have failed.
  2. In cases where the student has completed between 25.1% and 66.5% of the evaluated tasks for the course, they are not eligible to resit and the global mark obtained during the course will be assigned (whether a passing or failing mark).
  3. In cases where the completed evaluated tasks are 25% or less, the grade of “non-evaluable” will be assigned.
  4. In cases of a final evaluation / final evaluations resulting in a fail mark due to copying or plagiarism, the student is not eligible to resit.
  5. In no case will it be possible to make a final evaluation / final evaluations the equivalent of 100% of the grade.
  6. In cases where a student is eligible to resit a final exam(s), the maximum mark possible is a 5.

Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.

Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.

On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).

Single assessment will include a minimum of three assessment activities of different typology, as stated in the evaluation guidelines.

Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continuous assessment. See the section above in this study guide.

IMPORTANT

Reminder: \"copying\" is considered to be work that reproduces all or a large part of the work from one to another colleague, and \"plagiarism\" is the act of presenting part or all of an author’s text as one’s own, that is, without citing the sources, whether it is published on paper or in digital form on the Internet. Copying and plagiarism are intellectual theft and therefore contravene university regulations that will be sanctioned with a \"zero\" mark. In the case of copying between two students, if it is not possible to know who copied who, the sanction will be applied to both students. If there are several irregularities in the evaluation activities of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be zero.

Bibliography

References

Bowker, L. and Pearson, J. (2002). Working with Specialized Language: A Practical Guide to Using Corpora. London/New York: Routledge.

Corpas Pastor, G. (2004). \"Localización de recursos y compilación de corpus vía Internet: aplicaciones para la didáctica de la traducción médica especializada\". A García Yebra, V. i Gonzalo García, C. (eds.). 2004.

Manual de documentación y terminología para la traducción especializada. (Colección Instrumenta Bibliologica). Madrid: Arco/Libros. pp. 223-506.

Hervey, S., Ian Higgins & Louise M. Hayward (1995) Thinking Spanish Translation. A Course in Translation Method: Spanish to English. London/New York: Routledge.

Johns, T. (2000). Tim John's Kibbitzers < http://lexically.net/TimJohns/index.html>

Pearson, J. (2000) \"Surfing the Internet: Teaching students to choose their texts wisely\". In Burnard, L. and T. McEnery (eds.) Rethinking Language Pedagogy from a Corpus Perspective: papers from the third international conference on teaching and language corpora, Hamburg: Peter Lang, pp. 235-239.

Wilkinson, M. (2005a). \"Using a Specialized Corpus to Improve Translation Quality\". Translation Journal, 9(3).

< http://translationjournal.net/journal//33corpus.htm>

Wilkinson,M. (2005b). \"Discovering Translation Equivalents in a Tourism Corpusby Means of Fuzzy Searching\". Translation Journal, 9(4). < http://translationjournal.net/journal//34corpus.htm>

Wilkinson, M. (2006). \"Compiling Corpora for Use as Translation Resources\". Translation Journal, Volume 10, No 1. < http://translationjournal.net/journal//35corpus.htm>

Wilkinson, M. (2010). \"Quick corpora compiling\". Translation Journal, 14(3). < http://translationjournal.net/journal//53corpus.htm>

Online resources:

Acronymfinder < http://www.acronymfinder.com/>

Cercaterm < http://www.termcat.cat/ca/Cercaterm>

IATE < http://iate.europa.eu>

Pubmed < http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed>

Medline Plus < https://medlineplus.gov/spanish >

Investopedia < http://www.investopedia.com/

Further resources will be provided during the course.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE