Syllabus and curriculum design

From LETRAC to BolognaBelinda Maia

University of Porto

LETRAC

Language Engineering for

Translator Curricula(LE4-8324)

funded by the European Commission, DG XIII, within the Telematics Application Programme of the Fourth Framework

January 1998 - March 1999

Consortium

– IAI (co-ordinator)– Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken (DE)– Universität Mainz (DE)– Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (ES)– Universidade do Porto (PT)– Ionian University, Corfu (GR)– Aarhus Business School (DK)– 2 advisory partners

• CIUTI• Translation Service of the EC

Tasks of LETRAC

• To investigate – What the market needed– How professional translators worked with IT– What IT educational institutions were teaching

• To propose– An ideal curriculum of IT

• To evaluate feasibility of curriculum

Results

• Market expected more IT from translators

• Professional translators using IT were earning well

• BUT they were largely self-educating in IT

• Educational institutions were teaching very little IT

• The proposed curriculum >>>>

1 optional unit

4 optional units

2 compulsory units2 compulsory units

Module AIntroduction to Computer Science

1 compulsory unit(compulsory prerequisite for all other courses, 30 hours)

ca 15% of the overall size

Language formalisation (20 hours)

Machine Translation (20 hours)

Case studies (20 hours)

Corpus Linguistics and low level analysis(20 hours)

Advanced IT skills (20 hours)

DTP (20 hours)

Telecommunications/Internet

(20 hours)

General aspects and tools(30 hours)

Translation specific aspects andtools (30 hours)

Module CLanguage Engineering

ca 55% of the overall size

Module BDTP/IT for translators

ca 30% of the overall size

possibility of specialization / deepening of knowledge

possibility of specialization / deepening of knowledge

Module AIntroduction to Computer Science

• 30 hours (obligatory)

• Hardware – from the screen to braille boards and voice recognition equipment

• Software – from ASCII to Text generation and Text-to-speech synthesis

Module BUnit 1 - DTP for Translators

• Desk Top Publishing (DTP)• 20 hours (obligatory)• DTP programmes – e.g. Framemaker,

Pagemaker, QuarkXpress, Ventura Publisher – Graphical programs – e.g. Corel Draw, Photoshop,

Paint, Paintbrush etc.– Presentation software like Powerpoint and/or Visio

• (Note: pre-requisite – basic word-processing!)

Module BUnit 2 - IT for Translators

• 20 hours (obligatory)• Telecommunications, Technical Basis – 2 hours• E-mail – 4 hours • Dialogue Systems – 2 hours• Internet - Technicalities – 4 hours• Internet – Contents – 4 hours• Internet – Resources for Translators – 4 hours

Module BUnit 3 – Advanced Skills

• 20 hours (optional)• Advanced HTML• Advanced Web design• Advanced DTP • Introduction to computer science

programming, e.g. PROLOG for NLP, C, C++, AWK, Perl.

• Operating systems: Advanced DOS/Windows, MacOS. LINUX/UNIX

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 1

• General aspects and tools – sub-units:

• 30 hours (obligatory)– Word processing and checkers– Controlled language– Project and document management – Terminology systems

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 2

• Translation-specific aspects and tools

• 30 hours (obligatory)

• Sub-units:– Translation memories– Machine translation systems

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 3

• Language formalisation

• 30 hours (optional)

• Sub-units– Structural and functional approaches– Grammars and parsers– Unification-based approaches to grammar

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 4

• Machine Translation

• 20 hours (optional)

• Sub-units– Historical overview– Basic concepts– Evaluation– Unification-based MT systems– EU-MT and NLP projects

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 5

• Corpus linguistics and low-level analysis

• 20 hours (optional)

• Sub-units– Corpus design and organisation – Corpus annotation – Low-level parsing – Information extraction from corpora

Module CLanguage engineering – Unit 6

• Case studies

• 20 hours (optional)

• Sub-units– Project, document and terminology

management– Controlled language in industrial

environments– Complete Localisation project

Well……..!

• It is easy to criticize with hindsight

• This was in 1998-9 – not 2006

• The leaders were language engineers

• A lot has happened since then

• What we recommend today will also be out-of-date in 7 years’ time

Objectives of Language Engineers

• To speed up and facilitate all forms of language processing

To economize on language services

• To use language for information retrieval and knowledge engineering

To help Google

But… Objectives of:

• Educators of future Translators and Language Services Providers– To provide education for future professionals

• Translators and Language Services Providers– To get and keep jobs!

Today..

• Both hardware and software - more user-friendly• Students (and most teachers?) are able to use:

– Windows– Microsoft Office: Word, Power Point,– E-mail– Internet

• But – Excel (?), Front Page (??) Access (???) – Other DTP Programmes (???)– Even OCR (??)

So…

• How do we teach / learn about technology?

• What computer skills should be pre-requisites for a university student?

• What do we include in the general curriculum?

• Which aspects are specializations?

And Bologna?

• The ‘Bologna process’ = the European initiative to create more uniformity among university systems in order to allow for greater mobility of teachers and students and greater flexibility in the creation of new courses.

‘3+2 or 4+1’

• 3 years’ basic university education + 2 years’ specialization

• OR

• 4 years’ basic university education + 1 year’s specialization

Group work:

• Search the Internet for examples of curricula of educational institutions that teach – ‘Translation’– ‘Interpreting’– ‘Applied Languages’– ‘Intercultural Communication’– ‘Terminology’– ‘Translation Technology’

A few links

• TRANSLATOR-TRAINING OBSERVATORY http://isg.urv.es/tti/tti.htm

Now

• Design an ideal curriculum that includes technology for translators at:– Undergraduate level– Post-graduate level

• Adapt this to a POSSIBLE curriculum in your own teaching environment

1. How far does a translator need

• Internet for information retrieval?

• On-line databases, dictionaries etc.?

• Corpora and terminology management know-how?

2. Which level of familiarity with TT does a translator need

• Translation processing in programme like SDL Standard version using Edit?

• Good understanding of how translation software works?

• Ability to use all tools in translation software?

3. When should the following be taught?

• Localization• Sub-titling• Dubbing• Multimedia web-pages • Others

AT• Undergraduate level?• Post-graduate specializations?

4. Does a language services provider need to understand

• Corpora – monolingual, parallel & comparable?

• Terminology management?• Localization?• Project management?• Natural Language Processing tools?• HLT and Language Engineering?

5. Who should teach

• General computer skills?• Information retrieval skills?• Translation technology?• Corpora use?• Terminology Management?• Localization?• Project Management?

• And When?

Further Questions

• How much technology can or should be integrated into routine translation teaching?

• How can this be done?

FINALLY

• Remember all this while you participate in the other workshops and observe the translation software demonstrations

THEN• Re-assess your ideal – or possible –

curriculum changes