Using Mini Team Projects in
Translation Classes to Achieve
Competences Defined in the EMT
Reference Framework
Jelena Pralas, PhD
Assistant Professor
Institute of Foreign Languages
University of Montenegro
Old practice in Teaching Translation
 Literary texts
 Teaching translation techniques
Market changes
 Montenegrin market changes
 Demand: - not literary translation, but technical (law,
economics, tourism, agriculture, environment…)
 Supply: – not rich enough, graduates proficient In
general English, but have problems with concepts in
technical translation
Translation Studies - ISJ
 2000s – Institute of Foreign Languages introduced
Specialist Studies of Translation in the University of
Montenegro
 Based on the situation in the market
 Curriculum designed by experienced translators
 Teachers – experienced translators – scholars and
researchers in linguistics, translation studies,
economics and law
Structure of the Programme
Term 1
Translation of Legal Texts to English (1+1) 6 credits
Translation of Legal Texts from English (1+1) 6 credits
Discourse Analysis (2+0) 5 credits
Communication (1+1) 5 credits
Translation Theory (2+0) 4 credits
Basics of Law (2+0) 4 credits
Term 2
Translation of Business Texts to English (1+1) 5 credits
Translation of Business Texts from English (1+1) 5 credits
Basics of Consecutive Interpretation (0+3) 4 credits
Academic Writing (1+1) 4 credits
Basics of Economics (2+0) 4 credits
Semantics (2+0) 4 credits
Final Paper ( - ) 4 credits
 ISJ started implementing the Translation Programme
in 2004
 Similar in other countries in the region
 Similar in EU
 Market requires more translation training
 Universities open translation programmes
 Diversity
“In 2006 there were at least 285 translation
'programmes' in European higher education, leading to
a bachelor's and/or a master's degree”
EMT
 EMT – 60 members (University programmes)
 Established to:
 search for convergence between training for translators
in Europe
 search for and apply criteria of excellence;
 2009
 Competences for professional translators, experts in
multilingual and multimedia communication
By EMT Expert Group
Translators’ Competences
 “competence - the combination of aptitudes,
knowledge, behaviour and know- how necessary to
carry out a given task under given conditions.”
 “competences applied to language professions or to
translation over a wide semantic or professional
range, including various modes of interpreting”
 These competences are interdependant
COMPETENCES
 Competences grouped:
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TRANSLATION SERVICE PROVISION COMPETENCE
LANGUAGE COMPETENCE
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
INFORMATION MINING COMPETENCE
THEMATIC COMPETENCE
TECHNOLOGICAL COMPETENCE
 Switch to pdf
EMT competences as a reference
framework
 ISJ uses EMT competences as a reference
 Analysis of our curriculum against it
 Identification of gaps
 Strategies to bridge the gaps
 On the level of individual subjects
 On the level of the programme curriculum
 Ongoing process –constraints
Mini team translation project
 1 of the strategies to bridge the gap
 Mini Team Projects in Translation classes
 Reason:
 Translation Services Provision competences (Interpersonal
dimension):
 - Knowing how to comply with instructions, deadlines,
commitments, interpersonal competences, team organisation
 - Knowing how to work in a team, including a virtual team, and
 - Knowing how to work under pressure and with other experts,
with a project head (capabilities for making contacts, for
cooperation and collaboration), including in a multilingual
situation
History
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Very simple in the beginning
Additions – making it more complex, but more useful
More competences
In both terms
Stages
 Stages of the mini team translation projects:
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Selects appropriate material
Forming the groups
Translation process
Final products submitted
Students present their work in teams
Students assess each other and themselves
Teacher assesses the final product/presentations/team
work
Select appropriate material
 Select appropriate materials (Teacher):
 Beginning – any text in the thematic field
 Now - articles about translation of technical texts in the
fields we work on
 To develop meta language (Translation Services Provision
Competence (Production dimension):
 Mastering the appropriate metalanguage (to talk about one's
work, strategies and decisions)
 To prepare students for final papers
Select appropriate material
 The European Union and its Future Languages.
Questions for Language Policies and Translation Theories
(Anthony Pym)
 The Journal of Specialised Translation
 Caveat Translator: Understanding the Legal Consequences of Errors in
Professional Translation (Jody Byrne, University of Sheffield)
 Dealing with cultural elements in technical texts for translation
(Radegundis Stolze, Darmstadt University of Technology)
 Lost and Found in Translating Tourist Texts - Domesticating,
Foreignising or Neutralising Approach (He Sanning, Nanjing University of Information
Science and Technology )
 Beyond Translation Memory: Computers and the Professional
Translator (Ignacio Garcia, University of Western Sydney)
Material
 Publishing students’ translations?
Forming groups
 Forming groups
 their choice/teacher’s choice
 Two projects per year – different/same choices?
 Groups of five
 They decide on every aspect of their work - teacher
wants the final product and assesses the final product
 They decide on the roles/division of the material/tasks
Stages
 Translation process
 Final product submitted
Presentations
 Presentations (interview)
 Structured (students given questions)
 Explanation how they divided the roles/tasks/material
 Using meta-language (Competence: - Mastering the
appropriate metalanguage (to talk about one's work,
strategies and decisions
 Analyzing their approach, habits, organization (Competence:
Knowing how to self-evaluate (questioning one's habits; being
open to innovations; being concerned with quality; being
ready to adapt to new situations/conditions) and take
responsibility)
 Presentations
 Explaining stages in their team translation project
 (competence: - Knowing how to define stages and
strategies for the translation of a document)
 Identifying translation problems/solutions
 (competences:
 - Knowing how to define and evaluate translation problems
and find appropriate solutions
 - Knowing how to justify one's translation choices and
decisions )
 Focusing on the need to achieve coherence of the
text and consistency in terminology
 Focusing on the revision of the text (how they did it)
 Lessons learnt
 Cooperation/dependence
 Ethics
 Who not to work with
 Students assess themselves and each other
 (COMPETENCE: Knowing how to self-evaluate
(questioning one's habits; being open to innovations;
being concerned with quality; being ready to adapt to
new situations/conditions) and take responsibility)
 Teacher uses students’ assessments and decides on
the final grade (number of points)