Conference Alerts

Event Information:

  • Fri
    04
    Sep
    2015

    NEW PERSPECTIVES IN ASSESSMENT IN TRANSLATION TRAINING: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL ASSESSMENT

    University of Westminster, London

    CALL FOR PAPERS

    Since translation established itself as a profession and an academic discipline, translation assessment has evolved and become more complex due to the fast and significant changes affecting the industry and the emergence of new approaches to quality in translation training (Drugan, 2013: 185; Saldanha and O'Brien, 2014: 95). Research into assessment in translation has tended to focus on literary translation, but ‘this field of research includes two other areas, each with its own characteristics: assessment of professionals at work and assessment of trainee translators’ (Melis and Hurtado Albir, 2001: 272). These two areas of research reflect the dichotomy between the professional conceptualisation of assessment criteria and those of the specialised translation courses in universities. It is these two areas of assessment that this conference wishes to focus on.

    Investigating in what ways universities assess trainee translators can reveal the underlying understandings of what translation is, what skills or competences are needed and should be tested. Assessment in professional contexts also seeks reliable and valid criteria but their focus has been on the processes for ensuring quality rather than elaborating the nature of the quality. The professional conceptions of quality assume an understanding of what is good, but the academic approach is to ‘problematize’ the notion of quality and how it is assessed (Chesterman, 2002:88). This difference in approach is seen as a gap between academic theorising and the real world pragmatics of professional assessment.

    Rather than dismissing the professional assessment criteria as under theorised, some advocate these criteria can inform the way that translation is understood and taught in the universities. The advent of a new global ISO translation specific quality standard could provide the opportunity for both professional and academic understandings of translation to interact, reducing the gap that exists at present.

    The conference hopes to reflect these key themes in translation assessment. In particularly, but not exclusively, we welcome papers on the following topics:

    · Bridging the gap between pedagogy and the profession: is this dichotomy necessary or should it be overcome?

    · New perspectives in assessment practices and instruments in translation training curricula

    · Translation quality assessment models and instruments for research purposes

    · Diagnostic, summative and formative assessment: strategies, criteria and procedures   for effective assessment

    · Process-oriented assessment models: diagnosing learning difficulties during the learning process

    · Product-oriented assessment models: readability, comprehensibility, acceptability and usability

    · Defining and testing translation competence to shape clear assessment criteria

    Keynote speaker:

    Professor Dorothy Kelly, University of Granada

     Timeline and key dates:

    Deadline for abstract submission: 16th March 2015

    Notification of acceptance: end of April 2015

    Conference: 4 September 2015

    Submission of draft papers: to be confirmed

    Submission of full papers (according to style sheet): to be confirmed

    Abstracts and full papers are to be submitted to Dr Elsa Huertas Barros (e.huertasbarros@westminster.ac.uk), specifying ‘Conference Assessment - September 2015’ in the e-mail title.

     Important information:

    Submissions are accepted for both oral presentations and posters. Abstracts selected for oral presentation will consist of a 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. If the abstract is selected for a poster presentation, presenters will be allocated a space for exhibition and will have the opportunity to discuss their work with the participants during scheduled poster sessions.

    Conference language: English.

    Publication:

    A hard copy of abstracts will be distributed to the attendees at the conference.

    A selection of papers will be published in a special issue ofThe Interpreter and Translator Trainer (ITT).

    Programme:

    The full programme will be available in May 2015 at:

    http://www.westminster.ac.uk/news-and-events/events

    The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.

    This message and its attachments are private and confidential. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and remove it and its attachments from your system.


    --

    Dr  Anna  K U Z N I K
    Stanowisko: adiunkt
    Funkcje organizacyjne:
    Opiekun praktyk zawodowych - filologia francuska i hiszpanska
    Zaklad Translatologii
    Instytut Filologii Romanskiej
    Wydzial Filologiczny