translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

– Study drafts (interim solutions analysis);
– Computer studies of time distribution, keystrokes;
– Think-aloud protocols (TAPs).
The latter can be seen as a form of introspective assessment, having as
key results a better understanding of: attention units, non-linear
processing, routine vs. non-routine processes, influence of self-image,
influence of emotional state and differences between professionals and
amateurs.
It is perhaps a little bit redundant to underline why engineering
students should be taught technical translations – in order to enable them
to participate in and benefit from the international trade in technology.
However, we are tempted to quote a few newly appeared professions that
require excellent technical translation skills, as listed in the presentation of
a Technical Translation Certificate Program in the USA (1996): 'professional
technical translators, roving international engineers, cross-cultural sales
negotiators, transcultural scientists, international intelligence analysts or
agents, worldwide business trouble-shooters, intercultural technology
transfer specialists, or multi-national corporate executives’ – as many
arguments for introducing at least a short module of translation skills in the
English for Professional Communication and English for Science and Technology
courses we give our Bucharest Polytechnic Computer Science students!
The other side of the coin is valid, too: together with Calderaro (1998),
let us analyze the shadowed aspects of this activity, with the image of the
translator buried in dictionaries or captive in front of the endless
possibilities of the Internet. If the translator does not develop at least an
interest, if not real passion for this activity, there are few chances that the
quality of their materials could be high. A mechanical approach to the
translation class will keep the learner within the realm of mediocrity.
As the author, himself both a passionate experienced translator and a
good teacher, put it: ‘… right from the start, the future translator should
acquire the habit of insatiable research and learn to look for any piece of
information necessary for his work. These habits and skills will develop
only as a result of the professor’s guidance, orientation, instruction, and
encouragement …’.
In the context we describe here, Computer Science students already
have excellent knowledge of the terminology used in the IT texts they are
supposed to translate (although the issue of identifying Romanian
equivalent terms for the ‘untranslatable’ computer terminology in English
represents another, rather open to argument, topic!). Actually, technical
translators do not face a very broad spectrum of difficulties, as Calderaro
(1998) shows. However, what they have to do, in addition to searching for
the correct equivalents, is to transpose the scientific information contained
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