| Publication type: | Conference paper |
| Type of review: | Peer review (publication) |
| Title: | New roles and tasks for the translation profession : educating translators for the digital present and future |
| Authors: | Massey, Gary |
| DOI: | 10.2861/416241 10.2861/4803 |
| Proceedings: | Translation services in the digital world : a sneak peek into the (near) future |
| Page(s): | 36 |
| Pages to: | 51 |
| Conference details: | DG TRAD Conference, Luxembourg, 16-17 October 2017 |
| Issue Date: | 2018 |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | Directorate General for Translation, European Parliament |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | Luxembourg |
| ISBN: | 978-92-846-3181-0 978-92-846-3182-7 |
| Language: | English |
| Subject (DDC): | 418.02: Translating and interpreting |
| Abstract: | This chapter explores some of the actual and potential effects that the digital present is having, and the digital future is likely to have, both on the highly technologized profession of translation and on the education aimed at preparing students for it. The chapter begins by considering the predicted impact of artificial intelligence on employment and demand in the translation industry, and looks at how the translation profession will need to re-position itself in order to exploit the full potential of value-adding high-quality human translation services. The ability to do so depends decisively on re-conceptualizing translation as an adaptive, (co-)creative, mediatory and advisory activity. A large-scale survey of professional translators reveals that achieving such a goal will necessitate transforming widespread professional self-concepts and role perceptions, with many of the translators participating in the research indicating that their profession shares features of a low-autonomy profession. This is backed by more recent data from a Swiss study of translation and corporate communications professionals, which additionally suggests that inadequate provision for feedforward and feedback interactions between translation service-providers, clients and source-text authors further constrain translators’ capacity to act as intercultural mediators, (co-)creators and advisors. From an educational perspective, the chapter therefore proposes that, alongside learning with and about digital technologies in order to use them to their greatest effect, students must develop the metacognitive capacity to reflect on when and when not to deploy them. It then puts forward a heuristic four-dimensional scheme of intuition, creativity, ethics and adaptability to serve as a tentative guide to focusing key parts of translator education curricula on the added value of high-quality human translation. It ends by briefly suggesting that current processes and practices in the translation industry might also be fruitfully re-designed to accommodate the improved feedforward-feedback loops and cycles with which the range of competences developed by suitably trained professional translators can best be utilized. |
| URI: | https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/11994 |
| Fulltext version: | Published version |
| License (according to publishing contract): | Not specified |
| Departement: | Applied Linguistics |
| Organisational Unit: | Institute of Translation and Interpreting (IUED) |
| Appears in collections: | Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik |
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Massey, G. (2018). New roles and tasks for the translation profession : educating translators for the digital present and future [Conference paper]. Translation Services in the Digital World : A Sneak Peek into the (near) Future, 36–51. https://doi.org/10.2861/416241
Massey, G. (2018) ‘New roles and tasks for the translation profession : educating translators for the digital present and future’, in Translation services in the digital world : a sneak peek into the (near) future. Luxembourg: Directorate General for Translation, European Parliament, pp. 36–51. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2861/416241.
G. Massey, “New roles and tasks for the translation profession : educating translators for the digital present and future,” in Translation services in the digital world : a sneak peek into the (near) future, 2018, pp. 36–51. doi: 10.2861/416241.
MASSEY, Gary, 2018. New roles and tasks for the translation profession : educating translators for the digital present and future. In: Translation services in the digital world : a sneak peek into the (near) future. Conference paper. Luxembourg: Directorate General for Translation, European Parliament. 2018. S. 36–51. ISBN 978-92-846-3181-0
Massey, Gary. 2018. “New Roles and Tasks for the Translation Profession : Educating Translators for the Digital Present and Future.” Conference paper. In Translation Services in the Digital World : A Sneak Peek into the (near) Future, 36–51. Luxembourg: Directorate General for Translation, European Parliament. https://doi.org/10.2861/416241.
Massey, Gary. “New Roles and Tasks for the Translation Profession : Educating Translators for the Digital Present and Future.” Translation Services in the Digital World : A Sneak Peek into the (near) Future, Directorate General for Translation, European Parliament, 2018, pp. 36–51, https://doi.org/10.2861/416241.
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