Sight Translation Nina Nikolaenko PhD TPU International Cooperation Department (Translation Office)

What does the term "interpretation" mean in translation context? Differences in the process of T & I teaching Pre-exercises Suggested types of exercises Possible problems Conclusions

What is "interpretation“? SIMULTANEOUS CONSECUTIVE or LIAISON INTERPRETATION

Sight translation (ST) has mostly been considered as a supportive interpretation method for simultaneous and consecutive interpretation

Jean Herbert (1952): sight translation is a type of simultaneous interpreting

In sight translation the translator READS a written text, whereas the interpreter, in both consecutive and the simultaneous modes, LISTENS to a speaker

Differences in the process will change the methods and strategies that an interpreter trainee uses in sight translation

Some suggestions for sight translation teaching 2 basic principles of ST teaching ST is NOT a supportive method for SI and CI ST is a sole interpretation method

ST suggested exercises aim at enabling students to produce correct, coherent and fluent translations are in-class activities. It is obvious that real-life conditions will be different and sometimes more difficult

The students should be prepared to solve various problems before they work in real-world conditions

Pre-Exercises fast reading skimming scanning and reading comprehension activities

Suggested ST Exercises (3 phases)

PHASE 1 Reading a text ( words) in the L1 for seconds. General questions about the subject of the text

PHASE 2 More specific questions (such as names, dates, places, etc.) Reading the text for the second time seconds to find the specific information

PHASE 3 Reading in-depth Comprehension questions

The same exercise is repeated with the texts written in L2. The aim of this exercise is to develop reading comprehension and fast reading skills

Exercise 2: texts from various fields The teacher gives only the titles of the texts and asks students to use their passive knowledge on the subject

NB! THE STUDENTS produce keywords by brainstorming use their passive knowledge and make logical connections THE INSTRUCTOR randomly chooses keywords from the text asks students to make logical connections between keywords and form a bold outline of the text

Exercise 3: detailed text analysis What is the type of the text? Is it informative? Is it vocative? How is the form of the text? Does it include titles, subtitles, articles, tables, graphs, etc? What is the message of the text? Does the text include technical words, jargon, abbreviations, etc? Are the sentences complex?

This exercise will adequately prepare the student for the translation process develop their strategies to deal with language-specific problems

Exercise 4: how to deal with unknown words

ST strategies : To focus on the message of the sentence/paragraph rather than the meaning of the word To guess the meaning of the word by using contextual clues

Exercise 5: "parsing" and "chunking" when dealing with complex sentence structures THE STUDENTS parse each sentence determine the smallest semantic units in each sentence restructure their sentences re-formulate it in the TL

The aim is not to use the same grammatical structure but to give the same message in the target language

Exercise 6: paraphrasing THE STUDENTS use their own words to give the same message try to re-express each sentence in 2-3 different ways without changing the meaning make additions and omissions, break a long sentence into smaller sentences combine short sentences and make a longer sentence and to change the sentence structure The only rule is not to change the meaning

ST: Possible problems 1.The text to be sight translated may be handwritten 2.The text to be sight translated may involve ungrammatical sentence structures and poor punctuation 3.The text to be sight translated may be incoherent, or poorly organized 4.The text to be sight translated may involve graphs, tables, pictures or diagrams

Problem 1: ‘undecipherable’ handwriting POSSIBLE SOLUTION Hence, in order to familiarize the student with various handwritings, in-class activities should include handwritten texts

Problem 2: poor grammar and punctuation POSSIBLE SOLUTION Use of texts written by non- native-speakers who are unfamiliar with the rules of grammar and punctuation

Problem 3: poor text organization POSSIBLE SOLUTION In such a case, the student should be able to detect shortcomings and correct them in the shortest time

Problem 4: graphs, tables, pictures or diagrams POSSIBLE SOLUTION Practise the students in reading and interpreting visual-aided texts and slide presentations

Gas recovery mln cubic metres

Suggestions for ST text selection texts of considerable difficulty and complexity: Knowledge area Vocabulary Syntax Background information

Text types for a ST course (1) 1.Commercial and economic texts: real-world texts on current world economics financial issues international trade business

Text types for a ST course (2) 2.Scientific and technical texts medicine environment computer science journal articles manuals patents political and legal texts

Conclusion training time is the time to introduce students to the real-life process of translation there are many factors which may act as constraints on the ST process Students’ role is to make certain decisions in order to maneuver among those factors

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