Translating for the Community (Translation, Interpreting and Social Justice in a Globalised World, 2) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783099135 ISBN 13: 9781783099139

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Written by translation practitioners, teachers and researchers, this edited volume is a much-needed contribution to the under-researched area of community translation. Its chapters outline the specific nature and challenges of community translation (e.g. language policies, language variation within target communities, literacy levels), quality standards, training and the relationship between community translation as a professional practice and volunteer or crowd-sourced translation. A number of chapters also provide insights into the situation of community translation and initiatives taking place in different countries (e.g. Australia, South Africa, Spain, the USA or the UK). The book is of interest to translation practitioners, researchers and trainers, particularly those working or interested in the specific field of community translation, as well as to translation students on undergraduate, postgraduate or further education courses covering translation in general or community translation in particular.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mustapha Taibi is Associate Professor in Interpreting and Translation at Western Sydney University, Australia. He is the leader of the International Community Translation Research Group and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Translation & Interpreting. Among his recent books is New Insights into Arabic Translation and Interpreting (2016, Multilingual Matters).

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Translating for the Community

Translation, Interpreting And Social Justice In A Globalised World: 2

By Mustapha Taibi

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2018 Mustapha Taibi and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-913-9

Contents

Contributors, 
Acknowledgements, 
Foreword, 
Introduction Mustapha Taibi, 
1 Quality Assurance in Community Translation Mustapha Taibi, 
2 Education for Community Translation: Thirteen Key Ideas Dorothy Kelly, 
3 From the Classroom to the Job Market: Integrating Service-Learning and Community Translation in a Legal Translation Course Alicia Rueda-Acedo, 
4 From Practice to Theory: Societal Factors as a Norm Governing Principle for Community Translation Harold Lesch, 
5 Volunteers and Public Service Translation Ignacio Garc¡a, 
6 Community Translation in the UK: An Enquiry into Practice Brooke Townsley, 
7 Community Translation in Spanish Penitentiaries: A Coordinated Approach Carmen Valero Garcés and Raquel Lázaro Gutiérrez, 
8 Community Translation in the Australian Context Leong Ko, 
9 Linguistic Diversity Among Swahili-Speakers: A Challenge for Translation in Australia Jean Burke, 
Concluding Remarks Mustapha Taibi, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Quality Assurance in Community Translation

Mustapha Taibi

1. Introduction

Translation and interpreting literature abounds with references to quality and effectiveness (e.g. Drugan, 2013; Hale et al., 2009; House, 1977; Moser-Mercer, 1996; Williams, 2004). However, the notion of quality in these language services is far from consensual. Understandably, each translation theory or approach defines quality differently and places more emphasis on some criteria than others. In this regard, two broad areas of literature can be identified: one academic, the other professionally oriented (Taibi & Ozolins, 2016: 108–110). The first aims to establish criteria and standards based on an academic or theoretical understanding of translation and a linguistic and textual comparison of texts. Through these criteria, target texts can be compared to source texts and a quality rating can be determined. Examples of authors representing this area of literature are House (1977, 1997, 2001, 2013 and 2015) Brunette (2000) and Depraetere (2011), whose main interest is theoretical and related to translation critique, and Petersen (1996) and Hague et al. (2011), who are more concerned with pedagogic applications of quality, i.e. translation learning, assessment and feedback to assist and facilitate development of translation skills. The other area of translation quality literature focuses more on professional production processes, i.e. translation as a process of service provision and project management (Drugan, 2013; Dunne, 2011; Orsted, 2001; Samuelsson-Brown, 2006). As some authors have indicated (e.g. Drugan, 2013; Lauscher, 2000; see also Townsley in this volume), there is a perceived gap between these two strands of translation quality. However, they – in principle – should inform and complement each other: translation quality cannot be understood in depth without a sound theoretical understanding of translation and the features of effective translation, on the one hand, and adequate knowledge of professional processes and industrial relations that operate on the ground, on the other.

Starting from this premise of interdependence and complementariness, in this chapter translation quality assurance is addressed in a specific and special subfield of translation, community translation, also known as public service translation. The first question that the title of the chapter (quality assurance in community translation) is likely to trigger is whether translation standards and quality assurance processes vary from one field of translation to another, i.e. whether community translation needs to have quality criteria and processes that are different from those applied in other fields of translation. The answer to this question is that, although the core of translation theories, assessment criteria, professional standards and quality assurance processes may apply to different types and settings of translation, each type and setting might require different or more specific considerations and applications, or might need quality processes and evaluations to place more emphasis on some aspects than others.

What distinguishes community translation from other types and domains of translation is that its main mission is to empower local communities and give their members voice and access to information, services and participation (Lesch, 1999 and this volume; Taibi, 2011; Taibi & Ozolins, 2016). Because community translation is intended to empower disempowered social groups by enabling them to have equitable access to public service information and to participation in their society, this overarching mission needs to be an essential consideration in understanding and applying quality standards in this subfield of translation and social services. Although many of the established criteria (e.g. accuracy, appropriateness, readability) and processes (e.g. selection of personnel, revision and editing) of quality assurance in translation are relevant and applicable to community translation, the nature of the latter and the specificity of the public it serves make it necessary to highlight a number of specific considerations, which go from translator recruitment to processing of text contents and treatment of the translation process itself.

Quality assurance in community translation is multi-faceted and, as in other fields, involves a number of stages, actors and actions (adequate training, appropriate recruitment processes, assessment and processing of source texts, production processes, consultation with target communities, etc.). However, as stated above, the nature of this language service gives a particular nuance to all these aspects. In the following sections I start with a brief discussion of some of the main quality issues in translation in general and, subsequently, propose a comprehensive framework for quality assurance in community translation, which encompasses not only the translation phase but also the phases preceding and following it, and not only the work of translators but also the role of other stakeholders.

2. Translation Quality

In an attempt to offer an all-encompassing definition for translation quality, Koby et al. (2014) provide both a broader definition and a narrower one.

• A quality translation demonstrates accuracy and fluency required for the audience and purpose and complies with all other specifications negotiated between the requester and provider, taking into account end user needs. (2014: 416)

• A high-quality translation is one in which the message embodied in the source text is transferred completely into the target text, including denotation, connotation, nuance and style, and the target text is written in the target language using correct grammar and word order, to produce a culturally appropriate text that, in most cases, reads as if originally written by a native speaker of the target language for readers in the target culture. (2014: 416–417)

Although quite comprehensive, well thought out and seemingly encapsulating decades-long knowledge advances in translation studies, these definitions illustrate how any aspect of translation quality may be controversial. Questions that...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1783099135
• ISBN 13: 9781783099139
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 198
• Herausgeber: Taibi Mustapha
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland