“‘What students want’…? Practical Suggestions for Corpus-aided Translator Education

This article describes a module addressed to undergraduate students of language mediation and meant as a “technology companion” for a more traditional classroom-based translation course. Following a task-based approach, the module combines the teaching of technical skills with the exercise of translation competences, and attempts to integrate e-learning materials and facilities with in-presence lab sessions. Corpus tools and methods are introduced alongside computer-aided translation (CAT) tools; these are then applied to a practical and technically rather demanding task (translation of part of a website). The module aims first and foremost to build awareness of and motivation for corpus use, focusing on the cognitive and linguistic aspects underlying it and going light on its technical aspects. Methodologically, this aim is pursued in two principal ways. First, the module limits itself to a) widely available resources, such as Web interfaces to general language corpora and freely available concordancing software, and b) relatively unsophisticated corpus building and searching techniques (concordances from small text-only corpora assembled from the Web). Second, a contrastive teaching approach is taken, whereby learners reflect on the added value of corpora vs. other documentation resources they are more familiar with (or more keen on using), and on the different circumstances in which one might be more appropriate than the other. The article provides the syllabus for the module, briefly describes the e-learning materials that form its core, and provides ideas for tasks designed to make translation students aware of the potential of corpora for their future profession.