Retelling in the Source Language: The instructor either reads or plays a recording of a text of about 200 words for the trainees to retell in the same language. The trainees should not be allowed to take any notes. In the first instance, trainees should be encouraged to retell the text in the same words of the original to the largest possible extent. The following tactics should be used by the trainees after a certain time of training on retelling: Categorization: Grouping items of the same properties; Generalization: Drawing general conclusions from particular examples or message from the provided text; Comparison: Noticing the differences and similarities between different things, facts and events; Description: Describing a scene, a shape, or size of an object, etc. Trainees are encouraged to describe, summarize, and abstract the original to a large extent in their own words in exercises (2) to (5). Shadowing Exercise: Which is defined as "a paced, auditory tracking task which involves the immediate vocalization of auditorily presented stimuli, i.e., word-for-word repetition in the same language, parrot-style, of a message presented through a headphone"(Lambert 1899:381). This kind of exercise is recommended for training of Simultaneous Interpreting, especially the splitting of attention skills and the short-term memory in SI.[4]
There is another tool which is effective in memory training: Mnemonic to Memory. Mnemonic is a device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering. Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example of a mnemonic is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of Mnemonics is to use as many of the best functions of the human brain as possible to encode information.
The human brain has evolved to encode and interpret complex stimuli—images, color, structure, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, spatial awareness, emotion, and language—using them to make sophisticated interpretations of the environment. Human memory is made up of all these features.
Typically, however, information presented to be remembered is from one source—normally words on a page. While reading words on a page reflects one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the many skills and resources available to the human mind. Mnemonics seek to use all of these resources. By encoding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, we can accurately and reliably encode both information and the structure of information to be easily recalled later (Manktelow:2003).
It is also advisable that Exercises with Interference (e.g. noises) be provided in order to prevent information loss in the Short-Term Memory, since the environment and other information present in the storage may reduce the information encoded. Recording speeches with specially 'inserted' noises as a background is a recommended classroom practice, since this is a very effective method to enable the students to concentrate and thus strengthen their STM duration.
Notes:
1. Training of professional interpreters has a three-part structure: the first stage is introduction to skills specific to interpreting, for example through memory training and note-taking exercises. This is followed by intensive classroom practice. The third stage involves work experience and observation where the main focus is on task achievement.[5]
1.2.2.The aim of professional translation and interpretation is transposition of a message from a source language into a target language, with due attention to what one might call the ambiance of the message in order to create a similar ambiance in the target language. Depending on the content and form of the message, this ambiance may be minimal, as in much scientific and technical translation or purely informational interpretation. It may be as important as the message, as in literary translation or the interpretation of politically or psychologically sensitive speeches. Or it may even be more significant than the message itself, as in some poetry, in advertising, in many diplomatic communiqués, and in most after-dinner speeches. Although every bilingual speaker who is able to express himself with some felicity can usually translate or interpret on the message level, it takes considerable training, or a special sensitivity coupled with years of experience, to become a professional translator or interpreter capable of capturing and communicating the nuances of two or more languages.
Ambiance can be created in various ways. It can be the result of a distinctive linguistic or literary style or form: colloquial, educated, biblical, commercial, or legal language; slang, dialect, or regionalisms; dialogue, stream-of-consciousness narrative, or oblique discourse; poetic prose, verse, or such characteristic literary styles as those of romanticism, realism, or even the New Yorker . It can be created through references to certain aspects of a particular cultural or social heritage, such as national holidays, historical or geographic landmarks, or national or local characteristics and beliefs. Ambiance can also involve ethnic or cultural peculiarities and idiosyncrasies—special marriage or burial customs or rites, various superstitions and taboos. Finally, it can utilize the special characteristics of one language that have no (or only imprecise) equivalents in another.
Those who are not translators may not give much thought to the problem of the most appropriate treatment in English of the complex and elaborate sentences of German or Russian, or the flowery styles of Russian or Chinese. Most of us, however, are aware of a number of simpler translation problems: “faux amis,” i.e., words which sound similar in two languages but mean different things; regionalisms, where the same word or phrase has different connotations or even denotations and where the region itself, be it Cockney London or the Deep South, may have unique symbolic values; mixed stylistic levels and metaphors; almost untranslatable terms such as Gemütlichkeit or poshlost ; the need to find English equivalents for the familiar form of address still used by many languages, or for titles, first names, and surnames used in special contexts (e.g., Lord Peter, Sir John; vous ma mère; die Anna ); the difficulty of finding the appropriate linguistic and social form for expressing or translating wishes, commands, admiration, gratitude, disagreement; translating into the appropriate ambiance references to the Bible, the Koran, the Little Red Book, or Comrade Lenin; quoting Shakespeare to Germans, Goethe and Schiller to Americans. The list is endless.
Many of these problems face the language student and teacher long before he confronts them as a translator or interpreter. In general, language students acquire some of this cultural and social ambiance gradually through their readings, from their teachers' explanations, habits, and customs, or, if the student is lucky, during a lengthy stay in a foreign country with exposure to that country's cultural and social values. Nonetheless, it takes a very observant, determined, sensitive, and thoughtful student to absorb enough of the ambiance to become a “near-native.”
If the near-native also has a profound awareness of his primary culture, he can be considered bilingual. (Actually, true bilingualism is rare. Unless both languages and cultures are constantly accessible and in equal measure part of the working and living environment, one of them soon moves into a secondary position.) Finally, in addition to engaging in a comprehensive “contrastive analysis” of his two languages (i.e., a comparison which is attuned to the myriad factors of the respective ambiances) and developing methods for solving at least the more obvious and important problems of linguistic, cultural, or social divergence, the bilingual speaker must attain an educational level sufficiently high for an awareness of aesthetic, philosophical, social, and political factors and innuendos and their possible equivalents in the other language area. Only then will he have the potential for becoming a good translator or interpreter. Such a preparation may well require a lifetime—and in the past “real” translators and interpreters indeed seemed born rather than bred. In fact, however, a far greater number of working translators and interpreters were merely people with some knowledge of a foreign language and an ability to convey the gist of a message, sometimes together with the gist of their own preferences and prejudices. The same was, and often is, true of language teachers. Though we have moved through various methodological revolutions, from Berlitz and total immersion to the aural-oral approach, from the linguist-plus-informant team to the “classroom abroad,” highly motivated students and teachers often fight a losing battle to retain and expand their laboriously and expensively acquired language skills. We have all heard the college student complain that “after a year of studying it I now know less French than when I came back from France,” or “I just can't discuss Don Quixote meaningfully in Spanish”; or the teacher's confession that “I practically rewrite some of my students' master's theses that are written in German,” or the new Ph.D. who admits that he cannot lecture in Russian.
After World War II, several European universities established extensive formal programs for the training of professional translators and interpreters and developed methods for refining the techniques of what I have called contrastive analysis. More recently, similar programs were established at a few American universities, most notably at Georgetown and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies. While serving as director of the program at Monterey, I realized that, unlike its European counterparts which are able to draw on a multilingually oriented environment, and perhaps even unlike the Georgetown program which undoubtedly benefits from Washington's sizable international population, the Institute's program had to provide considerable training in advanced language skills as well as in translation and interpretation techniques. Moreover, when seeking teachers qualified both to teach and practice translation or interpretation, I soon discovered that most “bilingual” teachers had either lost or never found that sensitivity to conceptual shadings and equivalences which is so important for a good translator or interpreter (and equally for a good language speaker or teacher). I therefore consider it essential that academic institutions of higher learning provide advanced language training in addition to courses in literature and culture, and that such language training be required throughout the language student's academic residency. This may seem an inauspicious moment for pleading the case of expanded language programs. But as teachers turn in increasing numbers to internationally oriented programs of study such as international studies, comparative politics and institutions, and comparative economics and management, and as the value of foreign language mastery within such training becomes more and more obvious, there is an increasing need for language programs oriented toward bilingualism. [6]
Students (and even teachers) from other programs and schools have occasionally requested permission to participate in the Institute's translation and interpretation courses—not in order to become professional translators or interpreters but to maintain or expand their language skills. This fact confirms my belief that some of the techniques we use to enhance the language facility of our translation and interpretation students could be applied successfully to general language programs at other institutions of higher learning. I am convinced that such language training can be at least as valuable as a stay abroad, with the added advantage that the second cultural environment does not tend to displace the first. Both settings, so necessary for proper contrastive analysis, are thus available simultaneously.
Chapter2 Listening techniques in translation
The following three techniques used in the training of translators and interpreters at the Monterey Institute seem especially suitable for advanced language study:
1. Conceptualization . One of the basic premises for successful translation and interpretation is recognition of the principle that the working unit is not a word or word group but the concept, the idea. In contrast to shorthand, which aims at a verbatim reproduction of a text, the various note-taking systems used for consecutive interpretation provide, as it were, “basic training” in conceptualization. They are compression systems, used to record only the essential concepts of a speech and its organizational or linkage pattern. As these concepts are orally translated into the other language, they are again expanded into complete sentences and given the appropriate stylistic and verbal framework. By requiring that the student write down not complete sentences or word groups, but only minimal significant concepts and linkages—and there is no time to do more—such note-taking encourages the conceptualization without which effective consecutive interpretation cannot occur.
There is, of course, no need for every language student to learn interpretative note-taking, though I consider it an extremely beneficial skill. It improves essay planning and writing skills, leads to better note-taking at lectures, increases awareness of parallel or divergent ways of expressing ideas in two languages and thus develops sensitivity toward style, and, most important, it encourages analytical and systematic thinking.
Once the principle of conceptualization is understood, there are many ways to employ and practice it: précis-writing; oral and written text summaries; oral enumerations of the salient points of a speech, an essay or a discussion; the selection of appropriate titles and headings for articles and news items; and brief or extensive recapitulation in the same language or another of speeches, lectures, articles, or stories read or heard. Much of the work should be done orally, to increase the student's listening comprehension while at the same time providing an incentive for a critical reception of the presented text. In addition, teachers trained in the use of an interpretative note-taking system may find it rewarding to introduce such a course in their schools for the benefit of students and colleagues.
2. Stylistic transposition . Stylistic transposition is usually practiced in preparation for written translation of stylistically sensitive texts. In an oral adaptation, it is also used to prepare students for simultaneous interpretation. I believe it can also provide a valuable technique for advanced language training.
There are many ways to practice stylistic transposition, and I will suggest only a few. Students can write “eyewitness accounts” of an event as seen by a child, an uneducated person, a newspaper reporter, a politician, a poet, a philosopher. They can rewrite a stylistically sophisticated essay in simplified form, or a realistic account poetically. They can be asked to single out and analyze those components of an essay that are responsible for its stylistic coloring. They can study, evaluate, and imitate styles of different writers, or compare different approaches applied to one theme or subject. Finally, they can translate stylistically significant texts and compare their translations with those of their classmates or with published translations.
3. Sight translation . Sight translation is frequently considered an unpardonable sin, an unmentionable outrage against the canons of psychologically sound language teaching methodology. If practiced without supervision, sight translation usually results in clumsy, literal translation with atrocious syntax and abominable style, full of gaps and approximations. If undertaken with the teacher's assistance, it tends to become a tedious, time-consuming process, a laborious and frustrating search for the right word or word order, in the course of which all one's carefully hidden linguistic sins—long forgotten grammatical and syntactical rules or never properly understood words—come to the fore. Despite these handicaps, which are real enough, I have found sight translation into a foreign language to be the most effective vocabulary builder, and sight translation into English the best possible speedy review of grammatical principles and problems. Moreover, if undertaken systematically, sight translation gradually produces a fluency and sophistication of expression in the foreign as well as the native language that is often superior to that of the average resident of a foreign country, or even a native speaker in his own country. [7]
The reasons for this are simple. If a language is used primarily for self-expression, a very limited vocabulary, if handled skillfully, may be adequate and thus remain constant. Sight translation, on the other hand, forces the student to work with someone else's vocabulary and terminology, while mustering all of his linguistic and intellectual resources in order to find suitable or possible equivalents. As a result, terms encountered in one language, and improvised in the other only yesterday, may crop up in the second language today and be recognized and assimilated into active vocabulary. Observation and memory improve as the student struggles to convey special expressions in the other language, and he is forced to appreciate their uniqueness and felicity. Finally, if texts on different topics provide the “raw material” for sight translation, vocabulary begins to extend beyond the terminology of the individual's own specialization or interests and brings him closer to a total mastery of the language.