The EMT Translator
Trainer Profile
Competences of the trainer in translation
EMT expert group
Optimale Plovdiv workshop
February 21-22 2013
Competences
European Masters in Translation network:
2009: competences for professional translators,
experts in multilingual and multimedia
communication
2012: competences for translation teachers/trainers
(training as a sub-component of a wider conception
of education).
Group Effort
Daniel Gouadec
Federico Federici, Nike K. Pokorn, Yves Gambier
KaisaKoskinen, OutiPaloposki, Dorothy Kelly,
Michaela Wolf, Alison Beeby
Dorothy Kenny
EMT board
General Reference Framework
Training courses for teachers/trainers may vary
depending on the needs and profiles of the particular
target groups (e.g. language teachers, professional
translators, Translation Studies academics, full-time
university lecturers, or subject-field experts (lawyers,
engineers, etc.))
Careful attention must be paid to institutional and
local contexts.
The Competences and
Requirements
Fundamental Requirements
Academic qualification in university training (e.g. formal
requirements depending on national regulations)
Relevant professional practice (e.g. work experience in
translation)
Appropriate teacher training (depending on national
regulations: either as a formal qualification or additional
teacher training)
Knowledge of Translation Studies (TS) scholarship and
research relevant for a particular course
Ability to perform tasks assigned to students according to
professional quality standards
Competences
Field Competence
Interpersonal Competence
Organizational Competence
Instructional Competence
Assessment Competence
Field competences 1
Knowledge of the professional field including:
Translation-related professions
Constraints of translation projects (e.g.
time/budget/qualities)
Specialization in translation-related professions
Market requirements
Operating procedures and tools used in
professional translation
TS scholarship and research relevant for the course
Foreseeable development of the professions
Field competences 2
Translation-service provision competence (see
Appendix):
Knowledge of the existing standards and specifications
Ability to critically analyze these standards and
specifications
Ability to perform the tasks and sub-tasks involved in
the translation-service provision (including planning,
preparing the material for translation, quality
assurance, document management, terminology
management, etc.)
Interpersonal competence 1
Ability to integrate into a teaching team and work as
part of a team
Ability to coordinate teaching staff
Ability to teach students how to apply and critically
assess codes of professional ethics in translation
Ability to establish suitable learning environments
for students
Interpersonal competence 2
Ability to teach students time and resource
management
Ability to teach students how to manage stress
Ability to train students in decision-making and how
to prioritize
Ability to introduce students to the relevant
constraints depending on the situation
(specifications, deadlines, budgets, etc.)
Organizational competence
Ability to understand students needs and expectations in
relation to the overall programme
Ability to design or understand the rationale for a translation-
training curriculum
Ability to define the learning progression for the programme
(order in which modules are taught)
Ability to design a course syllabus in relation to the EMT
competence benchmark
Ability to update programme or course in anticipation of and
in response to changes to the profession
Instructional competence 1
Ability to specify the tasks to be performed in relation to each
course or module component
Ability to explain the learning objectives of the subjects
taught
Ability to break down the educational components into tasks
and sub-tasks (e.g.: terminography, document mining, quality
control) drawing on the relevant theoretical knowledge
Ability to encourage students to become aware of the
challenges and issues involved in the task and sub-task in the
relevant field(s)
Instructional competence 2
Ability to draw up a lesson plan by integrating TS
scholarship and research relevant into teaching:
Ability to create a list of all the tasks relevant for a
given lesson and organize them in terms of priorities,
sequences, time available and overall syllabus
Ability to create the course or module materials
Ability to create content and choose the appropriate
teaching method (e.g. virtual learning environments,
seminars, tutorials etc.)
Instructional competence 3
Knowledge of translation didactics and the ability to
use appropriate methods for teaching and learning
Ability to use existing professional and specialist
tools and integrate them into training
Ability to motivate students
Ability to encourage students to develop: precision, a
focus on quality, curiosity, learning strategies, etc.
Ability to encourage students to develop a critical
approach during the execution of tasks
Assessment competence
Ability to define assessment methods and criteria for
tasks relevant to the course
Ability to assess students entry level
Ability to assess students level of attainment
(competences they have acquired and competences
they lack in relation to the EMT benchmark)
Ability to evaluate a curriculum, syllabus and lesson
Ability to adapt to the results of the evaluation of a
curriculum, syllabus and a lesson
Not Prescriptive
Translation teachers/trainers should acquire the
competences proposed in each of the five areas and
meet the fundamental requirements specified =
minimum requirement leading to the qualification of
teachers/trainers in multilingual and multimedia
communication;
The proposal does not prescribe how, when or where
The competences are not presented in order of
importance
References
Colina, Sonia (2003) Translation Teaching: From Research To The
Classroom, New York/San Francisco: McGraw Hill.
Consortium for Training Translation Teachers (CTTT) Project Papers,
Available from: http://isg.urv.es/cttt/cttt/research.html
EMT Expert Group (2009) Competences for professional translators, experts
in multilingual and multimedia communication, Available from:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/
programmes/emt/key_documents/emt_competences_translators_en.
pdf
Macquarie University Postgraduate Diploma in Translation and
Interpreting Pedagogy,
http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/postgraduate/coursework/tip/pdtip.htm
References
Kelly, Dorothy (2005) A Handbook for Translator Trainers: A Guide to
Reflective Practice, Manchester: St. Jerome,
Kelly, Dorothy (2008) Training the Trainers: Towards a Description
of Translator Trainer Competence and Training Needs Analysis,
TTR: traduction, terminologie, redaction, 21(1): 99-125. Available
from http://www.erudit.org/revue/ttr/2008/
v21/n1/029688ar.pdf
Gouadec, Daniel (2002) Profession : traducteur, Paris: La Maison du
Dictionnaire.
Gouadec, Daniel (2007) Translation as a profession,
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
