05.866.111 Translation Skills I

Lehrende/r: Michael A.C. Claridge; Dr. Britta Feyerabend; Dr. Claudia Görg

Veranstaltungsart: Übung

Anzeige im Stundenplan: 05.866.111

Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 225

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:
Please note: Participants are expected to have B2-/C1-level (or above) language skills in BOTH German AND English. You will be graded on that basis in the tests and final exam.

Erasmus/exchange students who have neither English nor German as their native language will receive special consideration, as long as they make this factor known to me right at the start of the semester.

SPECIAL NOTE due to Covid-19 conditions: We will be working via an online learning platform, ‘meeting’ virtually during our class-hour from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays for full-class discussions of prepared material. You will prepare for this by working in mini-groups, using the platform’s Wiki and whatever other means of discussion you and your fellow-mini-group members find helpful to develop a mini-group solution. One of you will send this to me, and I will combine the various proposals to create the text for the full-class discussion. I will inform you in the first two weeks as to how the two short tests will be conducted. We are still examining various proposals regarding the final test… since we obviously do not know at this point what the physical possibilities will be in July. I will send you details regarding the learning platform at the start of the week beginning 20th April.

The goal of this course is to develop your ability to translate correctly and efficiently and to identify the differences and similarities between German and English – especially those caused by interference.  Beyond this, we will approach translation as the transferring of ideas and concepts from one language to another.  The course has three linked elements:

·       short texts (German into English only) to emphasize the importance of looking at the text ‘as a whole’ and to explore how this affects syntax and word choice (these texts will be taken from journalistic sources);

·       individual sentence translation (German into English only) to focus attention on possible syntactic and lexical traps resulting from language interference and/or intercultural differences;

·       work on critically reading a translation to spot potential errors, especially due to interference.

A pack with interference exercises and two of the short texts for translation will be made available online. You are expected to have, and be familiar with using, a good, comprehensive GERMAN-ENGLISH dictionary (e.g. the Großwörterbuch published by Collins/Langenscheidt – Schulwörterbücher are not adequate at this level of language!) and a good, advanced ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) LEARNER’S MONOLINGUAL dictionary (e.g. the latest edition of either the Longman-Langenscheidt Dictionary of Contemporary English or the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary; you will be permitted to use the print version of a monolingual (English) dictionary in the two tests and the final exam, so it is well worth obtaining and familiarizing yourself with one during the semester, if you have not already done so!

More details as to structure, testing, exams etc. will be provided in the first class session.