‫‪DTRA 440‬‬

‫السعودية االلكترونية‬ ‫الجامعة‬

‫الجامعة السعودية االلكترونية‬
‫‪Translation in the Workplace‬‬

‫‪26/12/2021‬‬
Module 9- Week 10

The Translator
Content

• The Characteristics of the Translator.

• The Indicators of the Translator’s Knowledge and Skills.

Learning Objectives
• Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

- Identify the characteristics of the translator.

- Identify the indicators of the translator’s knowledge and skills.

 The Characteristics of the Translator

• Between the fifth and eighth year, the translator develops to the fourth
stage in the Dreyfus corresponding to the Translator rank in the
translator career path.

• The translator’s actions in this level is prevailed by intuition and

personal experience, which rest on the rules and concepts introduced
in previous three stages.
 A list of the Indicators
• The following list of indicators represent the translator’s knowledge and
skills in this fourth phase of development:

• 1- The translator has very good ability to identify, historical, geographical,

social terms, and other linguistic features that convey socio-cultural
impact. In addition, he/she has very good choice between domestication
and foreignization of the text according to translation commission or text
purpose.

**** Domestication brings the writer to the reader; the reader becomes
familiar with the text. However, foreignization takes the reader to the
writer.
• 2- The translator is very good in translating culture-specific items by
applying the process of globalization, involving replacing a culture-
specific item with one that is more neutral or general and accessible
to a wide range of target readers.

• 3- Source language sentence structure has been modified to target

language consistently throughout the translation. In this stage,
grammar is accurate throughout; errors are rare, difficult to spot, and
never interfere with meaning.

• 4- in this stage, a good command of mechanical conventions is

outstanding; meaning is not obscured. Also, there is a great range of
morphological and syntactic structures in the target language.
• 5- The translator has a very good and broad range of vocabulary to
translate more abstract complicated texts; very good knowledge of subject
matter terminology, idioms, collocations, synonyms, and antonyms.

• 6- The translator makes revisions for newly recruited translators. There are
varied range of cohesive devices and transition words; occasional
deficiencies may mean that certain parts of the text are loosely organized.

• 7- The translator knows exactly where to start the search using a range of
specialist print and on-line resources. He/she finds the information fast and
rarely seeks feedback
• 8- The translator has very good dictionary skills to create interlinguistic
correspondences and to build parallel representations of part of a
semantic field.

• 9- The translator uses a wide variety of documentary sources to deal

with stylistic aspects. In addition, he/she has a very good evaluation of
the reliability of documentary sources.

• 10- The translator is very good at effectively using and rapidly and
integrating a range of software to assist in correction and translation.
He/she is very good at creating and managing a database and files as well.
• 11- The translator is very good at adapting to and learning new tools,
particularly for the translation of multimedia and audiovisual material.
He/she is also very good at preparing and producing translations in
different formats and for different technical media.

• 12- The translator has very good knowledge of the possibilities and
limits of machine translation and computer aided translation.
Moreover, he/she has very good ability to detect most ambiguities and
reference problems.

• 13- In this stage, problem solving is attempted by adding footnotes,

endnotes, translator’s notes, and other explicit explanations, word
coinage and transposition.
• 14- Reading: in this stage, there is accurate comprehension of language
pertinent to almost all text types and genres. There is also an ability to
draw on situational, verbal, cognitive, and socio-historical knowledge to
interact with source text and make sense of it.

• 15- Writing: knowledge of text-type conventions often results in accurate

rendering of main and secondary functions of source text. There is a shift
in emphasis from source text participants (producer, sender, recipient) to
target text participants.

• 16- There is good range of translation strategies to meet translation brief

requirements. Also, there is a novel performance that considerably
exceeds traditional routine.
• 17- There are many fluent translation variants and/or adequate
translation solutions that are used spontaneously or even
automatically. In this stage, there is flexible translation that violates
literalness in translation, shown through abstraction (use of vague,
general or abstract target text solutions), modification (use of
changes of perspective).

• 18- The translator is very good at preparing and producing

translations in different formats and for different technical media.
• 19- Very good knowledge of organization-specific translation system including
style and principles; he/she applies them in his or her translation successfully.

• 20- The translator has very good knowledge of professional translation

practice such as the organization’s business, types of clients and their needs,
types of translation briefs, and translation project specifications.

• 21- The translator has very good knowledge of payment terms and practices
of the organization, and consequences of not following them in this stage.

• 22- The translator constructs coherent arguments and articulates ideas

clearly to a range of audiences, formally and informally, through a variety of
techniques.
23- In this stage, the translator develops confidence in others. He/she
coaches team members; helps team members clarify their roles and
responsibilities. Also, he/she manages and negotiates collaborations
within and between organizations.

24- The translator demonstrates standards of translation practice and

encourages professional integrity in others. Sets expectations and
standard of conduct. Advises all staff and contributes to organizational
policy and/or practice.

25- The translator anticipates future directions and trends in translation,

prepares for the unexpected. He/she recognizes good ideas.
References
● Alowedi, N. (2015). Developing A Translator Career Path: A New
Approach to In-House Translator Development Evaluation (Doctoral
dissertation, Kent State University).
Thank You