Comparing collocations in translated and learner language

This paper compares use of collocations by Italian learners writing in and translating into English, conceptualising the two tasks as different modes of constrained language production and adopting Halverson’s (2017) Revised Gravitational Pull hypothesis as a theoretical model. A particular focus is placed on identifying a method for comparing datasets containing translations and essays, assembled opportunistically and varying in size and structure. The study shows that lexical association scores for dependency-defined word pairs are significantly higher in translations than essays. A qualitative analysis of a subset of collocations shared and unique to either mode shows that the former set features more collocations with direct cross-linguistic links (connectivity), and that the source/first language seems to affect both modes similarly. We tentatively conclude that second/target language salience effects are more visible in translation than second language use, while connectivity and source language salience affect both modes of bilingual processing similarly, regardless of the mediation variable

La enseñanza de la traducción especializada. Corpus textuales de traductores en formación con etiquetado de errores

This paper describes the method used in teaching specialised translation in the English Language Translation Master’s programme at Masaryk University. After a brief description of the courses, the focus shifts to translation learner corpora (TLC) compiled in the new Hypal interface, which can be integrated in Moodle. Student translations are automatically aligned (with possible adjustments), PoS (part-of-speech) tagged, and manually error-tagged. Personal student reports based on error statistics for individual translations to show students’ progress throughout the term or during their studies in the four-semester programme can be easily generated. Using the data from the pilot run of the new software, the paper concludes with the first results of the research examining a learner corpus of translations from Czech into English.En el presente trabajo se describe el método que se ha seguido para enseñar traducción especializada en el Máster de Traducción en Lengua Inglesa que se imparte en la Universidad de Masaryk. Tras una breve descripción de las asignaturas, nos centramos en corpus textuales de traductores en formación (translation learner corpora, TLC) recopilado en la nueva interfaz Hypal, que se puede incorporar en Moodle. Las traducciones realizadas por los alumnos se alinean de forma automática (con posibles modificaciones) y reciben un etiquetado gramatical y un etiquetado manual de errores. Es posible generar de manera sencilla informes sobre los alumnos con información estadística sobre errores en las traducciones individuales para mostrar su progreso durante el cuatrimestre o el programa completo. En función de los datos obtenidos en la prueba piloto del nuevo software, este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados del estudio a través de un corpus de traducciones de aprendices del checo al inglés

Teaching Specialized Translation Error-tagged Translation Learner Corpora

This paper describes the method used in teaching specialised translation in the English Language Translation Master’s programme at Masaryk University. After a brief description of the courses, the focus shifts to translation learner corpora (TLC) compiled in the new Hypal interface, which can be integrated in Moodle. Student translations are automatically aligned (with possible adjustments), PoS (part-of-speech) tagged, and manually error-tagged. Personal student reports based on error statistics for individual translations to show students’progress throughout the term or during their studies in the four-semester programme can be easily generated. Using the data from the pilot run of the new software, the paper concludes with the first results of the research examining a learner corpus of translations from Czech into English.Článek popisuje metodu používanou při výuce odborného překladu v magisterském studijním programu Překladatelství anglického jazyka na Masarykově univerzitě. Po krátkém popisu kurzů se zaměřuje na korpus překladů studentů (TLC) sestavený v novém rozhraní programu Hypal, které lze integrovat do systému Moodle. Studentské překlady jsou automaticky zarovnány (s možnými úpravami), označkovány podle slovního druhu a nakonec jsou ručně označeny chyby. Program umožňuje sledovat práci jednotlivých studentů pomocí statistik chyb pro jednotlivé překlady v průběhu semestru nebo během studia ve čtyřsemestrovém programu. Na závěr jsou v článku uvedena data z pilotního běhu nového softwaru s prvními výsledky výzkumu korpusu překladů z češtiny do angličtiny

Combining translation into the second language and second language learning : an integrated computational approach

This thesis explores the area where translation and language learning intersects. However, this intersection is not one in the traditional sense of second language teaching: where translation is used as a means for learning a foreign language. This thesis treats translating into the foreign language as a separate entity, one that is as important as learning the foreign language itself. Thus the discussion in this thesis is especially relevant to an academic institution which contemplates training foreign language learners who can perform translation into the foreign language at a professional level. The thesis concentrates on developing a pedagogical model which can achieve the goal of fostering linguistic competence and translation competence at the same time. It argues that constructing such a model under a computerised framework is a viable approach, since the task of translation nowadays relies heavily on all kinds o

Los corpus paralelos bilingües como herramienta metodológica en traducción : análisis de la competencia traductora de los estudiantes en el corpus UCMA-MUST (inglés-español)

El proyecto MUST (MUltilingual Student Translation) (Granger y Lefer, 2018: 72) tiene como objetivo compilar un corpus paralelo multilingüe de traducciones realizadas por estudiantes sin experiencia en el campo de la traducción. En el marco de este proyecto, el equipo UCMA (de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid) aporta un subcorpus bilingüe de textos especializados traducidos por estudiantes en los ámbitos audiovisual y de las humanidades, entre otros. Teniendo en cuenta las cinco subcompetencias propias de la adquisición de la competencia traductora (lingüística, extralingüística, de transferencia, profesional, psicofisiológica y estratégica [PACTE, 2001 y 2003]), este estudio persigue detectar las debilidades y fortalezas presentes en las tareas de traducción inglés-castellano de los estudiantes. Para ilustrarlas, se ha utilizado el sistema de anotación TAS propuesto por Granger y Lefer (2018) y Granger, Lefer y Penha Marion (2018), junto con una muestra de textos humanísticos a cargo de traductores en formación universitaria (postgrado) que se encuentran almacenados en el corpus UCMA

Protutor : a pronunciation tutor that uses historic open learner models

Second language learners face many challenges when learning a new language. To determine which challenges learners needed additional support in overcoming, we conducted a needs assessment of the Russian language program at the University of Saskatchewan and found that their students needed the most help with speaking in Russian. As a result, we designed an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to help students learn how to pronounce Russian properly. We hoped to alleviate some of the challenges that learners face when learning to pronounce words in a second language by building an ITS that uses a Historic Open Learner Model (HOLM) to encourage learner reflection and to help maintain learner motivation. We designed, built, and performed a formative evaluation of a system, called ProTutor, using beginner learners of Russian as a second language at the University of Saskatchewan. This evaluation showed that learners have a positive perception of HOLMs and of the system as a whole. However, ProTutor needs further evaluation in order to determine its effectiveness as a learning aide

Corpora as open educational resources for language teaching

Corpora, large electronic collections of texts, have been used in language teaching for several decades. Also known as Data‐Driven Learning (DDL), this method has been gaining popularity because empirical research has consistently shown its effectiveness for learning. However, corpora are still underutilized, especially with learners of languages other than English, at lower proficiency levels, and in non‐university contexts. This is regrettable because DDL has a great potential for developing modular flipped content, especially for hybrid, remote, and online courses. This article first provides an overview of DDL applications and findings of empirical research. Next, it outlines obstacles to wider DDL implementation as well as available and possible solutions. Corpus user guides and exercise collections tied to specific corpora are discussed as one promising direction, and an example of such new open educational resources for teaching German is presented. The article concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions

New perspectives on cohesion and coherence: Implications for translation

The contributions to this volume investigate relations of cohesion and coherence as well as instantiations of discourse phenomena and their interaction with information structure in multilingual contexts. Some contributions concentrate on procedures to analyze cohesion and coherence from a corpus-linguistic perspective. Others have a particular focus on textual cohesion in parallel corpora that include both originals and translated texts. Additionally, the papers in the volume discuss the nature of cohesion and coherence with implications for human and machine translation.The contributors are experts on discourse phenomena and textuality who address these issues from an empirical perspective. The chapters in this volume are grounded in the latest research making this book useful to both experts of discourse studies and computational linguistics, as well as advanced students with an interest in these disciplines. We hope that this volume will serve as a catalyst to other researchers and will facilitate further advances in the development of cost-effective annotation procedures, the application of statistical techniques for the analysis of linguistic phenomena and the elaboration of new methods for data interpretation in multilingual corpus linguistics and machine translation