Introductory description

This module is only open to visiting students from Spain and Latin America. The module is designed to meet the needs of undergraduates who wish to acquire basic translation skills and develop their language proficiency.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Each week a part of the class will be devoted to the discussion of difficulties encountered in the translation assignment(s) from the previous week. Students will need to defend their approach to the translation . Grammar explanations will be part of each week to consolidate student's knowledge of English grammatical structures and will be adapted to the students' needs. Students will acquire basic concepts about translation. They will discuss what constitutes a good translation and a bad translation and they will be introduced to translation methodologies. This will enable them to reflect on their own translation choices. Students will translate texts or other cultural material from English into Spanish and vice-versa. The topics of these texts are varied, including audiovisual products, formal letters, news and current affairs articles.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• To develop basic translation skills.
• To develop intercultural awareness.
• To evaluate and present critical analyses of linguistic and cultural issues.
• To consolidate complex grammar structures in English.
• To acquire new lexical and idiomatic structures in English.
• To produce translations from Spanish into English and English into Spanish that are appropriate for their specified purpose.
• To become aware of the challenges associated with translation and critically reflect on the concept of translation as a cultural proces

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Hispanic culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of Spanish and English translation will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.