Module MELA45515: Translation Ethics and Intercultural Project Management

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures

MELA45515: Translation Ethics and Intercultural Project Management

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• The module provides grounding in international regulations informing the translation profession.
• The module focuses on essential issues with which contemporary professional translators need to deal.
• The integrated and focused plan of the course provides students with a coherent and accessible way to discerning legal and ethical issues.
• The module introduces the complexities of managing projects in a business context with an overview of specific issues of project management of multilingual and multicultural projects.
• To provide an introduction to the project management methods and practices.

Content

• The module provides grounding in international regulations informing the translation profession.
• The module focuses on essential issues with which contemporary professional translators need to deal with
• The integrated and focused plan of the course provides students with a coherent and accessible way to discerning legal and ethical issues.
• The module will address the location and access of useful translation resources referring to technological aids to translation both printed and electronic. The module will also focus on the essential theoretical notion of the self-reflective translator and the activist translator.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module, students are expected to:
• develop an in-depth knowledge of appropriate codes of conduct;
• acquire a knowledge of good business practice;
• develop a theoretical understanding of the essential legal paramenters regulating professional behaviour and personal ethics in translation.
• understand the themes, principles and techniques appropriate for project management and how these skills can be transferred into the translation context in relation to the specific needs of the target audience(s) of intercultural management.

• By the end of this module, students will acquire ability
• to assess ethical difficulties in a professional setting;
• to locate legal resources to understand issues relevant to ethical conduct and appropriate business practice;
• to negotiate appropriate working conditions;
• to evaluate appropriate the complexity of business or personal insurance for liability;
• to run a translation project.

• the effective use of negotiating skills;
• the ability to engage in independent assessment and evalutation of professional behaviour;
• the ability to critically engage in the development of disciplinary boundaries and norms (especially engaging with the issue of copyright and intellectual property);
• the ability necessary to undertake a higher research degree (e.g. in translator ethics and business ethos);
• the ability to communicate results and findings effectively both orally and in writing.location and coordination of resources to contribute to successful and profitable completion of projects;
• managing personal time and that of a project team;
• assessing the professional skills required to be developed by a project manager working in the translation industry; evaluating appropriately the complexity of business practices in project management;
• communicating effectively both orally and in writing in a range of scenarios from daily routine to harmonization and implementation of changes in a team;
• planning, monitoring and controlling all stages of a project through to completion; identifying translation problems, proposing resolutions and managing risks through project management protocols including quality control during the revision, validation, and final checking of product(s) (translations) stage prior to closing the project;
• using initiative to establish work patterns and collaborative models.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching methods include a combination of lectures and seminars based on problem-solving activities and analysis of real-world scenarios.
• The module is taught over one term. Lectures will introduce the key methods, themes, principles and practices of project management and codes of conduct and ethical dilemmas as well as principles and practices of project management.
• Seminars will be student-centred and based on problem-solving. The students will discuss real scenarios, debates on liability, responsibility.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

The formative assessment consists of student presentations being delivered in the courseof the seminars, with immediate verbal feedback being provided by the lecturer

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University