22 TheLinguistAUGUST/SEPTEMBER www.iol.org.ukFEATURESMiranda Moorelooks at the MA modules that takestudents from ab initio to translation level in just one yearIn these difficult economic times, it is moreimportant than ever to stand out from thecompetition. Clients and employers will askthemselves why they should choose you oversomeone with similar experience andqualifications, and for translators the answermay well be an additional language. With thisin mind, some MA Translation courses offer abinitiomodules focused entirely on translation. It is an ambitious idea, aiming to getstudents to a level at which they can translatenon-specialist texts written in a 'new'language after just one year. It is hardlysurprising, therefore, that such modules areoffered at just two universities: Westminsterand Surrey.1Daniel Tomozeiu, who teachesthe ab initio Romanian module atWestminster, explains the benefits forstudents: 'Adding a particular language totheir portfolio -a niche language inparticular -makes them stand out and makestheir CV a lot more attractive.'This kind of ab initiomodule wasintroduced at the university four years ago, aspart of a wider drive aimed at making surethat Westminster graduates would stand outfrom the crowd in the jobs market. 'We havea lot of our students going to work for theEuropean institutions and it's highlycompetitive,' explains Dr Tomozeiu. Armingstudents with one of the smaller EUlanguages gives them a competitive edge. At Surrey, such modules have been runningfor more than 20 years. Professor MargaretRogers, Director of its Centre for TranslationStudies, was involved in establishing anddesigning the courses. 'One of the firstmotivations was to give a chance to becomeprofessional translators to people who onlyhad an A and a B language,' she explains.Starting from scratchAs at Westminster, which currently offersRomanian, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian, thefocus has been on niche languages, including,in the past, Dutch, Polish and Greek.Norwegian and Portuguese are available tothis year's cohort. 'We wanted to add a rarityvalue,' says Rogers. This ties in with the aim ofthe National Network for Translation to boostthe number of English speakers translatingfrom less widely spoken languages.Ab initio modules are available atuniversities up and down the country, but thedifference with these particular MA modulesis that the sole focus is on translation.Students do not practise speaking orlistening, and don't even need to know howthe language sounds -although, in practice,both universities teach some communicationskills, mainly for 'motivational reasons'. 'The course focuses on comprehension -that's the main aim,' says Tomozeiu. 'We startby looking at very basic forms of grammar -nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs -and howthey are used in a text.' Grammar rules arerepeated and applied to various texts untilthe students are able 'to identify not only thegrammar we are learning but also the overallstructure of phrases'. Helene Grinsted took both the Romanianand Portuguese options while studying for anMA in Technical and Specialised Translationat Westminster. 'It's amazing how quickly wewere able to derive translations,' she says.'We were dropped right in at the deep end.'They began translating from Portuguese inthe very first lesson. A different approachThe courses are run on a slightly differentbasis at each university, with Westminsterlimiting the modules to native Englishspeakers and Surrey allowing an open choice.For Dr Tomozeiu, 'learning the new languageis enough of a challenge without addinganything demanding on the target language.'In addition, Westminster students areencouraged to choose a language that iscognate with one they already speak. 'Romanian was identified quite early on asa potential candidate because of thesimilarities to other Romance languages andthe increased demand because of thecountry's accession to the European Union,'he explains. Prof Rogers agrees that offeringmodules on a cognate language basis wouldStudents do notpractise speaking orlistening, and don'teven need to know howthe language sounds

Vol/51 No/4 2012AUGUST/SEPTEMBERTheLinguist23FEATURESteaching all four skills to the same level,' saysProf Rogers. Students begin by working ongeneral texts and move on to semi-specialisttexts in the second semester. 'It's a very different way of teaching alanguage than if you were going to speak itand write it,' says Grinsted. 'It was a lot aboutgrammatical structure so you can recognise averb, you know what the verb endings are andhow the sentence is constructed. It's aboutteaching you how the language is constructedso that you can decode it.' On top of a demanding Master's course,students have two contact hours a week onthe ab initio module and are expected to putin a further 5-6 hours of study. 'It is ademanding course but it's very rewarding -in particular the level they are able to reach,'says Tomozeiu. For Grinsted, Portuguese waschallenging because many of her classmatesspoke Spanish, which enabled very rapidprogression. Romanian proved difficultbecause of its complicated grammar, but agrounding in French, German and school-girlLatin and Russian stood her in good stead.'The language evolved from vulgar Latin. It'sgot case structure similar to Latin, and also toGerman, so I wasn't too phased by that. It'scognate with French to a degree,' she says,and she had experience of diacritics fromRussian. Students with German tend to bestronger on Romanian grammar, confirmsTomozeiu. 'In Romanian, just like German, thenouns have cases and it's quite challenging forstudents who are not used to that.' Grinsted had applied to Westminsterbecause the course was 'very vocationallyorientated'. Coming from a marketingbackground, she was acutely aware that shewould need to highlight her unique sellingpoints when it came to looking for work.With that in mind, would she recommend anab initio module to fellow translators? 'If it's acourse aimed specifically at translators, yes. Ifyou just learn a language from scratch you'regoing to spend a lot of time doing thingsthat aren't relevant to being a translator. Buta course like this that's aimed specifically attranslators works very well I think.'Notes1I have found no such modules at any other UKuniversity, although they were offered at theUniversity of Salford in the past.be beneficial, but this has not been possibleat Surrey, largely due to the broad variety oflanguages covered by their MA students. Asa result, the expected end-of-course levelmay vary slightly, with Surrey aiming to givestudents 'the basis for further development'.Even so, both universities have been verysuccessful in getting students to translationcompetence in just two semesters.'I was amazed how we were able to get tothat level in only a year,' says Grinsted. 'Thatlevel', as stated at the beginning of thecourse, is the ability to translate 'any textavailable in the print press', rather thanspecialised or literary texts. 'I think havingthat level of expectation helps the studentsto understand where they need to be at theend of the year, and we have been extremelysuccessful in bringing them to that level, yearafter year,' says Tomozeiu. The Romanian module attracts 12-16students a year, and many go on to translatefrom the language immediately aftergraduating. Grinsted, however, wanted a littlemore tuition and, along with two of herclassmates, took a further year of instructionwith Tomozeiu. 'But maybe that's just mebeing cautious,' she says. Since then, she hashad a number of assignments from Romanian,which has been a great help: German is stillher main source of work, but it has been'ages' since she had any jobs from French.Special materialsThe ab initioRomanian course was approvedat Westminster in 2008, but there followed ayear of preparation before it could be offeredto students. 'A lot of materials weredeveloped in-house because there was verylittle that would facilitate teaching Romanianas an ancillary language for translators with agood understanding of other Romancelanguages,' explains Tomozeiu.Rogers recalls looking to specialisedcourses for inspiration -those designed forpeople, such as historians, who need to readmaterial in another language. 'I picked upsome things from that kind of course. Butthere wasn't any ready-made model for it,'she says. Courses for new languages are nowbased on that first module. The focus is onreading comprehension. 'You can get furtherwith that than you could in a course that is'It's amazing howquickly we were ableto derive translations.We were dropped rightin at the deep end'COMPETITIVE EDGEMA Translation students at the universitiesof Westminster (below) and Surrey (left)