Master’s Program in Technical Chinese Translation

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

College of Arts & Sciences

(Proposal—revised December 12,2011)

Part I. The Program: M.A. in Technical Chinese Translation

A. Statement of purpose and expectation of graduate study in the program

Translation has become one of the quickest-growing professions in today’s globalized world. The speedy rise of transnational businesses between China and the United States and the entire world has necessitated translation of vast volumes of trans-national texts, particularly industrial and business texts from Chinese into English. The demand for such professional translation is increasingly on the rise, especially in technical, scientific and medical communities. Hence the rapidly expanding translation/interpretation job market.

The Graduate Program (M.A.) in Technical Chinese Translation is focused on translation from Chinese into English. The program is designed to provide bilingual students with professional training in technical translation/interpretation, both theory and practice, as well as in other related areas of scholarly importance. The rigorous graduate program curriculum offers quality instruction from experienced translation professionals/experts who ensure that students, upon the completion of the program, will possess a high-level bilingual proficiency, practical techniques and skills of translation, specialized knowledge and credibility, familiarity with theories and professional aspects of translation, and cultural understanding that will give them a competitive edge in the job market.

In the Master’s program, emphasis will be placed on professional translation. Students will be trained in relevant areas including theory of translation, translation practicum, technical translation, technical communication and writing, comparative study of Chinese and English, legal and medical translation, and computer-assisted translation; and will be expected to satisfactorily perform as professionals in related translation situations.

The Master’s program has no competing programs in the area, as it is a unique translation program in technical Chinese.As of the time of this writing, we have had approximately thirty-five inquiries from prospective students (about half of them are from outside the University), which indicates a strong potential market for the program.

The Master’s program will have a positive impact on the existing undergraduate majors in Chinese Studies, as it provides the opportunity for Chinese Majors to pursue a graduate study in Chinese translation, providing them with a competitive edge in an increasingly globalized job market. In addition to a new full-time facultymember in Chinese, the FLL Department will use the existing faculty resources to cover the courses.This will not affect the staffing of undergraduate offerings in Chinese, as any FLL faculty who teach in the MA program will either be replaced by S-contract teaching or paid for overload teaching.

B. The start date of theproposed graduate program is Fall2012.A maximum of 10 students will be admitted to the program each year.

C.Degree offered: The degree of Master of Arts in Technical Chinese Translation. The program is focused on translation from Chinese into English. It is designed to provide bilingual students with professional training in technical translation/interpretation, both theory and practice, as well as in other related areas of scholarly importance. In the program, emphasis will be placed on professional translation. Students will be trained in relevant areas including theory of translation, translation practicum, technical translation, technical communication and writing, comparative study of Chinese and English, legal and medical translation, computer-assisted translation, and will be expected to satisfactorily perform as professionals in related translation situations. Students will also study contemporary Chinese society in terms of cultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic reforms and institutional transformation, as well as modernization drives, administrative structure and political system, industrial and financial management, etc., the knowledge of which is complementary to technical Chinese translation.

Part II. Admission Requirements

1) Applicants are required to possess a Bachelor’s Degreeor equivalent. Applicants are required to submit a statement of purpose, translation portfolios, three letters of recommendation, participate in an interview (an in-person interview for those in the area and for those not in the area, a telephone interview), and a translation placement test to be conducted by the Graduate Committee.Applicants must show evidence of relatively high-level bilingual proficiency in Chinese and English.

2) International student applicants are expected to have a minimum TOEFL score of at least 600 (TOEFL paper-based), 250 computer-based, or 100 (TOEFL IBT), of which scores for Reading and Writing should be over 80% of the 600 TOEFL paper-based, 23 each in TOEFL computer-based and 23 each in TOEFL IBT.

3) The GRE is required showing a minimum verbal score of 163 (650); a minimum quantitative score of 144 (500); and a minimum analytical writing score of 4.0.

4) Acceptance into the program will be determined by the faculty committee. Qualifications of each applicant are assessed on the basis of a record of success in undergraduate work and the potential for success in graduate-level work. Admission to the graduate program is competitive. Those who meet stated requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet all of these requirements necessarily precluded from admission if they offer other appropriate strengths.

5) Application deadlines: Students are admitted only to begin the program for the Fall semester. The deadline for applying for the Fall Semesteris May 1. Review of applications and admission are conducted on a rolling basis.

6) Procedures for the translation placement test: The test (a two-hour one, focused primarily on the written part) will be conducted in two ways. For those applicants who are in the region, the placement test will be done on campus. For those who are overseas, the placement test will be done at two designated Chinese universities (Beijing Normal University in northern China and East China Normal University in southern China), which are UD’s partner institutions. Arrangements will be made for a faculty from the College of International Education at both institutions to supervise the test on UD’s behalf and then send back the test. Requirements for the test will be exactly the same as at UD. A review committee consisting of the selected faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures will grade the test.

Part III. Degree requirements

1)The Graduate Program in Technical Chinese Translation consists of an eleven-course sequence. Upon completion of a total of 33 graduate credit hours of course work following the required sequence and completion of a comprehensive examination administered by a professional panel, students will receive a Master of Arts Degree in Technical Chinese Translation.

2)The Program requires full-time residence at the University for two years.A full-time graduate student in the program is expected to take three courses each semester in the first three semesters and two courses in the fourth semester.

3)The Masters’ Degreerequires a minimum of four semesters (two years) and the following courses taken in the sequence indicated below.

Semester One:

FLLT 677 Theory of Translation (3 credits)

CHIN 612 Translation Practicum I (3 credits)

CHIN 610 Issues in Contemporary China (3 credits)

Semester Two:

CHIN 613 Translation Practicum II (3 credits)

CHIN 615 Technical Translation and Communication (3 credits)

FLLT 680 Comparative Study of Chinese and English (3 credits)

Semester Three

CHIN 617 Legal and Medical Translation (3 credits)

CHIN 619 Computer-Assisted Translation (3 credits)

FLLT 678 Technical Communication and Writing (3 credits)

Semester Four

CHIN 620 Practice and InternshipI & II (6 credits)

Course description and logic of sequencing:

· FLLT 677 Theory of Translation – This course is an introduction to translation theory. It explores the history, philosophy, theory, institution, and practice of translation both as a trans-linguistic art and as a profession. The course also examines the assessment of the quality of translation, the development of translation tools (including computer translation techniques), the role of translation in curriculum design, and the role of applied linguistics in translation training. The course also studies the relation between language proficiency, subject knowledge, knowledge about culture, translational skills, translation curricula, and teaching materials.This course provides an important theoretical framework for other courses in the program, particularly the courses on translation practicum, technical translation and communication, legal and medical translation, and computer-assisted translation.

· CHIN 610 Issues in Contemporary China – This course provides students with an overall picture of contemporary China in its complexity and diversity. The course focuses on important aspects of contemporary Chinese society such as socioeconomic reforms, societal transformation, modernization drives, administrative structure and political system, industrial and financial management, banking system and foreign trade, migrant workers, urbanization, population policy, diplomatic relations with the outside world, privatization, as well as the impact of China’s modernization on the world. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the backdrop of contemporary China against which technical translation of Chinese into English is done.

· CHIN 612 & 613 Translation PracticumI & II– These two courses need to be taken as a sequence. Focused on Chinese/English translation, they are designed to help students obtain real world experiences in the translation industry by providing them with the opportunity to work with professionals in the industry. Students will learn about the way in which translators and/or interpreters operate and more importantly about the criteria and skills involved in a real working environment. Students will learn to apply the principles of translation acquired in their study and demonstrate their translation skills to prospective employers. One of the major features of these courses arecase studies and hands-on training in professional translation, in which useful translational skills are practiced and reinforced. The Translation Practicum courses comprise several important components that include translation of a diverse range of text types such as: industrial and technical materials and information on China’s social economics, newsletters, weeklies, and general information on specific industrial issues. Also included in the courses’ coverage is translation of other materials, e.g. website related information, information on contemporary Chinese society, etc. The courses use theory of translation as their guiding principle.

· CHIN 615 Technical Translation and Communication -- This course trains students how to translate technicallycomplex texts from the domains of finance, business, and industries. These texts may include extracts from industry information reports and papers, popular texts in finance, financial management, banking, and business, and foreign trade. The course will combine translation work with use of a diverse range of utilities for exploiting and managing linguistic resources for the purposes of technical translation. The course is designed to help students develop a basic proficiency in technical translation and become skilled in clear expression and sensitive to stylistic issues often involved in specialized translation.

· FLLT 680Comparative Study of Chinese and English -- This course is designed to introduce students to a systematic comparison of the Chinese and English languages both from the macro and the micro points of view. The objective of the course is to help students better understand the syntactic and semantic structures of the two languages so that they are able to handle more competently and effectively problems often encountered in the process of translation, particularly technical translation. In this course, the two languages will be studied and compared systematically in terms of vocabulary and grammar, word formations, sentence structures, set phrases, and linguistic habits. Other topics include, but not limited to, the origins and developments of the two languages, their varieties, integration and variations, rhetoric in the Chinese and English languages, their structural characteristics, and other unique features of the Chinese language such as cultural commonality and cultural differences and their applications in translation.

· FLLT 678 Technical Communication and Writing -- This course will help students develop technical writing skills that draw on a variety of styles, and for a number of purposes. With practice, students will develop several techniques for evaluating and presenting data. They will write, research, and edit, create effective letters and technical proposals, and develop team plans. The course will stress: 1) correct standard American English writing (homework), 2) the sociology, psychology, and technical aspects of business writing (the textbook), and 3) a real business project (proposal). It uses crisis communications and simulation to help develop technical writing skills. Students will also explore the ethical and legal elements of writing, reviewing the basics of effective oral presentations, and the use of multimedia. By the time students finish this course, they will be proud of their ability to develop good ideas and of their techniques to execute them.

· CHIN 617 Legal and Medical Translation – The course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of legal and medical translation from English to Chinese via a wide range of selected materials, including legal documents, various court procedures that have different expectations, protocol, and vocabulary requirements, medical journal articles, medico-legal documents, and information on pharmaceutical industry. The course focuses on particular problem areas in legal and medical translation such as specialized terminology and abbreviations, proper register, and medical communications via chemical and structural names or generic or non-proprietary names, as well as the professional ethics of legal translation and interpretation. The course also provides information on sources available to legal and medical translators in book form and on the Internet. In the course students will also improve their computer skills related to legal and medical document manipulation and formatting in practical translation. The course is divided into two parts: the first part in on legal translation, the second part focuses on medical translation.

· CHIN 619 Computer- Assisted Translation – This course provides students with an overall view of computer-assisted translation that utilizes computer software and applications to facilitate translation projects and process. Computer-assisted translation not only supports and enhances the overall task of translating a written text from one language to another; it also facilitates a diverse range of translation activities that would include project management, editing, proofreading, terminology management, etc. In this course students will learn how to put into translation practice computer applications such as machine translation, terminology management, database repository, translation memory, digital and online dictionaries, language identifiers, and source text assessment. They will acquire some fundamental knowledge of the computer-assisted translation process and the tools available in the market. Students who enroll in this course are expected to have good proficiency in electronic communication that is important to acquiring translation-specific computer skills in technical translation and project management.

· CHIN 620 Practice and Internship I & II (six credits) – This course is designed to immerse students in the real-life world of translation where they will be engaged in a wide array of projects that involve technical translation, legal and medical translation, or computer-assisted translation. Under the supervision of the instructors and professional translators, students will be assigned translation projects which will be done either individually or in a group. The result of translation projects will be evaluated/assessed and graded in case study sessions conducted by the instructors and professional translators. The end-of-semester project consists of a translation assignment where students are expected to demonstrate their ability to apply all translation skills they have learned throughout the program. Students will also submit a translation project report.

4)The comprehensive examination: The deadline for establishing and preparation requirements for the comprehensive examination is set at the beginning of the third semester of the graduate program. Candidates must pass the examination toward the end of their program of study.The comprehensive examination consists of a written, an oral, and a translation portion. The examinations are based on coursework and on reading lists available online.Admission to the oral examination will be granted only to those students who have passed the written examination. Those students who fail the written portion of the comprehensive examination will have, per consensus of the graduate committee, a chance to retake the written portion of the comprehensive examination provided that the student meets the completion deadline set by the graduate committee. The student may retake the written portion of the comprehensive examination only once and within one year. In some cases, where the student fails a portion of the exam that represents less than 50% of the whole, the faculty may require the student to retake only the section(s) failed. The graduate committee consists of three faculty members in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

5)The program director will serve as the advisor to the students in the program. Students will meet with the program director each semester prior to the registration period for the upcoming semester to review the student’s progress in the program.

6) The Internship: The program committee will work with supervising professionals in translation institutions which provide internships to determine levels of student performance as interns and grade their projects. China Monitor Inc., a Wilmington based international company, will provide said internships with payment. The internship courses (CHIN 620 Practice and Internship I & II with six credits),will begin in the fourth semester and is graded in the same way as other courses in the program.

Part IV. Assessment Plan: In consultation with the Center for Education Effectiveness, the program, like the other graduate programs in the FLL Department, will develop assessment criteria to measure its success.There are three ways to assess the outcome of the program:

a. Direct measurement of students’ learning outcome by their real ability in technical Chinese translation

b. Measurement of students’ learning outcome against the program’s stated objectives

c. Measurement ofstudents’ learning outcome against the criteria set up by the translation industry

Part V. Financial aid

A. Financial Awards: Students either will self-fund or have their tuition scholarships funded by an external source (e.g., an employer).

B. Internships: Internships will be available. Such internships carry a monthly stipend.