Universidad Veracruzana Facultad de Idiomas Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa rea de Traduccin

A Holistic Approach to Translator Training: A Case Study based on a UV Workshop

Una monografa presentado por

Francisco Gonzlez Ramrez

Para obtener por el ttulo de Licenciado en Lengua Inglesa

Asesora de lengua y contenido: M. A. Eileen Sullivan

Xalapa de Enrquez, Veracruz 16 de junio de 2011 Formateado en estilo APA, 6 edicin.

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Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................... 11
Background on Translation Pedagogy ................................................................................. 11 The concept of Translator Competence ............................................................................... 12 PACTE Holistic Model for Translation Competences ........................................................ 12

Methodology........................................................................................................................ 17
Participants.................................................................................................................................. 18 Student informants. ........................................................................................................................................... 18 The instructor informant................................................................................................................................ 19 The researcher informant. ............................................................................................................................. 19 Materials ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Course materials. ................................................................................................................................................ 21 Instructor questionnaire/interview ......................................................................................................... 21 Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 22

Data Analysis....................................................................................................................... 24
Introduction to the Analysis .................................................................................................... 24 Outstanding PACTE Competences.......................................................................................... 24 Correlations with PACTE Competences based on self-interview data and workshop activities. .................................................................................................................................................... 26 1. Transfer Competence. ................................................................................................................................. 27 2. Strategic Competence. ................................................................................................................................. 27

3. The Professional Subcompetences. ...................................................................................................... 31 4. Extra-linguistic Competence.................................................................................................................... 33 6. Psychophysiological Competence ......................................................................................................... 38 Commentary ................................................................................................................................ 49

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 51 References ........................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix (a) Course Materials Table........................................................................... 55 Appendix (b) The PACTE Model Chart ......................................................................... 60 Appendix (c) Ned Herrmann s Whole Brian Model .................................................. 61
Extracted from: http://www.12manage.com/methods_herrmann_whole_brain.html ....................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Analyzing personal and organizational thinking preferences. Explanation of Whole Brain Model of Herrmann. ('76) .......................................................................................................... 61 What is the Whole Brain Model? Description ...................................................................................... 61 Origin of the Whole Brain Model. History.............................................................................................. 62

Appendix (d) Instructor s Self Interview .................................................................... 63

Introduction

Records indicate that translation has existed as means of massive communication since the times of the Achaemenids when Darius immortalized in three different cuneiform script languages his victory over the treacherous Gaumata in 522 BCE. Ever since then, translation has played a fundamental role in the social and economical life of all cultures as it has bridged the communication gap of many if not all civilizations. As a consequence of the so-called globalization and the boom of communication medias, the interest on this discipline has dramatically increased in the past decades. The increment in the translating activity calls for a large-scale translative competence; currently, there is a plethora of translation institutions around the world offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs to train translators. However, Sabat-Carrov (1999:1) complains that the tools, methodologies, and training that trainees are given in these programs have failed to prepare them adequately for their professional careers. In her view, most translation training (TT) programs and methodologies have been designed on a hit and miss basis. She also complains about the lack of academic development of translation pedagogy. Likewise, Hurtado Albir (2001:162) observes that the lack of curricular design and development for the didactics of translation has encouraged some academics to mechanically include, with essentially disregarding pedagogical considerations, works on linguistics or traductology (e.g. Larsons, Newmarks or Vzquez-Ayoras manuals) in their programs. Both authors agree that this gap in translation pedagogy has led some authors to attempt their own theoretical frameworks on translator training models (Kamaul, Robinson, Baker, etc.), but that these represent merely a small step in the direction of constituting translation pedagogy as a discipline.

Unlike the field of EFL, which has a well-developed pedagogy, translation has lacked a similar disciplinary specialization. This was reflected in the design of many translator training syllabi. Plan 90 at the Facultad de Idiomas de la Universidad Veracruzana (FIUV) may have been one case where the resulting hit and miss basis, mentioned by Sabat Carrov, also applied. Unfortunately, there is currently no research project aimed at evaluating the degree of success Plan 90 had in preparing active professional translators, therefore I am unable to ascertain if the last statement is true. If so, then the training was probably less than optimal. I remember that during a translation exercise, a professorafter hearing a frustrated fellow student ask why translation had to be so difficulttold us: Translation is indeed very hard. Thats why many students dont dare translate when they leave here. I thought at the time that he meant that it was the nature of translation to be virtually impossible, and that no one in my classroom would ever measure up to the challenge. At any rate, I myself felt insufficiently prepared for life as a professional translator. Why did I feel so unprepared? Danielle Giles, quoting Jansen and Jakobson (2000:114), gives one more or less obvious answer: Such skills [translation skills], like other cognitive skills, are acquired and mature over a long period, generally far longer than the few months or years that translation students spend in the classroom (2004:1). Indeed, the BAs program was holistic and thorough, since it included subjects ranging from culture, compared literature, stylistics to machine translation, Spanish writing workshops, traductologa and compared grammar; however, my question, perhaps, can be further illuminated if we consider that there was an absence of a broader approach to translation theory: the mainstay of our translation theory subject (Traductologa) came from Vzquez-Ayoras work Introduccin a la

Traductologa. Curso bsico de Traduccin (1977), a compared stylistics approach to translation. Vzquez-Ayoras work is indeed ample, dealing with translation matters such as discourse; however his approach is mostly based in linguistics and even if it is supposedly based on context, as Llcer-Llorca (QUOTE) observes, his examples rarely go beyond the sentence level. We also spend a good deal of time in learning his version of the technical procedures conceived originally by Vinay and Dalbernet (1958). Vzquez-Ayora aimed at making translation more scientific through linguistic analysis (QUOTE Introduction), consequently he proposes in Chapters 1 (la unidad de traduccin) and 9 (el procedimiento gral. de la traduccin) QUOTE the use of set procedures that start from the analysis of the Source Language text to the rendering of the translation equivalencesby choosing the adequate technical procedure as required. We learn to use the technical procedures to analyze and provide translations using the technical procedures a methodological error, according to Delisle (1988). I believe it would have been rather useful if the translation theory course had helped us build our understanding of the translation process and in encouraging us to develop our own method of translating instead of learning name tags (translation procedures) of someone elses understanding of the translation process (VzquezAyoras, for example). In any case, the technical procedures seemed inoperative to me at the moment of exegesis, as they relied on prescriptions that were hard to follow when facing real textsdue to time issues mainly, and because such procedures are of very little assistance in interpreting and re-expressing a given message or understanding discourse. The very word procedures (an established or official way of doing something, according to the Oxford English dictionary) suggests that Vzquez-Ayora believed that translators could be provided with some pre-established way of dealing with translation problems. In the following excerpt from

Translation: An Interpretive Approach (1988), Delisle seems to support my contention that the procedures are unhelpful in learning to translate: The term procedure is misleading, because comparative stylistics does not study the process by which equivalences are established [] the categories of comparative stylistics (and particularly the so-called translation procedures) cannot really be applied to the analysis and reexpression of messages, or even to the verification of equivalences [] Compared stylistics short-circuits the interpretive process of

translation1 Delisle (1988: 72, 73, 74) Although I have never actually used these procedures in my brief life as a professional translator, I have come to better appreciate some of Vzquez-Ayora teachings that have helped me develop my translator expertise: I have used his ideas on el genio de la lengua and anglicismos de frecuencia, which have assisted me in understanding the different stylistic devices used in English and Spanish for expressing ideas in written language. I also consult his book for matters of style when I grow suspicious about my own translations; I generally regard Introduccin a la Traductologa as a good compendium of English-Spanish style issues. Nonetheless, I still believe that the translation theory program should consider many more translation theories ranging from linguistics to postcolonial studies in order to better understand the translation phenomenon. Fortunately, the panorama has changed in the most recent curriculum: it includes a Translation Studies subject separated from the Traductologa subjectwhich should, in my opinion, be re-christened to Compared Stylistics, a very useful subject, indeed, in helping students explore communicative possibilities and get away from literal translation, but with a far less misleading name.
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My own underlining 7

It seems to me that the inclusion of the compared stylistics technical procedures in Plan 90 lacked of a clear pedagogical purpose as these are meant for analyzing the final product, and not for developing neither the understanding of the translation process, nor the interpretive or transfer skills. As time has gone by, however, I have become more optimistic about the possibility of learning useful heuristics for translating in the classroom. As I moved into the second level workshop and left behind Vzquez-Ayora, I was exposed to a different approach one which encouraged me. For me, at least, this new focus helped me to understand what I had studied before. Of course, the three diverse translation workshops we took offered very interesting aspects about translation and they all contributed (along with the other subjects in the curriculum) to the development of my expertise in the long run. Nevertheless, the pedagogy of the second workshop is what most interested me in writing this paper. While taking this workshop, I noticed that my translations began to improve, and I started to feel more confident of my interpretive skills; my skills for transferring messages from one language into the other also became better. In a short time, the theory learnt in the previous courses began to make sense and I started to be more aware of my cognitive processes at the moment of the interpreting the assigned texts2. This may be the result of natural progression my translation skills are still developing nowadays, like Giles notes in his text, however, I believe the second workshop instructors pedagogical practices contributed vastly in the developing those skills.

Compared stylistics procedures derive from cognitive processes similar to the ones I referred to in this paragraph. As I mentioned before, it is not so much that Vazquez Ayora analytic categories are wrong, but that are of little help for novice translators. They are useful in tagging a finished product, but they give no hint of the cognitive processes. I believe they best follow the learning of the cognitive processes that ultimately enabled me to produce better translations.
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After having taken the previously mentioned workshop, I realized that the instructors approach to conducting the class had been multifarious: the activities were aimed at developing reading, extra-linguistic, memory and cognitive skills. The latter realization encouraged me to further research the topic of translation theory and translation pedagogy so as to understand the methodological basis for the instructors course. My initial research led me to the PACTE (Procs de Adquisici de la Competncia Traductora i Avaluaci) model for translation competences. I found that the instructors practices developed (or strived to, at least) several translation competences to a certain extent. Therefore, my research question arose: how many of the PACTE models competences were dealt with in the course, and how did the instructor tackled them with her teaching practices? I decided to carry out a post-facto descriptive case study of the Taller de Traduccin II, Grupo C workshop, in order to document, analyze and categorize the instructors teaching practices in light of the Translator Competences detected by the PACTE group (at the University of Barcelona, where they have carried out theoretical and empirical research since 1998) and current translation pedagogy literature, and from my particular point of view as a workshop participant. Thus the objectives of this work are as follows:
y To find points of contact between the workshop instructor s classroom activities and practices and the competences they strive to develop utilizing the Translation Competences model described by the PACTE. y To describe the objectives, the activities and the underpinnings of the workshop instructor s teaching practices. y To gain insights into the logic of the workshop instructor s teaching practices.

This research project is divided as follows:

The Theoretical Background contains a brief history of the current situation of Translation Pedagogy, as well as an explanation of the concept of Translation Competence. Afterwards, I provide a description of the PACTEs holistic model of Translation Competence. I discovered that several concepts on Translator Training (henceforth TT) from D. Robinson, M. Sabat-Carrov, and others resonated with the instructors own methodology. Though these TT concepts are not dealt with in the Theoretical Framework, they will emerge throughout the analysis in supporting many of the instructors ideas and procedures. The following section is a Methodology section where I explain how I obtained the data to carry out this research, and how I utilized the theory described in the previous section. I also provide a description of the participants and the materials, and explain how I carried out the analysis. The Analysis section describes in-depth the instructors methodology for developing the translation competences found in the PACTE model. (Interestingly, the instructor herself had never even heard of the PACTE model.) Finally, I draw my conclusions about the instructors teaching model, and I comment on the interesting aspects that the research generated and which can provide material for further research. I believe it is of utmost importance to start creating TT models in our academic context. I hope the results from this research nourish the discussion on TP, and that a translator training model adapted to the present needs of the FIUV will be developed and put in place eventually. Finally, it is my hope that future students will find this paper inspiring and start their own research projects on TP.

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Theoretical Framework In writing this conceptual framework for my Trabajo Recepcional, my concern will be to provide a Translator Competence model as a guide to identify the competences which were developed in the case under study. I will also describe how the development of such competences was achieved. To that end, I will also document relevant ideas for this research from Douglas Robinsons manual Becoming a Translator (1997), Jean Delisles Translation: An Interpretive Approach (1988) and Mariona Sabat Carrovs doctoral thesis Towards a Theory of Translation Pedagogy (1999), seeking a better understanding of how the competences developed. I also included a brief history of TP to help the reader understand where we are currently regarding TP. Background on Translation Pedagogy Translation has been traditionally regarded as an activity that is learned mostly through empirical experience; under this assumption, translation theoreticians paid little attention to translation training and to translation pedagogy until the late eighties. It was not until the 1990s that TP was more or less consolidated as an independent discipline. The closest that the translation theorists came to focusing on TT was the proposal of training manuals based on structural linguistics and, according to Garca Yebra (1987: 22), methodological guides based on lexicology and semantics. According to Robinson (1997:162,163), the central concern for translation theorists (even as far back as Cicero) has been only the issue of equivalence, thus making TT at best a secondary consideration. It was not until 1988 that Holmes identified TT as an applied discipline, including it in his map of Translation Studies where it was shown as part of the applied activities as opposed to the pure study of translation. Ever since then, the number of

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academics concerned with TT and the translator as a learner has continued to increase. Many academics involved in TT have generated new knowledge about specific training techniques, among them Kaumaul (1989), Hurtado-Albir (1996 to the present), Robinson (1997), Mariona Sabat Carrov (1999). Nevertheless, TP is yet to be consolidated as an independent discipline in its own right as the discussion is still in an early stage. The concept of Translator Competence A fundamental advance in the creation of TP was the concept of translator competences. These competences are a set of skills that student translators should learn or empirical translators develop at some point of their careers. The term, based on the concept of linguistic competence coined by Noam Chomsky in 1962, came into use 1980s. The understanding of translation competence is very important as it can serve as a basis for the creation of course syllabi. The term translation competence , as I have explained, started to appear in translation theory literature around 1986 although initially many authors used the term without explicitly defining it (Hurtado Albir. 2001: 382). However, as TT has grown and found its place within the discipline, scholars, such as Hewson and Martin (1991), Kiraly (1995), Hurtado Albir (1996) or Neubert (2000) among others, have continued to generate models and functional descriptions for TC. PACTE Holistic Model for Translation Competences The PACTE Group (Process of Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation) has been carrying out holistic, empirical-experimental research concerning translation competence and its acquisition in written translation since 1998. In their research at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, they have considered both the translation process and the translation product. They have examined, in turn, both inverse and direct translations in six

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language combinations: English, French and German-Spanish and Catalan. The participants in this group include Amparo Hurtado-Albir (who has been mentioned previously) as group leader, as well as participants of other national backgrounds, including Allison Beeby, Mnica Fernndez, Olivia Fox, Anna Kuznik, Wilhelm Neunzig, Patricia Rodrguez, Lupe Romero, and Stefanie Wimmer. This group of researchers has generated a holistic model which is described in Hurtado Albirs book Traduccin y Traductologa: Introduccin a la Traductologa (2001: 393, 398). There are many translator competence models: the PACTE project, the PETRA project at the University of Granada, the TransComp at the University of Graz and the CTP project at the Zurich University, to name a few. I have chosen to use the PACTE models categories for explaining the teaching practices in the workshop under study since it was the only available model I had at hand at the time I wrote this paper. The PACTE model integrates research from previous authors such as Hatim and Mason, Kiraly, Hansen, Neubert, and Orozco. In regard to her motivation for organizing the PACTE research, Hurtado-Albir begins by debunking the pedagogical nature of much material (manuals, etc.) purportedly addressing pedagogical concerns: El vaco pedagogico existente en didctica de la traduccin ha dado pie a que, en los ltimos aos, se incluyan de manera directa y mecnica, sin pasar por una aplicacin pedaggica, investigaciones desarrolladas en el mbito de la Lingstica o de la Traductologa [...] Aunque algunos de estos trabajos (cfr. por ejemplo, Robinson, 1997d) reflejan una mayor preocupacin prctica y metodolgica, en realidad se trata ms bien de libros sobre aspectos tericos de la traduccin que sobre su enseanza; lo que hacen es plantear el conocimiento de la reflexin terica como un

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medio de aprendizaje de la prctica, producindose as una confusin entre teora de la traduccin y didctica de la traduccin. Hurtado-Albir (2001: 164). According to the research carried out by the PACTE group, TC is the ability to carry out the transfer process from the comprehension of the source text to the re-expression of the target text, taking into account the purpose of the translation and the characteristics of the target-text readers (Hurtado-Albir 2001:385). TC is also defined as the underlying system of knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes necessary for translating. This model makes a clear distinction between competence (the underlying system) and performance (translating in itself), and it is developed on the basis of the following theoretical assumptions [adapted from Hurtado-Albir (2001)]: 1) translative competence is different from bilingual competence 2) translative competence has constative and operative components (subcompetences) which: (a) are of diverse nature (e.g. linguistic, extra-linguistic, instrumental, professional) (b) work at different levels (e.g. knowledge, skills, epistemological knowledge, operative) 4) strategies interact within these components. 5) translative competence comprehends a group of subcompetences that interact through a gamma of hierarchies, variations, and relations.

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As explained above, TC is divided into different subcompetences that interact with each other (See Appendix (b) for the chart). The competences, which are integrated to form Translator Competence include: 1. Linguistic Competence for the two languages (bilingual competence), 2. Extra-linguistic Competence, 3. Transfer Competence, 4. Professional and Instrumental Competence ,5. Psychophysiological Competence and6. Strategic Competence. A detailed explanation of each of these follows. Linguistic Competence or Bilingual Competence consists of the capacity for understanding the source language (SL) and for producing texts in the target language (TL). It comprises the following skills: grammar competence, textual competence (knowledge and mastery of the different text, or discourse genres), illocutionary competence (mastery of language functions), and sociolinguistic competence (related to the comprehension and production within contexts presenting differing dialects, registers and jargons). Extra-linguistic Competence is the implicit and explicit knowledge of the world and of particular subjects. This competence is composed of knowledge about translation, bi-cultural knowledge, encyclopedic knowledge (world knowledge), and subject knowledge (on specific topics). Transfer Competence consists of the capacity to understand and carry out the translation process beginning with the reading of the SL text and ending with the final draft. In other words, the competent translator must be able to understand the SL text and to know how to express its features in the TL, keeping in mind the over-arching goal of the translation and the sociolinguistic features of the beneficiaries (clients, readers ) of the text. This is the central competence that integrates the other competences.

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Professional and Instrumental Competence refers to the knowledge and abilities related to the professional practice of translation. It comprises a wide range of knowledge: knowledge of where and how to find documentation and sources of all kinds; knowledge of how to use new technologies, and where to obtain them; knowledge of the job market and of the behavior of a professional translator. Psychophysiological Competence consists of the ability to apply the attitudinal, cognitive, and psychomotor mechanisms to carry out the translation process. It incorporates the cognitive capacities of attention and memory; psychological attitudes, such as intellectual curiosity; perseverance, critical spirit, the recognition of ones abilities and trust in ones capacities; rigor and so forth; the capability for developing creative processes, logical thinking, etc. Strategic Competence is made up of all the individual processes (internal or external, conscious or unconscious) that the translator employs for solving problems arising during the translation process. There are several existing strategies for different purposes, for example: strategies for compensating for a lack of understanding of a text (separating main ideas from secondary ideas, looking up for information, establishing conceptual relationships, etc.); for reformulating ideas (paraphrase, retranslate, reformulate ideas aloud, etc.) for documenting (knowing how to choose information, organize the order of consults, etc.). Developing this competence is essential because it gives translators ways to detect, solve andwhen a problem arisesmake decisions. It is of utmost importance for the consolidation of translation pedagogy to carry out extensive empirical studies measuring the success of the strategies and processes for acquiring the TC. The work that has been carried on by the PACTE group during the past eight years is, however, still in process; for that reason, they do not present their results as conclusive.

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Methodology

The focus of this Trabajo Recepcional (TR), a case study, is the instructors pedagogy for conducting a single 9th semester Translation Workshop II in which I participated as student at the FIUV in 2007. The workshop was given in the morning to a group of 27 students, 14 men and 13 women of widely varying interests and abilities. All students attended eight hours a week during the fall semester. At the time I actually took the course and began my TR research, I lacked the background which would have suggested the use of diary writing and observation schedules to describe the workshop activities. By the time I had defined my topic my methodological choices were limited. Therefore, in order to describe qualitatively the translation pedagogy approach employed in the Workshop under study, I initially conceived the use of multiple perspectives. For the sake of greater objectivity, they were distributed in the following way: (1) post facto documental research supplemented by (2) semi-structured instructor questionnaire (3) my own emic (insider). This case study may perhaps be best described as a descriptive case study. Yinn (cited in Baxter 2008) notes that this type of case study is used to describe a phenomenon (the pedagogy behind the workshop) and the real-life context in which it occurred (the Translation Area of the FIUV). My role in this type of research is to describe the instructors pedagogy as witness of her teaching practices. Any criticism to her practices is beyond the scope of this capstone paper (an explanatory case study would be needed instead) due to the nature of descriptive case studies. On the other hand, I was unable to conceive any device for evaluating the success of her teaching practices objectively in this research. Consequently, I have limited myself to only describing her

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teaching practices, and to measure their degree of contact with the competences identified by PACTE. As I have previously mentioned, this course was of special interest to me because the methodology for conducting it was interesting in itself and because I found it significant for my development as translator. The present analysis of the TP employed in Translation Workshop II was carried out using the literature presented in Chapter I to the end of identifying what Translator Competences from the PACTE model were present in the instructors teaching model, as well as in the course materials. The major actors in this piece of qualitative research are described below. Participants Student informants. This research project originally intended to have several key informants to provide the information about the Workshop under study. However, owing to the fact that many former students have moved away or have moved on to other interests, they were either very hard to contact and, on the surface at least, seemed to have little recollection of the Workshop. Time also influenced the decision which ultimately excluded key informants. It soon became clear that it would take more time than I had at my disposition to gather all the relevant data from them, and in the meanwhile the material I had in hand was more abundant than expected. Consequently, the information analyzed was drawn from the workshop materials themselves, from the self-interview with the instructor, M.A. Eileen Sullivan (henceforth the instructor informant or simply the instructor), and from the recollections of the researcher himself, i.e. emic.

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The instructor informant. The instructor informant is a professor at the Facultad de Idiomas de la Universidad Veracruzana (FIUV) with 30 years of experience in teaching translation. She is very knowledgeable in many disciplines such as rhetoric, discourse analysis, translation, as well as EFL teaching (English as Foreign Language), and psychotherapy. She has been a translator for about 35 years and taught that subject for almost as long; nonetheless, her TP knowledge is mostly empirical. The researcher informant. The researcher informant has completed translation studies in the BA in the English Language Program at the Universidad Veracruzana. I am also in the process of certifying my mastery of French and Italian, and am self-taught in Romanian. My pedagogical concepts have been nourished by experiences in martial arts, theater and teaching at an experimental language institute: as a teacher of martial arts, I applied ideas drawn from (a) traditional instructor apprenticeship which emphasizes the instructor-student relationship as well as non-verbal transmission of knowledge, (b) formal instruction, including a sports methodology diplomate, and three seminars with Richard Amos Sensei. I consider these experiences relevant since the instructor employed non-verbal techniques in the Workshop, and regarded the body as a source of information, and translation as a sort of performance. This performance, I reasoned, might be similar to martial arts performance and be related to verbalization and muscle memory in martial arts. My theatre training consisting of working with Yaco Guigui, an actor-director of long experience who used ludic techniques focused on de-inhibiting the student actors. His constant question was: How do you synthesize these words into action? (This was a sort of translation, I thought.) Often, more than explaining, this instructorlike martial arts instructorspreferred

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modeling to explaining. Other exercises proceeded on the understanding that meanings encoded in the body could be perceived and translated into words. At the experimental multidisciplinary institute (Laboratorio Sperimentale Multiculturale) I learned a very different type of pedagogy: first, in an Italian course, I was taught comparatively in an approach that assumed it was better to work from the students current state of knowledge, and therefore proceeded analogically and deductively from the students language. (Perhaps the method merits the name constructivist.) The generative transformational grammar of Chomsky was translated into a pedagogical model in which a limited number of universals were identified and then dealt with across language boundaries. This approach was a simplified version of some of the concerns of Vazquez-Ayora, but with more pedagogical considerations. I later re-interpreted the approach and applied it to French language teaching at the same institute. Later on, I utilized the same approach for teaching myself Romanian, Portuguese, German and Farsi; unfortunately, I have only partially adapted it to these languages, as I have had very little time for doing so. Materials The documents to be examined included a detailed post-facto account of the materials employed in the Workshop. In each case, objectives, procedures and instructor perceptions of outcomes are specified and available for analysis. The emic participant did not write a separate document, as did the instructor, but rather reflected on his personal reaction to different materials, techniques and so on. Other documents consisted of the actual materials used in the course. No official course syllabus was included since the purpose of the research was not comparative but aimed at exploring those aspects which were intrinsically interesting and comparing them with the PACTE model. The instructor questionnaire was to provide information on the teaching model supporting the workshops methodology.

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Course materials. The course materials were gathered from the original photocopies from the workshop kindly provided by a former student in the same workshop. The material was originally presented in chronological order in a table containing the description, the rationale and activities for each material as provided by the instructor. I subsequently organized it into five categories according to the material type: Theory, Structured Translation Exercises, Reading and Translation Texts, Evaluation, Syllabi. The workshop materials, which appear in the table, are both abundant and extensive. (The fit between the material and the time frame of the workshop was evident in the fact that most students had to make a real effort to keep up.) A few documents may have been lost. The research was carried out on those documents which could be recuperated. [The table itself can be found at Appendix (a)] Instructor questionnaire/interview The application of the instructor questionnaire was carried out in an atypical manner; one shaped partly by instructor preferences and time restrictions and partly by the researchers need to know. Before the decision to use a self-interview was made, I consulted an experienced qualitative researcher who said that it was one alternative; another would be for the instructor to simply write an essay. Both would acceptable in terms of reliability. The instructor was reluctant to have an unedited recorded interview published claiming that such impromptu exchanges end up sounding demented. On the other hand, she reasoned that if her workshop had been somehow unique, then perhaps the questions that she had asked herself in the process of developing the workshop would also have been unique. So, at least initially, the interview was open in order to allow her the greatest possible degree of self-expression. (Later, the selfproposed questionnaire was augmented with further questions from the emic researcher, as

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explained below.) She felt comfortable with responding to questions in front of a screen: She remarked that when student researchers approach her, she typically responds to their questionnaires by e-mail in order to do them justice. Clearly, this course of action precluded sophisticated techniques of analysis3 which take into account interviewee reactions to questions (e.g. fidgiting, hesitation, eye movement, change of tone of voice) and the subjective reactions of the interviewer co-occurring with each response. [The interview can be found at Appendix (d)] In addition to increasing the instructors comfort, considerable time was saved with the self-interview conducted in front of a computer. Further information was gathered in a later face-to-face interview during which researcher questions about the text were clarified and new questions added. First layer additions and clarifications subsequent to the initial interview appear in italics; third layer additions appear in footnotes. The instructors questionnaire will be referred to as the Self-Interview henceforth. [See separately bound Appendix (d).]

Analysis The analysis of the data involved color-coding each of the Translator Competences from the PACTE model. The next step was to look for coincidences of the color-coded competences in the discourse of the Instructors Questionnaire, and in the description and rationale of the course materials. After that, the number of coincidences were counted so as to determine the strongest competences from the Course Materials, and the model in the Instructor Self-interview; the weakest competences were considered in the analysis, but it foregrounded the strongest competences: the Bilingual Competence, and the Extra-linguistic Competence.
The inclusion of body language and interviewer reaction in a three-column scheme was referred to me by Prof. Sullivan. She observed this type of research at the UNAM Center for University Studies on a visit with Dr. Leslie R. Bloom.
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The final step involved analyzing how the instructor dealt with the weakest and the strongest competences, and describing the process. Theoretical references to Robinson, SabatCarrov, and others are made throughout the analysis. As there was no time to include former students in this study, determining the actual extent to which the competences developed qualitatively in the students is unknown to the researcher. Therefore, many qualitative factors such as student attention, student opinion regarding the activities or student presence in the classroom were not analyzed.

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Data Analysis Introduction to the Analysis The analysis involved using data from the Material table and the Self-Interview to determine the extent to which PACTE competences were developed in the workshop. Subsequently, in order to better understand the characteristics of the instructors teaching model (for conducting her translation workshops) a theoretical explanation was provided. There were some instances where there was no translation theory available for explaining some of the instructors strategies. Outstanding PACTE Competences The first step taken in the analysis of the data drawn from the material table and the selfinterview involved deciding which PACTE competences were actually fully developed in the workshop, which were partially developedalbeit in an idiosyncratic wayand which were sufficiently underrepresented to be excluded from this analysis. The competences are listed in order beginning with those of least interest for this study and ending with those of greatest interest for this study. (A full description of the competences can be found in the Theoretical Framework chapter from page 6 to 10)

1. Transference Competence. The transference competence was completely excluded from this study because it involved the entire translation cycle. The stage of development of the students in this particular workshop seemingly precluded the full development of this competence. Still, the rest of the competences nourish this competence, i.e. if the rest of the competences are well developed, so is transfer competence. We thought at first that the students final results would give a clue to the development of this competence, but it was felt that the normal classroom grading procedures included too many points

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involving factors extraneous to the actual development in student expertise. (That is to say, points for attendance, participation regardless of quality, homework assignments, etc.) Examinations were given, but they were progress tests, not achievement tests. Consequently, no reliable instrument to measure achievement was used. Therefore, grades seemed unlikely to reflect the development of the transfer competence. 2. Strategic Competence. The strategies constituting this competence were, in general, not dealt with in-depth in this workshop, with the possible exception of strategies for compensating lack of student understanding of texts and reformulation of ideas. 3. Instrumental-Professional Competences. The instrumental subcompetence was not dealt with in the course because no types of software or CAT tools (Computer Assisted Translation) were included for instructional purposes. The professional competence, on the other hand, was developed to an important degree through the use of anecdotes about the behavior of professional translators, for example (refer to page 29 for more information on this competence). 4. Extra-linguistic Competences. Only one exclusion was made in this category: knowledge about translation. The information concerning this subcompetence turned out to be very similar to the behavior of the professional translator described in the InstrumentalProfessional Competence. Thus, the analysis is centered on real world knowledge (encyclopedic knowledge), knowledge about translation itself, bi-cultural knowledge and thematic knowledge (knowledge related to topics being translated). 5. Bi-lingualCompetences. In the case of the linguistic competence, two subcompetences were excluded: the grammar subcompetence, and the handling of the illocutionary aspect. No activities were directed to specifically improving students handling of grammar. The

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generally recognized lack of advanced language skills among upper level students at FIUV, mentioned by the instructor in the Self-Interview (p. 8, l. 14), may have prevented a thorough development of this competence. Of greater interest for this research were the handling of the sociolinguistic aspect and the knowledge of different text genres. 6. Psychophysical competences. Most of the subcompetences named in the PACTE for the psychophysical competence were dealt with in the workshop. It appeared, in general, that the emphasis of the workshop was tipped toward attitudinal aspects of the translation process such as rigor, recognition of ones abilities and trust in ones capacities, cognitive capacities of memory and attention. Creativity at first appeared to be developed to a lesser extent, although later I came to question this perception. Neither the instructor participant nor the researcher were able to connect the ideas from the self-interview or the class activities to the development of logical thinking in the case under study; therefore, this last attitude was excluded from this study. Correlations with PACTE Competences based on self-interview data and workshop activities. The competences below retain the same numeration as above, reflecting their prevalence and relative interest for this piece of intrinsic research. As mentioned previously in the list above, the extent of development of the competences differed; the first three competences in the above enumeration were developed only marginally whereas the last three were broadly developed. Consequently, the study is centered in the Psychophysical Competence and the Linguistic Competence. Nonetheless, the less prevalent competences have been commented as well.

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1. Transfer Competence. Even though I realized that this was very important competence, the Transfer Competence was completely excluded from this study, as previously stated. It is mainly an internal process and I found no instrument to adequately measure it.

Despite the fact that most of the activities in the workshop were somehow aimed at developing it, the Transfer Competence cannot be taught per se, since the translation process is mostly an internal one. Hurtado-Albir (2001:311) comments on the difficulty of studying any cognitive process, especially the translation process which happens at different stages and includes different types of knowledge and numerous skills. It should be taken into account that the Transfer Competence is supported by the other competences (text competences, extralinguistic competences, strategies, etc.); hence, a thorough development of the rest of the competences should give a solid foundation in the Transfer Competence. Another reason for its exclusion is the difficulty of determining the extent to which this competence was developed in this workshop, as the PACTE is not very clear in delimiting its specific working parts. 2. Strategic Competence. The Strategic Competence comprises all the processes that translators employ to solve any problem that arises. The strategies developed in the workshop were: (a) strategies for compensating for a lack of understanding of a text, and (b) the reformulation of ideas. Of the broad range of strategic competences suggested by Hurtado Albir (see p. 13), we selected only two for in-depth study. (a) Strategies for compensating lack of understanding. The instructor addressed issues such as lack of understanding of a text in an indirect holistic way. The instructor believes that lack of good reading skills was the main cause

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preventing students from understanding any text (Self-Interview, page 8, lines 4-7). This problem was dealt with, according to the self-interview, by having students read more than they actually translated so as to give them an amplified context to support their translation [on certain topic] (page 8, lines 15-18). The course material table reported 14 text readings out of 20 items; in contrast, the total of translation exercises sums up to 13 including vocabulary exercises and the subtitling of the Crop Circles video. In spite of the instructors insistence on the usefulness of thematic repetition, she did, in fact, only one repeat in single topic in printed texts (Item 9, the Viceroy Time Drinking article, and the alternative text on pulque.) However, she also repeated topics in the oral texts she produced at the whiteboard on support of students reading. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to recuperate all the white boar talks for matching with printed texts. Delisle puts forward a similar idea for didactic purposes of translation. He believes that student translators should read some texts before translating. Afterwards they can discuss the recreation of the text; the text is the true unit of translation (cited in LLcer-Llorca, 2004: 76). In the self-interview, the instructor mentions an additional strategy that aids students to better understand a source text: comparing the source text with a discourse model (page 7, lines 18-21). In the Self-Interview the instructor provided two teaching anecdotes related to translating without the benefit of target language (henceforth, TL) discourse models (page 10, lines 31-45). The instructor believes that the students have, in fact, already internalized certain discourse models. They are, however, unable to use this knowledge because they lack confidence in their own judgement. Consequently, they rely on dictionary searches to a great extent, and forget to check what they are saying against a discourse model (Self-Interview, p. 7, l. 19). In her own study, Sabat-Carrov found that students were unaware of this problem: Excessive dependence

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on bilingual dictionaries is one of the problems that students tested in this study were not aware of. Dictionary translations prevailed over context-bound information (1999:45). The instructor tackled the problem of sentence-bound student translation by providing parallel text models to be emulated (regarding style, discourse, etc.) The self-interview and the course material table reported some examples of modeling: (a) the instructors own translations (page 15, lines 43 & 44; Items 5, 6, 15& 7, Course Materials), (b) two anecdotes (page 10, lines 35-49; pages 15 & 16, lines 53-59 & 1-4) (c) and several class activities (Items 13 & 14, Course Materials). In my own experience, the result of this approach is that students have a better idea of what kind of register, for example, the target text should contain; thus, they produce a more natural translation. Another example of a modeling strategy happened in a different group (I walked into the instructors classroom that day). Students were translating the instructions for a window-washing squeegee. They were producing very unnatural translations, so the professor asked them to remember the language used in TV commercials and to re-translate the text with that language in mind. She asked them to perform the translations as if they were recording a TV commercial. I did not see the rest of the class, but the instructor told me that students produced more natural translations because they were able to evoke the discourse they had learnt from TV commercials. (b) Reformulating ideas. The PACTE mentions the following strategies connected with the reformulation of ideas: (a)paraphrase, (b) retranslate, and (c) reformulate ideas aloud. This is a partial list, notes Hurtado-Albir, as more strategies for reformulating ideas can be listed. Due to the fact that the instructors emphasis tipped toward other aspects of translation (such attitudinal aspects), this

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competence was developed without discrete-point reference during class exercises or in-class translation evaluations. Although the PACTE reformulation strategies were not tackled head-on in the workshop they were practiced indirectly. The Course Materials reported activities for Item 2 which covered strategies (a) and (b) through by asking the students to summarize and do back translation back translation and inverse translation. Likewise, I recall that Items 8, 10, and 12 involved students sharing their solutions in front of the class, which required a good deal of reformulating ideas aloud (c). Again there was no discrete-point analysis, in the sense that the instructors reiterated criterion was making it sound like Spanish instead of focusing on pre-established procedures (such as Vazquez-Ayoras) to solve arising problems. Students were required to paraphrase constantly in order to produce a more natural translation. They were invited to add to their classmates proposals by brainstorming. Some alternatives were obviously wrong, but in other cases the collocations were not so easy to judge. Have you read that somewhere? Who said that? Did you consider another word before you gave us that one? Did you look that one up when you did your homework? Where? Basically, she was asking the same kind of questions required by Gile in his IPDR (Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting). On the other hand, I also believe that (c) also helped us train what Gregory Rabassa calls the translators ear, which is able to notice when a text sound alien in the TL that way. Rabassa believes that the translator must have a good ear for what his author is saying and he must have a good ear for what he is saying himself (cited in Llcer-Llorca, 2004:81). Regarding Rabassas idea, Llcer-Llorca (2004:56) comments that indeed the best translations sound fluent as if they were written in the original language. Llcer-Llorcas commentary may be related to the concern of making a translated text more readable. Giles (2004) claims that students trained

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to translate on the basis of language equivalence often have the problem of producing unnatural sounding texts. While this statement may seem trivial, he says, many professors even in TT programs tend to ignore the readability norm and give preference to formal fidelity over naturalness of the target text. The foregoing suggests that the instructor paid little attention to already prescribed strategies for reformulating ideas (i.e. technical procedures), rather she encouraged students to find their own ways of solving translation problems. The precept of making it sound like Spanish shows that the instructor was more concerned about students being able to produce more readable translations than strict equivalences. 3. The Professional Subcompetences. Competence 3 in the PACTE includes the Instrumental Competence, an aspect which on this occasion at leastwas not developed in the Workshop. Owing to its exclusion, the heading of the section is "Professional Subcompetence" only. The PACTE includes in the professional subcompetences (a) knowledge of the job market and the (b) behavior of the professional translator in connection with the professional subcompetence. Since the PACTE offers no further description regarding any of their characteristics, these two subcompetences can be interpreted in several ways. (a) Knowledge of the job market

The only strategy employed during the workshop was the use of advice from the instructors own professional experience and that of other translation professionals. The selfinterview reported that, in order to compete professionally, translators should develop their (1) inverse-translation skills (self-interview, page 13, line 47 & 48), which is often required in the real world and excluded from the curriculum at the FIUV; (2) their ability to read longhand, as

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many English speakers still use it (self-interview, page 14, line 1 & 2) and because it occurs in older materials; (3) the ability to read in front of a camera and to record audio-scripts (a radio script was translated and adapted in this particular workshop, and one of the students went to the Radio UV and saw how another material we had worked with in back translation was actually recorded (p. 14, l. 4 to 9.) Finally, the ability to keyboard at least 60 wpm was recommended (self-interview, page 14, lines 53-55). Robinson (1997:37) also comments that typing fast is an important factor in increasing translation speed (a crucial issue in the modern capitalist world). (b) The behavior of the professional translator

Regarding the behavior of the professional translator the instructor seemed mainly concerned to debunk some of the myths, surrounding translator behavior and, in my opinion, derived from older translation theory. The course materials table reported the following three strategies for transmitting translator behavior. (1) To reflect on the nature of her editions on a target text, contrasting it with the source text (item 15, course materials). (2) The teaching anecdotes about the fidelity myth exploiting Robinsons notion that translation is what the client wants (items 1, and 15, course material). The foregoing demonstrates that the instructor was very concerned about the translators adaptability to any text in the French sense task. She was also concerned with the ethics of translation, for example: she told students at the beginning of the workshop under study, the anecdote about the interpreter who made up a welcome speech without knowing the language to save face of the delegate who was not informed about the official languages (present in the SelfInterview, p. 1, l. 34.) The point of the story is that translation or interpretation ethics involve matters beyond the right equivalence depending on the real-life context: the instructor believes

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that the interpreters behavior was indeed ethical because face saving was more important than the right equivalence. Douglas Robinson points that the definition of translation ethics has been traditionally very narrowly defined: it is unethical to distort the meaning of the source text (1997: 30). As proved in the previously cited anecdote, this definition is inoperative in the everyday life of the translator. There are cases when the translator is explicitly asked to distort the meaning of the source text in specific ways, as when adapting a text for television, a childrens book, or an advertising campaign (ibid). It seems that in professional translation the issue of equivalence can be often changed for what the client wants (or needs). 4. Extra-linguistic Competence. The extra-linguistic competence was intensively developed, in quantitative terms at least, in the case under study. No exclusions whatsoever were made in this category. The class materials contained knowledge from specific topics, to bi-cultural and world knowledge. The instructor also utilized the same materials to develop cultural knowledge; therefore, I merged (a) real world knowledge (encyclopedic knowledge), bi-cultural knowledge, and thematic knowledge into the same category. Knowledge about translation itself involved the same findings as in the Knowledge of the Job Market from the Professional Competences, hence its exclusion. (a) Real world knowledge, thematic knowledge, and bi-cultural knowledge

The reason why the instructor paid little attention to subtitling and translation software is because she believes that students are usually good at handling technology themselves (SelfInterview, p. 14, l. 36). Their problem lies elsewhere. Language and culture generally represent more of a challenge to students, in her view. The instructor tried to improve students culture by

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giving them several texts related to history, anthropology or socio-politics. Two of the teaching anecdotes provided cultural information from her own experience as a learner of Spanish as a second language.

Examples of the material types mentioned in the foregoing paragraph include Susan Sontags text On Being Translated (Item 1, Course Materials), which is contextualized during the Sarajevo siege of the middle of the 90s. The activities involved studying a map of the Balkans and comparing a few phrases from the Serbo-Croatian languages. The instructor also complemented this text with a questionnaire on vocabulary and contents. The pulque texts (Item 9), and the Saints in Mexico (Item 13) also contained Mexican history and cultural information about Mexican traditions. Item 13 involved a description of how a radio recording is performed. The African Marriage Rituals (Item 7) text contained information on the Karo peoples marriage traditions, and the Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight (Item 10) contained information on the social situation of children in three different African countries.

As mentioned previously, two anecdotes contained bi-cultural information. The instructor, being a native speaker of English, was able to offer this kind of information. The Bless you story and the Why not teacher? story describe two situations where cultural differences create a degree of discomfort in the protagonists. It is probable that more information of this type arose during the whiteboard talks or the class activities. Nevertheless, the researcher is unable to clearly remember (and there are no documents). 5. Linguistic competences. The three PACTE subcompetences of greatest interest are: (a) textual competence (knowledge and mastery of the different text, or discourse genres) (b) and the sociolinguistic

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competence (related to the comprehension and production within contexts presenting differing dialects, registers and jargons). The sociolinguistic aspects sometimes arose in relation to a text (reflected in the material table) or formed part of whiteboard lectures typically presented at the beginning of the class. (Self-Interview, p. 7, l. 39) (a) Textual subcompetence. One of the problems the instructor has detected in FIUV undergraduates is that they are held back by a lack reading skills (Self-Interview p. 8, l. 6) partially due to their undeveloped language abilities. Delisle (1988:85) observes that university students should be well versed in grammar, but the reality is that they enter TT programs with undeveloped language skills. Delisle, however, believes that a translation course should not be the place for systematical language instruction. This view differs from that of the instructor, who pointed out that translation programs should always strive to improve students language ability. Furthermore, she believes that language is acquired while trying to learn something else (Self-Interview p. 8 lines 13 & 47.) Perhaps one of the reasons why B.A. students are many times unable to identify or reexpress discourse types, which vary from one assignment to another much less those varying within a text itselfis due to their undeveloped language skills. Students are frustrated upon confronting the whole text, which they generally fail to understand because they are little experienced in reading in general, and also because they lack the linguistic and real-world knowledge that would help them through (Self-Interview p. 8, l. 6) Students then retreat to the sentence level and spend excessive time on word-searches (Self-Interview p. 7, l. 19). In my personal experience of workshops, it has seemed to me that the text never quite recovers its wholeness. The instructor addressed this discoursal issue by asking students to read texts

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belonging to different diverse genres and written in different registers (see Course Materials table for detailed information). The instructor complemented this strategy by delaying contact with the written word, first providing extended information in the format of whiteboard talks (Item 17, Course Materials). Subsequently, she created a glossary for the printed text later to be translated by the group to undercut student tendency to solve any problem with a dictionary, leaving them little time and energy to deal with the discoursal level. By giving this support, her intention was to undercut students usual sentence-level, word-search strategy, obliging them to move on to the discourse level. Another way of assisting students (and modeling how to translate a text attending to the discursive level) consisted of the instructors sight translating a given text prior to students translating it outside of class. As she sight-read, some students felt stimulated to beat the teacher to the punch. Other students, who depending on auditory rather than visual processing, were given the option of listening only. In each case, the student became familiar with the whole text. (Self-Interview, p. 11, footnote 4; Items 6 & 17, Course Materials). The ideal result of the foregoing approach is that students spend much less time looking for words, which makes the task easier to do as well. The extended information at the beginning of the class (or in the extended texts) also contributes to produce better understanding of the contextual and cultural data of the text. Students, therefore, are able to give more accurate translations of cultural items. The instructor went beyond the concepts embedded in the PACTE Textual Subcompetence. This happened because of her conviction that student translators need to prepare themselves, not only as translators, but as competent bi- or multi-lingual text specialists. She backed up this view with recommendations from L. Arencibia (a Cuban sociologist and

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translator-interpreter) and from Douglas Robinson. The instructor also asked us to take note of the range of job descriptions on the ProZ website, involving text manipulations far beyond translation, including interpretation, correcting, editing, register or dialect shifting, etc. (SelfInterview, p.9, l. 42; p. 17, l. 40). In line with these views, the course materials were used, not only for translation, but also for working on the types of text manipulation mentioned above. Examples of text manipulation exercises include Item 2 (summarizing), Item 12 (editing), Item 13 (writing a radio script from a translation), and Item 14 (adapting the recipe to the Mexican context, and the availability of the ingredients) in the Course Materials table. (b) Sociolinguistic subcompetence The PACTE model mentions comprehension and production within contexts presenting differing dialects, registers and jargons. The instructor dealt with this subcompetence through the use of teaching stories, and texts in different registers and dialects, enriched by whiteboard talks. The instructor believes that the lack of language development in FIUV students also prevents them from understanding accents and dialects e. g. as they appear in films. (SelfInterview, p. 15, l. 21 & 27). According to the Self-Interview, she tackles this problem by giving students sociolinguistics lessons at the beginning of the class (p. 7, l. 39; Item 18, Course Materials). Teaching anecdotes often presented sociolinguistic lessons, e.g. the Silent Club Story refers to the social relations deaf people form, and the term they prefer to use in referring to themselves; the Why not teacher story presents a different way of addressing school teachers in Spanish and English. I remember the Silent Club story came along in a class discussion where students were reflecting on a more political correct term for deaf people (Item 8, Course Materials).

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The class texts were written in different registers (both in Spanish, and English, see Course Materials), and some of them included different dialects and jargons. Examples of these texts include the Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight text (Item 10, Course Materials), where students were confronted with African lexis and structures. Other examples include the two texts on pulque (Item 9), which contained historical lexical items, and Mexican sayings; the pumpkin pie recipe (Item 14) included topic -specific vocabulary and lexical items from English recipes and students were required to translate those to Spanish. The Crop Circle film (Item 16) contained a broad range of English dialects, which students had to understand and translate without the use of the film script. Teaching anecdotes have proved again to be one of the instructors main strategies for passing on sociolinguistic knowledge. An abundance of class materials and activities also complemented these anecdotes. 6. Psychophysiological Competence This competence was perhaps the one the most consistently developed during the workshop. All three subcompetences mentioned in the PACTE were present in the workshop, although to differing extents. The following analysis will be organized into three subsections, each one dealing with a particular subcompetence: (a) cognitive capacities (memory and attention) (b) psychological aptitudes (intellectual curiosity, critical spirit, self-confidence, and rigor) and (c) capability to develop creative processes. (a) Cognitive capacities of memory, and attention

Although these two skills can be seem very straightforward, attention, for example, can be ambiguous. Its meaning can range from concentrating on external phenomena to concentrating on internal phenomenal such as translators feelings. Nonetheless, PACTE offers

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no explanation with respect to either attention or memory. Therefore, this analysis will be centered on the memory skill, as I was unable to find a direct connection between the workshop activities and the development of the attention skill in the students (unless it is the multimodal aspect, discussed later).

If the attention skill is to be understood as self-awarenessfocusing inward-- then this analysis can point out several important efforts to develop it. One of the instructors premises behind her pedagogy is that translation depends much on the individuals cognitive preferences (self-interview, page 9, line 18)a posture shared with Douglas Robinson in his Accelerated Course (1997:42-44). To the purpose of better self-understanding, the instructor devoted time to teaching Ned Herrmans quadrant schema (1993), forming groups to validate each students perception of their cognitive organization, and checking the individuals cognitive processing preferences against the translation problems that arose in class work.

Regarding memory, the instructor tested student recall by setting extensive examinations requiring detailed information from the texts, the glossaries, the teaching stories, vocabulary activities, and even white-board information which arose from class discussion or whiteboard talks. These demands, of course, developed students memory (page 8, line 45). The memorization was supported by recycling the old materialsanecdotes, texts and vocabulary (self interview, page 1, line 28; page 9, line 46.) The professor used Ned Herrmanns Four Quadrant Theory to raise awareness about cognitive preferences, but also to make suggestions about how they might improve their learning process and facilitate memorization and recall. [See Appendix (c) for a detailed explanation of the Four Quadrant Theory].

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The instructor had a strong conviction that learning occurs through the senses too, and that the information can be retrieved through body memory (self-interview, page 1, footnote 1). Robinson, citing Goleman, points out that the amygdala records feelings (as opposed to the hippocampus which records facts) and its arousal adds force to all learning (1997:53). Robinson (1997) proposes his own complex model of understanding and developing emotional memory. He emphasizes the fact that translators should pay attention to their visual, auditory and kinesthetic inputs and the way they like to process those inputs.

The instructor utilized what she calls a multi-modal approach (self-interview page 13, lines 1, 14, & 16), a technique for aiding information processing through several sensory channels. Her multi-modal approach is a way of applying Robinsons idea on multiple sensory inputs. The multi-modal strategies reported in the research documents include: eating a pumpkin pie after students translation of the recipe (Item 14, Course Materials), tasting pulque curado when we read the article on Alcoholic Beverages in Colonial Mexico (item 9 in materials table), and singing songs related to an apparently transparent childrens text [in this case, the traditional childrens song Caballito Blanco, related to the La borrega que viva en una manada story] (self-interview, p.4, l. 29 and p.13, l. 16).

Apart from using multiple sensorial channels, the self-interview revealed that, for instance, infusing language with emotion is a key strategy for enhancing memory. The instructor used to ask questions such as how does such and such word (usually a bad word in Spanish) feel in your body? so as to connect the feeling of the word to its meaning, and to try to re-evoke the sensation to retrieve the meaning. The instructor reported in the self-interview that some students have no particular feelings for words (page 1, line 45); she found that this information is also

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relevant in finding out how students processed texts. I remember she would ask students about their way of processing a text, e.g. Do you hear a voice inside your head telling you the story or do you rather see images like if it were a text? These simple questions aimed at helping students increase their awareness of their personal style of approaching and understanding texts.

The foregoing reveals that the cognitive capacities present in the PACTE model were dealt with intensively during the workshop. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine to what extent they were instilled in the students, or if they could have been developed further. (b) Psychological attitudes (intellectual curiosity, perseverance, critical spirit, selfconfidence, rigor, etc.) The psychological attitudes in the PACTE are very straightforward (with the sole exception of rigor, which can be interpreted in more than one way) and they require little interpretation. All these qualities identified by the PACTE as attitudes were dealt with to differing extents in the workshop. The instructor displayed enormous concern regarding these attitudes during the workshop sessions, and this concern was reflected in the self-interview as well. The psychological attitudes were dealt with quite comprehensively in the workshop. Due to the multifarious aspects of this subcompetence, this section will be divided into the following subsections: (1) intellectual curiosity, (2) critical spirit, and (3) self-confidence, and (4) rigor. Perseverance was excluded from this study because the activities of the case under study were not particularly aimed at developing it. Notwithstanding, the entire workshop activities covered a large volume of material, and placed heavy demands on the students perseverance. Ultimately, I was unable to devise a way of studying the perseverant attitude. (1) Intellectual curiosity

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Can intellectual curiosity be developed in a classroom? To me, intellectual curiosity seems to be more of a personal trait than an attitude that can be the developed systematically. Objectively measuring the instructors success in cultivating the students intellectual curiosity would be rather difficult; however, the instructor did her best to describe the curious attitude of the translator through the use of anecdotes (Self-Interview, p.2 l. 41), and through at least one text from the Course Materials (Item 1).

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, anecdotes were the instructors main strategy for making students aware that translators need to be very curious (especially about words). One kind of anecdote is what the instructor called word adventures in the self-interview (page 1, line 39); this genre had a game-like quality and the instructor used it to raise awareness of the fact that translators are usually emotionally bound to words and language, even to the point of quarreling about them (page 2, line 2).

Another anecdote illustrating this view is the Columbarium Story (p. 3, l. 55), where the instructor describes how she became interested in the word columbariumsince she had neither heard the word nor seen the object previous to her arrival in California. The fact that she quickly apprised herself of translations, roots and applications of the word enabled her to enter into a heated discussion with a historian concerning the meaning of the word. Another example of the instructors effort in illustrating translators curiosity was the Silent Club Story (page 2, line 41), where she described how an unknown term could linger in the translators mind for many, many years until the meaning finally become clear. The La borrega que viva en una manada (page 4, line 27) is a very good example the translators need to have an unusual degree of curiosity, being ready to question the obvious. In a conversation she mentioned that a

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study showed that professional translators spend much time looking up things that they already know. There is no conclusive evidence proving that the students actually developed their intellectual curiosity. The Self-Interview and the materials themselves, however, suggest that students had to develop certain curiosity to succeed in the coursedue to the multifarious nature of the topics. (2) Critical spirit Critical spirit seems somehow related to intellectual curiosity, as the latter leads to constantly questioning reality. The self-interview mentions that the La borrega que viva en una cabaa dealt with translators habit of constantly doubting words they seemingly know. The instructors belief is that translators are required to spend a great deal of time looking for things they already know, and that they should always doubt nearly anything that seems obvious (selfinterview page 4, line 36). This conviction is also reflected in another anecdote: the Go West, Young Man Story where the instructor emphasizes the fact that translators often do their job according to their personalities, preferences, and even the moment where they are translating. Therefore, they may unconsciously mistranslate the text, or even add information not present in the source text, requiring constant vigilance and a permanent critical spirit. A way of stimulating the critical spirit was through class discussion on topics such as political correctness (in the case of item 8 in the Course Materials table), or the pulque readingsin which students looked for evidences that text a was a double translation, and contrasted it to a second text (text b) to look for ideological differences. In item 2 (Course Materials) students were asked to discuss the findings of the article writer to see if they were, indeed, applicable to Mexican reality.

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The instructor would also feed class discussions with anecdotes about translators (or interpreters) behaving in an inappropriate way (such as the interpreter who interpreted a non-existent Korean welcome speech, page 1 line 34). In item 15 in the Course Materials students reflected on the nature of text edition, and the truism that translation is what the client wants, echoing what Douglas Robinson claims (1997, p. 17) She went a step further to touch on an increasingly popular theme: customer education. Inside and outside the classroom she repeated: The translation is what the customer wants, or something better if you can convince him or her. Thus, the instructor opposed the fidelity notion set forth by many translation theoreticians throughout the centuries, labeling it irrelevant in everyday translation.

The instructor also became a model insofar as rigor and critical spirit were concerned. True to her promise, she defended her proposals with hammer and tongs, and vigorously criticized student proposals. (Self-Interview, p. 7, l. 10). As far as the instructor was concerned, the key factor in becoming critical about words is owning ones words. In order to being able to do so, the translator needs to become emotionally bound to his/her own words (self-interview, page 7, line 14).

The emotional bonds to words are also related to the development of student selfconfidence. The next sub-section deals with self-confidence, and infusing language with emotion. (3) Self-confidence

The PACTE speaks specifically to this point in recognizing the translators ability to trust in his/her capacities. This point can be interpreted simply as self-confidence. The instructor was very concerned about studentscapability to recognize their own abilities (agreeing with Sabat-

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Carrov that lack of self-confidence prevented student translators from performing like professionals). According to the instructor, students were often unable to translate fluently (and sometimes comprehensively) due to their over-concern regarding theoretical constructs, dictionary searches, and painstaking sentence analysis (page 7, line 19). She offers a metaphor, which she says is borrowed from Douglas Robinson: And when the centipede, who had been walking quite happily along, was asked Mr. Centipede, how do you coordinate your 100 feet? he thought about it for the first timeand immediately flopped helplessly down on the floor in a tangled mess.

My own feeling, as a student translator, is that because we are unable to recognize our own strengths we submitto our own detrimentto the hegemony of authors, rules, and theoriesespecially in an educational system that has traditionally encouraged teacher predominant environments.

In conclusion, the main strategy of the workshop instructor for promoting self-confidence was giving students authority over their own strengths and making them responsible for developing them. (page 7, line 14 & 22). In order to achieve the foregoing, the instructor put forward the need for infusing language with emotion. The rationale supporting this idea is that words become more meaningful when they evoke emotions, and therefore are more easily recalled. The translator emotionally owns his/her words even to the point of arguing with other people about them (the `Mogs Story, page 3, line 18, provides a good example). Giving students authority over their words certainly gives a degree of empowerment against the hegemony of the rules (such as the Translation Procedures which, in my personal case at least, hindered instead of assisting in the development of confidence in my abilities).

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Once again, the use of teaching anecdotes was a tactic for transmitting the idea of student empowerment. The first story subgenre the professor cited in the self-interview (page 1, line 39) is word adventures; the instructor seems to use it as a sort of diagnosis of the students relationship with words. This genre involves students choosing a favorite word, and explaining what makes that word so special. This first stage reveals that some students already have a passionate relationship with words, whereas others feel confronted with an alien vision of language (page 2, line 1). Other examples illustrating how words can become emotionally meaningful are the curious Mogs story (page 3, line 18), and the painful Why not teacher story. The instructor points out (page 4, line 49) that the stories contain archetypes (protagonists, antagonists, questers, etc.) that seem to inspire students. I believe some of them may have felt identified themselves with such characters.

Sometimes the instructor herself plays the role of the antagonist as she motivates students to catch her non-native mistakes and to defend their own translation proposals (page 7, line 10), thus obliging students to prove their authority as native speakers. When students win these disputes, the instructor gives full credit, something which students find very empowering (page 7, line 11). In the case under study, she required students to criticize a couple of her translations (items 5 & 15, Course Materials). Some teaching anecdotes illustrate that professional translators sometimes commit truly absurd mistakes or behave unethically (One interpretation the Korean speech, page 1, line 33; and the Watermelons anecdote, page 1, line 35). This type of anecdote is aimed at inspiring confidence among students. According to the instructor, giving students a degree of freedom in class choices is important for empowering them (page 7, line 23). The best example of this was the freetranslation (item 17, Course Materials); students chose their text according to their preferences

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and knowledge. The idea was to let the students choose subjects on which they could speak with a certain amount of authority, and to provide an opportunity for sharing knowledge when receiving instructor feedback. In spite of occasionally allowing students to choose their own topics, the instructor admits that the margin of freedom is small indeed: she allows students to choose either one of two preset options regarding class materials, but the unchosen material will usually be worked on later in any case (the Eriksonian false option on page 12, line 9). The foregoing proves that this subcompetence was dealt with extensively in the case under study. The degree of success of the instructors strategies is difficult to measure, as in the other subcompetences dealt with in this paper. I found, however, that this subcompetence was very important in my own learning process. (4) Rigor This attitude was not treated in a unique way in the case under study. The best example of how it developed was the recycling of the course materials throughout the workshop. Students had to keep track of all the information that was contained in the texts, anecdotes, and whiteboard (self-interview, page 8, line 25), as they would be tested on it. Though this may have not been the sole example, neither the self-interview, nor the Course Materials table showed specific measures to develop the attitude of rigor. (c) Capability to develop creative processes This subcompetence was developed in the form of translating, guessing the meaning of unknown words by context, summarizing and adapting a radio script and presenting it (see Course Materials table for detailed information). These were the only examples of creative work. No direct exercises (e.g. brainwriting, blue slip, or scampering) were reported either in the selfinterview or in the Course Materials. Creativity, however, requires a good deal of imagination.

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The instructor seemed to have tackle creativity in an indirect way. The self-interview repeated the NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) truism: if you want to be something (doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc.) you start by imagining yourself as one and behaving like one. (Self-Interview page 11, line 9). The instructor believes that in order to be a translator, it is necessary to make imaginative leaps; that is, to impersonate the journalist, writer, scientist behind the text (self-interview page 11, line 6), i.e. like an actor interpreting different roles. This concept is very important to succeeding and making the profession more enjoyable. Douglas Robinson notes that most successful professional translators view their work in more human and imaginative terms. He depicts the translator in apparently romantic terms: The translator, even of highly technical texts, is more of a poet or a novelist than like a machine translation system [] Imagine yourself a machine with no feelings, a computer processing inert words, and you quickly begin to feel dead, inert, lifeless (1997:44). The instructor has the impression that students are often unableor unwillingto make imaginative leaps, as that would imply abandoning their comfort zone (page 11, footnote 5). That is also a reason why they are frequently unable to connect to a text and to go beyond the sentence level (page 11, line 11). This was true in my case. I thought translation was a mechanical and an almost impossible task to do; I soon became frustrated and regretted having chosen the translation area. The instructor dealt with this problem by stimulating students to carry out semispontaneous not-quite-sight-translation exercises (which they had previously prepared and then read without notes for support). She also called on students to translate intuitively without the help of dictionaries and with little, or no analysis at all. The principle behind this concept is that

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too much rationalization paralyzes performance (page 18, line 32 & 39). This very concept is a commonplace in acting workshop, as I subsequently learned through my own experience. If the comparison is valid, translators, like actors, need to synthesize and perform before analyzing. Similarly, some FL pedagogues believe that language learners should first start producing, and then learn grammar rules. Another way in which the instructor addressed the problem of imaginative behavior was by putting forward Robinsons concept of translators as actors. Instead of explaining, she enunciated this concept in a Sufic or Zen way at the very beginning of the course, just after giving the courses guidelines: How is the translator like an actor? Do you think that it is possible that a translator can be, in some ways, like an actor? No answer was given by the instructor. Instead, students were invited to reflect on the question and arrive at their own conclusions. As often happens with Sufic stories, I myself at least, could not understand how a translator is like an actor until years later. Nonetheless, this idea of translators as actors lingered in my mind until, thanks to my most recent job as an actor, I was finally able to understand that translators interpret in the same way an actor does.

Commentary The foregoing analysis offers clear evidence that in the 2007 workshop, the instructors methodology aimed to develop many of the competences described in the PACTE model. Of all the competences in this study, the Psychophysiological Competence appeared to be the best developed during the workshop. The rest of the competences were developed to a significant degree as well.

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In my view, the debunking of myths surrounding translation and the development of the self-confidence subcompetence were especially helpful; they contributed in eliminating many seeming misconceptions and useless prescriptions from older translation theory which had prevented me from feeling confident when translating. Unfortunately, the results of this research are partial, since the voices of other former students remain unheard. It remains to construct an objective means of evaluating the degree of success achieved in the use of these didactic strategies. This needs to be done in future workshops. Fortunately, on the other hand, the results of the analysis showed a significant quantity of strategies for TT. It was possible to describe, and in some cases, even to begin to classify them. These strategies can be put to the test in future research to check their effectiveness and to perfect them.

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Conclusion

Before undertaking the analysis of the Workshop, I had already suspected that the instructors methodology covered all the competences described in the PACTE holistic model for translator competences. My suspicion was confirmed. Nonetheless, while all of the competences studied in this paper were attended to in the Workshop, some were developed to a greater extent, most notoriously, the Psychophysiological Competence. What surprised me most was the discovery that what had seemed at the time random, if helpful, actions on the part of the instructor, upon analysis proved to have a high degree of internal coherence and systematization, as well as a basis rooted in theory. I consider that the teaching methods described in the analysis are a very valuable contribution to the translation pedagogy discussion because many of them lay a foundation for the development of didactic exercises for teaching particular aspects of translation. Even though this workshop was very ambitious insofar as it was holistic and covered a large amount of material, a few gaps were left unattended. The instructor was reluctant to supply discrete-point solutions (where they might have been helpful) and she had trouble with some aspects of classroom management, e.g. keeping track of assignments and the proper sequence of activities. Using the Ned Herrmann model, it was easy to find activities and approaches keyed to quadrants B, C, and Despecially the D, which has to do with the big picture. But in terms of quadrant A, where logic, rules and tradition prevail, there was a lack. The purpose of this trabajo recepcional was to describe the teaching methodology in the 2007 Translation Workshop, and to determine how it measured up to the PACTE holistic model proposed by A. Hurtado-Albir and her group. For a second time, I was to be surprised by the

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amount of promising information that was generated and which surpassed my ability to process within the limits of this TR. On one hand, it was amazing to discover the broad range of thinkers cited in the instructors self- interview. While there were twice as many translators cited as members of any other professional category, there were also equal numbers of philosophers, psychologists, educators, and linguists as well as a few others. Perhaps the multiple perspectives that informed this holistic workshop explain why the range of approaches to didactic problems was also so vast. It was impossible in this essay to even mention the 26 thinkers, much less discuss them. Another aspect of the instructors teaching that became conspicuous upon analysis was the instructors use of modeling (behaviors and products) and scaffolding4. These two characteristics led me to believe that the Workshop procedure resembled, basically, those of the Cognitive Apprenticeship teaching model proposed by Allan M. Collins. Further, the use of teaching stories to transmit a broad range of information and attitudes was found to be central to the course. Although I was familiar with teaching stories as objects of contemplation with multiple layers of meaning (as in the Sufi tradition), I had not imagined that they constituted an important focus of interest for contemporary educators, going back to Jerome Bruner in the last century, for example. Obviously, there was no time to theorize about the teaching stories. The temptation to do so was great, because I discovered that they could be analyzed in terms of several different theorizations, including Blooms taxonomy. After finishing this essay, I asked the instructor if she felt that anything important had been omitted, or if there were anything else she would like to add. She replied that she had never imagined that her Workshop had so much theoretical underpinning and that she felt, now that all

Giles is of a like mind when he suggests that trainees need tools to accompany them in their autonomous progression along the learning curve (2004)
4

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the mechanisms had been exposed and described, that if she gave Translation II she might meet the fate of the centipede who, once conscious of the complicated coordination of his many feet, promptly collapsed on the ground. The one thing that she wished to add was the phrase she most often repeated during the course: The meaning is in the context! (By context she meant both context and situationas in the Geneva Conference Story, page 15, line 51). Just recently I was pleased to discover, she said, that The meaning is in the context sums up cultural translation theory! So that makes me very up-to-date in my concepts, you see. This experience has encouraged me to continue research in the area of TP. Along the way I have picked up a lot of theory of translation, and an agenda to follow in my search for a TP model adaptive to our environment. The next step in developing the didactic approaches studied in this TR would involve carrying out classroom observation and delving into education theory.

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References
y Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ y Baxter P. & Jack S. (December, 2008). Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers. The Qualitative Report Volume 13 Number 4. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR13-4/baxter.pdf y Carrov Sabat M. (2000). Towards a theory of translation pedagogy based on computerassisted translation tools for Catalan and English non literary texts. Retrived from TRD Tesis Doctorales en Red. (L-1623-2009) y Delisle J. (1988). Translation: An Interpretive Approach. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. y Garca Yebra V. (1983). En torno a la traduccin. Madrid: Gredos y Giles Danielle (2004). Blablablablablablabla blablabla y Hurtado Albir A. (2001) Traduccin y Traductologa: Introduccin a la Traductologa. Madrid: Ctedra. y Llcer Llorca, E. (2004). Sobre la traduccin: ideas tradicionales y teoras contemporneas. Valencia: Universitat de Valncia.  y Robinson, D. (1997). Becoming a Translator: An accelerated course. New York: Routledge. y Vzquez Ayora, G. (1977). Introdccin a la Traductologa. Curso bsico de traduccin. Washington: Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics.

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Appendix (a) Course Materials Table

COURSE
MATERIAL TYPE
Theory 1 On Being Translated; Susan Sontag

MATERIALS
RATIONALE & ACTIVITIES

DESCRIPTION OF MATERIAL

This essay relates the difficulties of translating Samuel Beckets Waiting for Godot to be performed in Croatian, thus illustrating some non-linguistic perplexities of this art. In addition to the illustrative characteristics of the text, the author speaks clearly to the point of translation trends and her personal feelings about her role as a translator. The register is popular academic.

2 El Proceso de escritura acadmica;Paula Carlino 3 La formacin de Traductores; Monique Legros

This Argentine article presents research findings about the four most prevalent student errors in writing: disregard for the reader, ignorance of the epistemic function; inability to revise texts, failure to make use of paper to construct thought. Register: formal academic. Legros discusses the changes that have occured in translator formation at COLMEX over the years. Register: high conversational.

4 Subtitulaje; talk by M.A. Vallejo

Prof. Vallejo gave an hour-long talk in which he summarized the norms and difficulties involved in subtitling. Register: technical.

The students gained cultural background, since they were unfamiliar with the geography of the BCS (BosnianCroatian-Serbian speaking countries. We studied a map and some comparative samples of the language, and the ss read the article with the help of a glossary and some questions. We translated parts of the text. The conclusions of Sontag, who believed that the difference between the languages was more political than linguistic, support the contention of Robinson in the sense that the translation is what the client asks for. She also emphasizes that love of languages comes before translation Students were instructed to summarize the essay in English and to offer an opinion regarding the possible validity of the findings for a Mexican population. Therefore, the task involved critical thinking, back translation and inverse translationalthough by asking for a summary, the intention was to simplify the learners task, This material was a last-minute substitution for another article that gave very practical information about what to study/do in order to be a translator. I used this article simply to illustrate what one graduate program in translation is like, and how it is different from the programs of the past. It wasnt very interesting to students except for the anecdotes I told about COLMEX students & teachers. In spite of having both a book and an article on this subject, I preferred a talk because of the prestige of this instructor in the theme, and because I felt that a simple explanation was more useful for these ss.

Structured
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Translation Exercises
5 Combined Grammar & Translation Ex.
The Office. A bank of Idioms with get supplies English phrases for matching with underlined words & phrases in a teacher-made Spanish language text. The text also contains a Biblical allusion and a slightly risqu MWL with an ambiguous it. The register is similar to that of a popular novel. Especially near Departmental Exam time, students sometimes feel that they are wasting their time translating. While doing this structured exercise, students, while feeling more on task (a) practiced correcting non-native composition errors (b) provided the idioms in the appropriate tense (c) translated from L2 to L1. Ss also appreciate the opportunity to criticize the text produced by the professor, instead of being the object of criticism as usual. This exercise is a follow-up for a class activity involving 3 steps. First, the instructor sight translates the text, which the students have in front of them in the original format. The point is for the ss. to catch the meaning of unfamiliar English words and attach the meaning to the written form. Several days later, the students are presented with the gap exercise which they work out in a group setting. Finally, they prepare the text so that they can take turns reading it aloud in a simulated sight reading exercise. The procedure followed was similar to that used above,except that the worksheet was simpler, insofar as the student was merely required to supply original vocabulary from the word bank.

6 Gap-fill Translation Ex. I

A bank of synonyms provides clues for filling in the gaps in an authentic text drawn from a trabajo recepcional in progress. It is taken from a short story, The Broccoli Eel by Michel Faber.

7 Gap-fill Translation Ex. II

African Marriage Rituals is an article from National Geographic, Nov. 1999 about the Karo people of Ethiopia.

Reading & Translation Texts

8 Mother Father Deaf: Living Between Sound and Silence; Paul Preston This book was given to me by my daughter by her colleague, the author. It answered a question I had held in mind for 50 years. I wanted the students to understand that language is part of culture, not vice versa. (Paul is bilingual & bicultural.)

Students reflected on the political correctness of deaf, and options for translating it into Spanish. The discussion included closed captions for the deaf, and how they were executed and employed. Comparison of ss. versions on poster paper. Students received questions to answer based on text (a). The answers were reviewed in class and students examined the text to find evidences of the fact that it was a double back-translation. The text contained sayings, Mexican history, and historical lexical items. Ss. then read text (b) which was in Spanish, and they were asked to look for ideological differences. Ss. sampled pulque curado with celery, since they all claimed that

9 (a)Viceroy Time Drinking (b) Alternative text on pulque

Text about drinking in colonial times (a) appeared in a short-lived bilingual magazine in a version probably translated into English (from a Spanish version) by an exstudent of the Facultad. The author had an Anglo surname. Text (b) was a Mexican text (in Spanish) on the same topic which had a far more critical and politicized view of the fall of pulque as a popular drink.

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10 Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight; memoire by Alexandra Fuller ( with Translation excerpts & Exercises) 11 Helmsely Hotel Ad (clipped from magazine)

This memoire of the convulsive revolutionary period lived out by the author and her dysfunctional family in three African countries. The text contains lexis and some structures peculiar to Africa.

they had never tried pulque. The ss. answered questions on the two extracts and dealt with English expressions peculiar to the region. Then they integrated this knowledge into their translations and we compared them. They also acquired some cultural background on Africa.

This ad features a collection of notes, written in different styles of handwriting, to thank staff for special assistance. In addition, the edges of the notes are torn and they are incomplete.

I believe that it is important for ss. To (a) know how to read handwritingstill used by many speakers of English and (b) improvise when the content is not of great import and the deadline pressing. So they read and completed the ads in small groups and then sight-read them. (Of course, this is not real sight reading, but even if someone whispers the answer, it the simulated sight reading helps developed language memory.

12 Shades of New Years (clipped from The News of Mexico)

A short newspaper text, a personal reflection embedded in a cultural reflection on New Year.

13 Saints in Mexico MISSING

This article was taken from an English language article intended to stimulate tourism. It involved a tour of a Mexico City market, and explained the Mexican passion for santitos

14 Recipe pumpkin pie from the Joy of Cooking.

I presented this recipe orally in two different versions. The point of this was to give the ss. and opportunity to acquired at least some of the vocabularly in context with examples and illustrations. The original recipe contained vocabulary unfamiliar to students, such as bao

The point of this exercise was to provide cultural information and practice in editing. Ss. translated the article at home. In class, they underlined the difficult parts and shared solutions and discussed lexical problems such as the generic "noisemaker." The final exercise was to simulate sight-reading. Students worked in teams to translate the text into Spanish and adapted it to a Mexican audience in the form of a radio program. This project involved internet research on how to write a radio script. One student visited the radio station to observe a recording and reported on the experience to his classmates. Using the guidelines he provided, and under his technical direction, the students simulated a recording session using the material that they had prepared. Students translated the recipe into Spanish using a modern (as opposed to a traditional, oralist) format. The point of this exercise was to garner support, not from dictionaries, but from Spanish language recipes, choosing the best options for the translation. In addition, 57

Mara. Reference to RAE's Ricardo Soca on the origin of the term in Spanish. 15 Funding reportNGO This material was drawn from a private client who was struggling to get his collaborators to be concise. The original text was wordy and disorganized. With this particular cliente, my role was participative and I was encouraged to improve the text, even to the extent of including new material to illustrate, emphasize or create balance. Register: informal academic. This film was made with a grant from the Canadian film board, was extremely esthetic, and contained interviews with a broad range of speakers using different dialects and registers. The board was divided into three parts: Upper left, "back burner" where unsolved items were kept in sight; upper right, "phrase of the day," where key ideas were kept in view; central portion, where the agenda for the day and lecture notes appeared.

the recipe required real-world knowledge involving adapting to locally available ingredients. Ss. sampled pumpkin pie that I brought to class. The ss. compared the two texts and asked to (1) identify the nature of the additions, omissions and distortions. (2) explain the reasons for them. This work exploded the concept of fidelity that they had, and replaced it with "what the client wants."

16 Crop Circle Film

18 Miscellaneous White Board texts

At this moment I did not have the technology for subtitling, but the idea was to approximate subtitles by transcribing the audio text for voice-over. The text was divided and translated in teams of three. The white board was an important resource for the "White Board Talks" that began almost every class. The talks were in response to the desire of the students to hear more English, and motivated by the teacher conviction that ss. need more background in culture and sociolinguistic. Most of the back-burner items were eventually solved--the students learned that the ideal translation does not always occur before the hand-in date, but real translators are always searching for a better way. The key ideas which appeared again and again were thoroughly assimilated. The students were responsible for board notes and were tested on them. This material was very motivating for the students, and I provided considerable feedback in an interview which they subsequently integrated into a second draft.

Evaluation
17 Free Translation Text Each student was allowed to choose a text to translate. Some of these were texts that they were carrying out for clients and others were texts on subjects that were interesting to them and that they could imagine being useful to them in the future. They ran from scientific articles to popular articles on cosmetology. Registers varied considerably, but all texts presented specific challenges for the ss. who had chosen them. The examinations were 6 pages long and

20 Examinations I

The purpose of the examinations is (1) to 58

and II

contained the following items: multiple choice, error correction, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, definition, translation, essay questions.

accustom ss. to taking content examinations and demonstrate acquisition of specific real-world, academic and linguistic knowledge (2) to provide an opportunity to take a really challenging test with items that sometimes over-reached the course. (I considered that this provided an additional learning opportunity and similated FCICEtype tests.)
I partially followed the syllabus, but was unable to recruit the technical assistance for subtitling. My experience is in dubbing anyway. Many of the materials I assigned could be conceived as documentaries or dramas. I usually do my personal syllabus at the end of the course. I like to use things that I am actually working onthey feel more live to meand integrate material that seems germane for one reason or another. Ultimately I think that the material was more or less coherent because it flowed by my unconscious.

Syllabi
21 Official syllabus
Provided by the Academy.

22 Instructor syllabus

(Post-syllabus: see materials table)

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Appendix (b) The PACTE Model Chart

Linguistic Competence

Extralinguistic Competence

Transfer Competence

Psychophysical Comptence

Professional/Instrumental Competence

Adapted from Hurtado-Albir (2001:397)

Strategic Competence
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Appendix (c) Ned Herrmanns Whole Brian Model Extracted from: http://www.12manage.com/methods_herrmann_whole_brain.html Analyzing personal and organizational thinking preferences. Explanation of Whole Brain Model of Herrmann. ('76) What is the Whole Brain Model? Description

The Whole Brain Model from Ned Herrmann is a technique that can be used for analyzing personal and organizational thinking preferences. People have markedly different ways that they perceive and assimilate information, make decisions, and solve problems. Once an individual understands his or her thinking style preferences, the door is open to improved communication, leadership, management, problem solving, decision making and other aspects of personal and interpersonal development. The Whole Brain Model is a mental model that describes thinking preferences. These are the ways of thinking that satisfy us the most and seem natural for us at this point in our lives. These ways of thinking can change, often as a result of significant emotional experiences, life transitions and other important insights. Thinking preferences describe the patterns of what we prefer to pay attention to and what we don't prefer to pay attention to. Thinking preferences can be different than our skills or the content of our work or our behavior, depending upon the situation. When we think or function differently than our preferences, even if we have excellent skills, it's more likely that we'll find it somewhat uncomfortable and consuming more of our energy.

The four thinking styles in the Whole Brain Model are: 1. Logician. Analytical, mathematical, technical and problem solving. 2. Organizer. Controlled, conservative, planned, organized and administrative in nature. 3. Communicator. Interpersonal, emotional, musical, spiritual and the "talker" modes. 4. Visionary. Imaginative, synthesizing, artistic, holistic and conceptual modes.

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At the core of the most recent book of Ned Herrmann, lies his belief that the functioning of the human brain is driven by a four-quadrant interconnected set of mental processing modes. These four thinking styles, says Herrmann, originate in the brain's left and right cerebral hemispheres, and in the left and right half limbic systems, each resulting in significantly different and distinct behavioral characteristics in human beings. How this complex brain interaction determines thinking mode dominance and thinking style preferences, and how individuals and organizations can benefit from such understanding, are the main themes of Herrmann's book (see below). Herrmann's work is widely used by training and development specialists. The Whole Brain Model supersedes "left brain/right brain" thinking in earlier models. Also it has advanced new concepts of thinking research and their applications in business settings. Dominant thinking in one of the four thinking styles, causes the development of thinking preferences. Then these thinking preferences establish our interests, foster the development of competencies, and influence our career choices and ultimately our work. Argues Herrmann. Origin of the Whole Brain Model. History

In 1976, Ned Herrmann researched the brain as the source of creativity. At that time, he learned of the pioneering brain research of Roger Sperry, Paul MacLean, Joseph Bogen and Michael Gazzanaga. From their work it is clear that the brain has four distinct and specialized structures. Inspired by this research, Herrmann worked with EEG scans and, later, paper-and-pencil questionnaires to identify four distinct types of thinking, each roughly corresponding to one of the brain structures. The result of this research is the Herrmann Whole Brain Model. In August, 1979, after many tests, in-depth research, and mountains of data, Herrmann had developed a valid self-assessment that enables individuals to understand their own thinking style preferences - the HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument.)

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Appendix (d) Instructors Self Interview

63