Multilingual eLearning in LANGuage Engineering

Project Overview Project span: Oct 2004 – Oct 2007 Kick-off meeting Oct 9-10 2004 Project goals:

Produce language training resources Tailored to the needs of the translation

market Deliverables in:

CA, DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, (CZ)

Promoter

Intercultural studies and Applied Languages Department,

University Paris 7 Denis Diderot

Academic partners Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds, UK Institute for Applied Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting, University of Saarland, Germany Department of Translation and Philology, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators, University of Bologna in Forli, ItalyTranslation and Interpreting School, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Academic partners Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Milton Keynes, UK

Translation and Interpretation Institute, University of Vienna, Austria

Praetorius France, Gif-sur Yvette, France: localisation, translation, technical writing

Olomouc Training Center, Olomouc, Czech Republic: management and linguistic skills

Project Objective

Adapt vocational training of translators and language professionals to the new

needs of the market

Context Changes in the translation market New skills and competences

required

Focus on innovative, dynamic, and collaborative learning environments

Target audiences

Students in initial vocational

trainingPractising translators and

language professionals Trainers of translators and

language professionals

Target sectors Education

translation departments institutions focussing on training

language professionals Industry

translation market language industry other industries dealing with

multilingual language resource management

Objectives

Propose a methodology for the collaborative creation of corpus-based eLearning teaching content in translation

Design a framework for an European Master in translation

User needs evaluation

April 2005: questionnaire sent to ITI’s 3000 members

translation lists in partner’s countries

Questions on IT tools

Corpora use

eLearning

Results: web vs. corpora

600 responses in UK, France, Italy, and Germany

90% professionals, 10% students

90% use Google of these, 68% refine their searches

40% collect specific texts for translating so 40% use corpora

Responses: Corpus Tools

65.9% Search facility in word processor

19.0% Concordancer 14.4% Other search tools

(Trados, Concordance in translation memory)

0.7% UNIX utilities

Responses: eLearning

eLearning domains of interest : 28.2% Exploitation of the web for

linguistic purposes 25.7% IT skills for translators 24.1% Building their own corpora for

specific projects 19.7% Exploitation of corpus data

Corpus-based approach Comparable and parallel corpora Learner Translator Corpus (LTC):

on-line submission of translations students and professionals Meta-data (L1, L2, training, etc.)

First round of translation collection: EC document on workers’ mobility

Upcoming rounds : journalistic, administrative and technical translation

Error-annotation of the LTC

Short annotation scheme Content transfer errors Language errors

Translated in all partners’ languages

Used by teachers to annotate translations

XML annotation tool developed at the University of Geneva

LTC Design All translations are aligned with source

texts Linked to anonymised translator’s

metadata

SL1

SL2

SL…

TL1

TL2

TL…

sTT1

sTT2

sTT...

rTT1

cTT1

Abbreviations

T – Text S – Source

L – Language T – Target

sTT - student Target Text

cTT - corrected student Target Text

rTT - reference Target Text

Online Content Topics

Machine

translation

Translation

memory

Terminology

Corpus use

Localization

Project management

Information management

Specialised translation

Mark-up languages

eLearning DevelopmentMethodology

Proposing a general methodology (‘best practices’) for collaborative online course creation in terms of:

Course design Meta-data eLearning standards conformance Implementation

Course developmentAccording to Bologna process hierarchy: Units-> Courses-> Modules (smallest to

largest) Content organized into units according to:

Learning outcomes (competencies) Size of the unit (rough time estimate) Objectives and Pedagogical approach Resources and Prerequisites Evaluation Content / Activities Relation to other units (reducing the number

of credits needed)

Learning Objects (LOs) Building block for Units Discussion on meta-data to be used

(subset of LOM) Los designed according to Moodle

eLearning platform activities: Lessons Tests Quizzes Workshop Resources (e.g. LTC, parallel corpora)

eLearning PlatformMoodle chosen for its sound

pedagogical principles and features it offers

eLearning standards compliance: SCORM (interoperability,

reusability) LOM (meta-data description)

Course Testing

Teaching material and online courses will be tested in:

2006 with students, trainers and professionals

2007 idem + CEE countries universities

Quality Assurance

Ensure that the contents are adapted to real market needs

Maintain contact with industrial development

European Masters

Existing curricula at partners’ sites

Existing curricula related to the field

Development within the consortium of a general framework for a European Masters (curriculum down to learning objects)

Complete or partial adoption byall partner institutions

Dissemination Results tested with universities from

CEE countries

Current results presented at conferences

Organisation of workshops

Dissemination to translation companies companies in need of multilingual

language management