Main points in the teaching approach
- Many learning techniques come from the future professional life of the graduate translator
The teaching methods employed on the programme for the Master’s in translation have been designed with the perspective of the graduate’s future professional life firmly in mind : a balanced mix of theory and practice, active learning in a central position, with an important place reserved for the development of professional skills.
The teaching methods put an emphasis on learning activities which focus on the expectations and requirements of the profession, to the extent of putting the students in a professional situation, in particular:
- Language and culture courses in the source language, vital to gain translation skills relating to what the author intended.
- Translation workshops and seminars given by teams made up of native speakers in both source and target languages, from the world of teaching and the professional world of translation, in which the lecturer acts as adviser, guide and assessor all at the same time.
- Simulations of the work in a translation office.
- Participation in real translation projects.
- The possibility of doing a Master’s 2 in the European Master’s in Specialised Translation programme, in two European partner universities.
- A work placement in a company (10 weeks in the second semester of the Master’s 2), in a multilingual environment, in Belgium or abroad; these placements are chosen carefully to respect professional best practice and are supervised by lecturers.
In this way, many programme modules and activity enable students to gain knowledge and develop the necessary skills to work as a translator.
The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to develop and make use of a rigorous academic and methodological procedure which will make them into a university level translator, capable of building and enriching their professional practice through theoretical input and a reflective approach.
Students can benefit from up to date IT systems in the translation rooms which are also available outside class time enabling them to make use of the equipment and tools to aid translation for their dissertation.
- A variety of teaching strategies and learning methods
There is a variety of teaching methods relating to the different skills to be developed: formal lectures, exercise sessions, individual assignments, seminars, simulations of professional situations and work placements.
This variety of situations helps students to build their knowledge and develop their skills on an iterative basis whilst also developing independence, a sense of organisation and timekeeping and communication skills in different forms.