6. Digital aids for improving translation skills

Digital aids for improving translation skills

(Merriam-webster, Thesaurus, Reverso, Linguee)

Dear students, this is the last lesson of our course. Today we will look at how to use digital aids to improve your translation skills. After completing the exercises, you will be able to quickly use a wide range of resources for translation. You will also find out what exercises are used to train translators and try your hand at being a creative translator.

TASK 1. Watch a short video about online resources

Translation clearly shows the practical value of mastering a foreign language and thus increases motivation to learn it. Constant comparison of foreign and native languages contributes to a deeper knowledge of the language. Translation differs from other types of speech activity. Besides that it combines listening and speaking, it is also carried out in conditions of bilingualism.

According to psychological science a translator needs to have/master the necessary traits: empathy, emotional stability, sociability, responsibility, creativity, constant work on improving one's skills, verbal originality, figurative originality, speed and flexibility of thinking, multicultural competence.

The right choice of a method and a properly organized system of exercises guarantee acquisition of student’s practical skills. There are different types of translation exercises, such as: training the tempo of oral speech, training switching to another language, oral translation from a sheet, training two-way translation, increasing the active stock of frequent vocabulary.

Dictionaries will always be an indispensable translator's assistant. There are many different dictionaries, most of them can give all the meanings of one or another word. They will come in handy when translating either fiction or articles with professional vocabulary. We are going to show you the list of useful dictionaries to further facilitate the work on the translation.

TASK 2. Have a look at and click through the following resources:

TASK 3. Analyze the above-mentioned resources and complete the table.

1. Provides a definition of the word.

2. Provides a translation of the word.

3. Provides examples of the word usage.

4. Provides synonyms/antonyms.

5. Provides word of the day.

6. Provides translation of the text in a file.

7. Provides games with searched words for remembering.

	Dictionary 1	Dictionary 2	Dictionary 3
1. Provides …	+	+	-
2. Provides …	-	+	+
3. Provides …	+	+	+

TASK 4.  Give the following words as many meanings as possible using the resources given in TASK 2.

• Fire;

• Set;

• Go;

• Take;

• Stand.

TASK 5. Use websites that offer help in finding synonyms to find the greatest number of synonyms for the words given.

• Fire;

• Set;

• Go;

• Take;

• Stand.

          TASK 6. Translate the verse from English into English. That is, retain the meaning of each line, but give it other words that are synonymous with it. 

“A touch of cold in the Autumn night—

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge

Like a red-faced farmer.

I did not stop to speak, but nodded,

And round about were the wistful stars

With white faces like town children.”

—T.E. Hulme

Instructions for creating an answer file and posting it online: 

1. Create a word document on your computer;

2. Sign it with your name and surname (e.g. "Victoria Kuzmich");

3. Copy the table from task 3 and fill it in;

4. Add the answers to tasks 4,5 and 6 to the created document;

5. Save your answer and upload it to your Google Drive folder that you created in the last session and then in the table with answers.