The Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University is offering a 1-day online training workshop on metaphor in Machine Translation Post-Editing.

28 October 2023, 9.30 am-4 pm (online)  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/machine-translation-post-editing-with-a-focus-on-metaphor-online-tickets-713603917527?aff=oddtdtcreator

11 November 2023, 9.30 am-4 pm (in-person) on our Edinburgh campus. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/machine-translation-post-editing-with-a-focus-on-metaphor-in-person-tickets-715231064367?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University is offering a 1-day online training workshop on metaphor in Machine Translation Post-Editing.

The workshop is free of charge as it is part of a research project funded by the CTISS to investigate how machine translation handles metaphor and develop guidelines for post editing machine translation with a focus on metaphors. For the in-person event, refreshments and lunch will be provided. Participants will be asked to complete a detailed feedback form about their learning experience to inform the research project. At the end of the workshop, participants will receive a CPD Certificate.

Ethical approval for this project was granted on 24/07/22 under ref no. 2022-3319-6604.

The event covers the following language combinations: Arabic<>English, Chinese<>English, French<>English, Spanish<>English. Proficiency in one of these combinations is required to take part in the workshop.

There are 20 spaces available on a first come first serve basis.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email.  Pre-workshop material and further information will be provided 2 weeks before the event.

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Training in post-editing is becoming increasingly popular in response to the growing industry requirements to integrate MT into the translation workflow. This workshop covers the basics of post-editing with a special focus on the intertextual element of conceptual metaphor. At the end of the course, learners should be confident in identifying MT errors and correcting them, with a better understanding of how metaphors work in the text and how to translate them effectively.  

This workshop will combine theoretical presentations with discussion and practical individual and group work activities. it will cover:

• Introduction to MT and MTPE
• Introduction to metaphor translation
• Textual cohesion and coherence
• Approaches to MT quality assessment
• Error analysis – error categories at word, sentence and whole-text level
• Metaphor identification and analysis in the context of MTPE

Who can attend this workshop:

• Professional translators with a minimum of 2 years experience.
• Prior experience in MTPE is not required

The workshop will be delivered by three experienced researchers and translation trainers.

Dr. Khadidja Merakchi is Assistant Professor of French at Heriot-Watt University. She is a fluent speaker of Arabic, French and English. She completed her PhD in popular science metaphor translation from English to Arabic at the University of Surrey in 2017. She is an experienced professional translator and interpreter, as well as a teacher in both of these fields.

Dr. Khetam Al Sharou is a Researcher in Machine Translation. Her research lies at the intersection of Translation Studies, Computer Science and Natural Language Processing, producing work with academic and industrial impact in tool development and user-experience.  She has held research and teaching positions at various universities in the UK (Imperial College, UCL, LSE, Surrey) and Syria (University of Damascus).

Ms. Juliette Rutherford is Assistant Professor in Chinese at Heriot-Watt University. She worked as an in-house translator from Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish into English for 8 years before joining Heriot-Watt in 2019, as a teacher of Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting. Her research interests include machine translation, conceptual metaphor and pedagogy for translator training.

Saturday 30 September

Join us for an exhibition presented by the students and staff at the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University, in collaboration with Leith Public Library.

Exhibition dates: Saturday, 30^th September to Saturday, 7^th October.

Location: Leith Public Library, 28-30 Ferry Road, Edinburgh EH6 4AE

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Activities

• 1-week exhibition of translated books
• Discussion with an award-winning translator
• Recommend a book to win a prize

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Activity highlights

• A one-week exhibition featuring classic translated books from around the world that are part of the Edinburgh Library Collection, for both children and adults.

• Join a conversation with Leri Price, an award-winning literary translator of contemporary Arabic fiction, and a PhD student at the Intercultural Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University, at 11:00-12:00, Saturday 7^th October.

• Share your love for translated books and you could win a £50 Waterstones voucher! Recommend a translated book in any language in 300 words and email it to leithtranslation@gmail.com by 4pm, 16^th October. Two lucky winners will each receive a £50 Waterstones voucher to further fuel their literary pursuits.

If you have any further questions, please contact Shirley Tan (leithtranslation@gmail.com).

An Inclusive approach to resilience & recovery in rural areas

By Jemina Napier & Lucy Clark, Heriot-Watt University

Lorraine Leeson & Lianne Quigley, Trinity College Dublin

Summary of this blogpost in BSL and ISL with subtitles and spoken English interpretation: https://youtu.be/6jEt19I1WFY

Background

This project was funded through a Royal Society of Edinburgh-Royal Irish Academy Scotland-Ireland Bilateral Network Grant and sought to empower deaf women who have experienced domestic violence by delivering training to police officers and sign language interpreters in rural areas in Scotland and Ireland in collaboration with Police Scotland, An Garda Síochána, and deaf community organisations Deaf Links (Dundee, Scotland) and the Irish Deaf Society.

The training drew on evidence and resources developed as part of a previous collaborative project (Justisigns 2) – and focused on best practices for working together.

Objectives

The objectives of the project were to:

• continue the collaboration between the European Commission funded Justisigns 2 project Scottish and Irish partners to produce academic journal outputs from data collected through surveys of support service personnel and interpreters working with women who have experienced GBV in Scotland and Ireland and through interviews with deaf women and police officers;
• provide ‘Train the Trainer’ workshops in Edinburgh and Dublin in order to skill up a group of police officers and interpreter educators who can continue to offer training on an on-going basis throughout each country. This will ensure the sustainability of the training and ensure capacity and capability building for future trainers.
• deliver the training materials developed as part of the Justisigns 2 project to police officers and interpreters in two rural areas in Scotland and two rural areas in Ireland.

All of these objectives were realised and more. Originally, we had planned to first offer a 3-hour ‘train the trainer’ workshop in each country, followed by the delivery of three 3-hour training workshops in person in each country in rural areas. After the first planning session, we realised that it would be more effective to deliver the rural training first, and then to reflect on the efficacy of the training with educators who currently provide training to police officers and interpreters to see how they could draw on the training materials, and specifically a training manual (https://justisigns2.eu/training-course).

We also decided to use a masterclass model for the rural training and deliver over a whole day rather than just 3-hours to maximise the time. The training schedule was designed to bring police officers and interpreters together for sessions, as well as having separate bespoke sessions with information tailored to their needs. The final masterclass schedule and content was localised for each country.

In the end, only two masterclass workshops were delivered in each country because there were not enough participants available to attend in other rural areas, especially interpreters. There was also an issue with availability of interpreters to provide interpreting for the workshops. This highlights the issue of lack of access for deaf women living in rural areas and lack of availability of interpreters. The training was delivered in Inverness (north) and Helensburgh (west) in Scotland, and the planned workshop in Galashiels (borders) was cancelled. In Ireland, a different strategy was adopted as there was a large interest in one rural area (Donegal) from different stakeholders, so two workshops were held in the same place across two consecutive days, but one workshop planned in the Northwest was cancelled. The workshops were attended by a total of 10 police officers and 8 interpreters and 1 independent domestic abuse advisor in Scotland and a total of 53 police officers, interpreters, and representatives from social services, the local education board and sexual assault treatment unit nurses in Ireland.

The format for the ‘train the trainer’ workshops was different. In Ireland the majority of educators are based in Dublin and there was the opportunity to extend the workshop to include educators who work with other language groups. So, a 2-hour face-to-face workshop was held at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with 9 attendees from the TCD Irish Sign Language interpreter training programme, the Garda, Irish Refugee Council, and the TCD student counselling service. In Scotland, a 2.5 hour workshop was delivered online as there was interest from police and interpreter educators from all over the UK. It was attended by 7 interpreter educators who teach in different programmes throughout the UK, and 26 police officers from Police Scotland and 1 from Greater Manchester Police. All participants were sent the training manual one-week advance and asked to review it and complete a review template form. The workshops were divided into three parts:

1. Guided discussion and reflection:  The workshop began with a guided discussion session where participants shared their initial thoughts, questions, and insights about the training manual.
2. Focused discussion and Reflection: Participants were divided into two groups (police/ interpreters) to discuss their understanding of the training manual and content and how it could be taught, highlighting key points, and identifying any areas of ambiguity or further exploration.
3. Collaborative Manual Application: The groups reconvened to collectively feedback on how they think they can apply the training manual and activities in their own training, and discuss potential for interprofessional working and how can we collaborate to deliver this training.

In reviewing evaluations from the masterclass and ‘train the trainer’ workshops it can be seen that a short course form of professional development in interpreter mediated interactions concerning domestic violence can be effectively delivered in different formats to meet police and interpreter training provider needs, and also those of other stakeholders. All masterclass participants gave praise for the training, confirmed in their evaluations that they had learned a lot and were particularly pleased with having the collaborative experience so that they could see the issues from the perspective of other professionals. All participants said they would apply their new learning in their daily practice should they be presented with a domestic violence situation with a deaf woman. Many commented on the need for the training to be embedded in standard police and interpreter training, and not just as ‘top up’ professional development. The educators were similarly enthusiastic. They were impressed with the training manual and especially pleased that it would be freely available, along with the accompanying resources, to use. All the participants felt that they would be able to embed the use of the manual and resources in their own training delivery.

Outputs

The outputs from this project are as follows (as outlined in the original proposal):

• 2 in person network meetings (one in Dublin & one in Edinburgh)
• 2 ‘train the trainer’ workshops – one online in the UK and one in Dublin
• 4 training workshops in rural locations (2 Ireland, 2 Scotland)
• Completion of 1 research report based on survey of police officers and interpreters conducted as part of the Justisigns 2 project.
• 2 journal article publications in preparation

In addition, further outputs were created:

• A workshop was held between the Scottish project leaders, Police Scotland representatives and legal sign language interpreter experts to review the Police Scotland Domestic Abuse Questionnaire (DAQ) and how easy it was to translate into British Sign Language (BSL). This led to a revision of the 27 questions in the DAQ so that they are in plain English, making them more straight forward to translate into any language, including BSL. A briefing paper has now been put forward by the Police Scotland Domestic Abuse Coordination Unit for the official adoption of the revised DAQ to be used by all police officers when interviewing victims of domestic violence.
• Bilingual v/blogpost in BSL and English about the new RSE-RIA project and the DAQ workshop.
• A hybrid event on to launch a documentary on deaf women’s experiences of accessing support when reporting domestic violence that was created as part of the Justisigns 2 project and to promote the new RSE-RIA funded project. It was attended by 24 people in person and 77 on Zoom.
• A BSL version of a poster of ’10 tips’ for police in communicating with deaf women through sign language interpreters that was created as part of the Justisigns 2 project 
• 18 videos of terms/ short phrases in BSL that would be useful for police to use if encountering a deaf person to complement a glossary of domestic violence related terms already created as part of the Justisigns 2 project.

Outcomes, future plans & wider impact

• The project was designed to specifically enable bilateral and in-country activities to take place as a result of the funding that would not have occurred otherwise. The project has allowed us to apply and disseminate the training materials and resources developed together as part of the Justisigns 2 project to targeted groups and to create the opportunity for these materials and resources to continue to be used by educators.
• There is the potential for follow-on funding to extend the research and training, and to explore different perspectives on domestic violence in deaf communities. Two funding bids have been submitted and are pending decisions.
• A meeting has been arranged between the project team and Police Scotland and the An Garda Síochána in Dublin eto discuss how to further embed the training materials and resources into training for police officers in Scotland and Ireland, and how there could be greater collaboration between the two forces going forward to support further research. This meeting was facilitated through this project and success of the training.
• The Justisigns 2 and SILENT HARM projects were highly commended in the Heriot-Watt University Principal’s Research & Engagement Awards (PRIME) under the ‘Influence’ category for the outstanding collaborations with Police Scotland and An Garda Síochána and the impactful nature of the research and training.

In general, it can be seen that there is the potential impact from this project to improve the situation for deaf people generally in coming into contact with the police, as well as in domestic violence situations in rural and metropolitan areas, as the training will raise more awareness among police officers and also provide more confidence to interpreters to take work in legal settings.

(14 to 16 July 2023)  

Congratulations to Dr Eloisa Monteoliva and the academic team (Kate Ferguson, Juliette Rutherford, Tania Aitken, Sarah Goulding) for the huge success of the first online version of the English Retour Interpreting Summer School (14 to 16 July 2023).   

The course was attended by 12 professional interpreters with the following languages: Arabic, Basque, Czech, French, German, and Spanish all seeking to improve their retour into English.   

The participants enjoyed the interaction with other professionals and the opportunity to receive detailed feedback on their English language performance, to help take their interpreting skills one step further. 

Their feedback on the training was very positive overall, showing an appetite for further similar training. As one participant put it:   

“Great job everyone! Please keep organizing these courses, they are very much needed. I’ve been looking for such a course in the last 4 years! And I would gladly take another one in the near future.”  

This event was held on Friday 9^th June, and streamed online via Zoom. It was interpreted live by M.A. and MSc students, with the spoken interpreters working either remotely or on-site in the LINCS interpreting labs. There were 61 registrations for the event, with a mixture of university students and school pupils, and 150 views of the follow-up recordings.

The session showcased home-grown talents both through the panel and through the interpreting provided, and it also highlighted the existence of a dynamic research community. Panellists enjoyed the event and those who were not familiar with interpreting were impressed to witness the complexities of this activity.

Student interpreters also had a chance to network with the speakers over lunch, and were able to gain some experience of the challenges of a real, online remote interpreted event, with the support of colleagues to help them through – José Mari for the spoken interpreting  team, and Stacey for the BSL team.  

The panel was composed of the following contributors:  

• Owen Harrington-Fernandez, who focused on his work on translating for a young audience, and the ways to translate various voices. Owen also talked about current research on literary translation. 
• Maike Hopp, LINCS graduate, who currently combines conference interpreting and translation with her early career in literary translation. Maike shared her insight on the differences between these various forms of expert linguist work, and how complementary they can be nonetheless.  
• Leri Price (current PhD student at Heriot-Watt and award-winning literary translator) and Esther Tyldesley (experienced award-winning literary translator) explored the challenges and strategies adopted when translating from languages (Arabic and Chinese respectively) which not only work very differently compared to English, but also entail concepts and references that are very culturally specific.  
• Vineet Lal (MSc graduate, contributing teacher and experienced translator shortlisted recently for an award), who delved into the challenges of translating children’s literature and how to be faithful to a text in which musicality matters as much as meaning. 
• Clémentine Beauvais (experienced translator and established writer) discussed her approach to translating poetry and how her own writing work feeds into her translation work and vice-versa.  

While the speakers had an opportunity to share their experience of literary translation, the audience enjoyed the detailed presentations by experts in this field, and also got the chance to experience an interpreted event. The student interpreters had an opportunity to practice their interpreting and also to network with the speakers. The roundtable discussion was a great success and we hope to organise another similar event next year.

By Chiara Cocco and Leri Price

In May 2023, members of the IRC visited Berlin to take part in the Transformations in European Societies (TiES) doctoral programme. TiES connects doctoral students and academic staff from selected universities in Scotland, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Israel, and Denmark through a biannual programme of seminars and presentations.

The programme examines European societies in a state of change, tracing the effects of these changes and situating these reflections within a global context. TiES provides a platform for students to present their work and receive feedback from peers and professors, and to establish links that may result in future collaborations. 

The network is usually hosted by one of the member universities, which also offers its members a chance to visit different places and experience their culture.  This spring meeting, themed ‘Creative Transformations’, took a slightly different form as it was kindly hosted by the Museum of European Cultures.  Dr Alastair Mackie, an affiliate member of the IRC who obtained his PhD at Heriot-Watt, organised the meeting in Berlin and made sure to keep the participants busy with exciting activities and events.   

In line with the theme of the event, students and staff had the opportunity to engage creatively with the various topics of the programme.  Dr Katerina Strani started off by chairing a thought-provoking workshop about fieldwork and creative methods in research.  Following on, Dr Britta Kalkreuter encouraged professors and students to reflect on the future of TiES through a half-day living lab.  Although not a formal part of the programme, both professors celebrated their birthdays in the course of the week, a TiES first!

On the last day, students and staff were not just given a tour of the Museum, but participated in a workshop where they were tasked with creating an exhibition about their interpretations of the meanings of Europe.

Doctoral students from the IRC Leri Price and Chiara Cocco also attended the meeting, with Chiara presenting an update on her doctoral project about cultural festivals in Europe. 

Meeting peers from all over Europe and sharing knowledge has been crucial for forging strong links that result in cutting-edge collaborations. As an example, three student members of TiES, including one current and one former HWU student, have established a podcast that communicates anthropological theories to non-academic audiences.   

HWU is proud to be a member of TiES, and to encourage its students to build strong links with colleagues and institutions across Europe.

On the 6th and 7th of June, 11 of our M.A. and MSc students who specialise in conference interpreting were welcomed at the EU Commission by EU interpreters from the Directorate General for Interpretation.

This 2-day visit, which LINCS was able to secure thanks to its status as DGI-SCIC university partner, was hosted by Joanne O’Donnell, from the English and Irish Unit. Joanne visited our Heriot-Watt campus earlier this week as part of one of the pedagogical assistance visits LINCS secured for the 2022-2023 academic year, and she is herself a graduate from our M.A. programme.

As part of this visit, our students had a chance to get some valuable insight into the life of EU interpreters and receive detailed information on the new accreditation test procedures which have been introduced, thanks to a talk by the Head of Unit. The visit also included a preparatory session, looking at how EU interpreters work in the run-up to a specific assignment, and then students were able to put their preparation to the test during the meeting, working from dummy booths.

This fantastic opportunity enabled them to listen to professional interpreters at work during a live event; they were also able to practice interpreting off-mic and benefitted from valuable feedback from the team of EU interpreters who were on hand to support them. The visit culminated with a mock test, during which two of our final-year M.A. students volunteered to take a test in conditions similar to the ones they would encounter in authentic conditions, but with the added bonus of being able to hear the jury deliberations. This exciting challenge gave them an insight into what is expected of successful candidates, and they were able to put their 4 years of training to the test. Both students were delighted to hear that their performance would earn them a “pass” in test conditions, and left even more motivated than before.

But the real added bonus of the visit was undoubtedly the friendly welcome extended to the group, and the many opportunities to chat informally and network with DGI-SCIC interpreters and interns, and with several of our LINCS graduates. One of them has recently passed the tests himself, and was very happy to share his experience and some useful tips over lunch in between meetings, and over Belgian chips after his day in the booth, alongside other local LINCS graduates. A very inspiring 2-day visit, perfectly timed to motivate our M.A. students who found out their exam results the night before the start of the visit!

The LINCS Summer school courses are a fantastic opportunity to enhance your interpreting and translation skills, but registrations are closing soon (30 April 2023).

Our courses include one 3-day and one 5-day course in interpreting, as well as a 4-day Translation Summer School. 

For the translation summer school, you can register for the full package or select the individual workshops you would like to attend.  

1-day CPD courses such as Remote Interpreting for British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreters and Intercultural Awareness in the Workplace are also available.  

We are excited to be able to offer some discounts that you won’t want to miss out on. Details of these and the links to sign up to your summer school of choice are provided below.

Discounts

A 10% discount to our alumni, students at partner universities, and members of translation and interpreting bodies in the UK and abroad.  Click the Early bird ticket option to redeem this discount. 

An extra 20% discount is available on any second course selected (use the promo code TISS2023) and also for group bookings of 6 or more participants use the promo code TISS2023. If you are interested in group booking, please email us at lincs.cpd@hw.ac.uk to send you a registration link. 

Registrations

Courses on campus:

Week 1. Introduction to Interpreting course, 3 days (18-20 August 2023) and 5 days (18-22 August 2023): Information and tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-interpreting-summer-school-tickets-516773412187 

Week 2. Translation Summer School, 4 days, 21-24 August, 2023. Information and tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-translation-summer-school-tickets-516527737367 

You can register for the full week or select the seminars you would like to attend.  

Week 3 English Retour Interpreting (Advanced), 3 days (25-27 August 2023)and 5 days (25-29 August 2023). Information and reservations are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-retour-interpreting-summer-school-tickets-516719992407 

Week 3. British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreting Summer School (Advanced), 5 days (25-29 August 2023). https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/533429049647 

Online weekend courses:  

Week 1. Introduction to Interpreting course (7-9 July, 2023) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-interpreting-summer-school-online-tickets-516846240017 

Week 2. English Retour Interpreting (Advanced) (14-16 July 2023). Information and tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/english-retour-interpreting-weekend-summer-school-online-tickets-516822890177 

1-day CPD courses:  

Remote Interpreting for British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreters  

Online 13 May 2023 Information and tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/535759139007 

On campus 26 June 2023 Information and tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/535694144607 

Intercultural awareness in the workplace

Online 17 June 2023  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/533399421027 

In person 24 June 2023 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/530208356467 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch at lincs.cpd@hw.ac.uk.  

We look forward to welcoming you this summer. 

Gary Quinn, from the BSL section of LINCS, was invited to give a presentation about BSL Science Signs at the STEM Sign Language Lexicon Founders and Leaders Workshop at Gallaudet University in Washington on 2^nd March.

This photo of Gary is courtesy of Dr. Erin Moriarty-Harrelson (one of the Mobile Deaf team). The man next to Gary is an interpreter, working from BSL to International Sign.

He gave a presentation about Ethics in relation to developing BSL Science Signs. The workshop aimed to develop principles that other countries could be encouraged to develop or expand upon in relation to signs for STEM terminology.

The BSL Science Signs Glossary was one of earliest to develop Science Signs, starting back in 2007, and the team have introduced their methods and approaches to the representatives of other countries who were also present at this meeting. This event was the first step towards preparing the first international conference for STEM signs, to take place next year.

LINCS hosted its annual multilingual debate on Wednesday 29 March. It was wonderful to be back on campus after an interruption of 3 years, to relaunch this special occasion on site.

This annual event has been running for more than twenty years now, and although it was disrupted by the pandemic and had to be held online in 2021, it is now back on our lovely campus.   

We welcomed high-school pupils from across Scotland in the James Watt Auditorium for this exciting annual fixture. The event is very much a joint venture, as it is supported by the school, by recruitment and by marketing, by estates and facilities, and by our internal AV services.  

We also benefit from the support of external partner AV Department, who supplied the equipment needed for interpreting and a team of specialised sound engineers to manage the complex equipment throughout the debate.  

We were honoured to welcome a panel of distinguished speakers: the French Consul Mme Laurence Pais, the Spanish Consul Mr Ignacio Cartagena, the co-director of the Scottish Confucius Institute for Business Dr Ping Zhang, Dr Mette Sommer-Lindsay and Juliette Rutherford from LINCS, and former MSc student Julia Honnacker. They all joined in the discussion and presented their arguments either in favour or against the motion:

“This house believes that social media is the best vehicle for free speech”.

Our guests’ statements were followed by engaging contributions from the 320-odd budding linguists from Scottish high schools who were in attendance, and they presented their questions in a number of the languages covered by our interpreters.  

Each of our guests and audience members were able to contribute to the debate in their native language thanks to our M.A. and MSc students. They provided live interpreting from French, Spanish, German, British Sign Language and Chinese, and worked back into these languages and more during interventions in English.  

It was a fantastic opportunity for our interpreting students to apply their skills to a genuine multilingual event, thus gaining a taste for what professional life will be like. It also gave high-school pupils a fantastic insight into the type of careers that are open to expert linguists, as well as a chance to visit our beautiful campus. The event has inspired many linguists who went on to join LINCS as students, and some of whom are now working for the European Institutions as conference interpreters.