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Prof. de limba engleza Iordache MihaelaScoala cu cls. I-VIII Scundu

The importance of technical translations and teaching them to students

In recent years there has been an increasing amount of technical texts to betranslated into Romanian from nglish and from nglish into Romanian due to thegro!ing number of economical relations bet!een our country and the members of the "

and not only.Translation can be integrated in the larger field of semiotics !hich is the sciencethat deals !ith the sign system# sign process and sign functions. These principals !erestated for the first time by the $rench linguist Saussure# !ho regards language as a systemof signs !hich in their turn con%ey ideas. The process of con%eying the sign system of alanguage into another language is called translation.

Susan &assnett formulates one of the most technical definitions of translation. Thetranslation in%ol%es the rendering of a source language text into the target languagema'ing sure that the surface meaning of the t!o !ill be preser%ed as closely as possible#

but not so closely that the target language structures !ill not be seriously distorted.The main problem of translations !hether there is a full e(ui%alence or not. There

is not a perfect synonymy bet!een terms used in different languages. )e can distinguishthree types of translation texts* scientific-technological# institutional-cultural and literarytexts. The difficulties encountered by +sci-tech, translators lie in the source languageneologisms# the lac' of certain appropriate technical terms in the target language and the%ariety of semi-synonymous technical terms. This is the case of $rench language !herethe linguists ha%e in%ented a series of ne! terms for the nglish e(ui%alents. They fearedthat there !ere too many nglish neologisms introduced and their language !ould

become suffocated by them. These ne! !ords introduced !ere mainly technical termsfrom the field of computer science.

The problematic nature of translation only becomes apparent !hen the transfer of meaning ob%iously fails and communication is pre%ented. Probably e%eryone !ho has

stayed in another country and language region has experienced failed communication inthe form of misunderstandings in situations of daily life. The &abylonian language chaoscreates barriers to communication. The success of technical communication in aninternational context depends on translation. Increasing internationalization and in

particular theof unification in urope raise the (uestion of the status of the transfer of meaning and the act of translating !ith a ne! urgency. Translation-orientated !or' in thefield of terminology represents a desideratum of research in adult education. "p to no! it

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has mainly been conducted by supranational organizations " S/0 in particular hasmade endea%ours in the field of international language standardization 1cf. Titmus etal. 2 3435. 6gainst the bac'drop of the uropean process of integration# !or' in the fieldof multilingual terminology in adult education is becoming more urgent all the time. Thisis %erified by the terminologies !hich ha%e been published recently 1cf. / $ 70P

23385. 9o!e%er# they are restricted in the main to %ocational training# because this is!here business and politics generate a mounting call for a standardization of terminologyin urope. %ery examination of adult education in another language and culture area isto a particular extent confronted !ith the problems of translation and terminology . Theimportance of teaching technical features such as !eighs and measurements con%ersionsis a basic element in these types of translations. )rong or misleading translations cancause real problems !hen handling different machines.

0ne of the easiest !ay to teach and help students translate different technical textsis by sho!ing them graphs or images !here they can identify the main parts of an enginefor example. People usually respond better to %isual stimuli because they really see thecomponents and not only imagine them.

Students ere gi%en the tas' to describe the gi%en images# first !ithout thetechnical support and after!ards using also the text. This tas' has been both successful!ith students and teachers too. The students thin' that these sorts of acti%ities facilitatelearning of specific terminology and boost creati%ity.

This is one example of the method of translating a scientific text !ith the help of an image and of a text. The students are as'ed to describe the picture belo! !ithoutloo'ing at the technical details gi%en into the text attached to it. This is an image of the :-stro'e internal combustion engine. If the teacher notices that the students ha%e a hardtime in describing rhe image he should try to use their pre%ious 'no!ledge and try todetermine students to use a technical terms dictionary in !hich there are appropriatedefinitions. 6fter ans!ering the teacher;s (uestions and trying to describe as !ell as they

can the image the students are as'ed to read the text to be translated carefully payingattention to the technical !ords used in the text. 6n important part in translating technicaltexts is the use of an appropriate dictionary.

9ere is an example of teaching translations of scientific text*

This is an animated computer drawing of one cylinder of the Wright brothers' 1903 aircraftengine. This engine powered the first, hea ier than air, self!propelled, maneu erable, pilotedaircraft" the Wright 1903 #lyer. The engine consisted of four cylinders li$e the one shown abo e,with each piston connected to a common cran$shaft . The cran$shaft was connected to twocounter!rotating propellers which produced the thrust necessary to o ercome the drag of theaircraft. The brothers' design is ery simple by today's standards, so it is a good engine for students to study to learn the fundamentals of engine operation. This type of internal combustionengine is called a four-stroke engine because there are four mo ements, or stro$es, of thepiston before the entire engine firing se%uence is repeated. The four stro$es are described belowwith some still figures. &n the animation and in all the figures, we ha e colored the fuel air inta$esystem red, the electrical system green, and the e(haust system blue. We also represent thefuel air mi(ture and the e(haust gases by small colored balls to show how these gases mo ethrough the engine. )ince we will be referring to the mo ement of arious engine parts, here is afigure showing the names of the parts*+

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/engparts.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/powert.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/propeller.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thrust1.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/drag1.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/icengine.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/stroke.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/fuelsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/fuelsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/elecsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/engexhs.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/engparts.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/powert.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/propeller.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thrust1.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/drag1.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/icengine.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/stroke.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/fuelsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/fuelsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/elecsys.htmlhttp://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/engexhs.html

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$rom the methodological perspecti%e of this perspecti%e of translating texts thereare three stages one may follo!*

-detailed obser%ation of the image in relation to the text-selection of rele%ant aspects to be described and establishing a logical order of

presentation-describing the image.The description should consider the follo!ing aspects*a5 minimizing orality mar'ers* +!e ha%e,# + !e can see,

b5 choosing simple grammatical structuresc5 considering the rele%ance of incorporating forms and references to colour

1depending on the addressee5d5 tac'ling !ith care forms based on %isual elements* it can be obser%ed# as

sho!n# as seene5 concision and precision in choosing the lexical elements to be usedf5 using specific terminology related to the ob