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Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting in Non-Governmental Organisations
Edited by Wine Tesseur
[Translation Spaces 7:1] 2018
► pp. 20–43

Training citizen translators

Design and delivery of bespoke training on the fundamentals of translation for New Zealand Red Cross

ORCID logo | University College London, UK
ORCID logo | Dublin City University, Ireland
Translators and interpreters have been shown to play an important role in supporting the activities of NGOs involved in crisis communication scenarios. However, there is little evidence of whether standardized training materials or technological assistance are required by or would be beneficial to quickly recruited ‘citizen translators’ working in these environments. This article will present a study of the design, delivery, and preliminary evaluation of a set of training materials developed for use in a citizen translation project run by New Zealand Red Cross (NZRC) with the support of the EU H2020-funded International Network on Crisis Translation (INTERACT). The article describes the training materials and discusses the epistemological and didactic issues that were faced in their design and delivery. Findings from the article will be of interest to those seeking to understand citizen translation and issues involved in working with an NGO on translator training.
Keywords: NGOs, citizen translators, translation pedagogy, New Zealand Red Cross, International Network on Crisis Translation (INTERACT), public service translation, community translation
Article outline
  • Background to the project
  • Description of the course and its design
    • Lesson 1: Citizen translation as a process
    • Lesson 2: Effective writing
    • Lesson 3: Specialized language and Lesson 4: Identifying translation ‘rich points’
    • Lesson 5: Doing background research
    • Lesson 6: Developing revision techniques
    • Lesson 7: Thinking about re-usability and Lesson 8: Considering translation technology
  • Description of the course’s delivery
    • Recognized limitations
    • From self-reflective analysis to external evaluation
  • By way of conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00002.fed
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