ENG --- 2008-2009
INTERPRETATION 1
COURSE SYLLABUS
Semester |
Lectures | Seminars | Total | Credits |
| II | 15 | 30 | 45 | 4 |
Within the framework of the present drive towards the promotion of knowledge through wider access to specialist education and of the objective of improved employability through the acquisition of specialist competence, this intensive course is designed to equip students with the professional skills and knowledge required for conference interpreting. It seeks to meet the demand for highly-qualified conference interpreters, particularly in the area of consecutive interpreting. In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter renders the source-language message after the source-language speaker has finished delivering one paragraph, more than one paragraph, or the whole speech.
The philosophy of this course will be based on the following statement by AIIC Training Committee (2001, paragraph 1):
To interpret a speech is not to translate it word for word. To interpret a speech from its source language is to transfer its semantic, connotative and aesthetic content into another language, using the lexical, syntactic and stylistic resources of the second, or “target” language for that purpose. To interpret is first and foremost to understand the intended message perfectly. It can then be “detached” from the words used to convey it in the original and reconstituted, in all its subtlety, in words of the target language. Interpreting is a constant to-ing and fro-ing between different ways of thinking and cultural universes.
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ENG 377 - 2008-2009
INTERPRETATION 2
COURSE SYLLABUS
Semester |
Lectures | Seminars | Total | Credits |
| I | 15 | 15 | 30 | 3 |
Simultaneous interpreting is one of the most common kinds of interpreting, but also the most difficult. A simultaneous interpreter is someone who interprets for someone in another language while the speaker speaks without interruption. This is the opposite of consecutive interpreting, because a consecutive interpreter awaits his turn and does not start speaking until the speaker allows him the time to do so. Very often the terms “simultaneous interpreting” and “conference interpreting” are used interchangeably. According to the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) Training Committee (2001, 5.1):
“There are those who claim that one does not become a conference interpreter, that it is a gift that can be perfected, but, if it is not there, the best training in the world will be to no avail (‘interpreters are born not made’). The truth is that anybody intending to train as an interpreter needs knowledge and aptitude. It goes without saying that sound language skills and a broad knowledge base are also pre-requisites.”
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ENG 266 - 2008-2009
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
COURSE SYLLABUS
Semester |
Lectures | Seminars | Total | Credits |
| I | 15 | 30 | 45 | 3 |
This course of fifteen lectures introduces the student to the history of the English language, from its origins as a dialect of the Germanic-speaking peoples, through the literary and cultural documents of its 1500-year span, to the state of American speech of the present day. In addition to surveying the spoken and written forms of the language over time, the course also focuses on a set of larger social concerns about language use, variety, and change: the relationship between spelling and pronunciation; the notion of dialect and variation across geographical and social boundaries; the arguments concerning English as an official language and the status of a standard English; the role of the dictionary in describing and prescribing usage; and the ways in which words change meaning and, in turn, the ways in which English coins or borrows new words.
Each of these issues, charged with meaning in the present day, had historical examples. People have puzzled over these problems throughout time, and it will be the purpose of this course to illustrate the many ways in which speakers and writers of English, and its antecedents, confronted the place of language in society and culture.
In the course of these lectures, too, we will be looking at some special problems in the study of language generally—for example: how we describe and characterize language change over time; how we can accurately describe differences in pronunciation and, thus, recover earlier pronunciation habits; and how we can use the study of literature not only to chart the different periods of the English language, but to recognize how literary writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Twain, and others used the fluid resources of their language to grant meaning to a changing world.
Some of the approaches of this course will touch on linguistics. There will be a little bit of literary criticism. And, at times, it will call attention to the material culture of the book (specifically, how people read and wrote and what materials they used to do so). These are all issues that could demand full courses of their own. Our goal here, however, is to understand the great impact that studying the history of English can have on our appreciation of social, cultural, literary, and linguistic change. With these lectures, the student can find the history of English embedded in the words we use, the literature we read, and the everyday lives we lead.
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