Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow

• PhD (Linguistics)
• Professor of Translation Studies (retired) at ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

Agency and sustainability in the language professions: Socio-economic perspectives on translation in the (Gen)AI age

As digital advancements reshape communication, researchers need interdisciplinary methods to understand the cognitive processes involved. This essential reference for advanced students and researchers provides a comprehensive introduction to innovative research methods in cognitive translation and interpreting studies (CTIS). International experts...

Language industry studies and translator training

Over the last few decades, the English language has become prevalent throughout the world in the domains of international diplomacy, business, research, and technology and is becoming increasingly important in many other areas. Much research into the use of English as a lingua franca has focused on its role in fostering communication across linguis...

In many MA programmes, input about translation technology is provided in dedicated courses that run parallel to the practical courses. In a session in a revision course module, co-taught by the translation technology lecturer and a translation lecturer, students discovered the collaborative possibilities that CAT tools can offer.

Recent developments in machine translation (MT) might have led some people to believe that soon professional translation will not be needed, but most translator trainers are aware of the high demand for the quality that MT systems cannot deliver without human intervention. It is thus important that professional transla-tors, trainers and their stud...

In previous work, we have outlined the effects that English as a lingua franca (ELF) or, more specifically, the increasing number of non-standard English source texts (in specialized and public service translation) and speeches (in conference and community interpreting) can have on translation and interpreting (T&I) processing, performance, and qua...

The title of this chapter refers to the Aristotelian concept of phronesis, elucidated in Book VI of The Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle 2009, 2020). It is “a rational, truth-sensitive disposition that guides our actions with respect to what’s good for human beings” (Aristotle 2020: 142), based on “knowing the details of life” through the absolute pre...

Accelerating technological developments, especially artificial intelligence, are reshaping the way professional translators work, changing processes, tasking and demand structures. The recent improvements in the quality of raw machine translation (MT) output in many language versions have created increasing demand for MT post-editing, revision and...

The messy reality of non-comparable source texts, domain knowledge, experience, familiarity with tools, and emotional factors is difficult to reconcile with attempts to measure and describe cognitive processes involved in translation. The focus of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies includes both the micro level of cognitive processes in...

Up to now, the Handbook of Translation Studies (HTS) consisted of four volumes, all published between 2010 and 2013. Since research in TS continues to grow and expand, this fifth volume was added in 2021. The HTS aims at disseminating knowledge about translation, interpreting, localization, adaptation, etc. and providing easy access to a large rang...

Overview of the central role of the human in the loop as a value-adding factor in the many and varied language industry and professions provided for students of applied linguistics.

Many factors can affect the translation and interpreting process, but the quality of source texts has been explicitly identified as an issue in surveys of professional translators and interpreters as well as in recent workplace studies. If translators and interpreters encounter resistance in carrying out their tasks, for example by difficulties in...

Professional translation and consequently translation training involve a wide range of technological aids and translation tools. A great deal of effort has been devoted to developing and implementing features that can contribute to higher consistency, productivity and quality but less attention has been paid to the needs of learners and users. Rese...

MT literacy means knowing how MT works, how the technology can be useful in a particular context, and what the implications are of using it for various purposes. As MT usage grows, the necessity for MT literacy also grows. This knowledge forms part of the greater need for digital literacies. In this contribution, we relate MT literacy to the concep...

The linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neural processes underlying simultaneous interpreting and translation have attracted widespread interest in the research community. However, an understanding of the cognitive load associated with these bilingual activities is just starting to emerge, and the underlying behavioral and physiological mechanisms ar...

While increasing digitization is attractive in many domains, it is also a source of concern and scepticism in others. In education, especially in the areas of language learning and teaching, the introduction of digital tools can unnecessarily widen the gap between students and teachers if not done properly. Learners might value the accessibility an...

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the key issues shaping the language industry, including translation, interpreting, machine translation, editing, terminology management, technology and accessibility. By exploring current and future research topics and methods, the Companion addresses language industry stakeholders, researchers, trai...

From the publisher's website: This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the key issues shaping the language industry, including translation, interpreting, machine translation, editing, terminology management, technology and accessibility. By exploring current and future research topics and methods, the Companion addresses language industry s...

This volume presents recent research that follows translators, interpreters and translation project managers into their various work contexts and environments. It extends the scope of analysis of translation research from individuals and texts to collectives in their social and material worlds. Particular attention is paid to current translation an...

This special issue is devoted to training translator trainers, a remarkably neglected field of inquiry given the strong interest shown in translation pedagogy since translation studies first emerged as a discipline. The very term ‘trainer’ belies the complexity of roles and demands that these educators have to fulfil, some of which is captured in t...

The ubiquitous use of English by non-native speakers has become a hallmark of modern communication, even in a multilingual country with several national languages such as Switzerland. This phenomenon has prompted a great deal of research into English as a lingua franca (ELF), with most of it devoted to documenting its spread and investigating its c...

The translation process can be regarded as a complex system involving many agents, organizational factors such as workflow, communication processes, project management, job security, and translator status. Environmental factors in the physical sense (e. g. lighting, temperature, air quality, space) as well in the broader sense of the role of transl...

L’utilisation des technologies a conduit à s’intéresser à leur impact sur les processus cognitifs et les traductions. En se fondant sur des données émanant de traducteurs professionnels et d’étudiants, les auteurs s’interrogent sur la traduction outillée en tant qu’activité cognitive et organisationnelle. Ils recommandent que les traducteurs s’appr...

A History of Modern Translation Knowledge is the first attempt to map the coming into being of modern thinking about translation. It breaks with the well-established tradition of viewing history through the reductive lens of schools, theories, turns or interdisciplinary exchanges. It also challenges the artificial distinction between past and prese...

Once largely focussed on problem-solving and translation products, translation research is transitioning to a broader interest in the organizational and societal conditions in which translators work. For a number of years, research techniques have been tested and used in the laboratory to measure, quantify, and objectively describe language process...

The contributions of this volume explore the dynamics of the interface between the cognitive and situational levels in translation and interpreting. Until relatively recently, there has been an invisible line in translation and interpreting studies between cognitive research (e.g., into mental processes or attitudes) and sociological research (e.g....

Public discourse about energy policies plays a key role in the successful implementation of the Swiss energy strategy. The interdisciplinary research project Energy Discourses in Switzerland focuses on the patterns of language use related to energy policy. Patterns of language use are understood and analyzed as drivers or constraints of democratic...

According to the International Ergonomics Association, a focus on organizational ergonomics recognizes that people work within socio-technical systems that encompass tools, equipment, and computer interfaces as well as other actors in their professional environment and networks. In recent research, we have started investigating such socio-technical...

CAT tools have become a fixture of professional translation over the last two decades yet are still treated with suspicion or disinterest by many freelancers. Acknowledged to contribute to consistency and speed, they can constrain and otherwise negatively affect the translation process in various ways. Surveys of professional translators and observ...

The information, events and voices that receive media attention are highly dependent on their linguistic form – when the language is accessible to journalists, the news is more likely to enter public discourse. If the voices are in languages other than that of the region the journalist is writing for, then translation strategies can influence not o...

This chapter presents recent empirical evidence to illustrate how a different discipline, ergonomics, can provide insights into the physical, cognitive, and organizational factors that impinge on translation. The organizational factors may seem more relevant to staff translators, but freelancers are also part of a system of translational action. Fe...

Encountered at all levels of language, conceptual asymmetries between source and target languages present translators with fundamental challenges that require problem awareness, problem identification and problem solving. A case in point is conceptual metaphor in translation. Versions of conceptual metaphor theory have been applied in various produ...

Machines are learning fast, and human translators must keep pace by learning about, with and from them. Deep learning (DL) and neural machine translation (NMT) are set to change the face of translation and the distributions of primary tasks, with TAUS predicting Fully Automatic Useful Translation (FAUT) by 2030. Although theoretical and practical c...

Translation process research is moving out of controlled settings, such as classrooms and laboratories, into the reality of professional workplaces. Some of the inherent challenges can be partly addressed with multi-method approaches, but ecologically valid investigations of practice demand flexibility from both researchers and practitioners. We ar...

Eine Fachhochschule wie die ZHAW ist verpflichtet, es ihren Studierenden zu ermöglichen, auch praxisnahes Wissen zu erwerben. Doch was heisst Praxisnähe im Fall der Übersetzerausbildung? Die Ansichten darüber widerspiegeln sich in der neueren Entwicklung der Übersetzungswissenschaft: Auf die blosse Textorientierung folgte eine vermehrte Auseinander...

Machines are learning fast, and human translators must keep pace by learning with, from and about them. Deep learning (DL) and neural machine translation (NMT) are set to change the reality of translation and the distributions of tasks. Although theoretical and practical courses on computer-aided and/or machine translation abound, less attention ha...

Der hier beschriebene "optimale" Arbeitsplatz enthält die Quintessenz aus Beiträgen aus dem Blickwinkel der persönlichen Selbstorganisation der Kapitelverantwortlichen, der Ergonomie, untermauert durch Erkenntnisse aus einem kürzlich abgeschlossenen Foschungsprojekt der ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften zur Ergonomie am Übersetz...

With an increased societal focus on issues such as climate change, the way governments communicate with their citizens about energy policy has grown in importance. The complexity of Switzerland’s official multilingualism makes this process worthy of critical consideration. In particular, the federal government website presents an interesting test c...

Despite the fact that professional translation is characterized by human-machine interaction, the ergonomics of the professional translation workplace is relatively under-researched. In order to gain further insights into how translators worldwide have set up and organized their workplaces, an anonymous online survey was developed by a team of rese...

Most professional translators in the Western world are heavy computer users and thus may be exposed to health risks known to be associated with computer work. These include musculoskeletal ailments of the upper extremities, back, shoulders, arms, hands and problems with the eyes. This paper reports on the findings of workplace assessments and inter...

Reembedding Translation Process Research is a rich collection of empirical research papers investigating important new facets of the relationship between translation and cognition. The common thread running through the collection is the notion of “re-embedding” the acts of translating and interpreting—and the ways we understand them. That is, they...

In a recently published chapter, Kiraly and Hofmann (2015: 70-72) criticise the compartmentalised “patchwork quilt” of courses in the linear, subcompetence-oriented curricular design resulting from the Bologna Process. Instead, they propose an emergentist multi-vortex model of competence development (Kiraly 2015: 81-85; see also Kiraly 2013: 209-21...

see attached presentation

For more than a decade, action research has been explicitly advocated as a practical and practicable tool in translation studies. Over the same period, it has been used to research translator education, with qualitative case studies regarded as a viable means to help teachers and institutions better understand what translation competence is and how...

Translation is a complex cognitive activity carried out in different settings by translators that share an increasingly heavy reliance on language technology. This raises the question of whether translators’ ergonomic needs are being met at their workplaces and by the tools they use. Findings from an exploratory survey study of staff translators in...

Translation can be understood as a language product, as an activity, or as an important sector of the economy, but it always involves people interacting with texts, translation aids, and other people. Professional translators perform the demanding cognitive act of producing reader-appropriate texts in a target language while simultaneously processi...

For more than a decade, action research has been explicitly advocated as a practical and practicable tool in translation studies in general (e.g. Hatim 2001; Cravo and Neves 2007) as well as in specialised subdomains such as audiovisual translation (e.g. Neves 2005, Bogucki 2013). Over the same period, it has been used to research translator educat...

The increasing use of language technology tools, such as translation memory, termbanks, and online dictionaries, has prompted an interest in their impact on cognitive processes, creativity, and the quality of translation products. Originally designed to improve consistency and increase speed, tools also facilitate searches for information and the r...

he increasing use of language technology tools, such as translation memory systems, termbanks, and online dictionaries, has prompted an interest in their impact on cognitive processes, creativity, and the quality of translation products. Ideally, CAT tools relieve translators of the tedium involved with text production and help them to find creativ...

Reports from the last two LIND-Web (2012, 2013) language industry forums call for the closer integration of universities, industry and associations in order to increase student contact with professional practice, heighten awareness of productivity requirements and broaden exposure to fast-moving technological developments. The perceived gap between...

The increasing use of language technologies has prompted an interest in their impact on cognitive processes and translation products. Potential issues related to human-machine interactions include working conditions, time and resource management, and emotional factors. Drawing on a large corpus of translation processes collected from professionals...

Since the 1980s, translation research has been developing and implementing tools and techniques to investigate the processes behind translation products, and the effects of those processes on the quality of target texts. Models of translation competence have been built and tested, key aspects of which have found their way into translator training p...

Translation usually takes place at translators' workplaces, yet much translation process research refers to data collected under controlled conditions such as the classroom or the lab. Pursuant with recent descriptions of translation as a situated activity comes the necessity of investigating that activity where and when it occurs. Many of the meth...

This chapter explores the interface between translation studies and ergonomics, especially those factors that can affect cognitive processing. Professional translators perform a challenging multi-activity task involving receptive and productive language proficiency, advanced information literacy skills, and a high degree of instrumental competence....

One of the major challenges in translation process research has been establishing its rele-vance to the quality of products. Comparisons of individuals with different levels of experi-ence can and have been used in attempts to identify the parameters associated with transla-tion competence. The present article explores how various quantitative meas...

Krings’ (1986) description of translation in terms of three phases (Vorlauf, Hauptlauf, Nachlauf) has provided a framework for considering the process both from an external perspective, as part of a system (e.g. Schubert 2009), and internally, as a cognitive activity (e.g. Englund Dimitrova 2005; Göpferich 2008). In the latter case, comparisons hav...

In many experimental studies on assessing post-editing efficiency, idiosyncratic user interfaces isolate translators from transla-tion aids that are available to them in their daily work. In contrast, our experimen-tal design allows translators to use a well-known translator workbench for both con-ventional translation and post-editing. We find tha...

Translation is an event involving a variety of agents and at the same time a cognitive act forming part of the event (Chesterman 2011, Toury 2012). Professional translators live “in a crowd”, interfacing and interacting with all kinds of partners involved both in the event and the act of translation, and team translation is rapidly becoming the nor...

The parallels between writing research and translation process research range from the objects of study (text producers and texts) to the methods employed in investigating them. Similar to writing research, translation studies has recently moved from an almost exclusive focus on products towards considering workplace and cognitive processes and the...

Indicators of cognitive ergonomic issues have been identified in a large corpus of data collected in a recently completed longitudinal study of translation competence. Models of situated cognition, translation competence, and organizational constraints provide the framework to assess and describe their potential impact on the situated activity of p...

Translation is a situated activity that involves more than simply producing target texts from source texts. In order to understand what translators actually do when they translate, their psycho-biographies as well as the social setting of the workplace and the contextual resources must be considered. In this paper, we outline how a mixed-method app...

Although optimal implementation of technology has become a prerequisite to operating efficiently in the domain of commercial translation, systematic research has only recently begun focusing on how translation tools and resources are impacting translators’ practices. People trained as knowledge workers are increasingly expected to be highly compete...

Globalization and media convergence have given rise to novel forms of news networks and markets in various languages all over the world; a diversity that poses increasing challenges for journalists and editors of foreign news. Although not educated as professional translators, journalists constantly work between languages during text production in...

In the move from an almost exclusive focus on products towards processes, translation studies researchers have begun to examine the effects of those processes on the quality of the target texts. Translation products are the result of the interaction between societal expectations of what translations should be and those practices and competences tha...

Although not always labeled as such, information literacy has been implicitly recognized as a key aspect of translation competence by practitioners, teachers, and scholars. Yet, researchers have only recently begun to systematically examine information behavior in the translation processes of students and professionals to determine how translation-...

Translation pedagogy has long recognised the importance of students reflecting on the decisions made and actions taken during translation as a means of acquiring translation competence. It therefore follows that the evaluation of translation can be aided by knowledge not only of the product, but also of the process by which it came about. Until rel...

Although in recent years English has become a lingua franca of the business and research world, the need for well-trained professional translators and interpreters has actually increased as more companies and governments reach outside of their language area. Since translation is an economic activity, there are commercial interests and needs to cons...

The volume includes contributions on the cognitive processes underlying translation and interpreting, which represent innovative research with a methodological and empirical orientation. The methodological section offers an assessment/validation of different time lag measures; discusses the challenges of interpreting keystroke and eye-tracking data...

Although technical and instrumental competence feature prominently in translation competence models and profiles, systematic cognitive research has only recently focused on how they develop, how they can be fostered, and how today's technologies, tools and information resources are impacting on the workplace processes and practices of translators....

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As translation research moves towards investigating translation processes and not just products, researchers have begun to examine the effects of those processes on the quality of target texts. Translation products result from the interaction between expectations of what translations should be and those practices and competences by which translator...

Although technical and instrumental competence feature large in translation competence models (e.g. PACTE 2009, Göpferich 2009) and profiles (e.g. EMT expert group 2009), systematic cognitive research has only recently begun on how they develop, how they can be fostered, and how today's technologies, tools and information resources are impacting on...