Translation Technologies: Human Meets Machine (960Q3)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

With the advent of Google Translate, Siri and Alexa, the last decade has seen a huge increase of technologies claiming to help us to communicate. But can they ever really replace humans?

This module looks at how technology helps translators to communicate across different languages.

You will:

• study how machine translation works, particularly the coding of translation software and Natural Language Processing
• become familiar with translation software and databases used by translation agencies and major international institutions like the EU and UN
• explore using technology for audio-visual translation like subtitling, dubbing, live translation and précis writing.

Your studies will be theoretical, critical and practical. You will understand and be able to critique translation technologies. You’ll also develop the technical know-how required of working professional translators.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.