Santamaría Urbieta, A., & Alcalde Peñalver, E., (2024). Games and Much More for the Modern Languages and Translation Class. Brill.
Dive into the future of language education with our guide, blending innovation with practical application. Unlock the power of gamification, digital storytelling, and AI to make learning more engaging and effective. Transform classes into dynamic, interactive experiences that captivate students. Master classroom response systems and utilize social networks to enhance educational outcomes. This book is a must-have for educators seeking to revolutionize their teaching methods and bring languages to life. Get ready to elevate your teaching strategies and inspire your students. Embrace the change and lead the way in modern language education.
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(Edited Book) Santamaría Urbieta, A., & Alcalde Peñalver, E. (2023). Learning With Escape Rooms in Higher Education Online Environments. IGI Global.
Teachers, professors, and educational professionals have the opportunity to create new, challenging, significant, and interactive learning experiences for today’s students. Escape rooms are growing in popularity as they provide numerous benefits and opportunities for learning; however, the use of escape rooms in higher education is not always taken seriously.
Learning With Escape Rooms in Higher Education Online Environments proves that it is possible to take escape rooms to higher education with great results for both teachers and students by presenting different escape room proposals that are explained in detail with the instructions and materials used so that any teacher could replicate it in their subject. Covering key topics such as online learning, student learning, and computer science, this reference work is ideal for principals, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.
Read the book HERE
Alcalde Peñalver, E., & Santamaría Urbieta, A. (2019). Aproximación a la traducción financiera inglés-español. Editorial Comares.
La traducción financiera es de gran importancia hoy en día tanto por la relevancia de los documentos que se traducen como por su peso en el mercado laboral. Con esta obra las autoras ofrecen al lector la oportunidad de iniciarse en esta especialidad de una forma sencilla y práctica. A través de los distintos capítulos, el lector se adentrará en el concepto de traducción financiera y conocerá los principales textos que se traducen con frecuencia en este ámbito. Del mismo modo, se pretende que el lector aprenda a sistematizar una serie de pasos para realizar traducciones de textos financieros y que pueda aplicar las técnicas más adecuadas para resolver los problemas de traducción que se puedan presentar.
Asimismo, se presentarán los principales recursos que ayudan al traductor en este campo. En definitiva, a través de las distintas páginas, el lector aprenderá las principales características de la traducción financiera, conocerá el mercado en el que se desarrolla, los tipos de clientes, textos con los que se trabajan y los entresijos de la traducción del discurso de las finanzas. Además, encontrará diferentes actividades para poner en práctica la teoría que se desarrolla y aplicar y afianzar los conocimientos que vaya adquiriendo para resolver los problemas de traducción de manera satisfactoria. Esperamos que disfruten con su lectura y que la obra despierte un interés en el lector para seguir profundizando en el conocimiento de una de las especialidades de traducción más demandadas en la actualidad.
Enlace al libro AQUÍ
Alcalde Peñalver, E., & Santamaría Urbieta, A. (2019). Translation and Communication in the Promotion of Business Tourism: Emerging Research and Opportunities. IGI Global.
The rapid growth of the tourism industry has played a crucial role in the economic development of many countries worldwide. As competition increases in the sector, destinations must adopt effective business strategies and invest in human resources to encourage more travel. A key area needing more focus is translation in marketing efforts.
"Translation and Communication in the Promotion of Business Tourism: Emerging Research and Opportunities" provides an in-depth analysis of translation in business tourism, highlighting its importance according to market needs, discussing primary models of these specializations, and presenting empirical data from a corpus of texts in English and Spanish. These examples illustrate best practices for handling texts in this context. The publication explores themes such as international travel, global communication, and international business. It is aimed at business professionals, managers, policymakers, translators, marketers, advertisers, researchers, students, and others involved in the industry academicians.
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This exploratory study employs Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a theoretical framework for analysing knowledge practices across disciplinary and social contexts, to elucidate the construction and legitimisation of financial knowledge on TikTok, a platform witnessing a surge in informal financial literacy education. A meticulously curated multimodal corpus of financial influencer ('finfluencer') videos (n=100; 50 English, 50 Spanish) underwent rigorous analysis utilising key LCT constructs. Specifically, we examined semantic gravity (the degree to which meaning relates to specific contextual referents) and semantic density (the concentration of meaning within symbols or practices) to generate nuanced semantic profiles that illuminate knowledge-building practices. Empirical semantic profile mapping revealed a striking dichotomy: English-language videos predominantly exhibited prosaic codes, characterised by high interconnectivity between financial concepts and everyday applications, facilitating accessibility whilst maintaining conceptual coherence. Conversely, Spanish-language videos manifested primarily rarefied codes, distinguished by abstract financial terminology with limited contextual grounding and reduced practical interconnections. This linguistic divergence intimates that cultural and linguistic milieus profoundly shape the contours of financial knowledge dissemination across digital platforms. Further comparative analysis revealed a significant correlation between finfluencer popularity metrics and discourse characteristics; those with larger followings tended towards weaker semantic gravity and greater abstraction, corroborating theoretical postulations that elevated platform status bolsters claims to knowledge legitimacy. The findings underscore LCT's efficacy in illuminating the intricate interplay among cultural contexts, platform-specific power hierarchies, and symbolic capital in the online propagation of financial concepts. This research offers valuable insights into the multifaceted dynamics of knowledge legitimisation in digital spaces, potentially informing future strategies for developing cross-cultural financial literacy programmes that acknowledge diverse knowledge-building practices.
Keywords: Legitimation Code Theory; discourse analysis; TikTok; financial literacy development; cross-cultural communication
This study, conducted at a fully online Spanish higher education institution, documents the validation of a bespoke quality assessment tool designed to measure the susceptibility of formative assignments to AI academic misconduct. The research explored the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies in the Humanities. The framework study consisted of four stages: the design of a rubric (Stages 1–3) and its large-scale validation (Stage 4) through a field test in the Translation and Interpreting Studies Bachelor's Degree. This paper presents stage 4 results where lecturers (n = 29), using a bottom-up approach, voluntarily applied the tool to their teaching contexts and analysed assignments (n = 151) using the rubric, revealing significant vulnerabilities in assessments easily converted by GenAI or lacking originality and collaboration. The findings guided AI-integrated assessment designs that encourage complexity, creativity, and ethical engagement. This study outlines effective GenAI practices in assessment design and emphasises innovative methods for academic integrity in higher education.
Keywords: AI, assessment, higher education, institutional regulation development, rubric
The objective of this document, titled “Best Practices for Creating and Conducting Educational Escape Rooms: A Comprehensive Guide for Teachers” (or “IGLUE Best Practices” for short), is to present guidelines and recommendations for helping teachers of any educational level and knowledge area to design, build, execute, and evaluate educational escape rooms considering different formats (physical, virtual, and hybrid) and delivery modes (face-to-face and remote). The guidelines and recommendations defined in this document (also referred to as practices) cover the whole life cycle of educational escape rooms and have been organised according to the phases of this cycle: design, build, execution, and evaluation.
Download the document here: https://oa.upm.es/88943/1/IGLUE_Best_Practices_v1_EN.pdf
This paper presents the development and application of the PANDORA GenAI Susceptibility Rubric, a novel tool designed to assess the susceptibility of higher education assessments to the undeclared use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. In response to growing concerns about academic integrity and the rising sophistication of GenAI technologies, the rubric provides educators with a structured framework to critically evaluate the validity of their assessments across key criteria, including collaborative authorship, intellectual task complexity, and the opportunity for creativity. Through a mixed-methods design, the rubric was refined to include expert-informed modifications and validated through end-user application across various arts and humanities courses. Results highlight how assessment design can either mitigate or exacerbate GenAI susceptibility, revealing that tasks requiring genuine collaboration, creative thinking, and process-oriented evaluation offer greater resistance to AI manipulation. The rubric also emphasises balancing detailed guidance with student autonomy to avoid facilitating GenAI prompt formulation. This study contributes to the field by offering a practical instrument that promotes more robust, ethically sound, and future-proofed assessment practices. It serves as a critical response to the pressing challenges posed by GenAI in higher education and informs ongoing discourse on academic integrity.
Keywords: Academic integrity; assessment design; generative AI; higher education; susceptibility rubric.
Environmental sustainability is a topic that has gained increasing importance in recent years and is indeed part of the objectives set by the United Nations as part of the Agenda 2030. This has also become evident in the field of translation, as documents such as companies' sustainability reports have emerged, which need to be available to investors in different languages. There is a lack of information regarding previous investigations into the potential benefits of incorporating environmental sustainability themes into university-level translation studies. Whether such an approach can effectively raise student awareness and understanding of critical environmental issues remains unclear. Therefore, this study, grounded in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) principles, is based on a didactic experience in which a questionnaire is distributed among students enrolled in a Financial Translation course. The aim is to understand their perception of how a translation activity within the ESP context can promote specific knowledge about a subject and raise awareness about it. The results show that, indeed, translation can become a transformative practice for students to acquire specific knowledge and form their own opinion on current topics such as sustainability. This study contributes to the literature on ESP by highlighting the potential of translation as a tool for developing language proficiency, subject-specific knowledge, and critical thinking skills within a specialised domain.
Keywords: Transformative practices, sustainability, translation, English for Specific Purposes.
Educational escape rooms have become a useful tool for teachers who want to engage their students and attract their attention to the content taught. Also, they have been found to be valuable in improving learner outcomes, perceptions, and engagement in higher education. Although much attention has been placed on students’ opinions when playing educational escape rooms, not much attention has been placed on the importance of the design process, and little research has investigated the effectiveness of hint strategies in optimising participant experiences and learning outcomes. In this study, and through a process mining approach, the hints strategies of four online educational escape rooms at the university level are determined. The games were designed with the software Escapp, which allows researchers to collect students’ trace log data during the escape rooms. With this data, we calculated descriptive statistics for each escape room, studied the relationship between hints and performance, and to take into account the temporal aspect of students’ actions, we employed process mining to investigate the transitions between actions and the role of hints in helping students solve the puzzles. Results show that the use of hints was generally low and that participants relied more on their own problem-solving skills. However, there were instances in which hints were requested and correlated with longer gameplay duration and a higher number of failed attempts. In conclusion, the present study addresses a gap in the existing literature, which highlights, after our analysis, the need for careful consideration of hint design and delivery strategies.
Keywords: educational escape rooms, hints, game-based learning, learning analytics, process mining.
Introducción: Las redes sociales se han convertido en medios de comunicación a los que los ciudadanos recurrimos con frecuencia no solo para entretenernos, sino también para obtener información actualizada sobre un tema concreto. Los medinfluencers, personas que se dedican a la divulgación de temas relacionados con la salud y el bienestar, aparecen con frecuencia en redes sociales. Metodología: Con el objetivo de determinar el discurso, tanto escrito como oral, que estos emplean tanto en lengua española como en lengua inglesa, se han analizado un total de 200 publicaciones de Instagram, 100 en español y 100 en inglés. Resultados: Los resultados dan muestra de que existen diferencias entre ambas lenguas, puesto que la lengua española tiende al detalle, mientras que en lengua inglesa se prefiere ser más directo y no ser tan exhaustivo en cuanto a la información que se le da al receptor. Discusión: Estudios como los que aquí se presentan, así como sus resultados, no pretenden ser únicamente datos que describan un tipo de discurso concreto, sino que buscan servir de utilidad para la didáctica de determinados campos de conocimiento como pueden ser la traducción, la interpretación, la lingüística, la corrección de textos o la comunicación. Conclusiones: De entre las principales conclusiones que se extraen en este estudio, destacamos la tendencia de la lengua española por ser más didáctica en sus explicaciones, mientras que la lengua inglesa resulta ser más directa y concisa. Asimismo, en cuanto a los elementos multimodales, nuevamente, la lengua española los emplea con mayor frecuencia que la inglesa. Todo esto da muestra de que el medinfluencer en español pretende ser didáctico y enseñar, mientras que en inglés este tiene como objetivo únicamente informar.
Keywords: elementos metacomunicativos, medinfluencers, Instagram, lengua inglesa, lengua española, multimodalidad.
An exploratory analysis of tertiary education GenAI academic integrity policies has been undertaken, to examine provision for international students, having been identified as vulnerable to bias and integrity challenges associated with these technologies. A qualitative document analysis of 131 HE institutions (HEI) policies across 11 countries reveals mostly scant consideration of international students' needs, with the majority lacking any explicit provision. A subsequent SWOT analysis of exceptions to this generally indicates strengths in acknowledging diverse learner assumptions but weaknesses regarding specificity in articulating tailored expectations and support. These novel findings suggest international students have been largely overlooked by HEIs here despite generally significant economic contributions, reflecting the tenets of the commodification of HE. Results also highlight an urgent need to address gaps by incorporating international student voices in policy development. Not addressing these issues risks exacerbating frictions, undermining academic integrity, and further disadvantaging this group in policy responses to GenAI.
Keywords: international students, generative artificial intelligence, academic integrity, policy analysis, higher education
La actividad del traductor se desarrolla en un mercado dinámico y cambiante, en el que la evolución de la tecnología supone la adaptación a nuevos requisitos y necesidades en la profesión. Una formación de calidad en el ámbito universitario que propicie la empleabilidad de los egresados tiene que reflejar estos cambios, pero la carrera académica del profesor universitario en España, país en el que se centra este trabajo, no siempre permite un contacto directo y constante con el mercado. Por ello, en este artículo se pretende examinar el mercado laboral actual de la traducción para determinar cuáles podrían ser las nuevas profesiones a las que optarían los futuros egresados en el grado en Traducción e Interpretación, y a partir de los resultados que se obtengan, exponer lo que necesitan saber los formadores de traductores para responder a dicho mercado y al subsiguiente. Con este fin, se llevó a cabo un estudio de ofertas de trabajo siguiendo una metodología de corpus, lo que permite obtener información sobre los requisitos actuales del mercado y debatir sobre cómo reflejar estas nuevas necesidades en la formación en traducción a nivel universitario.
Keywords: competencia traductora, empleabilidad en traducción, formación de docentes de traducción, formación de traductores e intérpretes, profesionalización de la traducción y de la interpretación.
This systematic review investigates the current state of research on Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and its implications for (EMI) Higher Education. The study employs a methodology based on an evidence-informed and theoretically credible framework to answer two research questions: (1) What studies of relevance to (EMI) Higher Education have been published thus far, considering the most recent developments of GenAI? and (2) Which key areas are currently lacking in extant literature and in need of further scholarly exploration in this regard in (EMI) Higher Education research? The results of the study reveal a limited number of pertinent publications, indicating a sparse scholarly landscape with a dearth of work on the implications of Generative AI in EMI Higher Education. Based on these findings, preliminary recommendations have been made to guide future research in this area. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the need for further research on the potential of GenAI to enhance the teaching and learning experience in (EMI) Higher Education and provides a theoretical framework to guide future research. These findings may inform researchers and educators interested in exploring how GenAI may be leveraged from different educational perspectives.
Keywords: English as a Medium of Instruction, generative artificial intelligence, Higher Education, qualitative research synthesis, systematic review.
Purpose. An evidence-informed framework was developed to facilitate the formulation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) academic integrity policy responses for English Medium Instruction (EMI) higher education responding to both the bespoke challenges for the sector and longstanding calls to define and disseminate quality implementation good practice. Design. A virtual nominal group technique engaged experts (n=14) in idea generation, refinement and consensus building across asynchronous and synchronous stages. Resulting qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics, respectively. Findings. The GenAI Academic Integrity Policy Development Blueprint for EMI Tertiary Education is not a definitive mandate but represents a roadmap of inquiry for reflective deliberation as institutions chart their own courses in this complex terrain. Originality. The novel blueprint represents a step towards bridging concerning gaps in policy responses worldwide and aims to spark discussion and further much-needed scholarly exploration to this end. Research Limitations. If repeated with varying expert panellists, findings may vary to a certain extent; thus, further research with a wider range of stakeholders may be necessary for additional validation. Practical Implications. Whilst grounded within the theoretical underpinnings of the field, the tool holds practical utility for stakeholders to develop bespoke policies and critically re-examine existing frameworks. Social Implications. As texts produced by students using English as an additional language are at risk of being wrongly accused of GenAI-assisted plagiarism, owing to the limited efficacy of text classifiers such as Turnitin, the policy recommendations encapsulated in the blueprint aim to reduce potential bias and unfair treatment of students.
Keywords: generative artificial intelligence; English as a medium of instruction; higher education; academic integrity policy development; nominal group technique.
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) text generator tools and the potential challenges for higher education (HE) have characterised informal academic discussion on multiple fora. Specifically examining the case of English medium instruction (EMI) assessment academic integrity, this study sought to explore this conundrum by conceptualising threats and possible recommendations to counter these by creating a problem-solution matrix for key stakeholders considering the scarce academic literature available. An exploratory Delphi technique was employed as a way of generating ideas, gauging expert perspectives, and establishing consensus based on the premise of wisdom-of-(expert)-crowds. In the data collection stage, this new use of the mixed-methods methodology in the field included iterative Delphi questionnaire rounds and concurrent focus group sessions with a panel of 26 international experts. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, respectively. The resulting GenAI and EMI Assessment Problem-Solution Matrix is an empirically informed instrument for key stakeholders in EMI HE that exemplifies a range of GenAI-induced issues and recommendations as to how to proceed going forward in EMI HE pedagogical settings. This contributes to the field in line with broader theoretical assessment principles, particularly with those seeking to mitigate inequitable practices. Further contextual matters pertaining to social justice were highlighted, such as the effects of the massification and commodification of HE on the role of assessment in both EMI didactic contexts and others. The findings here take a step towards addressing the gaps identified but also represent a means of sparking much-needed further discussion in both extant literature and praxis.
Keywords: academic integrity; assessment; English as a medium of instruction; generative artificial intelligence; higher education
This paper focuses on a thematic analysis of the dissertations of students in the Master's Degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching of the courses 19/20, 20/21 and part of the course 21/22 in the specialty of the English language in Spain. For this purpose, a mixed research has been carried out, starting with a systematized review of the repositories of Spanish universities. A sample of 607 papers was used to establish seven basic thematic categories, from both an inductive perspective, taking into account previous research, and a deductive one, leaving room for emerging elements. The most recurrent themes refer to the categories of culture, English language skills and projects that focus on the use of innovative methodologies. Likewise, the most frequent thematic combinations have been studied, with culture and inclusion being the one with the highest incidence. The results reveal that the connection of English with the cultural component is still very present today, although the usual presence of innovative elements related to active methodologies or digital tools is observed in these incipient investigations.
Keywords: Master's degree dissertation; English language; teacher education; thematic trends.
La sostenibilidad en materia de medioambiente en el ámbito empresarial es un asunto que ha ido ganando en importancia en los últimos años. Ante esta situación, se han venido desarrollando políticas para la incorporación de este tipo de información en lo que se denomina el balance de sostenibilidad, la memoria anual de sostenibilidad o el informe de sostenibilidad, entre otros. Se trata de nuevas realidades textuales que surgen debido al avance de la legislación en materia financiera y que ya forman parte de la realidad de la profesión del traductor financiero. Este artículo analiza a nivel macro y microtextual este tipo de documentos publicados por empresas de España, Reino Unido y EE. UU. con el propósito de ofrecer una visión general sobre cómo se presenta la información en los informes en los distintos países en los que se publican y conocer en detalle el nivel de acercamiento al lector y los términos clave.
Keywords: corpus, sostenibilidad ambiental, género, informe de sostenibilidad, traducción financiera
Being Spanish one of the most frequent languages of study, this paper aims to analyze, through a SWOT study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Spanish for tourism textbooks so as to determine their present and future. In doing so, the authors of this manuscript have carried out a qualitative and quantitative study. After an online discussion with four experienced language teachers, we have elaborated an observation checklist that contributes to the field of study and could serve as a tool to analyse language textbooks. We have applied this observation checklist to analyse ten Spanish for tourism textbooks. Results show that textbooks in this field have been adapted to the new realities of language teaching but still fail to include important elements for the correct development of all the skills.
Keywords: Spanish for Tourism; SWOT; textbooks; Spanish for Specific Purposes.
Critical thinking skills are considered a key component of any teaching-learning process. Specifically, in the English for Specific Purposes class, these are important to enhance language skills. In this sense, audiovisual media can play a fundamental role and can be used for their development. Thus, this study aims to analyze students’ perceptions of the American financial system and its influence on the rest of the world with an activity that was designed using a three-phase methodology. The study is framed in the Financial Translation class in which special attention was also paid to oral as well as critical thinking skills. The Netflix documentary used for this purpose was Dirty Money, which deals with different financial issues related to the US economy and its influence in countries around the world. Results show that activities of this kind can contribute dynamically and engagingly to the development of critical thinking skills while enhancing students’ oral competency and the use of specialized terminology at the same time.
Keywords: Critical thinking, English for Specific Purposes, Netflix, terminology, US.
This study aims to explore the use of virtual storytelling as a way to enhance students’ language skills in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) –specifically Business English–, and to develop new literacies they could potentially apply in their future careers. To this end, in the theoretical framework, we review the literature related to the competencies and skills students need nowadays, the evolution of the use of storytelling in the physical classroom to its digital format for online settings, and its application in the ESP classroom. Then we analyze the results obtained from a survey in which respondents provided information on their perceptions after completing a digital storytelling activity. This data allow us to answer the research questions of our study. In the conclusion, we reflect on the importance of conducting this kind of study as a way to adapt training to the competencies and skills that students need to develop in the 21st century.
Keywords: digital storytelling; English for specific purposes; hybrid learning; Business English; 21st century skills.
COVID-19 has had an impact at all levels of education. In the field of foreign language learning, educators have had to adapt the techniques and tools that they used in the physical classroom to an online environment with the implications that this involves in many different ways such as it is the case of assessment. In this paper, we will describe the use of digital storytelling for English for Specific Purposes as part of a hybrid teaching scenario in a specialized translation course at the University of Alcalá (Spain). In an online context, digital storytelling involves many elements that technology imposes and thus assessment of students’ communicative competence can no longer be done traditionally. This paper aims to propose an assessment tool to help trainers evaluate students’ digital stories considering all the important elements of multimodal discourse, to adapt to this new teaching reality. This will be an innovative proposal since a comprehensive tool has not been created yet that goes beyond the mere assessment of communicative competence.
Keywords: assessment, blended learning, English for specific purposes, multimodal discourse, storytelling
The objective of this article is to reflect and make self-criticism on four previous publications elaborated jointly by the authors and in which a corpus methodology was used. For this purpose, the SWOT methodology (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) will be used, which will allow us to analyze, on the one hand, the direction towards which corpus-based translation studies are heading and, on the other, what would need to be maintained, improved or modified in publications of this type. Through a first theoretical analysis, in which a tour of corpus-based studies will be conducted, we will move on to present the methodology used to analyze, from a critical point of view, the four publications of the authors. We consider that this article will have a double effect at the teaching and research levels and that it will therefore benefit Translation Studies
Keywords: Self-criticism; Corpus; SWOT; Reflection; Translation.
The training of trainers in translation has been gaining weight in the research field. However, there are no previous studies that specifically analyze the training of university teachers who teach technology courses in university translation programs. For this reason, this study has the double objective of knowing and determining the technology training needs required by university translation teachers for their classes, as well as the solutions provided by universities in this regard. For data collection, we used as an instrument a questionnaire in which participated 26 teachers who teach courses of translation technology in different Spanish universities. The results show that the majority of teachers make a great effort in a particular way to be in line with the requirements of the market, but
there is no institutional support that responds to their needs to be up to date in technological matters.
Keywords: market, training the trainers, technology, translation.
In this paper, a gamification experience applied to a medical translation class will be presented in order to verify whether it is a success or failure as a way to improve students’ skills for the translation of texts of this area of specialization. First of all, the theoretical framework and the gamified activities that were developed will be presented. Then, the four research questions will be answered based on the information obtained from the participants’ perception of the experience, and we will reflect on the adequacy of this type of methodology for the didactics of medical translation.
Keywords: competencies, didactics, gamification, medical translation, specialized texts
In this paper we will describe the implementation of a breakout activity with the aim of demonstrating the differences observed in face-to-face and online classes. Through the chapter dedicated to the theoretical framework we will establish the basis of our study and this will help us to describe the evolution of the teaching practice from the face-to-face to the virtual form. Likewise, we will describe the possibilities that gamification offers to university teachers in both modalities. This article serves, on the one hand, to demonstrate that there are digital tools at our disposal that allow us to move from the face-to-face to the virtual classroom and, on the other hand, to find out what students think, the difficulties and facilities they have encountered and the motivation that this type of innovative practices bring to them.
Keywords: breakout; online teaching; gamification; face-to-face teaching; translation.
Computer-assisted translation tools are increasingly supplemented by the presence of machine translation (MT) in different areas and working environments, from technical translation to translation in international organizations. MT is also present in the translation of tourism texts, from brochures to food menus, websites and tourist guides. Its need or suitability for use is the subject of growing debate. This article presents a comparative analysis of tourist guides translated by a human translator and three machine translation systems. The aims are to determine a first approach to the level of quality of machine translation in tourist texts and to establish whether some tourist texts can be translated using machine translation alone or whether human participation is necessary, either for the complete translation of the text or only for post-editing tasks.
Keywords: machine translation, tourist translation, post-editing, human translator, translation quality
Recent research studies in translation devote increasing attention to the pivotal role that ergonomics plays in translators’ workplaces. However, there are no previous research studies that focus on how effective translators’ lifestyles are and provide results on how necessary it is to improve them. The aim of this paper is to show results from a pilot qualitative research study conducted in Spain with a focus group composed of a representative from four different professional profiles from the translation industry: a part-time employee at a translation company, a full-time employee at a translation company, a freelance translator, and an intern at a translation company. The focus group followed a non-structured interview and the list of topics ranged from changes in sleeping and eating patterns and regularity of physical activity depending on the volume of work translators had, to health problems related to these variations in their daily routines. Participants’ qualitative answers have shed light on the topic and have allowed us to develop a questionnaire that will be distributed internationally to compare data from different countries in a future study of a wider scope.
Keywords: Ergonomics, health, eating habits, physical activity, sleeping patterns, productivity
Este estudio pretende poner de manifiesto los desafíos que se afrontan en la práctica profesional de la traducción a la hora de reconocer la perspectiva feminista como un ámbito en el que necesitamos poner el foco de atención cuando se trabaja con textos relacionados con la prostitución. Sabedores de las dificultades que entraña una traducción que sitúe en pie de igualdad a hombre y mujer en el tratamiento de la prostitución, planteamos a un grupo de estudiantes sin formación específica previa en traducción un ejercicio práctico en el que debían traducir de inglés a español un artículo que aborda las complejidades sociales y culturales que emanan de concebir la prostitución en tanto que derecho humano. El objetivo de la actividad consistía en favorecer una reflexión sobre las implicaciones ideológicas que participan en la traducción de este tipo de textos, así como conocer el punto de vista y las herramientas de las que disponían para un encargo de estas características. El estudio se llevó a cabo en tres fases. Tras el análisis cualitativo de los resultados obtenidos corroboramos las implicaciones éticas del ejercicio de la traducción en la definición discursiva tanto de la mujer como del hombre en sentidos opuestos. Por ello, consideramos necesario seguir formando a estudiantes en traducción para que sean capaces de detectar las herramientas discursivas que contribuyen a afianzar los desequilibrios entre hombres y mujeres y los roles que quedan asignados en la sociedad.
Keywords: traducción – perspectiva femenina – prostitución – discurso – ideología – texto – reescritura
La globalización de los mercados y el creciente intercambio comercial entre países han conllevado un aumento de las reclamaciones judiciales debido a problemas relacionados con el fraude. Esto ha hecho que la auditoría forense cobre especial relevancia en el ámbito judicial, así como los informes periciales contables que surgen de su actividad, que se han convertido por tanto en un encargo habitual en traducción jurídico-económica. El objetivo de este artículo es realizar una primera aproximación a la caracterización de un informe pericial contable a través de un estudio de corpus comparable (inglés-español) ad hoc, lo que nos permitirá detallar su macroestructura y microestructura y analizar las principales unidades terminológicas que se encuentran para esta combinación lingüística. Esto permitirá conocer un poco más en detalle las principales características de este tipo de documentos como paso previo a su traducción.
Keywords: corpus, informe pericial contable, traducción jurídico-económica
La existencia de estereotipos y desigualdades de género en el ámbito laboral es una realidad existente a nivel mundial que ha sido demostrada con datos recabados en diferentes estudios. De forma específica, en el ámbito financiero el hombre sigue teniendo un rol predominante y la situación en América Latina podría definirse como peor en comparación con otras regiones del mundo. Sin embargo, la traducción financiera juega un papel fundamental en este ámbito y cuenta con una gran demanda en el mercado y su realización la llevan a cabo sobre todo profesionales del género femenino. Por ello, el objetivo general de este estudio piloto es mostrar una visión preliminar del mercado de la traducción financiera en América Latina desde el punto de vista de la mujer traductora. Para la obtención de los datos del estudio utilizamos un cuestionario, que nos ha permitido dar respuesta a las preguntas de investigación planteadas. Los resultados muestran una realidad profesional en la que la mujer desempeña una labor de gran importancia y en la que, en la mayoría de los casos, reciben poca visibilidad.
Keywords: traducción financiera, desigualdad de género, mujeres traductoras, ámbito laboral, América Latina
The aim of this study is to present an innovative teaching proposal implemented in the English classroom in a Translation Degree that can be replicated in other disciplines, and to analyse the potential for an activity like this one to have a very positive effect on the way students engage with and learn a second language. The study was based on the hypothesis that the use of an escape room, chosen here from a range of possible gamified activities, could enhance students’ motivation to learn a second language and serve as an enjoyable and cooperative way to help them develop oral and writing skills. This paper opens with a review of relevant research in the field of English language learning and analyses the potential benefits of introducing gamification techniques to the classroom. The next section details the method used in the study, including information about the instrument, the participants and the academic context. The activity implemented is also described. After that, the results of the study are presented and illustrated with examples from the data. Finally, some implications of the study are discussed.
Keywords: escape room; gamification; learning; innovation
The aim of this paper is to analyze the use of the term “compliance”, considered one of the most popular topics in the legal-economic field in 2017 and 2018 in the Spanish press to determine whether there is a preference for its use in English, for its translation into Spanish or for both options. A corpus methodology has been used to study the frequency of use of the term in two generalist newspapers (El País and La Vanguardia) and two specialized ones (Expansión and El Economista), during the period between January 2017 and October 2018. The results show a preference for the use of the term in English, although this trend is accentuated in the specialized press in comparison with the general press. From a terminological perspective this analysis helps develop training and the profession of the translator since it is a contribution for the acquisition of the lexical competence necessary for professional translation.
Keywords: compliance, corpus, terminology, press.
La falta de terminología normalizada para los numerosos términos que existen cuando explicamos un proyecto que se desarrolla con Arduino puede generar ambigüedad y falta de claridad y precisión. Por ello, el objetivo de este artículo es realizar una propuesta de glosario inglés-español a partir de un corpus de textos y mediante la colaboración entre traductores e ingenieros de telecomunicaciones, para contribuir a la normalización terminológica en un ámbito de reciente creación y gran dinamismo. Se trata de aportar un recurso fiable y actual para que el traductor pueda trabajar con mayor facilidad en la traducción de textos de este ámbito y a la vez contribuir a la normalización terminológica con propuestas que evitan que el experto recurra directamente al término en inglés por no haberse detenido a analizar opciones lexicalizadas en español. Consideramos que cualquier rama de conocimiento debe tener una terminología consolidada para que el intercambio de información sea efectivo. En este sentido, el traductor tiene una función muy importante que desempeñar.
Keywords: terminología, Arduino, glosario, traducción técnica, normalización
A pesar de la existencia de numerosos estudios que se centran en el discurso turístico, el turismo de negocios no ha sido analizado de forma específica en la literatura traductológica existente. No obstante, este tipo de turismo tiene un peso importante en la economía y lleva experimentando un crecimiento continuo desde hace años. El objetivo de este estudio es identificar y describir las estrategias empleadas en la traducción de los elementos léxicos de las guías promocionales del turismo de negocios en la combinación lingüística español-inglés. En primer lugar, contextualizaremos nuestro objeto de estudio aportando una explicación detallada de lo que se considera turismo de negocios. Posteriormente explicaremos la metodología de corpus empleada para llevar a cabo el análisis de los elementos léxicos de las guías promocionales seleccionadas para el estudio. Esto se hará en base a una tipología de estrategias de transferencia en la que se incluirán los distintos ejemplos extraídos del corpus. Finalmente, reflexionaremos sobre la docencia en este ámbito y la combinación de la traducción especializada y la explotación de corpus mediante herramientas informáticas, aspectos clave para cumplir con los requisitos del mercado de la traducción. Los resultados obtenidos, de manera preliminar, nos permiten concluir que este tipo de metodología resulta de gran interés no solo desde el punto de vista investigador para el análisis de las diferencias entre el inglés y español en el discurso del turismo de negocios, sino también para facilitar la labor del traductor y la docente en este ámbito.
Keywords: Turismo de negocios, corpus, léxico, estrategias de transferencia, guías promocionales, traducción especializada
The aim of this study is to examine how students of the third year of a B.A. in Translation and Modern Languages of the University of Alcalá approach the translation of cultural references of the novel Anybody out there by Marian Keyes (2007) according to different strategies of domestication and foreignization. After having explained the theoretical framework included in this article, we handed out an activity with a set of sentences each of which included a cultural reference. The methodology followed was qualitative since the study is based on the analysis of students’ answers to the activity as it will be shown below. Results show that the strategies that students preferred to follow were based on foreignization mainly, since for most cases they did not consider it necessary to add any extra information and did not modify the reference in the ST. This clearly shows the predominant tendency that we can identify nowadays of not adapting cultural references as it was done for example in TV shows from the 80s, where transposition was a key strategy to domesticate the audiovisual content to the target audience.
Keywords: Cultural references, translation, domestication, foreignization, translation strategies
The aim of this study is to analyse the challenges involved in the translation from English to Spanish of a text about sex reassignment due to the complexity that certain aspects of gender, as well as terminology and phraseology related to it, imply for the constitution of a new identity. For the analysis, a qualitative methodology will be followed based on the solutions provided by third-year students of the Scientific-Technical Translation course of the Degree in Modern Languages and Translation from the University of Alcalá. The results show that, although there is a certain level of awareness among students when it comes to finding translation solutions in this type of texts, greater emphasis should be placed on translation training from a pragmatic approach. This will help them to be aware of the potential of their work when it comes to building and disseminating knowledge through the translated text.
Keywords: identity, gender, translation, training, pragmatic approach.
The development of the Web 2.0 in recent years has triggered the use of web-based tools like, for instance, blogs that can be used both as language development and assessment tools (García Laborda, 2013). This article addresses the difficulties that teacher trainees have when they create and manage in groups their own blogs in a fourth-year course on Didactics of the English language. A sample of blogs created by 15 students in the fourth year of a teacher training program for primary school teachers at the University of Alcalá (Spain) was analyzed qualitatively. Specifically, the usefulness of blogs, as well as the difficulties and constraints encountered by students when creating and managing a blog and the effort put into the creation of social applications in the classroom, among other items. Finally, a questionnaire was handed out to students to analyze the limitations and benefits of this tool in the classroom. The main conclusion is that the identification of the analysis of difficulty that students present during the implementation and management of a blog will provide suggestions for teachers-to-be and current university teachers in education Degrees.
Keywords: blogs; constraints; difficulties; teacher training.
Esta tesis doctoral versa sobre la traducción (inglés-español) del texto turístico guía de viaje. Consiste, concretamente, en el estudio comparativo de una serie de aspectos del discurso que se emplean en los apartados dedicados a la información práctica de las guías de viaje en dos idiomas, inglés y español, y en dos versiones, original y traducción. Debido a la extensión de estos documentos y a las limitaciones que impone un trabajo de investigación de esta índole, el estudio se centra en un tipo de información en concreto que se encuentra en todas las guías de viaje: los datos prácticos que el viajero necesita conocer del destino turístico y que, generalmente, implican recomendaciones para el receptor del texto. El objetivo fundamental de esta investigación es el de determinar y describir, al menos aproximadamente, cómo se traducen las guías de viaje de inglés a español. Para concretar y delimitar este objetivo, entendamos que determinar y describir cómo se traducen estos textos implica lo siguiente: (1) identificar y describir las estrategias de traducción empleadas en la traducción del inglés al español de la información práctica de las guías de viaje (para adecuarse a la CM) y los efectos que producen en los textos meta y (2) determinar si a través de esas estrategias se logra elaborar una versión meta adecuada a las convenciones de la lengua y de la cultura meta.