Activity 1
The negative opinions that you have written down will probably reflect a view of translation as some kind of 'obstacle' to communication (or even to your teaching), as a type of 'imperfect' activity. The positive aspects of translation include (I hope) cultural awareness and/or comparison between language systems. Maybe you consider translation to be a good way to test language proficiency. After you finish this module, you will be asked to return to this section and do the activity again.

Activity 2
In traditional translation classrooms, activities usually involve translation of isolated sentences or fragments of texts, often literary texts. The common feature of them all is that texts are chosen randomly and students receive little help in preparing for the translation tasks.

Activity 3
Contexts where we are likely to find or use translation include: helping a foreigner in the street, working for an international company (correspondence, marketing, advertising etc), watching a foreign film with subtitles, reading a foreign novel, tourist brochures, airport signs and announcements, instruction manuals, food packaging, political refugees/asylum seekers at court/hospital, explaining a foreign menu to a non-speaker of the language, street and road signs in bilingual countries etc.

Activity 4

1. Interlingual, gist
2. Simultaneous, consecutive, voiceover, dubbing
3. Gist, sight, subtitling

Gist translation involves transfer from written to written mode, but also written to oral. Sight translation involves transfer from written to oral modes. Simultaneous/consecutive interpreting involves transfer from oral to oral only. Subtitling involves transfer from oral/visual to written modes. Voiceover and dubbing involve transfer from oral to oral only.

Activity 5
How about the translation of comics? Songs? Theatre plays? Tourist brochures? They could all be considered a type of technical or specialized translation. There will be both linguistic and non-linguistic considerations to take into account. In the case of comics: the space available in the bubbles; in songs: the constraints imposed by the music; in theatre: the dynamism of dialogue, the fact that it is a text written to be spoken etc. In spite of the limitations, these types of translation can add a lot of variety and creativity to the classroom and to students' learning.

Activity 6
When a translation is needed for documentary purposes, emphasis is placed on the content, on transmitting the information that is required without paying attention to the form of the text or its resemblance to the ST. This means that the information that is needed for the presentation will be the main driving force for the translator, who will have to read the ST carefully and select the main points that will have to be presented at the meeting. However, in the case of the report being published in book form, this means that the ST will have to be translated in full, paying attention to both content and form. The resulting TT will have to be accepted, and be able to function, as a business report in the target context. The same applies in the case of a legal text. In the first case, the TT will have to comply with the existing (linguistic, textual and stylistic) norms for this type of text in the target context.

As a result, these two activities can be used to test different skills; in the case of 'documentary' translations: understanding and reading skills; in the case of 'instrumental' translations: knowledge of target linguistic and textual conventions, as well as ability to transfer between systems.

Activity 7

1. Communicative translation. The aim is to produce a document that functions as a business report in the target culture, a document that target readers will read and accept as such.
2. Gist translation. The aim here is to provide information about the main points of the report. There is no need to pay attention to the structure of the text or the style.

Activity 8

1. The purpose of Translation 1 is to provide information about hotel facilities; the purpose of Translation 2 is to advertise a hotel abroad, and the purpose of Translation 3 is to inform readers of a particular journal about an event that the translator finds interesting/relevant.
2. As regards users of the translations, the main user of Translation 1 is a friend; the translation will therefore have a 'colloquial' tone. In Translation 2, the users are the owner of the hotel, who has specific interests and a particular image to uphold (he or she is also the initiator), and British holiday-makers who may be interested in staying there. Finally, in Translation 3, the users will be anyone reading the paper. The translation will vary depending on the type of newspaper (broadsheet, tabloid etc).
3. In terms of modes, Brief 1 refers to a transfer from written mode to oral; Brief 2 and Brief 3 refer to written mode only. Each of these modes imposes certain limitations. The main difference between Translations 2 and 3 is that in the latter the translator has more freedom to produce his/her target text.

Activity 9
The advantage of keeping the foreign word and adding an explanation is that the translated text keeps some of the 'foreignness' of the ST without interfering with the readers' understanding of the text. Thus, the reader of the French and Italian texts will learn the name of the Spanish utensil, and at the same time figure out what type of pan it is. The disadvantage of this strategy could be that the explanation may interfere with the reading process and the reader may think that this dish can only be cooked in this utensil, which is not true.

As regards using a functional translation ('casserole'), the advantage is that the reader knows exactly what type of receptacle to use in this dish. What is missing, however, is his or her cultural knowledge about the dish; how Spanish people cook the dish.