CertTrans Study Guide
CertTrans Study Guide
Study Guide
CIOL Qualifications Level 6 Certificate in Translation
3 Chartered Institute
of Linguists 8
4 Languages and the language
profession
Contents
6 About the Units
Unit 01 General Translation
13 International organisations
Units 02 and 03 Translation of
13 Teaching
Semi-Specialised Texts
13 Writing and authoring
7 About the assessment
14 Copywriting
7 Advice to Candidates
14 Cultural advising
8 Study skills and planning your 14 Event coordinators
learning
14 Marketing and social media
9 Research skills and pre- 15 Localisation and transcreation
translation analysis 15 Gaming
10 Comprehension and related skills 15 Editing and proofreading
(decoding)
16 Some encouraging facts!
11 Awareness of culture
11 Transfer the information into the
target language (encoding) 16
12 Tips for refining language and
preparing for your assessment
9
16 Information on
resources and references
16 Assessment resources
16 Assessment related materials
18 Examples of language specific
publications (illustrative)
Our Diploma in Translation (DipTrans) If you are successful, you will be entitled
has been the gold standard translation to use the designation ‘CertTrans’ and
qualification for over 30 years and is taken will be eligible to apply for membership
in around 40 countries annually. Candidates of the Chartered Institute of Linguists,
all around the world recognise the career the UK’s Royal Charter body for language
benefits that the highest level translation professionals.
qualification brings.
We wish you every success with your
Now the DipTrans is joined by the studies and your CertTrans assessment,
CertTrans which serves as a new benchmark and look forward to the prospect of
qualification at Level 6 (degree-level) for welcoming you to the global community of
organisations employing translators or who language professionals as a member of the
want proven written language skills. For Chartered Institute of Linguists.
employers of all types the CertTrans is a
reliable validation of proven translation and
wider linguistic skills.
Candidates are advised to revise specific Finally, when preparing for the
topics covering areas in business and assessment, it may be helpful to consider
commerce, or government and public both the quantity and the quality of
service, depending on the unit they translating practice. The volume of
choose. This revision should include practice is vital, but so is planned
both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ practice, recovery time, otherwise there may be a
i.e. it may not be enough to read and feeling of ‘burn out’ and performance in
analyse texts in both languages but the assessment may drop. Practice should
should also include translating texts on be tailored to what will be really needed
those topics and identifying areas or in the assessment. When translating
terminology which should be reviewed, texts, candidates need to identify their
learned or researched further. weaknesses and work on them to achieve
a successful overall performance.
Candidates also need to practise writing
clearly in the target language. It may
be helpful to engage peers as target
language readers. If some sentences
are difficult to read or understand, it
There are many resources for reference and revision that may support your studies. As an
Awarding Organisation we do not recommended or endorse third-party resources.
Assessment resources
The assessment is ‘open book’ which means candidates may use the following:
• Hard copies of general bilingual, monolingual, and specialist dictionaries
• Published glossaries and / or personal word banks
• Various reference materials including encyclopaedias
Books
• Abbott, D. (1998) Culture and identity. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
• Baker, M. (2011) ‘In other words’. London: Routledge.
• Dollerup, C. & Vibeke, A. (eds.) (1995) Teaching Translation and Interpreting 3.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Fawcett, P. (1997) Translation and language. Manchester: St Jerome.
• Hall, S (1997) Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices, London:
Sage in association with the Open University.
• Hickey, L. (ed.) (1998) The Pragmatics of Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
• Krouglov, A. (2013). Do Language Policies Influence Translation Training more than they
ought to? Undoing and Redoing Language Planning and Translation Policy. CIUTI-Forum
2012. Peter Lang. Doi:10.3726/978-3-0352-0219-9
• Krouglov, A. (2018) Translating Taboo Words in Political Media Discourse - Challenges for
Translators. Proceedings of the 8th International Research Conference: Topical Issues of
Linguistics and Teaching Methods in Business and Professional Communication. Moscow:
RUDN.
• Lewis, R.D. (2006) When cultures collide. 3rd edn. Boston: Nicholas Brealey International.
• Malyuga E., Krouglov A., Tomalin B. (2018) Linguo-cultural competence as a cornerstone
of translators’ performance in the domain of intercultural business communication.
XLinguae European Scientific Language Journal. DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.02.46
• Mossop, B. (2014) Revising and editing for translators. 3rd edn. Manchester, UK and
Kinderhook (NY), USA: St Jerome Publishing.
• Newmark, P. (2003) A textbook of translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
• Samuelsson-Brown, G. (2010) A practical guide for translators. 5th ed. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
Journals
• Adab, B. and Valdés, C. (eds.) (2004), ‘Key debates in the translation of advertising
material’, The Translator. Special issue, 10(2).