“Professional Corpora”:Teaching Strategies for Work with Online Documentation,Translation Memories and Content Management

The expansion of electronic memory capacity is having fundamental long-term effects on the way texts are produced and used,and thus on the way they are translated.Translators are increasingly working on data bases in non-linear ways,separated from awareness of any active communicative context.This enhances productivity and consistency but challenges more humanistic values like understanding,cooperation, and job satisfaction.In order to address these changes,teaching practices should 1)make students aware of the communicative functions of texts, particularly the ways in which particular parts of texts become high-risk in particular situations,2)teach students how to use electronic tech- nologies within such a frame,and how to teach themselves about the technologies,and 3)train students for a range of professional communica- tion jobs,incorporating both the technical sides and the various revision and editing techniques now required by the technologies.

The expansion of electronic memory capacity is having fundamental long-term effects on the way texts are produced and used, and thus on the way they are translated. Translators are increasingly working on data bases in non-linear ways, separated from awareness of any active communicative context. This enhances productivity and consistency but challenges more humanistic values like understanding, cooperation, and job satisfaction. In order to address these changes, teaching practices should 1） make students aware of the communicative functions of texts, particularly the ways in which particular parts of texts become high-risk in particular situations, 2） teach students how to use electronic technologies within such a frame, and how to teach themselves about the technologies, and 3） train students for a range of professional communication jobs, incorporating both the technical sides and the various revision and editing techniques now rectuired by the technologies.