the trans-atlantic project innovations in multilingual/multicultural/multidi sciplinary...

The Trans-Atlantic Project

Innovations in Multilingual/Multicultural/Multidi

sciplinary Collaborative Learning

Innova Days — 2013

Learning by Doing

•Bruce Maylath, North Dakota State University, USA

•Sonia Vandepitte, Universiteit Gent, Belgium

1999: We asked each other, “How can we make our students’ learning more realistic?”

2000: 1st bilateral project, linking technical writing students with translation students


Initial challengeIs the technology fully available?

By 1999, the U.S. university assigned all students an e-mail address, but the Belgian university did not.

When Dr. Vandepitte asked her class how many had personal e-mail addresses, all but two did.

She then asked those with hotmail.com addresses to show the remaining two how to set up hotmail accounts.

Now the project could GO!


The Trans-Atlantic ProjectTypical bi-lateral writing/translation project

For writers

•USA → Europe

•Procedural texts

•North American tech writer

•Writer does user testing

•Writer answers translator’s questions

For translators

•USA → Europe

•Procedural texts

•European translator

•Translator may test

•Translator asks questions of tech writer


Realistic questionsFor rendering the meaning accurately

Writer’s instructions:

•Procedural text to clean a video cassette recorder

•Carefully written

•Glossary of technical terms included

•Usability test conducted with native English speakers as subjects

Translator’s questions:

•“What’s a foam swab?”

•“What’s a wall outlet?”


“What’s a wall outlet?”Literal translation: A door? A window?

Ambiguity caused by word’s multiple meanings:•Rivers have outlets.

•Parking lots (car parks) have outlets.

•Even factories have outlets (low-price factory-owned shops).

Implicit not made explicit: Electrical wall outlet would have been clear.

Difference between standard dialects in source language:

American electrical outlet = British electrical socket (also American)

Idiom in dialect of target language: “To go to the wall” in Flemish Dutch means to obtain money from a bank’s cash machine (ATM)


The Trans-Atlantic ProjectTypical bi-lateral translation/editing project

For Europeans

•Europe → USA

•Journalistic reporting

•European translator

•Translator translates published article

•Translator and editor both ask questions of the other

For North Americans

•Europe → USA

•Journalistic reporting

•North American editor

•Editor edits for idiomatic American English

•Translator and editor both ask questions of the other


Managing Complexity

In business and industry, globalization has led to mounting concern about how to manage complexity.

Lissack & Gunz (1999), Marrewijk & Hardjono (2003), Gottfredson & Rigby (2009), Helbing (2010)


Managing ComplexityComplexity is generated by

• diversity, • interdependence, • ambiguity, • flux.

Maznevski, Steger, and Amann (2007)


Managing ComplexityManagers must create an “intelligent organization” adept at meeting three criteria:

• efficiency • effectiveness • legitimacy

Schwaninger (2000)


Managing ComplexityHow to simulate

• diversity, • interdependence, • ambiguity, • flux,

to achieve• efficiency, • effectiveness, • legitimacy,

in international technical writing, usability testing, and translation courses.


Multiply x•the projects, •the partners, •the nations, cultures,

and languages.


Multilateral projectsWriting/translation project

•Co-authoring in Spain and USA

•User-testing in English in USA and Finland

•Translation to Dutch in Belgium

•Translation to French in France

•Translation to Italian in Italy

Translation/editing project

•Translation from Danish to English in Denmark

•Translation from Dutch to English in Belgium

•Translation from Italian to English in Italy

•Editing for idiomatic American English in USA



•Co-authoring @ UPC in Spain and in USA @ NDSU

•User-testing in English in USA @ NDSU

•User-testing in English in Finland @ Vaasa U

•Translation to Dutch in Belgium @ U College Ghent

•Translation to French in France @ U of Paris-Diderot

•Translation to Italian in Italy @ U of Padua


•Translation from Danish to English in Denmark @ Aarhus U

•Translation from Dutch to English in Belgium @ U College Ghent

•Translation from Italian to English in Italy @ U of Padua

•Editing for idiomatic American English in USA @ NDSU


Participating instructors and institutions

•Elisabet Arnó-Macià, Universitat Polytècnica de Catalunya, Spain

•Tym King, Universitat Polytècnica de Catalunya, Spain

•Suvi Isohella, Vasa Universitet/Vaasan Yliopisto, Finland

•Bruce Maylath, North Dakota State University, USA

•Birthe Mousten, Århus Universitet, Denmark

•Patricia Minacori, Université Paris—Denis Diderot, France

•Maria Teresa Musacchio, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy

•Sonia Vandepitte, Hogeschool Gent, Belgium


Multilateral projectsTranslation/editing project






Culmination:Live video conferences

•100+ students in up to 6 countries

•Focused on writing/translation projects

•3 time zones:

• 06.00 in Fargo

• 13.00 in Barcelona, Ghent, Padua, and Paris

• 14.00 in Vaasa


Culmination:Live video conference

1.5–2 hour sessions

The first conference ended with a student in Paris offering a trans-Atlantic “high-five” in congratulations, a gesture that was reciprocated on the screens from all the other sites.


Students’ viewsSteven Hammer

NDSU Ph.D. student in English

“I thought the ‘trans-Atlantic high-five’ was humorous and fitting. That student’s comments prior to that punchline seemed to echo what many students were communicating. He talked about talking to people instead of machines, to make connections and relationships. Taking a course like this, at least in my experience, has put a lot of focus on a writer’s relationship to a text, to a process, to a technology, to a translator.”

Alyda HultstrandNDSU B.A. student in English and

Business“Having the opportunity to get to know and work with students from such different backgrounds was really neat. We ended up being able to work together much better than I actually anticipated, and I felt like we accomplished very good work. I also felt as though our projects were fairly close to real-life scenarios and in that way were invaluable for future reference and having an idea of how things can work, what things can go wrong, what makes communication go more smoothly, etc.”


Students’ viewsLetizia Simoni

University of Trieste, B.A. student in English Language and Translation

A positive and useful experience [...] giving us the possibility to test our abilities in a different situation from the usual classroom environment and giving us a glimpse of what professional translation can be like.


Conclusions

1. As the collaboration in the Trans-Atlantic Project closely resembles the complexity found in the international documentation workplaces of language service providers, such collaboration provides invaluable learning-by-doing exposure to and practice at realistic language for specific purposes.


Conclusions

2. Innovations in education that incorporate learning-by-doing projects have a rich history, going back at least as far as the apprenticeship model of the Middle Ages, finding renewal in Montessori methods, and continuing in schools and universities of the 21st century.


References•Humbley, J., Maylath, B., Mousten, B., Vandepitte, S., & Veisblat, L. (2005). Learning localization through trans-Atlantic collaboration. In G. F. Hayhoe (Ed.), Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 10-13 July 2005, U of Limerick, Ireland (pp. 578-595). New York: IEEE.

•Lesgold, Alan M. 2001. The nature and methods of learning by doing. American Psychologist, Vol 56(11), 964-973.

•Maylath, B., Vandepitte, S., Minacori, P., Isohella, S., Mousten, B., & Humbley, J. (2013). Managing complexity: A technical communication/translation case study in multilateral international collaboration. Technical Communication Quarterly, 22, 67-84.

•Maylath, B., Vandepitte, S., & B. Mousten. (2008). Growing grassroots partnerships: Trans-Atlantic collaboration between American instructors and students of technical writing and European instructors and students of translation. In D. Stärke-Meyerring & M. Wilson (Eds.), Designing global learning environments: Visionary partnerships, policies, and pedagogies (pp. 52-66). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

•Mousten, B., Vandepitte, S., & Maylath, B. (2008). Intercultural collaboration in the trans-Atlantic project: Pedagogical theories and practices in teaching procedural instructions across cultural contexts. In D. Stärke-Meyerring & M. Wilson (Eds.), Designing global learning environments: Visionary partnerships, policies, and pedagogies (pp. 129-144). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.


References•Mousten, B., Maylath, B., Vandepitte, S., & Humbley, J. (2010). Learning localization through trans-Atlantic collaboration: Bridging the gap between professions. IEEE-Transactions on Professional Communication, 53, 401-411.

•Mousten, B., Humbley, J., Maylath, B., & Vandepitte, S. (2012). Communicating pragmatics about content and culture in virtually mediated educational environments. In S. Kelsey & K. St. Amant (Eds.), Computer-mediated communication across cultures: International interactions in online environments. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. 312-327.

•Mousten, B., Maylath, B., Humbley, J., Scarpa, F., Livesey, M., & Vandepitte, S. (2010a). Pragmatic features in the language of cross-cultural virtual teams: A roundtable discussion of student-to-student discourse in international collaborative project. In C. Heine & J. Engberg (Eds.), Reconceptualizing LSP. Online proceedings of the XVII European Language for Specific Purposes Symposium 2009. Århus, Denmark. Retrieved from <http://www.asb.dk/fileadmin/www.asb.dk/en/aboutasb/departments/departmentoflanguageandbusinesscommunication/research/phdprogrammes/phdcourses/xviieuropeansymposiumonlsp/onlineproceedings/extendedcontributions/fileexplorer_fetchfile-aspx-file-16827.pdf>.


Postscript•In 2011, for the first time, two former students of the Trans-Atlantic Project—Steven Hammer and Maria Teresa Musacchio—led their own classes through the international collaboration.


the trans-atlantic project innovations in multilingual/multicultural/multidi sciplinary...

Documents

complexity complexity

bilateral project

realistic questions

electrical wall outlet

managing complexity

subjects translators

published article translator

usa sonia vandepitte