Translation and Post-Editing Projects - German

ltrad2211  2026-2027  Louvain-la-Neuve

Translation and Post-Editing Projects - German
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5.00 credits
22.5 h + 45.0 h
Q1
Teacher(s)
Gallez Françoise (coordinator); Kerres Patricia;
Language
French
Prerequisites
The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet. 

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.
Main themes
Translation and/or post-editing of specialised texts, particularly in the economic, legal, technical and/or scientific fields. 
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

Contribution of teaching unit to learning outcomes assigned to programme 
This unit contributes to the acquisition and development of the following learning outcomes, as assigned to the Master's degree in translation: 
  • analyse a source document, identify potential textual and cognitive difficulties and assess the strategies and resources needed to reformulate it in line with communicative needs (1 – Translation); 
  • summarise, rephrase, restructure, and shorten a message and adapt it to market needs rapidly and accurately in at least one target language, using written and/or spoken communication (2 – Translation); 
  • implement the instructions, style guides, or conventions relevant to a particular translation (5 – Translation); 
  • translate general and domain-specific material in one or several fields from one or several source languages into their target language(s), producing a ‘fit for purpose’ translation (6 – Translation); 
  • translate different types of material on and for different kinds of media and target audiences, using appropriate tools and techniques (7 – Translation); 
  • check, review, revise and evaluate their own work and that of others according to standard or work-specific quality objectives and assess the appropriateness of using tools for the work at hand (11 – Translation); 
  • post-edit MT output using style guides and terminology glossaries to maintain quality standards in MT-enhanced translation projects (14 – Translation); 
  • make effective use of search engines, corpus-based tools, text analysis tools, computer-assisted translation (CAT) and quality assurance (QA) tools where appropriate (16 – Technology); 
  • plan and manage time (including complying with deadlines) (21 – Personal and Interpersonal); 
  • work both autonomously and in virtual, multicultural and multilingual teams, using appropriate communication technologies (23 – Personal and Interpersonal); 
  • clarify the requirements, objectives and purposes of the client, recipients of the language service and other stakeholders and offer the appropriate services to meet those requirements (29 – Service Provision); 
  • interact at all stages with the client (negotiate deadlines, rates/invoicing, working conditions, access to information, contracts, rights, responsibilities, language service specifications, tender specifications, offer feedback etc.) (30 – Service Provision). 
Specific learning outcomes on completion of teaching unit 
On completing this unit the student is able to: 
  • negotiate the price, deadlines and terms and conditions for a translation or post-editing project with a fictitious or real client; 
  • draw up a quote and an invoice; 
  • compile and use the semantic, phraseological and terminological content of a corpus of comparable and/or parallel specialised texts using dedicated tools (CAT tools, MT and/or AI); 
  • translate or post-edit from German into French a specialised text within a given time frame, drawing on prior documentary and terminological research and using dedicated tools (CAT tools, MT and/or AI); 
  • justify, where appropriate, translation or post-editing choices based on the documentary sources consulted. 
 
Content
This course sets out to simulate the realistic conditions of a translation project. Students will have to tackle the various steps of an German-into-French translation project with professionalism, from order to delivery (i.e. administrative tasks, documentary and terminological research, translation, revision). Students will be asked to translate one or several texts dealing with the two specialized translation fields selected at the start of the academic year, among economic translation, legal translation and scientific/technical translation. Students can mix fields as they wish in their two C languages. The different tasks will be carried out in the computer lab, meeting specific deadlines and relying on various tools.
Teaching methods
Compulsory workshops in the computer lab.
Evaluation methods
The overall mark will be calculated by averaging the two marks. In case of an overall fail mark, the failed parts will have to be retaken during the August/September exam session. In case of an unjustified absence, students will have to retake the two translation workshops chosen during the August/September exam session.
Distribution of scores within each of the three sections:
January exam session : January session: certificative continuous assessment (20% of grade) + written exam (4h per specialized translation field, 80% of grade).
August/September exam session : written examination (4 hours per specialized translation field).
The work to be presented or handed in is personal work that reflects the student's skills.
The assessment may require, authorise or prohibit the use of machine translation and artificial intelligence depending on the exercise to be undertaken. In all cases, the use of machine translation and artificial intelligence will be subject to the conditions specified in the assessment instructions.
Other information
As the aim of the course is to develop students' translation skills and their ability to appreciate the quality of a machine translation, the course may include exercises that require, authorise or prohibit the use of such tools.
Bibliography
https://blog.acolad.com/de/technische-uebersetzungen-regeln-verbesserung-lesbarkeit
https://www.congree.com/blog/leichte-sprache-verstaendliche-dokumentation
Faculty or entity
> LSTI


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in Translation
TRAD2M
5
LTRAD2111