Main points in the teaching approach
- Many learning techniques come from the future professional life of the graduate translator
The teaching methods employed on the programme for the Master’s in translation have been designed with the perspective of the graduate’s future professional life firmly in mind: a balanced mix of theory and practice, active learning in a central position, with an important place reserved for the development of professional skills.
The teaching methods put an emphasis on learning activities which focus on the expectations and requirements of the profession, to the extent of putting the students in a professional situation, in particular:
- The integration of CAT tools, machine translation, post-editing and generative artificial intelligence.
- Translation workshops and projects led by teaching teams composed of lecturers and translation professionals.
- Simulations of the work in a translation agency.
- Participation in real translation, subtitling or terminology projects.
- The possibility of doing the block annual 2 in the METS programme, European Mobility Programme in Specialised Translation, in two European partner universities.
- A work placement in a company (12 weeks in the second semester of the block annual 2), in a multilingual environment, in Belgium or abroad; these placements are chosen carefully to respect professional best practice and are supervised by lecturers.
- Language and culture courses in the source language, which are essential for acquiring solid translation skills.
In this way, many programme modules and activity enable students to gain knowledge and develop the necessary skills, techniques and expertise to work as a translator in the broadest sense.
The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to integrate and develop a rigorous scientific and methodological approach that will enable graduates to consolidate and enrich their practice through theoretical contributions and a reflective approach.
Students have access to a wide range of software in rooms dedicated to translation and subtitling. These rooms are also available to students outside class time so that they can use the facilities and translation tools to complete their assignments and final dissertation.
- A variety of teaching strategies and learning methods
There is a variety of teaching methods relating to the different skills to be developed: formal lectures, exercise sessions, individual assignments, seminars, simulations of professional situations and work placements.
This variety of situations helps students build their knowledge and develop their skills in an iterative and progressive manner, while developing their autonomy, creativity, critical thinking, organisational and negotiation skills, time management and communication skills.