MTI Students’ Competency: Teamwork in Trados-aided Translation Projects

Abstract

Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI), starting from 2007 with the current total of 246 degree granting units in China, aims to meet the educational objective of advanced, practical and professional talents. As is required, translation internship is the key and the first step for MTI students to get out of “ivory tower”. This paper, based on the competency model in Trados-aided translation projects with the case study of the translation internship of MTI students from Shaanxi University of Science & Technology (SUST), focuses on the comprehensive competency consisting of learning competency, translation competency, cooperation competency, emotion competency, and cognition competency. With BEI analysis, competency-concerning problems are found in the process of the internship and solutions are put forward to help strengthen MTI students’ core competition by developing competency in translation practice. It also concludes how challenging and important it is for MTI students to develop competency in their translation practice guided by the model. Thus, no matter what kind of translation texts they are, well qualified trainees can manage with internalized competency. Keywords—MTI students; translation internship; off-campus internship; on-campus internship; Trados-aided translation projects; competency model