On Translator Training in Industry-Specific Universities in China – A case study of 16 MTI programs

Abstract

Abstract MTI programs in industry-specific universities have drawn little scholarly attention due to their short history and small scale, but they have irreplaceable advantages in training translators for specific industries because of their time-honored and well-established industry-specific disciplines and programs. For this reason, this paper focuses on MTI programs granted in 2014 in 16 industry-specific universities, which cover a variety of industries, including civil aviation, medicine, forestry, agriculture, post and telecommunications, architecture, ocean, petrol, electric power and water resources. All these MTI programs were subjected to the assessments by China National Committee for Translation and Interpreting Education in 2018. By inspecting their assessment data concerning teachers, students, training objectives, programs and characteristic courses, as well as horizontal communications with other disciplines of the respective universities and with language services companies, and by interviewing nine teachers from the universities concerned, the authors discuss the merits and demerits of these MTI programs. The paper concludes by offering some suggestions to translator training in China and beyond.