Course Descriptions

This internship requires 60 hours of shadowing, observing, gathering data and interpreting/translation work in a professional interpreting, translation, educational or healthcare setting, depending on the student’s chosen track.

TIS 731 Applied Interpreting Studies

 This course explores connections between research and practical issues in studies of interpreting (simultaneous, consecutive, bilateral and other modalities). Its focus is on the interdisciplinary nature of the interpreting field and, based on case studies, examines the interface between interpreting as a profession, research in interpreting studies and the teaching of interpreting. Students are required to complete a research project.

TIS 732 Methodology of Teaching Interpreting 

This course addresses syllabus design and lesson planning for teachers of interpreting in a field-specific context. It focuses on the development of interpreting skills, including recent technological developments. It explores classroom management options and strategies for providing feedback to students and covers internship design methods, including an on-site observation of various interpreting settings. Overall program design and methodology for teaching other courses in the interpreting curriculum will be also discussed.

TIS 733 Applied Translation Studies 

This course examines the theory and practice of translation from a variety of linguistic and cultural angles. It introduces key concepts such as relevance, equivalence, skopos, back-translation, and explores critical approaches depending on the translated text types.

TIS 734 U.S. Heritage Speakers and Bilingualism

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fields of heritage languages, bilingualism, and bilingual education from a cross-disciplinary perspective. It covers a wide variety of topics, including, among others, individual and societal conceptions of heritage and dominant languages, general bilingual educational issues, bilingualism and multilingualism as they relate to identity, political and ideological issues, Spanish in the U.S.

TIS 735 Discourse Organization and Interpreting

This course will explore the links between social situations, interlocutors, and the functional aspects of communicative events. The course will focus on several important methodological approaches that have been developed to do discourse analysis in as much as they highlight important features of translation and interpreting. We will review the varied traditions around meaning-making, including sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and discursive psychology. Readings will tie in traditional topics in discourse analysis with specific issues in translation and interpreting. This course will link theory to practice. One session per week will be devoted to practical, hands-on activities using real world data in various formats: written transcripts, aural speeches, or videos.

TIS 736 Organizational Behavior and Interpreting

This course is designed to apply organizational behavior theories into the interpreting field in order to bring about a better understanding of how individual interpreters or interpreter teams actually behave in the large-scale project/organizational settings. Particular emphases are placed on interpreter’s roles and on how to evaluate interpreter’s performance, motivate interpreters, and maintain a high level of interpreting services. This course prepares students to enter managerial positions in translation/interpreting companies or organizations.

TIS 737 Remote Interpreting

Through discussion-oriented sessions, simulations and testing, and talks given by guest speakers, this language-neutral course examines the origins and evolution of remote interpreting, including over-the-phone interpreting, video-mediated interpreting and remote simultaneous interpreting in community and conference settings. Students will explore issues in professionalism and ethics as well as future trends in remote interpreting.

TIS 738 Editing and Revising for Translators

This course covers various aspects of the editing of translated
English text, from copy editing to more substantive forms. Rules of grammar, orthography and principles of composition are reviewed in the context of specialized discourses. Focus is placed on practical issues and editing tasks commonly faced by translators.

TIS 742 Spanish Specialized Translation

Develops and refines a practical translation skill set within the specialized domains, for example, technology, law, international relations, media. Students gain familiarity with textual conventions that govern source and target texts in specialized contexts and deepen their understanding of both Spanish and English as language for specific purposes.

TIS 743 Spanish-English Dialogue Interpreting

In this course students will develop advanced interpreting skills through bidirectional short consecutive translations in some major domains, including business, education, social care, and law. The course focuses on practicing active listening, delivery techniques, glossary preparation, public speaking skills, interpreter’s professionalism and ethics in dialogue interpreting.

TIS 750 Contrastive Chinese-English Grammar and Stylistics 

Advanced study of structures and vocabulary. Exploration of general principles behind ‘atom-like’ rules and the main lexical dichotomies, and how implications for meaning help in choosing the best option. Discussion of structures that are usually taught as idiomatic but are more compositional than previously thought: subject-predicate vs. topic-comment, verb-particle, verb-complement, serial verb construction, relative clause construction, reduplication, imperative, negation, adposition, etc.

TIS 751 Chinese-English Translation 

Development of advanced translating skills through the practice or bidirectional translation with a strong emphasis on Chinese into English translating. Some back translation exercises will be offered as part of this course.

TIS 752 Chinese Specialized Translation

Develops and refines a practical translation skill set within the specialized domains such as medicine, science, business, etc. In addition, students will gain familiarity with textual conventions that govern source and target texts within these domains and deepen their understanding of both Chinese and English as language for special purposes. Apart from translation proper, students will also be able to analyze texts for register, style, tone and content to determine the most appropriate process to achieve the highest quality translation. Finally, students’ research skills will improve through the examination of available resources and the creation of domain-specific resources.

TIS 753 Chinese-English Dialogue Interpreting

In this course students will develop advanced interpreting skills through bidirectional consecutive translations in some major domains, including business, education, social care, healthcare and law. The course focuses on practicing active listening, delivery techniques, glossary preparation, public speaking skills, interpreter’s professionalism and ethics in dialogue interpreting.

TIS 755 Chinese-English Interpreting

Chinese-English Interpreting develops strategies for community, conference, court, escort and other types of interpreting. Current employment opportunities in the field of interpreting will be also briefly presented. In class work will focus on learning and practicing interpreting techniques. Individual, at home, preparation – besides the assigned readings and interpreting exercises– will also include a strong terminology enhancement.

TIS 760 U.S. Landscape: Systems, Culture and Norms 

This course is designed for international students to increase their knowledge of U.S. socio-political structures and Anglo-American cultural identity through the study of U.S. history, politics and popular traditions.

TIS 770 Multimedia Translation

This language-neutral course examines concepts, characteristics, tools and software of multimedia translation, a distinctive and booming sector in the arena of translation and localization. Students will explore translation challenges encountered and creative techniques adopted in translating films, TV shows, documentaries, anime, etc.

TIS 786 Special Topics

Examination of topics not covered in the regular curriculum. May be repeated for credit.

TIS 785 Applied Research Project

The applied research project will establish a rigorous connection between the practical experience in the workplace and the more theoretical experience in research and in the classroom.

The applied research project will be divided in two components: during the fall semester (3 credit hours) students will learn about general research methodology and receive individual guidance to choose between the research project options. During the spring semester (3 credit hours) students will complete the research project under the supervision of a project director.

COM 655 Survey of Health Communication 

Examination of theories, research, and processes of health communication in contemporary society.

COM 656 Health Communication: Patient-Provider 

Explores contemporary issues related to communication in health care contexts, notably theories and research on patient-provider communication.

LIN 610 Sociolinguistics & Dialectology

This course explores how and why language varies, with emphasis on the social context of speech. Students will learn survey methods for describing language variation, from traditional dialectology to modern discourse analysis. This course will evaluate the social, educational, and political implications of dialect variation, gender and ethnic differences, and other social variables in language differences. Suggested prerequisite: Lin/Ant 150

LIN 680 Language Use and Technology 

The main objective of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with the practical and theoretical issues concerned with creating and accessing large linguistic corpora (electronic collections of “real world” text) with computers for a host of applications; both academic and professional. We will discuss the advantages of approaching language through empirical data collected from real-world sources; in addition, we will highlight conceptual and practical aspects that pose challenges to creating robust, representative language samples. This course is designed to provide the student opportunities to discover new angles to their current academic or professional interests through the use of large-scale data sources and the power of computers.

LIN 683 Language Engineering Localization and Terminology 

In this course students will gain a familiarity with the language industry and understand the factors involved in the localization process. In addition, students will be able to appreciate the advantages of using computer assisted tools during this process, but also recognize the limitations and disadvantages of this approach. Apart from tool usage, students will also be able to analyze the various steps in the localization of a product to determine the most appropriate process to achieve the highest quality possible. Finally, students’ translation and research skills will improve through the examination of available resources and the creation of translation resources.

Our curriculum includes a practice of Wordfast translation tools, courtesy of Wordfast LLC and Yves Champollion.

SPA 671 Contrastive Spanish/English Grammar & Stylistics 

Advanced study of structures and vocabulary, with an emphasis on common transfer mismatches in healthcare settings. Exploration of general principles behind ‘atom-like’ rules and the main lexical dichotomies, and how implications for meaning help in choosing the best option. Discussion of structures that are usually taught as idiomatic but are more compositional than previously thought: satellite-frame vs. verb frame constructions, datives, verb+particle, reflexive constructions, etc.

SPA 681 Spanish Translation

Spanish 681 develops advanced translating skills through practice with a strong emphasis in Spanish into English translating, primarily having in mind English speakers as a target public. Some back translation exercises will be offered.

SPA 682 Spanish-English Interpreting 

Spanish/English Interpreting an introductory course to the art of oral translation. It develops basic strategies useful in community, conference, court, escort and other types of interpreting. Current employment opportunities in the field of interpreting will be also briefly presented. In class work will focus on learning and practicing interpreting techniques. Individual, at home, preparation – besides the assigned readings and interpreting exercises– will also include a strong terminology enhancement.

SPA 683 Medical-Scientific Translation 

In this elective course, students will develop and refine a practical translation skill set within the scientific and medical domains. In addition, students will gain familiarity with textual conventions that govern source and target texts within these domains and deepen their understanding of both Spanish and English as language for special purposes. Apart from translation proper, students will also be able to analyze texts for register, style, tone and content to determine the most appropriate process to achieve the highest quality translation. Finally, students’ research skills will improve through the examination of available resources and the creation of domain-specific resources.