Overview
This course is intended to present translation strategies to students who are proficient in French and have a very good command of English. It is a course in translation practice and translation method which encourages students to be aware of the problems which arise in translating various kinds of texts from French to English and to develop strategies for overcoming these problems. The course helps students increase their awareness of the different ways in which the two languages express concepts. It offers a variety of material for translation including literary, journalistic, consumer-oriented and factual texts, and suggests ways of ensuring that the end product (the translation into English) is both accurate and idiomatic.
Outline
Unit 1: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 1: Translation as a process
Traduire: le thème, la version VIII, page 100. XXXI, page 135-136
Unit 2: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 16: Nominalization
Traduire : le thème, la version XXXII, page 137-138
Unit 3: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 2: Translation as a product
Traduire : le thème, la version XXX, page 134
Unit 4: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 3: Cultural issues in translation
Traduire : le thème, la version XLIII, page 157-158
Unit 5: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 4: Compensation
Traduire : le thème, la version LIV, page 177-178
Unit 6: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 17: Adverbials
Traduire : le thème, la version I, page 89-90. IV, page 93-94
Unit 7: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 5: Textual genre and translation issues
Traduire : le thème, la version XXXIX, 149-150
Unit 8: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 6: Phonic/graphic and prosodic issues
Traduire : le thème, la version XXXIV, page 141-142
Unit 9: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 7: Grammatical and sentential issues
Traduire : le thème, la version LIX, page 187
Unit 10: Thinking French Translation, Chapters 18 and 19: ‘Absolute’ constructions, Prepositions
Traduire : le thème, la version LVII, page 183-184
Unit 11: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 8: Discourse and intertextual issues
Traduire : le thème, la version LX, page 188
Unit 12: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 9: Literal meaning
Traduire : le thème, la version L, page 171-172
Unit 13: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 10: Connotative meaning
Traduire : le thème, la version LIII, page 175-176
Unit 14: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 11: Language variety
Traduire : le thème, la version XXXVIII, page 147-148
Unit 15: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 14: Translating consumer-oriented texts
Traduire : le thème, la version XXXIII, page 139-140. XLII, page 155-156. LV, page 179-180
Unit 16: Thinking French Translation, Chapter 15: Revising and editing
Traduire : le thème, la version LVIII, page 185-186
Unit 17: Revision week
Unit 18: Exam week
Evaluation
To receive credit for FREN 405, you must complete the six tutor-marked written assignments, achieve a minimum grade of 50 percent on the written examination and you must achieve a minimum composite course grade of D (50 percent). The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| 6 Assignments (10% each) | 60% |
| Online Final Exam | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Hervey, Sandor and Ian Higgins. Thinking French Translation. Second edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Physical course materials
The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
Watson Rodger, Valentine. Traduire : le thème, la version. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 2005.
Other Materials
The course materials also include a study guide and a course information resource.