Linguistics to stop providing translation certificate

While reasons remain unclear, Pitt’s linguistics department will no longer offer a… While reasons remain unclear, Pitt’s linguistics department will no longer offer a professional translation certificate.

According to Alan Juffs, chair of the linguistics department, the main reason the program is no longer offered through the linguistics department is that there were not enough students enrolling in the classes. He said some classes have had only three or four students.

Juffs said the linguistics department contacted the chairs of the foreign language departments last spring semester regarding the program. The departments reported students were more interested in literature classes rather than translation, according to Juffs, and that there had been no opposition to ending the certificate program.

“I didn’t have anyone object at all,” Juffs said about the decision to no longer guarantee the certificate.

However, according to Josephine Thornton, a French translation instructor, the change came about because the foreign language departments did not pay much attention to the program “because it is not literature based.”

Thornton said that Pitt stresses language and literature-based classes. This sort of education can only lead to teaching a language, she said.

Each student who took a translation course was e-mailed about the decision and told they had until the spring 2003 to finish the requirements in order to get the certificate, according to Juffs. This would give everyone a chance to finish the requirements even if they had just started the program.

According to Dennis Looney, chair of the department of French and Italian, Pitt has a policy that 14 students must be enrolled in a class to avoid its cancellation, unless special permission is given. Looney said that exceptions were made for certain translation courses, though, such as Thornton’s French Translation I, which has only 11 students.

Thornton said she feels low enrollment in classes is caused by Pitt not advertising the program. She said she wanted to hand out advertisement fliers for the program, and that she continually brought up the idea but was told that it was not professional.

According to Juffs, it was difficult to maintain instructors for translation courses. He said there were no full-time faculty members who taught the classes, and that the program “was often a source of difficulty” for the linguistics department.

He also said instructors thought some students did not have the proficiency needed from their language courses to translate effectively.

Both Juffs and Thornton agreed the program might have a better future in a different department. Juffs said offering the certificate through the linguistics department was not smart, administratively speaking.

“We were running a program for other departments,” he said.

Juffs stressed that individual foreign language departments are able to offer the program if they so wish.

According to Thornton, the program has been located in the Spanish, the French, and now the linguistics department.

“The program has had numerous directors from several departments,” she said

Thornton suggested housing the program in a graduate level school.

Regardless of where the program is located, Thornton maintained that translation courses offer great career opportunities.

“Good translators are never without work unless they plan it that way,” she said, adding that translation is a “lucrative way” for students “to use their language knowledge.”

The translation program stresses using language in business settings, such as in legal, medical, or technical situations, she said.

Thornton has been teaching translation courses at Pitt since 1979. Before that, she taught in the translation program at Carnegie Mellon University for four years.

“Pitt obviously had more language students, so I thought [the program] would be better suited at Pitt,” she said.

“I think that it is strange,” David Foncho said in response to the fact that the translation certificate is not offered anymore. Foncho, who is in Thornton’s French Translation I class and is a Fulbright Scholar in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, added that the influx of immigrants in this area as a reason for the certificate’s importance.

Foncho also stressed the importance of the program because it is not just an academic, but also a cultural program.

“Practically every other country in the world has university translation programs. Why can’t [American universities and colleges] support professional training in translation and interpretation?” Thornton said.

Thornton said the translation program offered at Pitt is “unique” in the United States.

“Other colleges and universities . . . have sent their students [to Pitt] for training,” Thornton said, adding that if Pitt would advertise the program to other colleges, enrollment would not be so low.

Other language departments appear to be unsure if they will offer certificates themselves.

According to Looney, the French and Italian department would consider investigating to see if French translation courses are worth teaching, but not Italian because of low student enrollment in classes.

John Beverly, chair of the department of Hispanic languages and literature, said his department “will probably continue to offer courses in Spanish translation but not the Certificate program.”

Beverly Harris-Schenz, an undergraduate adviser of the department of Germanic languages and literatures, declined to comment about offering the certificate from within her specific department.

“I regret that we no longer are able to offer this program to interested students,” she said.