ESSAY

 In my opinion I can say that all the modalities are really important, and interesting. So it was difficult to me select one of them; however, of all them I just want to choose one. The one I liked the most was translation. The reason of why I chose this modality is because I would like to be a translator but before it, I have to gain as much experience as I can this will help me in my professional career. Since translation is the process to transfer written or spoken source language texts to equivalent written or spoken target language texts. The basic purpose of translation is to reproduce various types of texts, comprising literary, religious, scientific, philosophical texts etc. in another language and thus making them available to wider readers, to a greater number of target audience and to bring the world closer.

Besides, the translator has to make a number of decisions of how to interpret the source text into the target text, the translator uses all resources and apply technical skills to have as a result a good translation in the target language; however, translation is not an easy job. If language is just a classification for a set of general or universal concepts, it will be of course very easy to translate from a source language to a target language. But translation covers not only word for word translation but also many other factors. The concepts of one language may vary completely from those of another. This is because each language articulates or organizes the word in a different way. The bigger the gap between the source language and the target language, the more difficult the process of transfer will be. The discrepancy between the two languages and cultures makes the process of translating a real challenge.

Furthermore; a translator is an agent for transferring messages from one language to another, while preserving the underlying cultural and same ideas and values. So if we want to be good translators we must be creative and have reasonable knowledge from the target language and have good dictionaries, have enough experience about all. In other words we must have the necessary tools to do it. So a good translator should be familiar with the culture, customs, and social settings of the source and target language speakers. She should also be familiar with different registers, styles of speaking, and social stratification of both languages. The act of translating takes place in the socio-cultural context. Therefore, it is important to judge translating activity only within a social context.

At last, it is important to know that it takes much more than a dictionary to be a good translator and translators are not made in one day. To be a good translator requires a considerable investment in both source and target languages. It is one of the most challenging tasks to switch safely and faithfully between two universes of discourse. Just a sophisticated and systematic treatment of translation education can lead to the development of successful translators. But the most arduous part of the journey starts when translation trainees leave their universities.

After knowing all this, something that I would like to translate is about legal services because I think that it would help in my professional career. Also it is the subject in which I want to work and it would be my first experience; I now that translation has its process and I have to be aware of various information-providing sources and learning how to use them. These sources include: different monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the Internet.

The translator should have the ability to write efficiently and correctly in both source and target languages, because this is also important, since it is the main job of a translator. Another important thing is that we should become familiar with different styles of writing and techniques and principles of editing and punctuation in both source and target languages. Editing and punctuation improve the quality and readability of the translation.

One of the most important points to consider in the act of translating is, understanding the value of the source text within the framework of the source-language discourse. To develop this understanding, the translator must be aware of the cultural differences and the various discoursal strategies in the source and target languages. Thus, the hidden structure of the source text should be discovered through the use of various discoursal strategies by the translator.

Knowing and understanding the context the translator will face up some problems like:  trying to find the meaning of some words. I think it is a hard work for a translator. He/she has to look for the correct meaning and until he finds it he will continue with the translation of the text. He has to write and rewrite the text many times until it sounds good. But also it is very important that the text has coherence, and the more experience you have the better translator you will be.

In conclusion, I can say that I will have good experience of this, and I cannot wait to start with my translation. I know that I will face up some problems but nothing difficult to solve, so I will try to do a good work, and use the techniques and method in a correct way in order to have a good translation. Since translation is not easy.

My Reflection

What I liked about this second module was to know the different kind of research that one can use for a project such as qualitative, descriptive, quantitative and experimental research. Also, to know differences and similarities that exists between these kinds of research. I liked the reading it was very interesting. What I would like to learn, I think that all is clear here so there is nothing.  Something that was difficult to me was to choose a modality to work on and I chose translation. So I won`t do a research project where I can incorporate something about the reading of this module.

Research design: qualitative and descriptive research

Research design: qualitative and descriptive research

Qualitative and descriptive research: both are concerned with providing descriptions of phenomena that occur naturally, without the intervention of an experiment or an artificially contrived treatment, and both are primary research, and occur in a natural environment.

Qualitative research

Qualitative methods originally developed from the methodologies of field anthropologists    and sociologists concerned with studying human behavior within   the context in which behavior would occur naturally and in which the role of the researcher would not affect the normal behavior of the subjects.

Qualitative research is heuristic and not deductive.

Some forms of qualitative research narrows the focus of the research scope as the research progresses.

It is also concerned with the description, descriptive research as a type or category of research refers to investigation which utilizes already existing data or non-experiment research with preconceived hypothesis.

Procedures: observation, tape recording, and manual transcription ect.

It avoids establishing research questions or hypotheses, or identifying, a priori, any variable which become the focus of the research.

It is synthetic or holistic, with little or no manipulation of the research environment, and uses data collection procedures with low explicitness. Thus it avoids pitfalls.

Qualitative research is the primary example of hypothesis generating research.

The ultimate goal of qualitative research is to discover phenomena such as patterns of second language behavior not previously described and to understand those phenomena from perspective of participants in the activity.

Define the phenomenon to be described

Use qualitative methods to gather data

Look for patters in the data

Validate the data or collect more data.

Recycle.

Descriptive research

Descriptive research involves a collection of techniques used to specific, delineate, or describe naturally occurring phenomena without experimental manipulation.

The researchers begin with general questions in mind about the phenomenon they are studying or with more specific questions and objective.

Descriptive research can be heuristic or deductive.

 It can be synthetic or analytic in its approach to the second language phenomena studied.

It can be hypothesis-driven

No manipulation of naturally occurring phenomena occurs.

Descriptive study might describe an aspect of second language acquisition from a more synthetic perspective.

Descriptive research refers to investigation which utilizes already existing data or non-experimental research with a preconceived hypothesis.

Data collection (test, surveys and questionnaires, self-reports, interviews,and observations)

Some basic procedures

Chose your question.

Chose the population.      

Determine methods for data collection.

Collect the data.

Organize and analyze the data.

Experimental research must be analytic.

It can be hypothesis-driven

Manipulation and control become important measures of both internal and external validity.

 Correlation Research: looks at the interrelationship of two variables at the same        time.

In few words the qualitative research is a theory generator and the descriptive research is a theory tester which helps us to analyze and organize all the data with specific procedures

Multivariate Research: can investigate the interrelationship of a large number of variables at the same time. it may be used with data collected from different sources, such as previous descriptive or experimental research, or data collected specifically for the current study using tests, questionnaires, observations, etc.

MODALITY

 Well, I chose two modalities which are ethnography and glossary.  The reasons are: they catch

 my attention, and I would like to live a new experience, and apply it in real life, because I think that if I describe, and analyze an aspect of teaching-learning process it will help me later, and I could apply this to my professional career.  The second one, I think that I would increase my vocabulary, and I will know perfectly the meaning of the words and will use them correctly in my professional career. In conclusion, those modalities will help me to understand and to clarify some things in my experience like a teacher.


My Reflection

Well, I think that the readings of the first module were a bit hard for me; I had to read it three times. What I liked was that the teacher explained the reading in class and it makes easier to me understand much better the reading. I learnt that the research surrounds us daily, and I can identify the different kind of knowledge. What I would like to learn is how to make a good project and how to quote the sources in APA style. It was difficult for me to use the blog. So I had some problems with it. In fact I am adapting to this.

My concept map

  Research is the formalization of natural processes we all carry out from birth in dealing with the environment. We carry out activities that have the same components as academic research. We carry out these activities because we seek answers to questions about phenomena that occur in our daily lives.  Research questions can be investigated from different perspectives by using different procedure such as observation, questioning, experimentation, and elicitation. Scientific research is organized, structured, methodical, systematic, and the theories are testable and falsifiable and it attempts to study the phenomena through careful description and identification. While common sense, intuition, and introspection about experience are of limited value unless used appropriately. Common sense conclusions are reached on the basis of superstition, superficial responses to problems, and unexamined beliefs.

There are four types of knowledge found in second language research

Type 1- Knowledge as belief: when we know something on the basis of belief, it may mean we want to believe something to be true but have never submitted it to an empirical test.

Type 2- Knowledge as an authority: similar to type 1because it comes from a source which is accepted at face value.

Type 3- A priority knowledge: resemble beliefs. It is usually founded on some previous systematic empirical work or observation.

Type 4- Empirical knowledge: we arrive at knowing something through the processes of observation and/or experimentation. Empirical knowledge is obtained by interacting with real world, observing phenomena, and drawing conclusions from experience.

There are three different kind of research basic, applied, and practical that contributes to our understanding and knowledge of second language phenomena.

http://www.slideshare.net/salvatierraortiz/leonelas-mind-map-14141323