| MATI501 |
Translation, Interpreting and Editing Theory and Practice in Zimbabwe and Beyond |
The purpose of this module is to produce well-rounded translators, interpreters and editors who can offer high quality language mediation services. The module equips students with knowledge about the theory and practice of translation, interpreting and editing as a practice and discipline at a global, continental and local level. The module will cover issues relating to the evolution and role(s) of translation, interpreting and editing – from its origins to the present day – in the so-called Western world; in different parts of the African continent and in Zimbabwe. It seeks to produce graduates who can develop language mediation consultancy companies and develop locally designed and customised software for language mediation services. It seeks to produce graduates who can inspire, develop, inform and space policy, practice and industry in the language mediation sector. |
| MATI502 |
Human Rights and Inclusive Sustainable Human Development |
The HR&HD module immerses the students into full-fledged research on discourses and practices involving language as a human right and vehicle for the exercise of other basic human rights and inclusive sustainable human development. Expertise drawn from legal experts on human rights from the Faculty of law, practicing legal practitioners and Non-Governmental Organisations will be utilised to guide the students in current global trends and pertinent issues in the field of human rights, which will be interrogated and applied in the context of language, specifically, and human development, generally. Language activism and Language Management perspectives form important cornerstones in the understanding of discourses in this module, and graduates can serve as language planners and policy makers for governments and NGOs, or in advisory capacity to same and legal Commissions and/or practitioners, as well as to devolution panels and baseline researchers on matters of development at local and global levels. |
| MATI503 |
Lexicography and Terminology Processing |
This module focuses on the advanced processes of lexicography and terminography, blending theory with practice. It seeks to produce students are not only familiar with processes involved in the compilation of dictionaries, analysing same, and processing terminology, but to be practitioners in the making. Students will be part of one or more ongoing dictionary projects or term creation/term organisation projects, attached either to the African Languages Research Institute or to independent organisations/individuals involved in the production of dictionaries, glossary lists, term banks, dictionary making or term processing software development, or related activities. A student may elect to be involved in a patentable project as an alternative to writing a dissertation. This module combines both manual and automated methodologies, with units on practical lexicography/terminography steeped in e-lexicography and language technology (computational linguistics and Artificial Intelligence) offered in collaboration with the Computer Science Department. On completion, students can work as versatile practitioners or researchers for dictionary-making institutions, big data organisations, search engine companies, translation software developers, individual organisations working with specialised terminology, publishers, electronic corpus developers/managers, and they can also work in academia as lecturers, researchers and consultants. |
| MATI504 |
Language Planning Policy and Management in Zimbabwe and Beyond |
The purpose of this module is to equip students with practical skills and knowledge of language planning, language policy formulation and language management. Accordingly, the module will focus issues relating to language planning, policy and management process, steps, approaches and dynamics in Zimbabwe and beyond. It will explore how language planning, policy and management relate to the language mediation profession and development. The module seeks to produce language planners, policy makers and language managers who can develop, inspire inform and shape language policies and development policies for different sectors through consultancy, advisory and technical services. |
| MATI505 |
Translation and Editing Practicum |
This module exposes students to the practical realities of the translation and editing professions. It covers a range of important skills that are required in both freelance and organisational translation and editing work, including advertising of services on various platforms, membership and accreditation to professional translation/editing agencies and associations, communicating with potential and confirmed clients, issuing quotations and invoices. Students will be trained how to play various roles in a hierarchical system – including managing big translation/editing projects that are centrally coordinated. For practice, students will be exposed to real life paid jobs that will form part of their ongoing assessment, and get to earn money for their efforts – part of which will be retained by the department for purchase of translation/editing software licenses and ongoing upgrading of the machine translation and editing laboratory. Both manual and automated translation/editing systems will be employed in the practical module, and students will be able to work with various CAT tools by the time they complete the module. Career prospects are very wide ensuing from this module, including working as certified translators/reviewers for NGOs, embassies, government departments, UN agencies, translation/editing consultancy companies, multinational/international organisations, among others, as well as sustainable freelance operations. |
| MATI506 |
Interpreting Practicum |
The Interpreting Practicum Module involves the training of students in the various modes and types of interpreting. Students will be adequately exposed to the various interpreting contexts where they will be required to carry out effective pre-assignment assessments, planning and briefs, as well as execute the given assignments and afterwards conduct reviews on the task. Self and peer evaluation are critical methods for review employed in this module, in addition to client/instructor’s evaluations. Apart from the requisite interpreting skills, language proficiency is also assessed and graded accordingly – including interpreting language combinations and direction competencies. Relay interpreting and co-interpreting will also form an important part of practical interpreting training. Links with industry will be managed through case study visits and part time internship by students to organisations like the Parliament of Zimbabwe, the Judicial Services Commission, the President’s Office, embassies, UN agencies, NGOs and other organisations that depend on interpreters in their core business. This Module, like the translation and editing practicum modules, is a non-traditional income stream generator that will empower both students and the department in the subsistence of the course, while opening lots of opportunities for students who complete it. Accreditation and membership registration to professional bodies will be automatically awarded upon the successful completion of the Module. |
| MATI507 |
Community Project |
This module will capacitate students to identify problems within communities that are found within their area of investigation. After identifying the problem the students are expected to proffer solutions. This entails students going into the community identifying translation and/or interpretation problems within the community and coming up with solutions. |
| MATI508 |
Strategic Communication |
The Strategic Communication module provides the theory, concepts and skills that enable one to operate and successfully work with communication in both localised and international environments for various kinds of organisations. On completion, students will be able to analyse, identify and effect suitable communication strategies for different fields and purposes, including the closely related fields of organisational communication, public relations and brand communication. The module provides students with a solid grounding for a career in communication, public relation, and some of the career prospects ensuing from it include, but are not limited to development consultancy, corporate communication management, human resources management, public relations management, brand management, project management, team building strategy development, organisation/government spokesperson, media consultancy, peace and reconciliation consultancy, diplomatic communication, speech writing, ceremony directing, talk show hosting, among others. |
| MATI509 |
Community Interpreting in Zimbabwe and |
This module is designed to produce well-rounded language mediators who can be of service in the different domains where such services are needed. It introduces students to alternative ways of providing an interpreting service which may include: working in an interpreting team; relay interpreting; remote interpreting by telephone/video-conferencing. The module includes issues and skills involved in the interpretation of information about public services in Zimbabwe and beyond. The module concentrates on introducing and developing the knowledge and skills required becoming a competent professional liaison/bilateral interpreter working in general, business and public sector settings. The module will explore a range of models of interpreting and the possible roles of a liaison/bilateral interpreter, the principles of professional practice, codes of ethics and ethical dilemmas. This module will focus on some public sector fields as case studies (e.g. medical, legal, education etc.) to explore the demands and boundaries of working in these fields, to develop coping strategies, and to apply skills in simulated professional contexts. |
| MATI510 |
Language and Information Communication Technology |
This module is purposed at raising the awareness and aptitude in the students’ ability to relate and work with language issues within the framework of ICT. Language has mostly been relegated to the doldrums of scientific inquiry and study in many institutions, being viewed mainly as a humanities preserve that is steeped only in the realms of arts and cultural studies. This module is, therefore, designed to bring language practice and management studies to the fore in matters ICT. This will enable the student to take the initial steps towards full-fledged studies of disciplines such as computational linguistics and language programming of various computer packages and development applications such as translation and interpreting software, language corpora, lexicography, language applications and terminology management systems, among others. |
| MATI570 |
Dissertation |
A student will be required to either write a dissertation on an approved topic addressing certain pertinent issues in the translation/interpreting discipline and/or industry, which may be related to any of the modules studied, or to carry out an independent project that is aimed to give solutions to a certain identified problem(s). This may entail developing a model to be used in the teaching/learning of translation or interpreting, developing a software/system to be used by a specific company/organisation to improve efficiency in the management of translation/interpreting projects. Where applicable, such projects may be conducted in partnership with selected organisations, and they will be tested for effectiveness, accordingly. Meriting projects will be patented and commercialised as may be necessary. While dissertations will be an individual effort, projects may be carried out in teams of approved partnerships from the same programmes or drawing participants from other specialties, e.g. Computer Science, Engineering, approved companies, etc. |
