257
QUESTIONS OF
TEACHING IN MEDICAL
HIGHER
EDUCA
TION INSTITUTIONS
Guzachchova N. I.
ОСОБЕННОСТИ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ДИСТАНЦИОННОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ В ПРЕПО-
ДАВАНИИ ГУМАНИТАРНЫХ НАУК В УНИВЕРСИТЕТЕ
Ключевые слова:
дистанционное обучение, система гуманитарной подготовки, критическое
мышление, гуманитарные науки, педагогические технологии, самореализация
Цель настоящей работы - рассмотреть дис-
танционное обучение в контексте существую-
щих определений, технологий, возможностей,
проблем, концепций и его роли, поскольку оно
быстро становится неотъемлемой частью об-
разовательных систем, как в развитых, так и
в развивающихся странах. Благодаря новым
технологиям способы обучения и получения
новых знаний больше не ограничиваются про-
странством и временем. Новые технологии
предлагают большую гибкость в том, когда, где
и как организовать учебный процесс и приоб-
ретать знания, предлагая гибкие возможности
обучения, как отдельному лицу, так и группе
студентов. Дистанционное обучение является
одной из наиболее быстро растущих областей
образования, и его потенциальное влияние на
все системы предоставления образования уси-
лилось, благодаря развитию информационных
технологий на основе Интернета. Для того
чтобы удовлетворить потребности меняюще-
гося мира, дистанционное обучение должно
идти в ногу со временем, без географических
барьеров, быть конкурентоспособной и ориен-
тированной на обучаемых.
Sharipova F.I.
MEDICAL TRANSLATION TODAY
Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute
This study is an analysis of the English language
medical translation in teaching English language
in the classes for Master degree students in medical
high schools
.
The growth of the discipline of
medical translation studies has been accompanied
by a renewed reflection on the object of research
and our metalanguage. These developments have
also been necessitated by the diversification of
Latin language within the language industry.
The very label translation is often avoided in
favour of alternative terms, such as localisation
(Human Anatomy), transcreation (pharmaceutics),
transediting (physiology and pathology of
diseases). The competences framework developed
for the European Master’s in Translation network
speaks of experts in multilingual and multimedia
communication to account for the complexity of
translation competence. This paper addresses the
following related questions: How can translation
competence in such a wide sense be developed
in training programmes? Do some competences
required in the medicine sphere go beyond
translation competence?
The researcher
in the aim makes a contrastive
view
of the possibly existing problems of teaching
English medical translation for Master degree
students to elicit possible factors and to suggests
that competencies can be provided to students
are influenced by a teacher’s short-term translator
experience, his or her evolving more theoretical
than practical approach.
Materials and methods
. The research
questions, concerning problems of teaching
medical text translation in medical high schools,
data collection and analysis are such methods and
material of the given study.
Results.
After discussing these various
problems the researcher proposes that teachers
and medical students need to interact to construct
better-informed understandings for diminishing the
above mentioned problems.
Introduction.
It is, however, not only
the translation industry n medicine which has
experienced growth, as the number of translator
training programmes has also increased enormously
over the last decade. The aims of medical translator
training are widely seen to be in providing graduates
who are qualified for the rapidly changing market.
Quite a lot of progress has been made recently in
agreeing on benchmarks for enhancing the quality
of medical translator training programmes. The
concept of “culture as translation” defines culture
as a space for the interaction of the components of
the translation process and describes translation
and interpreting as a reception interpretation of “the
own” and “the foreign” (Wolf 2002, 186). In the
process of translation every source text composed
in a certain sociocultural environment is transferred
into a new sociocultural situation and in the case of
expressive (literary) texts also into a new literary-
poetological context. The process of translation
thus becomes a territory for the interaction of two
258
ВОПР
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УЧЕБНЫХ ЗАВЕДЕНИЯХ
language and cultural systems. Since translation
presently takes place under the influence of
globalization processes and countervailing
regionalization processes, our intention is to point
out specific issues which must be dealt with by a
future professional medical translator regarding
the opposition of the foreign and the own. In the
paper we therefore
focus
on the three principal sub-
competences (cognitive, affective and behavioural)
which comprise the complex medical competence
of a translator and interpreter. We believe our article
will contribute to the description of intercultural
differences not only on a theoretical level but
also on extensive illustrational material whose
substance is documented in specific instances in
oral and written transfer.
Materials and methods
It is often argued that translation is invisible
when done well-the so-called pane of glass analogy,
with a “good” translation being represented by
a clear, smooth sheet of glass, while cracks and
scratches represent flaws, which draw attention to
the enterprise (cf. Chesterman and Wagner 2002).
The same metaphor might be applied to medical
translation quality. Working with medical texts
will always be easier for translators to deal with,
in contrast to defective and poor originals. In order
to gain more insight into the actual experience of
translators and to offer some quantitative data, a
questionnaire survey was carried out among Master
degree students in Tashkent Pediatric Medical
Institute. This section will present the results. The
survey was performed in the second half of 2021.
The questionnaire was compiled using Google
Forms and sent via email to slightly more than 50
Master degree students, out of which 28 responded.
The questionnaire contained contingency questions,
multiple choice as well as checkbox questions, and
open ended questions. The complete questionnaire
is included in the appendix. The prime focus of
the questionnaire was on the medical translation
quality and defects. Some questions were related
to the strategies employed by students facing
problematic academic issues, while other, more
tangential questions were also presented to the
survey participants. In the following paragraphs
we decided to offer and comment on only the most
relevant and interesting data. Let us start with the
information concerning the profile of students
participating in the survey. The majority of them
were experienced medical workers, with 60% (26)
of them working with practice in the foreign clinics
and hospitals for more than 5 years, another 36%
(20) between 1 to 3 years, and only 4% (4) that had
been working for less than a year. In all, 61% (40)
of were between 30–50 years of age, that is, 36%
(10) were between 20–30 years of age 20–25 and
there was no one younger than 20. For 52% (37) of
the respondents, translating was their main problem
in writing academic theses and articles while 48%
(13) found the medical translation as waste of time.
Similarly, the most common target language for the
respondents was English with 45% (15), followed
by Russian and Uzbek with 28% (20) and 21% (15)
respectively. To close the section about the profiles
of translators participating in the survey, figure1
offers the most frequently translated text types or
genres participants work with. As expected, fiction
comprises only a small pro-portion of translated
texts, while technical, scientific and academic texts
constitute the bulk of the translation input on the
translation market.
Table 1
Word Bank of professional medical word and word combinations Specialization
Specialization
Degrees
Human div
Ophthalmology
GP
Skeleton
Cardiology
Master
Cardiovascular system
Pediatrics
PHD
Respiratory system
Surgery
MD
Urinary system
Neurosurgery
BMSc
Sensation system
Table 2
English-Russian- Uzbek cognates
Russian word
Uzbek word
English word
Америка
Amerika
America
директор
direktor
director
кафе
kafe
cafe
робот
robot
robot
But cognates can misguide the students sometimes. That is, when they are false cognates known
as ‘false friends’. Such words have the same or nearly the same spelling, but mean absolutely different
things. And though contextual guess should be encouraged, the teacher should always point out the
possibility of coming across the false friends. In Table 3 you can see some example of false friends
between English and Russian and Uzbek.
Table 3
False Friends Between English and Russian and Uzbek
Russian word
Uzbek word
English word
Аборт
Abort
Abort
Бисквит
Pechene
Biscuit
Камера
kamera
Camera
Фабрика
Mato
Fabric
0%
100%
200%
300%
400%
500%
600%
fiction
publicistic texts
software, IT
web presentations
advertising texts
scientific texts
technical texts
medical texts
Figure 1: The most frequently translation
100
80 60
40
20
0
259
QUESTIONS OF
TEACHING IN MEDICAL
HIGHER
EDUCA
TION INSTITUTIONS
The results and discussion
The majority of students of Master degree
concurred with each other in that they correct
typos and obvious grammatical mistakes with
contacting the teacher. Several respondents
stated they always add commentary to explain
their corrections so that the defective parts of
the medical translation can be amended. The
situation nevertheless gets more complicated
when it comes to problems with terminology
or incomprehensibility. In these cases, medical
students usually contact the teacher straight away,
asking for clarification. Some of the respondents
stated that they use various search engines,
terminology databases or parallel corpora in
order to find the best equivalent that would suit
the co-text. About three translators declared they
never ameliorate medical texts , but rather append
commentary, offering possible solutions. In other
words, they assign responsibility for the final
decision to someone else.
The present survey demonstrated the relevance
of the topic, that is, medical texts translation
quality and deficiencies, since quality cannot be
taken for granted. The following section will offer
several tentative strategies on how to deal with
defects when translating medical texts.
Since medical texts translation defects
impede the translation process, it is worth
paying particular attention to the analysis and
pre-translation phase, which makes the source
material ready for translation. However, as
Drugan (2013) points out, while pre-translation
testing is common in software localization, it is
relatively rare in other domains. Furthermore, the
opportunity to improve medical texts translation
quality can prevent errors before they arise (cf.
Drugan 2013; Kubánek), Gouadec (2007, 71)
speaks about translatability assessment, that is,
a quality control which should guarantee that
the medical texts translation is up to standard
and does not contain any language-related or
fact-related errors, and that the material is in fact
translatable. The translatability assessment, based
on and adapted from Gouadec (2007, 70–72) and
Nord (2005), should include:
− identifying any errors, obscurities,
interference or real possible errors;
− making a note of any questions that
circumstances permitting will be forwarded to the
author or translation initiator;
− identifying any item which is not
fully understood or which requires further
documentation;
− identifying any items requiring special
attention, in particular those ambiguities where
several options may be open to the translator (e.g.
should measurement units be converted?);
− listing all the terminology and phraseology
requiring specific treatment (e.g. equivalents will
have to be researched; specific terminology will
need to be provided or validated; terminological
consistency may be at risk, etc.).
Conclusion
The aim of the present article
was to confront the problem of source medical
text translation quality, a topic which is discussed
only marginally in the literature of translation
studies, but is worth considerable attention since
many of the medical texts that are translated
by Master degree students are defective. We
discussed the frequently underestimated role of
the medical text in different translation schools of
thought and in the translation process itself. We
attempted to classify the most frequent text for
translation by medical students and demonstrated
the relationship between defect clarity and defect
seriousness on the one hand and established norms
or subjective decisions which must be followed to
remedy the defect on the other.
The next part of the paper presented the
results of a questionnaire survey among 50
Master degree students in the Tash PMI as well
as freelance translators, with a primary focus on
quality and defects of medical texts translation.
The survey demonstrated the relevance of the
topic as 78% translators stated that they encounter
medical texts translation defects. Apart from
spelling and punctuation issues, defects regarding
stylistics and incomprehensibility were selected
as the most frequent problems. In all, 88% of
translators indicated incomprehensibility as a
valid reason for rejecting a translation, 30% file
type or text extraction and 26% terminology.
Almost 60% of the respondents had been asked
to ameliorate poor medical texts by correcting
the defects and 72% of the translators prefer to
consult the teacher before correcting any defect.
In the final part of the paper we offered several
tentative strategies for dealing with medical texts
translation defects, seeking inspiration amongst
other things in medical texts translation analysis
or translatability assessment, Gouadec and Nord’s
principles. Considering the decreasing quality of
medical texts translation, we came to conclusion
that medical texts translation cannot be regarded
as inviolable or sacrosanct entities and it is the
translators’ duty to deal with all defects that
affect it. In order words, medical workers, writing
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УЧЕБНЫХ ЗАВЕДЕНИЯХ
academic texts and translating medical texts
should become communication experts with
a broader variety of available services, which
would not only include risk management strategy
(when facing a defective text) but also educating
the auditorium about the importance of text and
documentation quality.
References
1. Anderman, Gunilla, and Margaret Rogers. 2005. “English in Europe: For Better, for Worse?” In
In and Out of English: For Better, for Worse?, edited by Gunilla Anderman and Margaret Rogers,
1–26. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
2. Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge.Baker,
Mona, and Gabriela Saldanha, eds. 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London:
Routledge.
3. Bassnett, Susan. 2002. Translation Studies. 3nd ed. London: Routledge.Brunette, Louise. 2000.
“Towards a Terminology for Translation Quality Assessment.” The Translator 6 (2): 169–82.
Bxactly. 2011. “Translation and Interpreting Services—Terms and Conditions.”
www.bxactly.com/
agb_bxactly_en.pdf
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4. Byrne, Jody. 2006. Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical
Documentation. Dordrecht: Springer.Catford, John C. 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation:
An Essay in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Chesterman, Andrew. 1997. Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in Translation Theory.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
6. Gutt, Ernst-August. 2000. Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. 2nd ed. Manchester:
St. Jerome.
7. Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1997. The Translator as Communicator. London: Routledge.
8. Kussmaul, Paul. 1995. Training the Translator. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
9. Larson, Mildred L. 1987. “Establishing Project-Specific Criteria for Acceptability of Translations.”
In Translation Excellence: Assessment, Achievement, Maintenance, edited by Marilyn Gaddis
Rose, 69–76. Binghamton: University Center at Binghamton.
10. Schäffner, Christina. 2013. “Trans-language, Trans-culture, Trans-translation?” In Tradition and
Trends in Trans-language Communication, edited by Jitka Zehnalová, Ondřej Molnár, and Michal
Kubánek, 15–28. Olomouc: Palacký University.
Шарипова Ф.И.
МЕДИЦИНСКИЙ ПЕРЕВОД СЕГОДНЯ
Ключевые слова:
медицинский текст, иностранный язык, профессиональное образование,
переводческая компетенция
В статье рассматриваются проблемы обу-
чения переводу медицинских текстов маги-
стров медицинских институтов, в частности
в ТашПМИ на современном этапе. Поднима-
ются проблемы профессиональной переводче-
ской практики при подготовке будущих врачей
в медицинском институте.
Sharipova F.I
BUGUNGI KUNDA TIBBIY TARJIMA
Kalit so’zlar:
tibbiy matn, chet tili, kasbiy ta’lim, tarjima kompetensiyasi
Maqolada hozirgi bosqichda tibbiyot
institutlari, xususan, ToshPTI magistrantlariga
tibbiy matnlarni tarjima qilishni o‘rgatish
muammolari ko‘rib chiqiladi. Tibbiyot institutida
bo‘lajak shifokorlarni tayyorlashda professional
tarjima amaliyotining muammolari ko‘tariladi.
