La formación de localizadores en los estudios de traducción: un enfoque comunicativo, objetual y social

Localisation is one of the most recent areas in the translation studies field and it is sometimes difficult to establish borders and find common ground between them. In this regard, localisation training is normally approached from the point of view of either translation or computer science. These two fields might be seen as remote from each other; however, in our proposal we bring them together in a productive and constructive manner. In this paper, we aim at presenting the main difficulties that localisation training entails -both at the methodological and the theoretical level- within the translation curriculum. We will also discuss our own teaching model, which has successfully been implemented at our universities. In our proposal we stress the importance of both technical and translational components, and we combine them by adopting a communicative, social and object-oriented approach (ECOS in Spanish). In our approach, localisation students must learn to play a three-fold role, vis-a-vis the digital product and the production process, as: mediators of the communicative value generated by the digital product as a cultural object and as a technical extension of human physical and intellectual abilities; stakeholders in the distribution of the localisable object’s functional and informative values; and negotiators of their own (as professionals) and of their localisable technological product’s social position and responsibility. To this end, in our teaching model we highlight the importance of acquiring certain technical aspects of the localisable object –such as extraction of text from logic, formats, meaning (re)presentation, hyperlinks, programming, structural patterns or dynamic text. On the other hand, we also believe that students should be highly competent in the use of the main localisation tool types that help them to contextualise their task, exchange and transform their product. At the same time, we provide our students with the analytical strategies needed to assert their role as a fundamentally translational one –negotiating meanings and functions, bridging texts and products across languages, communicating and mediating between cultures. To sum up, in this proposal we will show how we have articulated our approach over the last few years, and how we have developed a series of empowering methodologies that allow our students to construct the knowledge, the competences and the different existing socio-professional profiles which would help them to find their own place in the localisation industry and to identify their social responsibility.