Language service provision in the 21st century: challenges, opportunities and educational perspectives for translation studies

Abstract

Translators have contributed significantly to the evolution of culture and to ever-increasing globalization. With advances in AI, notably in Machine Translation, new opportunities and challenges have emerged. Increased recognition of language as a human right and not-for-profit translation have added to opportunities and challenges within the global translation sector. This in turn creates opportunities and challenges for training of translators in the higher education sector. Translation Studies as an academic discipline has sought to agree on competence models that guide teaching practice. However, with the speed of change in AI especially, the discipline needs to assess how competence requirements will change and what the translator of the future will need to do. We propose to expand the types of skills currently taught and to do this through collaborative programs across EU universities.