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The program is flexible. A total of 18 credits (six graduate courses) are required to earn the Certificate. The order of the courses is only prescribed at the beginning and the end of the program. Intervening courses may be taken in the order desired by the student.

All courses are offered in the evenings with varied starting times from 5:30pm to 6:15pm. All courses (fall and spring) require a minimum of 3 hours of classroom exposure. The fall and spring semesters have a 14 week duration. Summer sessions have a 6+ week duration and require a min. of 6 hours of classroom exposure per week.

Goals and Objectives of the Program:
The overall goals and objectives of the program are as follows:

• To acquaint students with the relatively new concept of Translation Studies by reading informed criticism in the theoretical field, thereby contextualizing the discipline in general terms.
  
• To fine-tune the students’ knowledge of Spanish.
  
• To provide limited training in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, insofar as these skills are required in most fields using translators in the United States, but not the intensive training associated with specialized interpreting work only.
  
• To develop the specialized vocabulary and concepts needed to work bilingually in law, business and medicine in the U.S.
  
• To learn how to view both cultures, the Hispanic and the Anglo, from the inside and the outside so as to grasp the translator’s place in a professional setting.
  
• To assist in the training of students in multicompetencies for employment purposes.
  
• Through the program, to keep pace with the need for linguistic specialists.
  
• To offer graduate credit, symbolizing academic achievement, to our students for the marketing of their translating skills.

• Applicant must have earned a Bachelors degree from an accredited university or college.
  
• An overall GPA (Grade Point Average) of 3.0 or higher (as an undergraduate) is desirable.
  
• Two letters of recommendation from former professors (undergraduate or graduate) are required. If the applicant has been out of school for 3 years or longer, current or past supervisors may issue the letters of recommendation.
  
• The applicant must provide evidence of an “Advanced Level in Spanish.” This may be determined in a variety of ways and, ultimately, it will be left to the discretion of the Program Director. Some typical indicators are: (1) when the applicant achieved, at the undergraduate level, a Major, Minor or Double Major in Spanish with a GPA at 3.0 or higher; (2) when the applicant has secured working experience as a translator (Spanish-English); (3) when the applicant is able to demonstrate bilingual competency (Spanish-English) despite a lack of academic credits in language courses; (4) when the applicant has experience immersion language skill acquisition at a foreign university program sanctioned by an accredited U.S. university and he/she has received a grade of “notable” (B) or better.

It is preferable (but not determinant) that candidates for admission to the CIT have working experience (voluntary or compensated) in a setting involving intercultural interaction. Typical kinds of experiences include community oriented outreach programs, hospital volunteering, undergraduate/graduate internship at a place where Spanish is spoken and/or written as a matter of routine, part-time or full-time work at a school, business, law firm or clinic/hospital where the use of Spanish was imbedded in the applicants duties.

Finally, since the program is also intended to serve professionals that may already have experience in one of the areas of specialization (legal or medical or business Spanish) but not the others, the recommendations required for these applicants may be supplied by the current/previous employer’s appropriate supervisor.

Core Course Requirements:
The CIT has no elective courses. All courses listed below are required.
All accepted students are required to take (as their first course) BLS 639. If a student is deemed to be extremely skillful, he/she may also take BLS 640 at the same time. BLS 641, 642 and 643 may be taken in any order but only after successfully completing BLS 639. BLS 700 will be taken last as the “capstone” course for the program.

Retention, Completion and Certificate Requirements:

1. The program requires a minimum 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). A student that falls below this standard at any time is automatically in academic jeopardy and subject to academic review by the Director. A student will be given the semester that follows to bring his/her GPA to a 3.0



2. In order to earn the Certificate in Translation, the student must successfully complete all 6 required courses with a 3.0 or better GPA. There are no electives in this program. No course taken at another university/institution will be credited.
   
3. An accepted student to the CIT program will have a total of 4 academic years to complete the program. Only in extreme circumstances is a “leave of absence” granted. No leave of absence will be granted for more than one year. When a leave of absence is granted, the time period encompassing the leave of absence will not count toward the 4 years candidacy max.

Course descriptions:

Designed to provide a review of standard Spanish grammar and
syntax for advanced students of the language. The course includes intensive oral and written practice with the view of improving native and non-native students’ speaking and writing skills, particularly in translations of Spanish to English and English to Spanish. The course also intends to make students aware of standard Spanish cultivated in schools of higher learning in the Spanish-speaking world.

The first stage of the course is theoretical. Surveying statements on the art of translation will acquaint students with typical issues experienced by literary translators. Focusing on individual solutions to translation problems will heighten awareness of the challenges of working interculturally and independently. Reading essays on the process of translation will help students understand what the field of Translation Studies has come to mean in abstract terms. Using explanations of the history of translation and of current theories, will help students to develop a broad perspective on the field as a whole as they begin to incorporate standard terms in their own usage.
The second stage of the course is practical. Newspaper articles will be examined as types of language posing different challenges which, when identified, prompt the appropriate stylistic choices for a translator. Discussion and collaborative in-class translations of examples of each type will complement the individual work done outside class.

The topics and linguistic skills covered in this course include the following: vocabulary, oral practice (Spanish-English and English-Spanish), ethnical norms, health care practices in the U.S., the Hispanic culture of the patient, role-playing, writing of a short medical script, observation at a local hospital with bilingual services, supplemental readings on specific diseases or community health problems.

This course provides students the opportunity to translate a variety of texts, with emphasis on current world economic and financial issues, international trade and business and economic forecasts. Students learn to apply basic concepts of economic and business to real-world texts, thereby improving their command of the technical terminology of these fields. Texts include printed and online promotional and informational material, as well as various types of business correspondence and transactions. The course also covers sectors of the business world in which consecutive interpretation is frequently used and emphasizes also sequential logic in note taking and accurate terminology in delivery.

A series of legal documents will be analyzed for their technical features in order to grasp some of the systemic and cultural complexities that need to be understood in order to bridge the gap between lawyer and client when Spanish and English are both involved in a common legal proceeding.
Deeds, lease agreements, liens, living wills and power of attorney, all commonly used documents in the U.S. today, will be translated.
Students will learn how to efficiently communicate with Spanish speaking clients as well as to relay their verbal messages to a lawyer or a court. Through sight translation of written testimony, for example, letters or statements from clients, students will practice basic skills of court translating. Attention will be given to registers of speech (slang, police jargon, legal terms, norms for courtroom testimony). Typical sessions of client counseling and contract negotiations will be simulated in class, in teamwork, to practice this aspect.

The purpose of this capstone course is to acquaint translation students with the variety of ways they may be expected to handle language in the profession. Sight and speed translation, oral summary of a written text, conference interpreting of speeches, consecutive interpreting of interviews, dubbing and simultaneous interpreting of various sorts will all be practiced. Whether treating familiar texts from previous coursework or handling new, unfamiliar texts (from the areas studied), students will use the same intensive approach. “Best practices” with problematic aspects will be stressed so as to train participants to resolve issues.
In this final stage students will draw on knowledge and techniques taught as they also develop their note taking methods and public speaking skills.