INTRODUCTION. The teaching aid “Theory and Practice of oral and sight translation” is one of the fundamental disciplines

The teaching aid “Theory and Practice of oral and sight translation” is one of the fundamental disciplines, studied by the students-phylologists of the pedagogical department of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine.

The course proposed will help students to understand the interpreter’s mission, intellectual requirements, various methods of interpretation, and sufficient ways of interpretation, make oral and sight (viva voce) translation of the stylistically and thematically dissimilar texts, and correctly apply proper translational transformations. Students will learn the “secrets” of the profession in such nuances as breath and voice, gestures and accent, culture of speech, room manners, team work, adapting to circumstances, etc.

The main goal of this course is to give students basic knowledge of the profession, theoretical and practical skills of sight translation, consecutive and simultaneous interpretation from English into Ukrainian and vice versa. Versatile and practically useful topics are compiled in succession according to the existing program of training highly qualified experts in the translation theory and practice, which is difficult to overestimate in our time of rapid development of international relations, growing necessity of language professionals to establish and maintain contacts with partners all over the world. Besides, the pace of the contemporary world calls for translators to deliver their work in shorter turnaround cycles, and application of the necessary interpretation techniques obtained from the theoretical and practical material would prove conductive to this demand.

The lectures unfold a broad theoretical foundation of the profession: perception and understanding texts and messages in translation and interpretation, types of contexts and contextual relationships in oral discourse, semantic redundancy, interpreter’s note–taking, lexical and grammatical difficulties of interpretation, etc. Much space is devoted to phonological, complications in interpretation caused by accents and dialects and the ways of fighting them. Material is mainly compiled on the basis of the essential manual on Oral Two-Way Interpretation by S.E.Maximov [5] and other sources indicated in the List of Literature. Theoretical material is backed up by numerous examples from mass media, scientific prose, etc., provided with linguistic analysis and translation, and is mastered through practical assignments – original texts with scientific-technical terminology, accompanied by official translations.

The topics proposed are diverse and promote interest, desire to investigate and excel; they develop linguistic conscience, scientific thinking, creativity and practical skills.

Theoretical and practical material helps to systematize and extend the knowledge gained at other practical and theoretical classes, assimilate special linguistic and translational terminology, to coordinate theory with practice.

The material proposed is compiled according to the training program and credit–module system of students’ knowledge evaluation.