Use of ICT in languages 2

THE ROLE OF THE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SECTOR IN EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

(Services 2)

The past fifty years have witnessed a “revolution” in global economic growth. Yet not everyone has participated in this revolution. More than 65% of the world population, over four million people, still lives on the equivalent of less than $4 per person per day.

The world’s poor are severely constrained – and often completely lacking- in opportunity to do better for themselves.

When we think about eradicating poverty, we should think broadly about creating economic opportunity.

“Economic opportunity enables people to manage their assets in ways that generate incomes and options”.

Four key strategies companies can use to expand economic opportunity:

The role of ICT Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

The Information and Communication Technology sector has been a pioneer and a powerful catalyst in addressing the needs and interests of low-income communities in developing countries.

In the 1980s, “universal access” was a goal, but not the reality of the legacy PTTs (post, telephone and telegraph services).

Today, the sector includes hardware, software, the Internet, telephony and content, application and support service, provided by entities ranging from corporate giants to garage entrepreneurs.

ICT:

• Reduce transaction costs and thereby improve productivity.
• Offer immediate connectivity- voice, data, visual- improving efficiency, transparency and accuracy.
• Substitute for other, more expensive means of communicating and transacting, such as physical travel.
• Increase choice in the market place and provide access to otherwise unavailable goods and services.
• Widen the geographic scope of potential markets.
• Channel knowledge and information of all kinds.

World Bank surveys of approximately 50 developing countries suggest that “firms using ICT see faster sales growth, higher productivity and faster employment growth”.

ICTs help address economic opportunity obstacles

• Geographic isolation
• Lack of competition and high prices for consumers
• Lack of information and low prices for producers
• Legal exclusion
• Political voice
• Social capital

To fulfill their potential, ICTs require clean and consistent power, a robust, accessible and affordable connectivity network, technical literacy, skilled users and support systems, functional markets, and supportive regulatory and policy frameworks.

ICTs among low-income consumers and households will continue to grow:

1. Technological capacity and capabilities continue to expand, and costs continue to fall.
2. ICTs become cheaper and more powerful
3. Economic opportunity expands.

This will generate new demand for software, hardware and services.

Innovation

There are two main mechanisms for this:

1. Low-income customers have very sophisticated requirements in terms of relevance.
2. As ICT ecosystems develop, local equipment manufacturers, software developers, contents and service providers, another -including users themselves- can also be sources of innovation, either adding value to the technologies large companies are offering or informing innovation by those companies themselves.

In addition, ICTs can be expected to facilitate many of the innovations that will “blow back” in other industries from manufacturing to medicine, as well.

Companies are also creating additional economic opportunity by working to bring smaller, local firms into their business ecosystems –for example, as manufacturers, software developers or retailers.

Selling to local markets

We see two essential and interlocking growth strategies in the ICT sector:
Horizontal deepening: is essentially about adding new customers.
Vertical deepening: Modalities seek to grow markets by connecting technology more directly to opportunities and services that increase productivity income and quality of life thus straightening its value proposition to the purchaser.

Cross-cutting considerations:

• Learning about the market
• Designing products and services to meet the market’s specific needs
• Business model innovation
• Collaboration
• Patience

Developing human capital

• Large ICT companies are employing deliberate human capital development strategies aiming to develop employees, business partners, and customers, both present and future.
• The ICT sector requires a certain level of comfort with technology among customers. Most mayor firms have implemented technical literacy programs.

Helping to optimize the “rules of the game”

Large ICT companies are helping to optimize the rules of the game for economic opportunity primarily by advocating for standards, regulations, and policies that support innovation and growth in the sector. A number of issues or dilemmas are of specific importance to the sector in expanding economic opportunity for the poor.

Access and infrastructure: many ICT companies are addressing access and infrastructure issues through business investment and innovation.
Standards-setting: as new technological capabilities emerge, new standards need to be developed so that markets can be imagined, created, and served-expanding economic opportunity for individuals, entrepreneurs, and institutions of all types and sizes.
Intellectual property rights regimes: intellectual property (IP) rights are critical to sustain innovation in the ICT sector, and yet as knowledge becomes privatized, commoditized, and expensive, developing countries risk being priced out of the market for the knowledge they need to advance.
Regulatory harmonization: harmonization between telecommunication and financial regulators will be key to enabling innovation and experimentation with business models that cross traditional industry lines (such as providing financial services via mobile phone or storing health information on data cards).

Conclusions

• A number of factor distinguish the ICT sector in its potential to expand economic opportunity. First, its products and services enable individuals, firms, governments, and other players to expand their economic opportunities as well as create them for others.
• Second, ICT companies know well this dynamic isn’t automatic, but rather depend on a wide range of other factors and players. This interdependence has led them to take network or ecosystem strategies which often create large numbers of business opportunities for others, smaller firms.
• Third, underlying these ecosystem strategies are a fundamental collaborative capability and culture.

ICT AS A CHANGE AGENT FOR EDUCATION

(Teaching 2)

Information and communication technologies have become commonplace entities in all aspects of life. In the last twenty years the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms.

Some history:

• Near the end of the 1980s, the term "computers" was replaced by 'IT' (Information Technology) signifying a shift of focus from computing technology to the capacity to store and retrieve information.
• This was followed by the introduction of the term "ICT" around 1992.

• The field of education has been affected by ICTs, which have undoubtedly affected teaching, learning and research.
• Initially computers were used to teach computer programming but the development of the microprocessor in the early 1970s saw the introduction of affordable microcomputers into schools at a rapid rate.
• ICTs have been utilized in education ever since their inception, but they have not always been massively present.
• The 1990s was the decade of computer communication and information access:

1. Internet -based services such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web.
2. CD-ROM became the standar for distributing packagd software (replacing the floppy disk).

Technologies in the educative process has been divided into two broad categories:

• ICTs for Education
• ICTs in Education

ICT enhancing teaching and learning process:

• For many years course have been written around textbooks. Teachers have taught lectures and presentations interspersed with tutorials and learning ctivities designed to consolidate and rehearse the content.
• Contemporary ICTs are able to provide strong support for all these requirements and there are now many outstandg examples of world class setting for competency.

According to Zhao and Cziko (2001) three conditions are necessary for teachers to introduce ICT into their classrooms:

• Teachers should believe in the effectiveness of technology
• Teachers should believe that use of technology will not cause any disturbances.
• Teachers should believe that they have control over technology.

"...when confident teachers are willing to explore new opportunities for changing their classroom practices by using ICT. As a consequence, the use of ICT will not only enhance learning environments but also prepare next generation for future lives and careers".

• More sudents are using computers as infotmation sources and cognitive tools.
• Any use of ICT in learning settings can act to support various aspects of knowledge construction and as more and more students employ ICTs in their learning processes, the more pronounced the impact of this will become.
• Teachers generte meaningful and engaging learning experiences for their students, strategically using ICT to enhance learning.

ICT enhancing the quality and accessibility of education:

• One of the most vital contributions of ICT in the field of education is Easy Access to Learning. With the help of ICT, students can now browse trough e-books, sample examination papers, previous year papers etc. and can also have an easy access to resource persons, mentors, experts, researchers, professionals and peers-all over the world.
• Mobile technologies an seamless communications technologies support 24x7 teaching and learning. Choosing how much time will be used whithin the 24x7 envelope and what periods of time are challenges that will face the educators of the future.
• ICTs can be used to remove commnucation barriers such as that of space and time.
• ICTs also allow for the creation of digital resources like digital libraries where the students, teachers and professionals can access research material an course material from any place at any time.
• Eliminating time barriers in education for learners as well as teacher. It eliminates geographical barriers as learners can log on from any place.
• It can provide speed dissemination of education to target disdvantaged groups.
• Use of ICT in education develops higher order skills such as collaborating accross time and place and solving complex real world problems.
• The literature contains many unsubstantiated claims about the revolutionary potential of ITCs to improve the quality of education.
• Some claims are now deferred to a near future when hardware will be presumably more affordable and software will become at last, an effective learning tool.

ICT enhancing learning environment:

• ICT is changing processes of teching and learning by adding elements of viality to learning environments including virtual environments for the purpose.
• ICT is a potentially powerful tool for offering educational opportunities.
• ICT provides opportnities to access an abundance of information using multiple information resources and viewing information from multiple perspectives.
• ICTs have an important role to play in changing and modernizing educational systems and ways of learning.

ICT enhancing learning motivation:

• ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner centered environment.
• ICTs especially computers and Internet technologies, enable new ways of teaching and learning rather than simply allow teachers and students to do what they have done before in a better way.
• Along with a shift of curricula from "content-centered" to "competence-based", the mode of curricula delivery has now shifted from "teacher centered" forms of delivery to "student-centered".
• The teachers could make their lecture more attractive and livel by using multi-media and on the other hand, the students were able to capture the lessons taught to them easily. As they found the class very interesting, the teachings also retained in their mind for a longer time which supported them during the time of examination.

ICT enhancing the scholastic performance:

• ICTs are are said to help expand access to education, strenghten the relevance of education ti the increasingly digital workplace and raise educational quality.
• The direct link between ICT use and students' academic performance has been the focus of extensive literture during the last two decades.
• The students also learned more in less time and liked their classes more when ICT-based instruction was included.
• ICT can help deepen students' content knowledge, engage them in constructing their own knowledge and support the development of complex thinking skills.

Conclusions

• ICTs will increase flexibility so that learnrs can access the education regardless of time and geographical barriers.
• Similarly, wider availability of best practices and best course material in education, which can be shared by meand of ICT, can foster better teaching and improved academic achievement of students.

ICT AND TRANSLATION COMPETENCE

(Translation 2)

Translation Competence is something that distinguishes a bilingual person from a professional translator.

The competence needed to translate has evolved due to different factors, mainly technological factor. In order to be a competent translator, it is necessary to be computer literate and to keep one's information technologies skills updated.

Some definitions of Translation Competence:

• Bell (1991: 43): translation competence is the knowledge and skills the translator must possess in order to carry out a translation.
• Hurtado Albir (1996: 48): translation competence is the ability of knowing how to translate.
• Wilss (1982: 58): translation competence is an interlingul supercompetence based on a comprehensive knowledge of the respective SL and TL, including the text-pragmatic dimension, and consists of the ability to integrate the two monolingual competences on a higher level.
• Process of the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation (2000, 2003, 2005): Translation competence is the ability to carry out the transfer process from the comprehension of the source text to the reexpresion of the target text, taking into account the purpose of the translation and the characteristics of the target-text readers,

Translation Competence Model (PACTE)

• The bilingual sub-competence: consists of the underlying systems of knowledge and skills that are needed for linguistic communication to take place in two languages.
• The extra-linguistic sub-competence: it is made up of encyclopedic, thematic and bicultural knowledge.
• The translation knowledge sub-competence is knowledge of the priciples guiding translation, such as processes, methods, procedures, and so forth.
• The instrumental sub-competence comprises the knowledge required to work as a professional translator, such as the use of sources of documentation and information technologies applied to translation.
• The strategic sub-competence integrates all the others and is the most  important, since it allows problems to be solved and ensures the efficiency of the process.
• The psycho-physiological components are cognitive and behavioral and psychomotor mechanisms.

Sub-competences proposed by Kelly (2005)

• Textual and communicative competence.
• Cultural and intercultural competence.
• Competence about the knowledge of the theme of the translation.
• Professional and instrumental competence.
• Interpersonal competence.
• Competence related with the aptitudes necessary for a good composition and production of texts.

General ICTs for translators

The internet

• One of the most important tools offered by the Internet arethe search and location information engines.
• They allow to access in a few seconds to an enormous quantity of interrelated information. Further, the usefulness of these tools in our work as medical translator will be explained.

The use of corpus linguistics

It is divided in two types:

• The monolingual corpora (for example: Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual) of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• Bilingual corpora, it is divided in parallel corpus and comparable corpus.

Concordance generator programs

• They can find all the times that a certain term appears in a text or in several texts written in electronic format.

Specific ICTs for translators

Machine Translation (MT)
Machine Translation is a procedure whereby a computer program analyzes a source text and produces a target text without further human intervation.

Computer-assisted Translation (CAT)

• It is a form of translation wherein a human translator creates a target text with the assistance of a computer program. The machine supports a human translator.
• Effective use of translation technnology starts from the translator's point of view.

Phases of Translation

Reception Phase: It is about to fully understand the content of the source text. (Internet)

Transfer Phase: The adaptation of the source text information to context of the target text culture is uniquely traditional.

Formulation Phase: Confronts the translator with challenges regarding the production of the target language text. (Dictionaries and Terminology Databases).

Conclusions

• The new Information and Communication Technologies are very useful for the professional translator.
• In order to be a competent translator in our days it is necessary to make use of the new ICTs mainly the general ICT tools.