The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 9

FEATURE

BY RUDY HELLER AND DIEGO MANSILLA

we work in the English>Spanish workgroup in ATA's Certification
Program). The other two graders, Bruce Popp and Andy
Klatt (who work in the French>English and Spanish>English
workgroups, respectively) led the into-English session.

SESSION I: PREPARING FOR
THE ENGLISH>SPANISH CERTIFICATION EXAM
To develop and tailor this session, participants were mailed a
sample practice test to translate and given about 10 days to
complete and return it. These tests were then graded applying
the same criteria used for the actual certification exam.
The purpose of this exercise was to target each participant's
common-and not so common-errors. The results were then
discussed during the session, although any specific examples
used were kept anonymous.
The main benefit of this exercise for participants was that they
were able to learn from comparing each other's translations and
discussing why one rendition worked and another didn't. It allowed
participants to gain a better understanding of where errors happen
and identify if they are word-, sentence-, or passage-level errors.
This analysis also allowed participants to see how errors impact the
comprehension of the entire translated passage. There was plenty
of back and forth discussion, including participants' explanations
of their choices and decisions. Each participant received his or her
own marked-up practice test at the end of the workshop.

ATA's Certification Exam
Preparation Workshop
in Boston

Comments after both the morning and afternoon
sessions were positive, as were most of the
comments made in the post-event evaluations.

ATA's Certification Exam Preparation Workshop
presented opportunities for participants to learn how
the Certification Program works, including the general
characteristics of exam passages and how exams are
evaluated and graded.

SESSION II: PREPARING FOR THE INTO-ENGLISH
CERTIFICATION EXAM

A

TA held a Certification Exam Preparation Workshop on
January 20 at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Training has always been an important part of ATA's
mission, and organizers wanted to see if a full-day workshop
led by graders of ATA's Certification Program could successfully
benefit both exam candidates and the program.
The workshop consisted of two sessions designed to help
participants understand how the exam is graded and the common
errors candidates make. The morning session was for those
interested in taking the exam from English into Spanish, while the
afternoon session focused on those interested in taking the exam
from any language into English. The two of us (Rudy and Diego)
were in charge of the English>Spanish session (aside from grading,
www.atanet.org

Just like the morning session, the afternoon session began
with an introductory talk with visual aids to provide a detailed
explanation of the nature and expectations of the certification
exam, the error categories and what they mean, and grading
criteria and standards. Participants were introduced to the
common criteria for grading into-English tests regardless of
language pair. The Into-English Grading Standards (IEGS), which
are available on ATA's website, form an essential basis for grading
all language pairs in which English is the target language.
The concept of evaluating errors based on the extent to which
they detract from the usefulness of the translation to a potential
client was also covered. The discussion then switched to some
of the essential characteristics of an effective translation, the
principles for exam preparation, and test-taking skills. After this,
participants were divided into two groups.
Since a large proportion of the into-English group was
composed of Spanish>English candidates who had taken the
morning session, that group met separately to review the errors
on the sample Spanish>English practice test that many of them
American Translators Association

9
http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018
