Lester Lefton Lester Lefton - Kent State University

Scaling the Tower of Babel
Long ago, men and
women across the world spoke
only one language. They built
a city made of bricks, with a
tower that reached the heavens.
The Lord saw this and realized
nothing would be impossible for
mankind if they continued to
speak the same language, so he
scattered them over the earth
and jumbled their language
so they could not understand
each other. According to the biblical
tale, the unfinished tower
became known as the Tower of
Babel.
Every second, the world’s
people and their languages
come into closer contact
with each other, thanks to
modern technology. By
year end, although one billion
people will have access
to the Web, more than 70
percent of them will speak a
language other than English.
“There’s an enormous
need for people who can
translate written materials
into other languages
and cultures, whether it’s a
printed piece or Web content,”
says Dr. Françoise
Massardier-Kenney,
professor of modern and
classical language studies
and director of Kent
State’s Institute for
Applied Linguistics.
Affiliated with the
modern and classical
language studies
department, the
institute is one of
America’s leading
university-based
translator training
programs,
offering
bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in translation
in French, German,
Japanese, Russian and
Spanish. Next fall, the institute
will offer a doctorate in
translation, becoming the
only university in the United
States to offer all three
degree levels in translation.
Students in Kent State’s
translation program learn
scientific and technical
translation, legal and commercial
translation, computer-assisted
terminology
and translation, translation
research skills and software
localization, the preparation
of software to be sold
in markets where multiple
languages exist. The doctoral
program will center
on translation studies for
those who have a background
in translation but
need teaching and research
skills. Institute scholars also
concentrate on translation
informatics, which blends
computer information science
and translation studies,
finding ways to use computer
technology to solve
practical language problems.
Translation — the act of
transferring a written document
from one language
into another — became a
hot topic with the U.S. government
after 9/11, when
it was discovered the FBI
had a six-month backlog of
materials needing translation
In addition to political
and security applications,
translation plays an increasing
role in global commerce,
a multibillion-dollar industry
that’s one of the fastest
growth sectors in the world,
says Dr. Gregory Shreve,
chair and professor of modern
and classical language
studies. Buying power of
non-English speakers drives
nearly 70 percent of the
world’s economy.
The rising need for translation
worldwide could pose
problems for the United
States, which faces a huge
shortfall of translators and
an insufficient number of
trainers to teach translation.
“As a country, we have
been traditionally monolingual;
therefore, we lack
the university programs to
teach translators, though
our doctoral program is an
important step in the right
direction,” says Shreve.
Language training in the
United States begins very
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