The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/1277318
6 The Linguist Vol/59 No/4 2020 thelinguist@uberflip.com NEWS & EDITORIAL A translating glove has been created to interpret American Sign Language (ASL) to English. The technology currently recognises 660 signs, and translates at a rate of one word per second. The bioengineers at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) who designed the prototype are now adding more words and improving the output speed. Sensors run along the fingers and connect to a small piece of circuit board on a user's wrist. This links to a smartphone app, which handles the machine translation. however, the invention was described by some as "redundant" because text-to-speech and text translation software is already available and well-used by Deaf communities. In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH The importance of communication and language has been highlighted through the Covid-19 crisis. The UK's test and trace operation has been criticised for "failing to reach thousands of people". The government said the drop-out rate "was more down to issues such as language barriers," adding that they had increased their translation services. The Independent reported that nine UK charities had called on authorities to order transparent face masks to "stop those with hearing loss or total deafness feeling isolated", as this allows them to lipread and understand British Sign Language (BSL). In some ways, our multilingualism has become more visible. The BBC ran a story on Cathryn McShane-Kouyaté, the BSL interpreter for the Welsh government's daily updates, who is suddenly famous. The #WhereIsTheInterpreter social media campaign led to a lawsuit which pushed the UK government to use BSL interpreters in its daily briefings. BBC News presenters of South Asian origin joined forces to issue key public health messages in Sylheti, Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi, hindi, Bangla and Urdu. Reports are emerging of the particularly severe impact of 'lockdown' on the face- to-face nature of modern foreign language (MFL) learning. TES picked up a National Foundation for Educational Research report which found that the recruitment of teachers of MFL and other shortage subjects had "significantly worsened" even before Covid. Perhaps worst affected are university students who can no longer go on their year abroad. The work of the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) on developing a "virtual year abroad" made it into the Daily Mail, while the BBC profiled 'year abroad' students stuck in the UK. Of course, digital language learning has soared in this period, with the Institute of Export calling on businesses to "use lockdown to learn a new language". Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. Sign translation glove invented Welsh has become one of the most popular languages to learn in the UK since the start of the coronavirus crisis, moving up to seventh place. The Open University reported that its 'Welsh for beginners' class was the most popular course for students in Wales, while the language overtook Mandarin in terms of number of learners on the Duolingo app. Thousands of people signed up for classes from the National Centre for Learning Welsh, offered for free during 'lockdown'. The centre hoped to attract 100 users; instead 8,300 people enrolled. To meet demand, 89 virtual classes are needed and the challenge is now in finding enough Welsh language teachers. Google has apologised for "unwittingly" sharing the data of some users of its now defunct Translator Toolkit with other users. Due to a technological problem, anyone downloading translation memory data between the end of October 2019 and April 2020 may have been affected. Google does not know which accounts were involved in the breach, and advised users who may have been impacted to delete their downloaded data and request new data. "We sincerely apologise for this error, and have fixed the issue," said a spokesperson for the tech giant. The cloud- based translation productivity tool was discontinued in December 2019. Lockdown boost for Welsh Google toolkit security breach The latest from the languages world Good signs for summer schools English-language summer schools at UK universities received a welcome boost in late registrations, following fears of dwindling cohorts due to the pandemic. It was reported that courses across the country, known as pre-sessionals, are expecting to run at 60-90% capacity – much better than predicted at the start of the crisis. This is despite the fact that all courses will be conducted entirely online. Run by University Language Centres, the intensive language programmes are for new students whose English proficiency is not yet at the level required for their degree course. IMAGES © ShUTTERSTOCK