Text in English / Undergraduate students at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) experience great difficulty in developing their translation competence during their training period. On the one hand, they show many signs of poor quality during their training when they accomplish practical translation assignments on and off-campus. On the other hand, the quality of the final work submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor Honours Degree (Licenciatura) suggests that most students fail to go beyond the minimum standards with regard to translation competence. Yet, comprehensive research aimed at understanding factors hindering translation competence at the UEM has been scanty. Besides, the few studies available have some significant lacunae, for they focus on Portuguese language development; are limited to error analysis, and often ignore students‟ perspectives. Consequently, the problem of finding a balanced approach to developing students‟ translation competence has remained unaddressed. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the purpose of investigating the translation competence of the UEM undergraduates in order to establish the major obstacles to their translation competence development, and consequently come up with suggestions for improving the current translator-training degree programme. The study design uses qualitative methods translated into a case study approach. First, questionnaire data is analysed to gain lecturers‟ and students‟ perspectives on translation competence at the UEM. Second, a students‟ error typology is developed following a macro- and micro-textual analysis of their translations. The study concludes that substandard bilingual skills, compounded by curricular, attitudinal/motivational, pedagogical and infrastructural/instrumental factors, negatively impact the students‟ development of translation competence at the UEM and that addressing these may pave the way towards improving the current translation-training programme. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

Text in English / Undergraduate students at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) experience great difficulty in developing their translation competence during their training period. On the one hand, they show many signs of poor quality during their training when they accomplish practical translation assignments on and off-campus. On the other hand, the quality of the final work submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor Honours Degree (Licenciatura) suggests that most students fail to go beyond the minimum standards with regard to translation competence. Yet, comprehensive research aimed at understanding factors hindering translation competence at the UEM has been scanty. Besides, the few studies available have some significant lacunae, for they focus on Portuguese language development; are limited to error analysis, and often ignore students‟ perspectives. Consequently, the problem of finding a balanced approach to developing students‟ translation competence has remained unaddressed. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the purpose of investigating the translation competence of the UEM undergraduates in order to establish the major obstacles to their translation competence development, and consequently come up with suggestions for improving the current translator-training degree programme. The study design uses qualitative methods translated into a case study approach. First, questionnaire data is analysed to gain lecturers‟ and students‟ perspectives on translation competence at the UEM. Second, a students‟ error typology is developed following a macro- and micro-textual analysis of their translations. The study concludes that substandard bilingual skills, compounded by curricular, attitudinal/motivational, pedagogical and infrastructural/instrumental factors, negatively impact the students‟ development of translation competence at the UEM and that addressing these may pave the way towards improving the current translation-training programme. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Linguistics)

This research investigates how the speech community living in Maputo city uses language in relation to HIV/AIDS and studies related stigmas which impede women's access to HIV/AIDS counselling services. My hypothesis is that frequent use of gender stereotypes in AIDS discourse aims at stigmatising women as AIDS propagators, while minimizing male sexual transgressions in the AIDS crisis. Interpretation of primary data collected via focus group discussions and interviews is done with five different approaches that study respectively: social meanings and representations of AIDS embedded in context, the stigmatising process correlating gender stereotypes and discrimination against women, stereotypical speech attitudes and speech mechanism as well as the functions and effects of stereotyping. My conclusion is that deeply rooted gender barriers are to be removed in order to combat the social plague of AIDS and that ethnography of communication offers interesting models for development projects that can initiate behavioural changes through speech. / Linguistics / M.A. (Sociolinguistics)

This research investigates how the speech community living in Maputo city uses language in relation to HIV/AIDS and studies related stigmas which impede women's access to HIV/AIDS counselling services. My hypothesis is that frequent use of gender stereotypes in AIDS discourse aims at stigmatising women as AIDS propagators, while minimizing male sexual transgressions in the AIDS crisis. Interpretation of primary data collected via focus group discussions and interviews is done with five different approaches that study respectively: social meanings and representations of AIDS embedded in context, the stigmatising process correlating gender stereotypes and discrimination against women, stereotypical speech attitudes and speech mechanism as well as the functions and effects of stereotyping. My conclusion is that deeply rooted gender barriers are to be removed in order to combat the social plague of AIDS and that ethnography of communication offers interesting models for development projects that can initiate behavioural changes through speech. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Sociolinguistics)