Introduction
The conceptual basis of the GENTT team’s research is the notion of text genre, a complex and versatile idea that allows us to approach the subject from a range of perspectives. For GENTT researchers, the genre is the fundamental organising principle of our work (see Borja, García Izquierdo and Montalt 2009: 57). It is a concept that draws together other contextual notions relevant to textual analysis and the analysis of translation as text. In studying genre, the GENTT group adopts a holistic approach that embraces its formal, communicative and cognitive dimensions (García Izquierdo, Montalt and Ezpeleta 2008; Borja, García Izquierdo and Montalt 2009; García Izquierdo and Montalt 2014).
From a methodological standpoint, the work of the GENTT group combines descriptive analysis with applied research. The former enables us to observe reality to extract knowledge from it. Applied research, in turn, makes it possible to develop useful tools that facilitate the work of specialised translators and writers. Therefore, our research activity rests on two pillars: genre itself and the three phases of the research process as the academic community understands them: conceptualisation, empirical investigation, and interpretation.
Projects in progress
These projects focus on interlinguistic and intercultural clinical communication in Spain and the United Kingdom, and more specifically on the communication articulated by the Clinical Consultation and the Informed Consent, two essential genres in the doctor-patient relationship that are present practically every stage of the clinical process.
Our aim in GENTT is to contribute through these projects to improve healthcare professionals’ communicative competence and future professionals (university health science students), in linguistic, conceptual and sociocultural terms, in the Spanish and British contexts.
Having observed the growing trend towards the mobility of healthcare professionals and internationalisation of communication, we start from the hypothesis that communication improvement in the medical/health setting leads to improved health management by patients themselves.
We aim to create tools and resources that can be used in health science training contexts. For this purpose, we approach genres as “spaces for socialisation” (Montalt 2005) and communicative interaction between health professionals and patients from different healthcare systems and health cultures, using methodologies that include ethnographically and sociologically oriented dramaturgical techniques.
The projects can be briefly summed up in the following phases: a first phase of literature review, a second phase of designing and conducting interviews and focus groups, a third phase of implementing dramaturgies, and a final phase of editing, documenting, and publishing the audiovisual and written material produced so that healthcare professionals can use it to improve competence in the clinical setting.
Finished projects
StartUJI: TransTools for multilingual communication management
The challenge of globalisation forces companies, institutions and individuals to internationalise, localising and translating their messages for other cultures and markets.
Through this technology transfer project, the GENTT group has developed a range of products and services aimed at the professional world of writing and translation of specialised texts.
Transtools
offers advanced technological solutions to facilitate high-quality multilingual communication and terminological precision in an increasingly globalised world.
Further information is available at the following link..
Needs analysis and proposal of written information resources for oncology patients (FFI2012-34200)
The object of this project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (2013–2016), was to analyse written information for patients in the area of oncology and make proposals for this information aimed at public institutions and hospitals in the Valencian Community.
Principal investigator (PI): Isabel García Izquierdo. Team members: Anabel Borja, Pilar Ezpeleta, Silvia Gamero, José Luis Martí, Vicent Montalt, Esther Monzó, Ana Muñoz, Mark Shuttleworth.
Implementation of the GENTT multilingual document management platform in courts and public hospitals in the Valencian Community (P1·1B2012-53)
A project funded by the Fundació Bancaixa-Universitat Jaume I (2012–2014).
PI: Anabel Borja Albi. Team members: Isabel García Izquierdo, Pilar Ezpeleta, Silvia Gamero, Juanma García, José Luis Martí, Vicent Montalt, Esther Monzó, Cristina García, Ana Muñoz
Thematic network on empirical and experimental research in translation (FFI2010-11995-E).
A project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (2011–2013) and coordinated by the PACTE group (Autonomous University of Barcelona), with the participation of twelve European university institutions.
PI: the PACTE group, in which Isabel García Izquierdo also participates.
OPTIMALE (Optimizing Professional Translator Training in a Multilingual Europe)
A project funded by the European Commission (2010–2013).
PI: Daniel Toudic (University of Rennes 2). Participating GENTT members: Vicent Montalt, Pilar Ezpeleta, Ana Muñoz.
Formalisation of textual behaviour patterns for multilingual documentation management (FFI2009-08531/FILO)
A project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2010–2012).
PI: Anabel Borja Albi. Team members: Anabel Borja Albi, Isabel García Izquierdo, Esther Monzó, Vicent Montalt, Pilar Ezpeleta, Silvia Gamero, Cristina García Toro, Pilar Ordóñez, Tomás Conde, Nati Juste, Ana Muñoz, Maribel Del Pozo, Maite Aragonés.
Analysis of the documentary and translation requirements of socio-professional communities for designing a genre management system (P1.1B2008-18)
A project funded by the Fundació Bancaixa-Universitat Jaume I (2008–2010) aimed at obtaining information, both quantitative (volume of work, working languages) and qualitative (the type of resources used, type of information they need to obtain), through questionnaires, from socio-professional communities in legal, medical and technical fields.
IP: Isabel García Izquierdo. Team members: Isabel García Izquierdo, Anabel Borja Albi, Vicent Montalt, Silvia Gamero, Cristina García de Toro, Andreu Beltrán, Pilar Ezpeleta, Esther Monzó, Pilar Civera, Pilar Ordóñez, Juan Manuel García Izquierdo, Natividad Juste, Ana Muñoz.
Expert exploitation, analysis of new applications and refinement of the comparable multilingual corpus of specialised areas for translation (GENTT) (HUM 2006-05581)
A project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (2006–2009), the object of which was to continue the work carried out by the GENTT group since 2000. The group needed to consolidate the analysis and exploitation of a corpus which by that time, contained more than 700 texts and constituted not just a database but rather a knowledge base (see Borja 2005). It was, therefore, not so much a matter of expanding the corpus as of fully exploiting the data already compiled. For this purpose, one of the objectives was to involve professionals in the field (doctors and legal or technical experts) more actively, not to establish the taxonomy of the genres, as had been done up till then, but to discover what their requirements were and propose the most useful way of retrieving the information (for this reason, the number of researchers and collaborators in the team had increased).
PI: Isabel García Izquierdo. Team members: Isabel García Izquierdo, Anabel Borja Albi, Vicent Montalt, Silvia Gamero, Cristina García, Andreu Beltrán, Pilar Ezpeleta, Steve Jennings, Justine Brehm, Esther Monzó, Pilar Civera, Rafael Aleixandre, Maite Sánchez, Balma Forés, Natividad Juste.
Analysis of the field of legal translation and interpreting: a study of the social practice of legal translators and interpreters
A project funded by the Department of Education and Science of the Valencian Regional Government (2005–2007).
PI: Esther Monzó.
Online research computing support unit for specialised translation: scientific and technological infrastructure (2005-2006)
A project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (European Regional Development Fund: FEDER) (2005–2006).
PI: Anabel Borja Albi.
Descriptive study of the social practice of legal translators and interpreters: analysis of social and textual relationships through transgenres as products of commercial exchange
A project funded by the Fundació Bancaixa-Universitat Jaume I (2004–2007).
PI: Esther Monzó.
Anàlisi del camp de la traducció i la interpretació jurídiques: estudi de la pràctica social dels traductors i els intèrprets del dret
Proyecto financiado por la Conselleria de Educación y Ciencia (Generalitat Valenciana) (2005-2007).
Su IP es Esther Monzó.
Text genres for translation (GENTT): Tagging the textual microstructure of a comparable multilingual corpus in specialised areas (BFF2002-01932)
A project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (2003–2006), the object of which was to develop the text corpus by expanding the number of texts per specialised area and the tag definition and design available in the TEILite system, making it possible to tag not just the header, as had been done up till then, but also the actual body text (macrostructure and microstructure: matters of cohesion and coherence, specific phraseology, terminology, referential expressions, etc.). The corpus processing tools already purchased (management programs, concordance programs, memory, etc., such as Wordsmith Tools 3.0, Wordbench–TRADOS, Adobe Acrobat writer and Visual Basic) would be used for this purpose; the number of licences for particular programs, such as File Maker 5.0, would need to be increased.
PI: Isabel García Izquierdo. Team members: Isabel García Izquierdo, Cristina García de Toro, Anabel Borja, Andreu Beltrán, Esther Monzó, Justine Brehm, Amparo Alcina, María Calzada, Pilar Ezpeleta, Silvia Gamero, Steve Jennings, Vicent Montalt.
International legal translation research network
A project funded by the Valencian Science and Technology Agency (2002–2003).
PI: Anabel Borja Albi.
Electronic Encyclopaedia of Genres: Analysis and description of genres in specialised areas and applications for translation (GV00-155-09)
A project funded by the Department of Culture, Education and Science of the Valencian Regional Government (2000–2002), the object of which was to establish the criteria for compiling a multilingual corpus of specialised genres (legal, technical and medical), containing parallel original and translated texts, with apparent practical impact both for teaching (as a translation memory) and for applied research.
The project sought to establish the text selection criteria, classification by genres and design of a tagging program in SGML, which would be applied by developing a specific computer tool (the GENTT program).
PI: Isabel García Izquierdo. Team members: Isabel García Izquierdo, Cristina García de Toro, Anabel Borja, Andreu Beltrán, Amparo Alcina, María Calzada, Marisa Masiá, Pilar Ezpeleta, Rosa Agost, Silvia Gamero, Vicent Montalt.
Electronic Encyclopaedia of Genres: Designing a tagging model for specialised textual corpora (P1-1A 2000-02)
A project funded by the Fundació Bancaixa-Universitat Jaume I (2001–2003), the object of which was to pursue further the objectives of the project Electronic Encyclopaedia of Genres: Analysis and description of genres in specialised areas and applications for translation (GV00-155-09).
PI: Isabel García-Izquierdo. Team members: Isabel García-Izquierdo, Cristina García de Toro, Anabel Borja, Andreu Beltrán, Amparo Alcina, María Calzada, Marisa Masiá, Pilar Ezpeleta, Rosa Agost, Silvia Gamero, Vicent Montalt, Esther Monzó.