Dr Alina Secara

Profile

As Programme Manager of the Leeds MA in Audiovisual Translation programme I taught subtitling and translation technology to adult learners of diverse linguistic, economic and cultural backgrounds and trained  junior and senior teaching staff in translation and education technology and pedagogy at Leeds from 2007 to 2020.

I was part of enthusiastic European consortia that identified and then set to close the gap in translation teacher training. In three EU-funded projects – eCoLoRe, eCoLoTrain, eCoLoMedia -  we designed and developed free online resources for translation training, enabling teachers to access teaching resources and to enhance their skills in translation technology. I delivered face-to-face CPD training to teachers and students in Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and the UK. Between 2016 and 2019 I co-managed the Leeds contribution to the EU-funded DigiLing Project  which created e-learning resources for digital linguists.

As freelance accredited theatre captioner, I worked with theatres in the UK and delivered theatre subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing audiences. 

I was part of the team which won the prize for creativity and innovation awarded by the Leonardo agency of the French Community of Belgium for the resources created for the training of translation teachers and learners in the eCoLoMedia project (2009), I received a University of Leeds Teaching Fellowship award - this scheme was set up to recognise and reward excellence in teaching and supporting student learning - (2011) and was nominated for the University of Leeds Inspirational Teacher and Personal Tutor award (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019).

Research interests

• Translation process research (translation technology and subtitling)
• Translation training, professional development and design of educational resources, including for crisis situations (online, face-to-face, blended-learning)
• Theatre captioning and access services

I represented Leeds in the National Network for Translation and National Network for Interpreting, part of the Routes into Languages programme, a UK governmental initiative funded the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to promote languages learning and training. 

Reviewer for audiovisual translation contributions for the Routledge publishing house.

Knowledge transfer activities

I provided bespoke training and consultancy to facilitate the use of subtitling and translation technology both in academic environments and in the private sector. Together with my colleagues, I’ve been building links with professional associations, NGOs, policy makers, educational institutions and international organisations to share good practices and to provide customised training in translation technology to other professionals including EU and UN agencies staff (EU DGT, CdT, ESA and UN UNECA, DGACM, UNHCR).

I created and delivered bespoke translation training for crisis situations for under-represented languages such as Kurdish and Urdu, as part of the Translators without Borders European Refugee Crisis Response.

I helped build capacity in the field of access services by working closely with Stagetext (UK charity making theatre and culture accessible to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences) and delivering presentations at international conferences as well as participating in awareness raising events in the UK.

As professional translator, I got involved with the NGO sector and volunteered translations into Romanian of Disaster Risk Reduction messages for the IFRC. I also coordinated the Leeds volunteer student translation for the Peace and Sport Adapted Practices manual. The manual is now used in six countries - Burundi, Colombia, France, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Timor Leste – in 26 youth centres - as a tool to promote the development of sport for all but also use it as a tool for social cohesion of people in vulnerable situations.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Book chapters

Ciobanu, Dragoș & Alina Secară. 2019. Speech recognition and synthesis technologies in the translation workflow. O’Hagan, M. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology. Part I, Chapter six. pp: 91-106. Abingdon: Routledge.

Secară, Alina. 2018. Surtitling and Captioning for Theatre and Opera. Luis Perez Gonzales (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation Studies. Part I, Chapter nine. pp: 130-144. Abingdon: Routledge.

Secară, Alina. 2017. Cn U read ths? The reception of txt language in subtitling. Dorothy Kenny (ed.) IATIS Yearbook, Human Issues in Translation Technology. Chapter eight. pp: 149-170.  Abingdon: Routledge.

Journals

Ciobanu, Dragos, Ragni, Valentina & Alina Secară. 2019. Speech synthesis in the translation revision process: evidence from eye-tracking and error analysis. Special Issue Advances in Computer-Aided Translation Technology. Informatics.

Jun Yang, Dragos Ciobanu, Caroline Reiss & Alina Secară. 2017. Using Computer Assisted Translation tools’ Translation Quality Assessment functionalities to assess students’ translations. The Language Scholar, Issue 1, http://languagescholar.leeds.ac.uk/journal/issue-1/.

Alina  Secară. 2011. R U ready 4 new subtitles? Investigating the potential of social translation practices. Aline Remael and Minako O’Hagan (eds.). Linguistica Antverpiensia. pp: 153-174. Volume 10, Publisher University Press Antwerp.

Alina  Secară, Pascaline Merten & Yamile Ramirez. 2009. What’s in Your Blend? Creating Blended Resources for Translator Training. Dorothy Kenny and Catherine Way (eds.).  The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. pp: 275-294. Issue: 2, Volume: 3, Publisher: St. Jerome Publishing.

Alina  Secară & Anthony Hartley. 2008. eCoLoTrain – Blended Learning Resources for Translation Teachers. Valerie Pellatt and Eliza. Minelli (eds.) Proceedings of the Bath Symposium, pp: 57-71. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Ramirez, Yamile & Alina  Secară. 2008. eCoLoTrain: A StepTowards a More Realistic Translation Teaching. Rodica Dimitriu and Karl Heinz Freigang (eds.). Translation Technology in Translation Classes, pp:28-40. Iasi: Institutul European. 

Sharoff, Serge & Alina  Secară. 2007. Who is talking to whom? Linguistic cues for engaging with the audience. Proceedings of Affective Communication in Design. Challenges for Researchers, Leeds, pp: 175-182. Taylor & Francis Group.

 Secară, Alina. 2005. Translation Evaluation – a State of the Art Survey. Proceeding of the eCoLoRe/MeLLANGE Workshop, Leeds. Translation Studies Abstracts, Pages: pp: 39-44.  : St. Jerome Publishing. 

Invited Talks and Lectures

Alina Secară. Communication policies and the new paradigm in institutional translation round table. VIII Seminar on Legal and Institutional Translation for International Organization (IOs). University of Salamanca, Spain, 17-21 February, 2020.

Alina Secară & Dragoş Ciobanu. Speech Technologies for Translation and Revision. Customizing speech-to-text solutions at international organizations panel at UN Geneva InnoVent The Future Landscape of Conferencing conference, Geneva, Switzerland, January, 16, 2020.

Dragos Ciobanu & Alina Secară. Using technology in the translation process – speech recognition, terminology, corpus, captioning and revision tools. Language Service Division, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany, 8-12 July, 2019.

Caroline Reiss, Dragos Ciobanu & Alina Secară.  Localisation Tools and Workflows Couse. DigiLing Summer School, Prague, Czech Republic, 17-22 June, 2019.

Dragos Ciobanu & Alina Secară. Teaching translation technologies – more than just clicks and menus. Challenges and Opportunities in Teaching Translation & Interpreting - 1st Annual APTIS Conference of the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies of the UK and Ireland, Aston University, Birmingham 23–24 November, 2018.

Alina  Secară. Training Audiovisual Translators. Invited Workshop for the Translation, Interpreting and Culture: New Approaches and Old Dogmas, Nitra, Slovakia, September 26-28, 2018.

Alina  Secară. Translation Technologies and their Impact on the Translation Process, Key-note Translation Studies Conference, Faculty of Humanities, State University of Jahrom, Iran, May, 2018.

Alina  Secară. Caption Segmentation and Reading Speeds. StageTEXT CPD Day, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, UK, 2018, May.

Alina  Secară. Introduction to Subtitling. Yorkshire Institute of Translation and Interpreting Network CPD, Leeds, UK, 2018, April.

Alina  Secară. Error-Categorisation in (Computer-Assisted) Translation Quality Assurance. Invited talk for the Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies translation research group, the University of Tokyo, Japan, 2018, January.

Alina  Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. Translation and Subtitling Technologies.  Training for the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITCILO) Translation, Editing and Reporting Unit (TER) in-house staff. ITCILO. Turin, 2017, May. 

Alina  Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. Computer Assisted Translation and Automatic Speech Recognition in the Translation Workflow.  Presentation to in-house UN staff . UN Vienna International Centre. Vienna, 2017, April. 

Alina  Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. Captioning and Live Subtitling with Speech Recognition Technologies.  Training for EU CdT in-house staff. The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union. Luxembourg, 2017, February. 

Alina  Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. IAMLADP UCG Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tools Training for UN and EU Staff. Leeds, 2016, April.

Alina Secară. Audiovisual Translation Process and Reception. The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union. Luxembourg, 2015, June. 

Alina Secară. Audiovisual Translation Masterclasses. TransTech Summer School. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. 2015, June.

Alina Secară. The Audiovisual Translation Market. Careers in Translation and Interpreting. Routes into Languages & National Network for Interpreting event. University of Aston, Birmingham, UK. 2015 & 2015, November & December.

Alina Secară. Working in the Languages Industry. Arts Expo. University of Leeds, UK. 2015 & 2014, October.

Alina Secară. Working as an Audiovisual Translator. Careers in Translation and Interpreting. Routes into Languages & National Network for Interpreting event. University of Aston, Birmingham, UK. 2013, December. 

Alina Secară. Translation Environment Tools Workshop. TransTech Summer School. University of Rijeka, Croatia. 2013, September. 

Alina Secară. Audiovisual Translation and Translation Technology Workshop. University of Iasi, Romania. 2012 & 2013, May.

Alina Secară & Caroline Laukes. Training in Multimedia Localisation Workshop. Institut Supérieur de Traducteurs et Interprètes, Brussels. 2009, December.

Alina Secară. 2009. CTIS Seminar Series. Using online resources to enhance your translation portfolio. The University of Manchester. 2009, October.

Alina Secară & Michèle Jackson. Theatre Captioning Training. West Yorkshire Playhouse and York Royal Theatre. 2009, June and 2008, December.

Alina Secară & Rosi Jillett. Introduction to Subtitling. ITI CPD course. University of Leeds. 2009, April.

Dragos Ciobanu & Alina Secară. Software Localisation and Project Management. University of Porto, Portugal. 2007, June.

Alina Secară & Tony Hartley. Integration of Translation Technology in Translation Workflow for community languages. Interpreting and Translation Unit, Leeds City Council. 2006, November – December.

Michael Benis, Dragos Ciobanu, Jo Drugan, Alina Secară. ITI CPD courses. Translation Memory Weekend Courses. University of Leeds. 2006, 2005, 2004.  

Conferences

 Alina Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. Training tomorrow’s digital linguists – insights from the DigiLing project and EMT network. From Runes to the New media and Digital Books, Iasi, Romania, 2019, 30-31 May. 

Alina Secară, Dragos Ciobanu & Caroline Reiss. The digital translators of tomorrow: resources and models offered by the DigiLing Project. Fourth International Conference on Research into the Didactics of Translation, Barcelona, Spain, 2018, 20-22 June.

Jun Yang, Dragos Ciobanu & Alina Secară. On whose shoulders? - Investigating interaction, participation and roles in translation workflows in collaborative environments. Fourth International Conference on Research into the Didactics of Translation, Barcelona, Spain, 2018, 20-22 June.

Alina Secară. 2016. Theatre Captioning. Sibiu Arts Market: Sibiu International Theatre Festival. Conference Place: Sibiu.

Alina Secară. 2015. The reception of fansubbing txt spelling techniques and the acceptability of their integration in professional settings. European Symposium on Languages for Special Purposes. Conference Place: Vienna.

Alina Secară. 2014. Cn U read ths? Creative spellings in subtitling. Name of Conference: Languages and the Media. Conference Place: Berlin.

Alina Secară. 2014. Creative spellings in subtitling. Name of Conference: Multimodality in Language Research. Conference Place: Leeds.

Alina Secară & Dragos Ciobanu. 2013. Combining Technologies to Provide Live and Interactive Access to University Lectures to Hard-of-Hearing and International Students. Name of Conference: EduLearn. Conference Place: Barcelona. Conference Proceedings.

Alina Secară. 2012. Combining Technologies to Provide Access for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (and not only). Name of Conference: Languages and the Media. Conference Place: Berlin.

Alina Secară. 2012. Investigating the Narrational Weight Across Semiotic Channels in an Audiovisual Product. Name of Conference: Language/Cinema Conference. Conference Place: Leeds.

Alina Secar? & Tabitha Allum. 2011. The potential of variety in theatre captioning. Name of Conference: Media for All. Conference Place: London.

Dragos Ciobanu, Alina Secara & Neil Morris. 2011. Can one tool change the culture of an institution? Name of Conference: ALT-C annual conference. Conference place: Leeds.

Alina  & Tabitha Allum. 2010. Enabling access to live cultural events through captioning and speech recognition technologies. Name of Conference: Languages and the Media. Conference Place: Berlin.

Alina Secară, Pascaline Merten & Yamile Ramirez. 2009. Creating Multimedia Localization Training  Materials – The Process and Resources Developed for eCoLoMedia. Name of Conference: 31st International Aslib Conference Place: London.

Pascaline Merten, Yamile Ramirez & Alina Secară. 2009. eCoLoMedia - helping you respond to multimedia training needs. Name of Conference: 3rd International Conference Media for All. Conference Place: Antwerp.

Alina Secară. 2008. Quoting, spotting, translating, revising…How many tasks can translation trainees juggle? Name of Conference: Audiovisual Translation: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Conference Place: Montpellier.

Yamile Ramirez and Alina Secară. 2008. eCoLoTrain: A Step Towards a More Realistic Translation Teaching. Name of Conference: eCoLoTrain Workshop - Translation Technology in Translation Classes. Conference Place: Ljubljana.

Qualifications

• PhD Audiovisual Translation and Psycholinguistics, University of Leeds
• MA by Research, Adult Training and Corpus Ling, Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds
• BA in Translation Studies, University 'Al.I.Cuza', Ia?i, Romania
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Professional memberships

• Stagetext Certified Theatre Captioner
• SDL Trados Studio Certification 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Translation Studies
• Translation