Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Interlingual Communication and Language Technology

Programme Overview

Programme Overview

 

The Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Interlingual Communication and Language Technology trains bilingual professionals for a language industry being reshaped by AI. Students develop four core competencies: bilingual writing, oral communication, intercultural understanding, and language technology.

 

Translation and writing courses span academic, creative and professional genres. Public speaking training teaches students to present ideas clearly, engage different audiences, and adapt their message to the setting. Intercultural coursework builds the ability to work across cultures — a skill at the heart of translation and increasingly of every workplace. Throughout the programme, students work hands-on with AI-assisted language tools, learning where these tools help, where they fail, and how a skilled human adds value.
 

Programme Highlights

 

Core courses — Introduction to Communication and Translation and Introduction to Translation Studies — lay the conceptual foundation; courses in Chinese-English translation and interpreting build the practical skills employers expect.

 

From the second year, students choose one of two concentrations:

  • Concentration A: Translation and Cross-cultural Communication
  • Concentration B: AI and Digital Corporate Communication

The concentrations reflect where the language services industry is heading, and let students shape the degree around their own interests and career plans. Graduates leave with bilingual expertise, cultural awareness and the critical judgement to operate in complex, global communication environments, from the classroom to the boardroom.

 

Career Opportunities for Graduates

 

Hong Kong's biliterate, trilingual environment and sustained demand for cross-linguistic communication and localisation across Greater China and international markets give our graduates a wide choice of careers. Alongside translation and interpreting, recent alumni have gone into public and corporate administration, corporate communication, copywriting, media and journalism, marketing, public relations, human resources, academic research, and, last but not least, teaching. What they share is professional-grade language skill combined with critical thinking and cross-cultural communication — a combination that transfers across sectors.

Programme Structure

Academic courses will prepare you for postgraduate studies, if you want to go that route, while practical courses will prepare you for the job market and for life.

Students have to take compulsory courses within the first 4 years.

 

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
TRA2001Introduction to Computer-aided Translation3
TRA2101 *Introduction to Cantonese-English Interpreting3
TRA2102Introduction to English-Cantonese Interpreting3
TRA2108Introduction to Communication and Translation3
TRA3001Chinese Writing Workshop for Translators 3
TRA3203Introduction to Translation Studies3
TRA3227English Writing Workshop for Translators3
TRA4319~
TRA4320~
TRA4325~
Translation Project (E-C) or
Translation Project (C-E) or
Translation Studies Research Project / Corporate Communication Project
6

(Total 7 courses, 21 credits, to be taken from Years 2 to 4)

Students need to take at least 5 out of the 7 programme electives in one of the two concentrations (Concentration A: Cross-cultural Communication; Concentration B: Digital Corporate Communication) in order to fulfil the concentration requirement. Students have to take courses from both concentrations.

 

 

Concentration A: Translation and Cross-cultural Communication

 

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
TRA2105The Sound of Language: Phonetics and Phonology3
TRA2106The Structure of Language: Morphology and Syntax3
TRA3002English through Subtitles3
TRA3107Literature, Culture and Translation3
TRA3204Translation Criticism in Digital Age3
TRA3205Literary Translation3
TRA3214Bilingual Communication Workshop3
TRA3217Translating Cultures3
TRA3221Topics in Bilingual Studies: Love in Chinese and Western Literatures3
TRA3224 #Introduction to Putonghua and English Interpreting3
TRA3228Liaison Interpreting3
TRA3238Cross-cultural Perspectives in Film: Thematic Comparisons3
TRA3241Studies on Translators3
TRA3242Translation and Sino-Western Cultural Exchange3
TRA3244Translating Travel Literature3
TRA4303Research and Writing3
TRA4307Gender, Language and Translation3
TRA4308History of Translation3
TRA4329World Literature and Translation3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concentration B: AI and  Corporate Communication

 

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
TRA2107Digital and Audiovisual Translation3
TRA3208Digital Media Translation3
TRA3209Bilingual Communication in Popular Culture3
TRA3211Digital Translation in Creative Industries3
TRA3213Bilingual Digital Publication Workshop3
TRA3218Translation in the Hong Kong Context3
TRA3222Business Writing Skills and Translation3
TRA3223Financial Translation3
TRA3239Corporate Communication and Translation3
TRA3240Digital Marketing and Content Creation with AI3
TRA3243Translation and AI Industries3
TRA4310Translation for Science and Technology3
TRA4326Conference Interpreting3
TRA4327Eco-translation3
TRA4328Translation of Court Documents3

Note:
* Students with insufficient proficiency in Cantonese may substitute the course with an alternative course, TRA3224 Introduction to Putonghua and English Interpreting. Details regarding this option will be disseminated in the email about Academic Advising, which is sent each February.
@ Students who have taken TRA4301 Advanced Interpreting (C-E) or TRA4302 Advanced Interpreting (E-C) are not allowed to take this course.
^^ Students who have taken TRA4323 Legal Translation (C-E) and TRA4324 Legal Translation (E-C) are not allowed to take this course.

# This course can be taken by mainland students whose mother tongue is not Cantonese as a core interpreting course in replacement of TRA2101.

Phrase

We are grateful to Phrase for giving us free access to their platform, which is one of the Computer-aided Translation tools we use in our teaching.

 

http://www.phrase.com/


Enquiry

If you have any questions, please contact us at (852) 2616 7970 or [email protected]