Sunday, 13 July 2025

AI and Translation in National Security: An ICESCO Symposium in Rabat

We rarely hear about translation and interpreting in the context of national and international security. In July 2025 I presented a paper at a symposium on AI and translation in the field of national security, held at ICESCO headquarters in Rabat, Morocco. It was a genuinely significant event, one that added value to my profile and opened my eyes to new areas of translation and interpreting practice. With AI on the horizon, the attendees, myself included, exchanged some intriguing ideas.

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#Translation #Security #ArtificialIntelligence #ICESCO #NaifUniversity #SoharUniversity

Symposium on AI and translation in national security, ICESCO headquarters, Rabat

Presenting at the ICESCO symposium in Rabat

Symposium participants at ICESCO, Rabat

Symposium session at ICESCO headquarters

Symposium on AI and translation in national security, Rabat

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

Responsible AI Use: Translation Students Apply GenAI with Critical Oversight

Online forum with translation students

Teach students to use generative AI with human oversight, and they will do exactly that, even when you are not looking. A set of meeting minutes recently proved the point.

A forum across two universities

I recently organised an online forum bringing together my former students from the MA in Translation Technologies at the Saudi Electronic University and my current Level 3 BA translation students at Sohar University. The objective was to build a community of learners, establish a network and encourage the exchange of practices across universities and countries.

After the meeting, I asked the moderator of the Omani group to prepare minutes documenting the experience. The format of the document, evidently processed with a GenAI tool, struck me. In my classes I have been gradually integrating the careful use of generative AI and AI tools with my Level 3 students, always stressing the need for human oversight of any output.

How the students did it

The students I am teaching in Audiovisual Translation this semester applied that principle to the minutes, which I found gratifying. When I asked how they had produced the four-page document, one student explained:

To prepare this document, I began with the video recordings, which totalled over an hour and a half. I transcribed them into text using Evernote. I then divided the text into smaller sections and used ChatGPT to extract the main ideas from each segment. After compiling all the key points into a Word document, I meticulously reviewed everything to ensure accuracy, and I found that most of what ChatGPT provided aligned with the actual discussions from the meetings.

Monday, 3 February 2025

Translanguaging Pedagogy: The Way Ahead for English Instruction in MENA

Enough is enough. Across the MENA region, a large share of students still struggle to reach proficiency in foreign languages, above all in writing, speaking and listening. The difficulty extends to tasks such as translation and post-editing, and it has become more visible with the recent surge in large language models.

Translanguaging pedagogy: translation and foreign language education combined

The video below explains the essential role of translanguaging in both monolingual and multilingual education, and shows its relevance, inclusivity and capacity to empower and motivate learners. It is time to move beyond post-colonial prescriptions about effective foreign language learning, whatever accent is favoured. This applies not only to the GCC and North Africa, but potentially to every region that has lived under French or English colonial rule.

Watch: translanguaging in monolingual and multilingual education

Beyond the Silo: Why the Future of Translation Is a Pedagogical Challenge

For a long time I felt I was balancing two professional identities. I was a scholar of translation studies, immersed in the nuances of cross...