June 2016 – Xi'an, China

The twenty-first century has seen increasing communication and collaboration among countries in the Asia-Pacific region, making it a new engine of economic growth in today's world.

The Eighth Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum seeks to highlight the important roles played by translators, interpreters, and other language professionals in regional growth and to promote the sustainable development of the translation/interpreting industry in the information age. Co-hosted by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) and the Translators Association of China (TAC), this forum is organized by Xi'an International Studies University (XISU), and will take place on June 2016 in Xi'an, China.

Formerly known as the Asian Translators Forum, it was officially changed into the “Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF)” by FIT Council resolution at the initiative of the TAC in March 2015.

While focusing primarily on the development of translation and interpreting in the Asia-Pacific region, the forum welcomes attendees from other parts of the world to share ideas on issues of general concern to our profession. The forum will be honored by the presence of the FIT Executive Council.

Whether or not you have attended the previous forums in Beijing (1995), Seoul (1998), Hong Kong (2001), Beijing (2004), Bogor (2007), Macau (2010) or Penang (2013), this forum will prove to be an excellent opportunity to share, to learn and to build new connections within the translation and interpreting community in addition to visiting the fascinating city of Xi'an, a city loaded with history!

Working Languages: Chinese and English.

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided for keynote speeches.

Theme and Topics:
The theme of the forum is “Behind the Scenes: Translation and Interpreting in Tomorrow's Asia-Pacific Region”. The forum aims to address mainly, but not exclusively, the following issues:

1. Language Services in the Asia-Pacific Region

--Language services in Asia-Pacific regional organizations

--Going global or staying local: The development of professional communication throughout the Asia-Pacific region

--The Land and Maritime Silk Road Initiative and new opportunities for language services

--Globalization and language services

2. Professional Training and Evaluation of Translators and Interpreters

--Program development and professional education in translation and interpreting

--Training of trainers for translation and interpreting

--Training in languages of limited diffusion

--Evaluation and accreditation of translators and interpreters

--Industry-university cooperation: Models and effects

3. New Technologies and the Future of the Language Industry

--Innovations in T&I education in the information age

--Applications of cloud computing and Big Data in the language service industry

--CAT, MT, and Big Data

--Applications of the corpus in translation/interpreting teaching

--Standards and specifications for language services

4. Translation Research and Practice

--Translation and knowledge transfer

--Translation of tourism texts and city images

--Translating into B languages: A dilemma for languages of limited diffusion

--Teaching methodologies and professional development for interpreters

Practical Information and Deadlines to Remember:

--Abstract submission deadline is October 30, 2015. Abstracts should be 300 words or less, written in English or Chinese.

--Letters of acceptance will be sent on December 1, 2015 via email, together with detailed instructions on the submission of full papers.

--Registration deadline for presenters is March 30, 2016. Failure to do so will be considered as a withdrawal from presentation at the forum.

--Full paper submission deadline for accepted papers is April 30, 2016. Presented papers have a chance to be selected for publication in Babel (the journal of FIT) and Chinese Translators' Journal (the journal of TAC), as well as a scholarly publication of selected papers from this forum.

--Papers should be the original work of the author and not have been published previously.

--Abstracts and full papers can be submitted online via the official website of the forum (www.8aptif.org) or via email (aptif2016@yahoo.com).

Forum registration will be open from September 30, 2015. Please visit the official website of the forum (www.8aptif.org) for updates.

Contact Us:

For submission of proposals: aptif2016@yahoo.com

Official website of the forum: www.8aptif.org (to be launched in September 2015)

Official website of the TAC: www.tac-online.org.cn