From a letter to the Inspectors 2011

 

The Translation Skills program is an optional course for Bagrut aimed at top language students (Hebrew/Arabic and English), and it is taught in two weekly hours in 11^th and 12^th grades. The translation course does not train students to be professional translators, but rather uses translation to perfect their skills of reading comprehension and writing as well as a better understanding of language in general.

 

The two-points that are given for the Translation Skills Bagrut are rarely an attraction for the top language students who take this course, but the benefits are great – research has shown that, besides upgrading reading comprehension and writing skills, they score higher in Bagrut exams in language and when they answer essay questions.

According to graduates, they reap benefits from the course in almost everything they do after graduation.

 

The Bagrut exam in translation is offered to students who study the course in high school. There is no moed bet nor a winter exam and it is not open to graduates. The grade in translation is separate from that of English (hence there is no “7 points English”, a common misnomer for this course).

 

The summer Bagrut exam in translation lasts two hours and includes a 250-word article in English. Students can use any dictionary and thesaurus when translating the article into Hebrew/Arabic, and they are also required to analyze six items in the text (words, phrases, figures of speech, etc.) which pose a challenge to the translator and to comment on their choice from among options for translation.

 

Examples of exams appear on the inspectorate site:

 

Teachers of the Translation Skills program must have an excellent command of both languages (Hebrew/Arabic and English) and need to take a course which trains them for the particular challenges of the program.

 

Wishing you an excellent year,

Gabi