Wycliffe Announces English Language Training for Translators

Translating the Bible into the heart language of people around the world is vital to seeing the Great Commission completed. With the advent of technology, the process of completing a translation project is considerably shorter. However, it could get even shorter if translators receive training in English. That’s right, English.

President of Wycliffe Associates Bruce Smith says, “English is the trade language of Bible translation. That’s basically the easy way to describe it.”

While there are many international Bible translators doing that work, many don’t understand English, says Smith. “Many of the texts, many of the resources, many of the training materials—all of the those sorts of things—have primarily been done in English. So in order to make these accessible to international teams, we have been invited to provide them English language training.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is put this training into the virtual environment on the Internet and test English language training via the Internet, so that these international teams can access the training wherever they are—any time of the day or night.”

Smith explains that his team will be testing this in the fiscal year, and says it will happen within the next three months. The next step is to put seminary-level Bible translation training online. “People don’t have to stop their jobs, go to seminary for four years and then start Bible translation five years from now. They can start tomorrow. They can get the training they need. They can begin the drafting process. All of these things are being facilitated by Internet connectivity now,” Smith says.

Smith believes this could help them accomplish the Vision 2025 goal, which is have Bible translations started in all of the languages of the world by 2025.

Smith asks for prayer “that the tests go well and that we will have some breakthroughs with people interested in doing their training in a new way, rather than the traditional way.”

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