A Model of Certification Programs for Certified Translators and Interpreters Yaghoob Javadi Department of Language Teaching and Translation, Islamic Azad University, Varamin-Pishva Campus, Varamin, Iran Tahereh Khezrab Department of Language Teaching and Translation, Islamic Azad University, Varamin-Pishva Campus, Varamin, Iran Abstract—The main part of a certification program is related to its exam, and it should be developed and assessed. For this purpose, two questions come to the mind: (1) Could the translators and interpreters accepted by the Certified Examination represent reasonable capabilities in doing certified translation and interpreting?; (2) What or Which type of test determines the best professional translators and interpreters possessing the best competence and skills? Finally, a variety of assessments can be followed to justify different kinds of testing systems or certification programs in order to design a general framework of a certification program. Index Term—assessment, certification program, certified translators and interpreters, general framework I. INTRODUCTION The certification program introduces the procedure professional or certified translators and interpreters follow to obtain the certificate through authorised examination. This procedure is to be clarified, analyzed and assessed in this study. To improve the skill in legal translation and interpreting, the best evaluation process will be performed by the exam. Therefore, two questions formulate in the researcher's mind: (1) Could the translators and interpreters accepted by the Certified Examination represent reasonable capabilities in doing certified translation and interpreting? (2) What or Which type of test determines the best professional translators and interpreters possessing the best competence and skills? Through studying, the majority of articles were mostly focused on the certification programs in America, Canada, China and Australia introduced as the well-known and authorised centre of professional translation and interpreting practices although some other countries systems were also discussed. Finally, in terms of the analysis of different certification program, a comprehensive model or framework was presented. A. Certification Programs for Certified Translators and Interpreters 1. Certification Program in the USA For ATA exam, two passages should be translated from the three ones for which the result is formulated into pass or fail form. There are "two or more certification program graders" (Koby & Baer, 2005, p. 33) in computerised forms whereas most of the handwritten ones are also be available. The "standard for passing" must be "near to a level 3" based on "Interagency Language Roundtable Scale" (ATA Website, 2019). a. ATA Error Marking Scale For "Standardised Error Marking" (SEM), "two primary documents" are considered "as the basis for all error marking" called: (1) Flowchart in "an Excel spreadsheet" adjusted for "length of texts" (Koby & Baer, 2005, p. 33) (see Fig. 1 for Accreditation Forum, 2002, p. 57, as cited in Koby & Baer, 2005, p. 39) for Error Point Decision, and (2) Framework for SEM. ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 123-139, January 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1001.18 © 2020 ACADEMY PUBLICATION