Prof. (Dr.) Roger T Bell is all time well wisher of Modlingua and the Recipient-Rambriksh Benipuri Awards 2009. Professor Bell is an academician and an author of international repute. During our conference in New Delhi, he organized a workshop on the professional development of translators and professionalization of translation profession. The workshop included some highly interactive sessions in which more than 100 translators and experts participated from all over India.
Dr. Roger T. Bell has been involved in applied linguistics–language teaching, translation studies and translator and interpreter education – since the early 1960s, at the Universities of Lancaster (1965-1983), Westminster (1984-1994), Karachi (1971), Brasília (1995), the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur (1998-99), and Fairview International School (Director: 2002 to date).
Before his retirement, he was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Westminster in the UK. He is still a Visiting Professor there and at Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU: the University of North Sumatra) in Indonesia. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (London). His publications (5 books and some 60 papers) span sociolinguistics (language variation; bilingualism and multilingualism) and applied linguistics (language teaching; translation and interpreting theory) and educational development (academic and business). His 1991 book Translation and translating: theory and practice has been translated into Romanian (2000), Korean (2001), Chinese (2005) with Russian and Malay translations in the press and plans for a Hindi version in the near future. He has acted as a consultant to a wide range of organisations including: United Kingdom: British Rail (1991-92: European Passenger Services: Bilingual Communication System [English-French] for Channel Tunnel Train Drivers), the Higher Education Funding Council (1994 to date: Specialist Assessor in Linguistics: Quality Assurance) and the Nuffield Foundation (1994: Training of Trainers of Trainers for Public Service Interpreting).
Malaysia: the Anti-Corruption Agency (1998: Communication Skills for Investigating Officers), AIBD (1999 to date: Editing and Presentation Skills), Glaxo-Smith-Kline (2002 to date: Communication Skills for Doctors), IBBM (2005: Communication Skills for Banking Professionals), ITNMB (1998 to date: strategic planning, 2003: Conference Interpreter training), RTM (1999 to date: Professional Skills for Radio and Television News Editors and Presenters), University of Malaya Press and the Open University Malaysia (2001 to date: Editing and Proofing of publications), and City & Guilds-Pitman (2002 to date: Quality Assurance for awards in teaching and training: ACE and ICTS/IDTS).
His interest in enhancing communication skills has led him to run workshops on presentation and facilitation skills, and the application of this to tertiary-level pedagogic skill development for academic staff: lectures, seminars, tutorials/coaching and conference presentation techniques. He is Managing Director of a Kuala Lumpur-based consultancy–RZ Language-Link Sdn. Bhd- which specializes in language services: translation, interpreting and documentation and language and communication skills training.
