Chartered Institute
of Linguists
NEWS & VOICES
By CIOL Council Member and UCFL Vice-Chair of Languages and Intercultural Education Marcela A. Cazzoli
The Chartered Institute of Linguists can be seen, from within universities, as something slightly external to our work. It sits alongside the sector rather than within it. For many academics, particularly those in more theoretical areas, engagement with a professional...
By Callum Darragh
On Friday 16 April 2026, I had the pleasure of attending the 2026 annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. As it was my first conference with CIOL, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. I had been a student member during my Master’s degree in 2020, but only got around to renewing my membership in January of this year. As...
If you've been weighing up whether taking the CIOL Qualifications Level 7 Diploma in Translation is worth it, the answer might be clearer than you think.
Proof positive of your excellent translation skills
Maybe you've been translating professionally for a while. Maybe people have been relying on your language skills for years - clients, co-workers,...
By Mariam Aboelezz, CIOL Vice Chair
Artificial intelligence is not an abstract or distant prospect for translators and interpreters. It is already embedded in the tools we use, the workflows we are asked to adopt, and the expectations many clients now bring to the table. Machine translation is here, it will remain here, and it will continue to evolve. The...
By Kaori Myatt
Recently, I have noticed something interesting… Many professionals who once proudly described themselves as ‘translators’ are now calling themselves ‘localisation specialists’, ‘linguists’, ‘language strategists’, ‘content specialists’, ‘SEO writers’, and even ‘AI language experts’ and ‘AI annotators’. Of course, rebranding is not inherently...
by Celeste Rodriguez Louro
I remember the first time I attended a linguistics lecture as an undergraduate in Argentina. The lecturer asked a simple question: where does language come from? My instinctive answer was: books.
After four decades researching language and linguistics, that response now seems almost absurd. But it reflects a common...
By Uwe Muegge, translation technology expert
Just a few days ago, OpenAI launched GPT-5.4, its most capable language model yet. With GPT-5.4, translation professionals using ChatGPT have access to stronger functions for translation-oriented terminology and style management, and automated post-editing. Below are my top tips for translation professionals who...
By Dom Hebblethwaite, CIOL Head of Membership
Our latest snap poll asked members a deceptively simple question: will AI and technology reduce or increase the importance of high-level language skills? The results tell a more optimistic story than the headlines about AI might suggest, though the picture is far from uniform.
The numbers...
In an age of AI, professional judgement matters more than ever
Long before machine translation, cloud tools or AI entered the arena, the Diploma in Translation (DipTrans) established a simple truth: professional translation is a discipline of judgement.
Today, as machines translate faster than any human ever could, that truth matters more than ever.
AI-...
In March we celebrate International Women's Day and Women's History Month. CIOL Council Member Rasha Alajouz writes on the 2026 themes of 'give to gain' and 'creating a sustainable future', drawing on a coaching mindset and her experiences of mentoring, entrepreneurship and running a business with-and-for-women, all of which led her to write her inspirational book: '...