Learning to learn, teach and develop : co-emergent perspectives on translator and language-mediator education

Authentic experiential learning has enjoyed widespread and growing advocacy in translator and language-mediator education. It is epistemologically rooted in experiential learning theory (Kolb 1984) and predicated on the assumption that only through deliberate and reflective practice can the adaptive expertise necessary to professional translation and language mediation evolve. As such, it is compatible with social-constructivist and later (co-)emergentist models of competence development (e.g. Kiraly 2013, 2016). This paper considers applications and potential implications of (co-)emergent perspectives on teaching and learning for student, staff and organizational development. Drawing on a widely referenced toolkit for developing organizational learning (Garvin, Edmondson and Gino 2008), it uses examples of key implementations at the author’s home institute to sketch out a frame for empowering institutions to educate not only translators and other language mediators, but also teachers, researchers and the organizations in and with which they work

Research-driven translation teaching : doing applied linguistics to empower the learning organisation

This chapter considers a transversal approach to research-driven teaching, exploring how research at the IUED Institute of Translation and Interpreting at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences has fed into didactic and action research initiatives in an attempt to narrow the theory-practice divide in translator and language-mediator education. After discussing process-oriented and situated methods in translation teaching, it presents research initiatives designed to investigate learning effects among the various actors involved. Moving from curricular and expertise development to the learning organisation itself, it concludes by situating the initiatives within a recent fractal model of co-emergent learning

Commenting on translation : implications for translator training

As translation research moves towards investigating translation processes and not just products, researchers have begun to examine the effects of those processes on the quality of target texts. Translation products result from the interaction between expectations of what translations should be and those practices and competences by which translators produce acceptable translations within temporal and economic constraints. Translation process models suggest what cognitive decision processes might involve, and competence models outline the expert knowledge and cognitive components assumed necessary for effective translation work. In translator training, translation processes have traditionally been accessed and evaluated through student annotations and other written commentaries. Recently, however, other ways of including explicit input on the translation process have been proposed, including the transfer of process research techniques to understanding and evaluating undergraduate students' translation performance. This paper outlines how methods to investigate translation processes can profitably be applied to translator training. A pilot study conducted in our MA programme shows that making translation processes transparent provides trainers and students with valuable insights into translation behaviour. This transparency facilitates better needs-oriented coaching than product-oriented evaluations can, since many of the considerations in reaching translation solutions can be directly observed rather than assumed

The puzzle of translation skills : towards an Integration of e-learning and special concepts of computational linguistics into the training of future translators

The objective of this paper is to promote new methods in the computational training of translation students. We will show that the process of translation is more complex than often supposed but can be successfully supported by electronic tools. The acquisition of advanced skills in the combination of these fields is facilitated by the use of new teaching methods like e-learning and the introduction of special concepts in Computational Linguistics such as evaluation

The Puzzle of Translation Skills. Towards an Integration of E-Learning and Special Concepts of Computational Linguistics into the Training of Future Translators

The objective of this paper is to promote new methods in the computational training of translation students. We will show that the process of translation is more complex than often supposed but can be successfully supported by electronic tools. The acquisition of advanced skills in the combination of these fields is facilitated by the use of new teaching methods like e-learning and the introduction of special concepts in Computational Linguistics such as evaluation

Applied translation studies and transdisciplinary action research : understanding, learning and transforming translation in professional contexts

Proceeding from accepted shared definitions of applied linguistics that stress its practical, real-world orientation and instrumentality, this article seeks to move the focus from the interdisciplinarity that has been identified as the nexus of translation studies in the past to how its applied branches should systematically engage with an emerging transdisciplinary research paradigm. It argues that the shift can and will be a key factor, challenge and opportunity in the onward development of applied translation studies as it seeks to adequately address the situated realities of professional translation. The article reveals how transdisciplinarity, operationalised as action research, offers a viable framework for investigating, understanding and learning about what translators really do in working contexts and settings, with a view to identifying issues, improving practices, processes and performance, and ultimately transforming the profession for the good of those it employs and serves. In doing so, it considers approaches from cognitive translatology, based largely on a 4EA cognitive paradigm, and translatorial linguistic ethnography, where researchers are gradually but progressively going out into the field to explore and describe the complex socio-cognitive, socio-technical activity of translation in situ. After presenting a use case from a large-scale research project on translation ergonomics at the author’s home institution, the article puts forward a model for transdisciplinary action research in professional settings to guide the necessary transition from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity. Such a model would allow professional processes and practices to be investigated, and the findings productively and transformatively applied, in the situated socio-cognitive and socio-technical contexts of translators’ workplaces – within, for, with and by the organisations that employ them