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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 67:4 (2021) ► pp.460–481

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Investigating translation trainees’ self-perceived competence

A process-oriented, collaborative seminar on translation and translation revision

 | University of Salerno
 | University of Ferrara
Published online: 8 October 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00232.lat
Abstract
Pushed by the increasing internationalization of education and recent economic dynamics, training programs are shifting their focus to acquiring competences and know-how through real-life materials to enhance learners’ employability and access to the work market. Moreover, recent research has called for the implementation of editing/revision content in translation programs, overcoming the assumed distance between translation and editing/revision professions. In light of social constructivism and process-oriented pedagogical trends in translation training, an intensive twenty-hour seminar was designed and piloted in a Master’s degree program in Specialized Translation with the intent of increasing students’ awareness of the translation process, including translation revision and their sense of perceived competence. Rasch analysis of pre- and post-test questionnaires detected positive changes in students’ self-perceived proficiency in translation, translation revision, and editing, with critical implications for the usefulness of process-oriented, realistic approaches integrating both translation and editing/revision content in translation training programs.
Résumé
Sous l’impulsion de l’internationalisation croissante de l’éducation et de la dynamique économique récente, les programmes de formation se concentrent de plus en plus sur l’acquisition de compétences et de savoir-faires au moyen de supports réels, afin d’améliorer l’employabilité des apprenants et leur accès au marché du travail. En outre, des recherches récentes ont appelé à la mise en œuvre de cours d’édition/révision dans les programmes de traduction, afin de surmonter la distance supposée entre les professions de traducteur et d’éditeur/réviseur. À la lumière du constructivisme social et des tendances pédagogiques axées sur le processus dans la formation en traduction, un séminaire intensif de 20 heures a été conçu et piloté dans le cadre d’un programme de Master en traduction spécialisée dans le but d’accroître la sensibilisation des étudiants au processus de traduction, y compris la révision de traduction, et leur sentiment de compétence perçue. L’analyse de Rasch des questionnaires de pré-test et de post-test a révélé des changements positifs dans l’auto-perception de la compétence des étudiants en matière de traduction, de révision de la traduction et d’édition. Ces résultats ont des implications critiques pour l’utilité des approches réalistes axées sur le processus et intégrant à la fois la traduction et l’édition/révision dans les programmes de formation en traduction.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Shifts in translator training approaches
  • Foregrounding translation revision
  • The Awareness in Editing and Translation seminar
  • Materials and method
    • Participants
    • Instruments
    • Statistical model
    • Reliability statistics
  • Results and discussion
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (40)
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