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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 34:1 (2021) ► pp.311–338

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Becoming a translation teacher

A longitudinal case study of a novice teacher’s identity and emotions

ORCiD logo with link | Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
ORCiD logo with link | The University of Auckland
ORCiD logo with link | The University of Auckland
Published online: 22 July 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.18040.wu
Abstract
Teachers who enter the translation teaching profession are generally in lack of training in how to teach translation because such training is barely provided by the current professional or academic oriented translation programmes. Therefore, they have to go through a process of learning to become translation teachers on the job in real teaching settings. However, little has been documented systematically, either qualitatively or quantitatively, on how translation teachers, especially beginning teachers, think of their teaching and themselves as teaching professionals. In this longitudinal case study, we focused on one novice translation teacher and tried to understand how she constructed her translation teacher identity during the first year of her teaching career. We employed emotions as a lens to investigate the process of her teacher identity construction through collecting data from interviews and journals. Findings show that this particular participant’s teacher identity went through a process of constructing, reconstructing and expanding. This process was accompanied by the negotiation between her identity and the various positive and negative emotions that she experienced in the complex sociocultural context. Implications for translation teachers, especially novice translation teachers, are discussed.
Resumen
Convertirse en un profesor de traducción: Un estudio de caso longitudinal de la identidad y las emociones de un profesor novato
Los maestros que ingresan a la profesión de la enseñanza de la traducción generalmente carecen de capacitación sobre cómo enseñar la traducción, ya que esta capacitación es escasamente proporcionada por los programas de traducción actuales, orientados más hacia fines profesionales o académicos. Por lo tanto, para convertirse en profesores de traducción, ellos tienen que pasar por un proceso de aprendizaje práctico durante el trabajo en entornos de enseñanza reales. Sin embargo, poco se ha documentado sistemáticamente, ya sea cualitativamente o cuantitativamente, sobre cómo los profesores de traducción, especialmente los profesores principiantes, consideran su enseñanza y a sí mismos como profesionales de la enseñanza. En este estudio de caso longitudinal, nos enfocamos en una maestra de traducción principiante y tratamos de entender cómo ella construía su identidad de maestra de traducción durante el primer año de su carrera docente. Empleamos las emociones como una lente para investigar el proceso de construcción de su identidad como maestra a través de la recopilación de datos de entrevistas y diarios. Los hallazgos muestran que la identidad como maestra de esta participante en particular pasó por un proceso de construcción, reconstrucción y expansión. Este proceso fue acompañado por la negociación entre su identidad y las diversas emociones positivas y negativas que experimentó en el complejo contexto sociocultural. Se discuten las implicaciones para los profesores de traducción, especialmente los profesores de traducción principiantes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Teacher identity and emotions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Research questions
    • 3.2Participant
    • 3.3Context of the study
    • 3.4Data collection
      • 3.4.1Interviews
      • 3.4.2Journals
    • 3.5Data analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Teaching approach: Transmissionist vs. transformationist
    • 4.2Position: Expert vs. co-learner
    • 4.3Teacher-student relationship: Intimate friends vs. distant friends
    • 4.4Teacher duty: Teaching exclusively only vs. multiple responsibilities
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1The identity (trans)formation: A process of constructing, reconstructing and expanding
    • 5.2The interaction between teacher identity and emotions
  • 6.Conclusion and implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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