Is individual competition in translator training compatible with collaborative learning? The case of the MTIE Translation Award
-
Laura Tallone
,
Sandra Ribeiro
Abstract
In past years, translation education has shifted from a “transmissionist approach” to the unchallenged use of collaborative learning, with extensive recourse to teamwork and Project-based Learning. Students are encouraged to develop their translation and interpersonal skills in collaborative environments, focusing on translation as a process. Throughout this process, mistakes are valued as learning opportunities, and no translated text is seen as an authoritative version to which all others are unfavourably compared. This approach is somewhat at odds with an increasingly competitive job market, in which translators must be capable of autonomous and individual work, and translation is mainly viewed and evaluated as a final product. Although translation workflows involve a growing amount of group effort, translators still need to work alone and take responsibility for their own versions and translation choices. In order to prepare students to become professional translators, the annual Technical and Scientific Translation Award aims not only to give winners visibility before potential employers but also to work as an opportunity for young translation students and graduates to put their skills to the test. This paper focuses on the translation competences activated by the contest, as defined by the Competence Framework produced by the European Masters in Translation Network. It also discusses the potential of this initiative as a motivational tool for translation students and graduates, concluding that individual contests counterbalance the predominance of collaborative activities in the classroom and are therefore a relevant complement to academic training.
References
Bennett, Peggy. 2017. Competition in the classroom. In Teaching with vitality: Pathways to health and wellness for teachers and schools, 173–174. New York: Oxford Academic.10.1093/oso/9780190673987.003.0084Search in Google Scholar
Brugué, Lydia & Ruben Giró. 2015. Evaluation in specialized translation teaching: A new method for grading scientific and technical translation compulsory activities. In Ying Cui & Wei Zhao (eds.), Handbook of Research on Teaching Methods in Language Translation and Interpretation, 254–272. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.10.4018/978-1-4666-6615-3.ch014Search in Google Scholar
Coakley, Jay. 1994. Competition in sports: Does it prepare people for life? Sport in society: Issues and controversies, 5th edn. 77–103. St. Louis: Times Mirror/Mosbey College.Search in Google Scholar
Davies, María Gonzalez. 2004. Multiple voices in the translation classroom: Activities, tasks and projects. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Search in Google Scholar
Dzhabrailova, Valida & Olga Alekseeva. 2019. Competitive activities as a tool of the competence-based approach in teaching students of translation faculty. In Proceedings of ADVED 2019 – 5th International Conference on Advances in Education and Social Sciences, 121–129. Istanbul, Turkey.Search in Google Scholar
El-Hallim, Nadia, Lotfy Abdel & Mona Salah Abdalla. 2019. The impact of a competitive learning strategy on developing EFL students’ translation skills at the faculty of specific education. Journal of Research in Curriculum Instruction and Educational Technology 5(1). 11–44. https://doi.org/10.21608/jrciet.2019.31975.Search in Google Scholar
EMT. 2017. European master’s in translation competence Framework. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf (accessed 11 June 2022).Search in Google Scholar
Galán-Mañas, Anabel & Amparo Hurtado. 2015. Competence assessment procedures in translator training. In Ian Mason (ed.), The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 9. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis.10.1080/1750399X.2015.1010358Search in Google Scholar
Gutiérrez-Artacho, Juncal & María Dolores Olvera Lobo. 2016. Gamification in the translation and interpreting degree: A new methodological perspective in the classroom. In Proceedings of EDULEARN 16. 8th Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 50–58. Barcelona. https://digibug.ugr.es/handle/10481/43643 (accessed 23 August 2022).10.21125/edulearn.2016.1008Search in Google Scholar
Huertas Barros, Elsa. 2011. Collaborative learning in the translation classroom: Preliminary survey results. The Journal of Specialised Translation (16). 42–60.Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, David W. & Robert T. Johnson. 1989. Cooperation and competition: Theory and research. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, David W. & Robert T. Johnson. 1994. Cooperative learning in the classroom. Alexandria, VA: University of Michigan.Search in Google Scholar
Kelly, Dorothy A. 2002. Un modelo de competencia traductora: Bases para el diseño curricular. In Puentes. Hacia nuevas investigaciones en la mediación intercultural vol. 1, 9–20. http://wpd.ugr.es/∼greti/revista-puentes/pub1/02-Kelly.pdf (accessed 20 August 2022).Search in Google Scholar
Kiraly, Donald. 2001. Towards a constructivist approach to translator education. In Quaderns. Revista de traducció, vol. 6. https://www.raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsTraduccio/article/download/25282/25116/0 (accessed 6 June 2022).Search in Google Scholar
Lasnier, François. 2000. Réussir la formation par compétences. Montréal (Quebec): Guérin.Search in Google Scholar
Marczak, Mariusz. 2018. Translation pedagogy in the digital age. Angles (7). 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.895.Search in Google Scholar
MTIE. 2021. Regulamento do Prémio de Tradução Técnico-Científico Mestrado em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas (PTTC_MTIE). shorturl.at/jSTZ1 (accessed 14 September 2022).Search in Google Scholar
Pym, Arthur. 2012. Training translators. In Kirsten Malmkjær & Windle Kevin (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies (e-book), 313–322. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Ribeiro, Sandra, Graça Chorão & Célia Tavares. 2022. Translation fit for purpose: A digital collaborative experience using project-based learning. In Perspectives and Trends in Education and Technology, 777–788. Singapore: Springer.10.1007/978-981-16-5063-5_63Search in Google Scholar
Roberts, Tim S. (ed.). 2005. Computer-supported collaborative learning in higher education. Melbourne: Idea Group Publishing.10.4018/978-1-59140-408-8Search in Google Scholar
Rumelhart, David E. & David Zipser. 1985. Feature discovery by competitive learning. Cognitive Science 9(1). 75–112. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0901_5.Search in Google Scholar
Šarčević, Susan. 2015. Language and culture in EU law: Multidisciplinary perspectives. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315591445Search in Google Scholar
Schmitt, Peter A. 2019. Translation 4.0 – evolution, revolution, innovation or disruption? Lebende Sprachen 64(2). 193–229. https://doi.org/10.1515/les-2019-0013.Search in Google Scholar
Shamma, Tarek. 2015. Competition and collaboration in translation education: The motivational impact of translation contests. In Ying Cui & Wei Zhao (eds.), Handbook of Research on Teaching Methods in Language Translation and Interpretation: IGI global, 1–26. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.10.4018/978-1-4666-6615-3.ch001Search in Google Scholar
Schjoldager, Anne. 2009. Case competitions: An opportunity for building knowledge about professional translation. Nordic Journal of English Studies 8(1). 81–99. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.184.Search in Google Scholar
Szymczak, Piotr. 2016. Translation competitions in educational contexts: A positive psychology perspective. In Positive Psychology Perspectives on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching, 353–366. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.10.1007/978-3-319-32954-3_20Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Barbara Leigh & Jean T. MacGregor. 1992. What is collaborative learning? In Anne S. Goodsell, Michele R. Maher & Tinto Vincent (eds.), Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education NCTLA, 10–30.Search in Google Scholar
Statista. 2022. Market size of the global language services industry from 2009 to 2019 with a projection until 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/257656/size-of-the-global-language-services-market/ (accessed 5 June 2022).Search in Google Scholar
Tauer, John M. & Judith M. Harackiewicz. 2004. Interpersonal relations and group processes: The effects of cooperation and competition on intrinsic motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 86(6). 849–861. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.6.849.Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The fascinating world of language teaching and learning varieties
- Research Articles
- Aspiring multilinguals or contented bilinguals? University students negotiating their multilingual and professional identities
- The (im)possibility of breaking the cycle of rippling circularities affecting Australian language education programs: a Queensland example
- Lernen mit LMOOCs im universitären Deutschunterricht: Entscheidungshilfen für Deutschlehrende
- Enhance sustainability and environmental protection awareness: agency in Chinese informal video learning
- Gamification and learning Spanish as a modern language: student perceptions in the university context
- Seeing innovation from different prisms: university students’ and instructors’ perspectives on flipping the Spanish language classroom
- Investigating syntactic complexity and language-related error patterns in EFL students’ writing: corpus-based and epistemic network analyses
- Using Google Docs for guided Academic Writing assessments: students’ perspectives
- Digital storytelling as practice-based participatory pedagogy for English for specific purposes
- Is individual competition in translator training compatible with collaborative learning? The case of the MTIE Translation Award
- Tackling the elephant in the language classroom: introducing machine translation literacy in a Swiss language centre
- Institutionalised autonomisation of language learning in a French language centre
- The story of becoming an autonomous learner: a case study of a student’s learning management
- The effect of collaborative activities on tertiary-level EFL students’ learner autonomy in the Turkish context
- Learner autonomy and English achievement in Chinese EFL undergraduates: the mediating role of ambiguity tolerance and foreign language classroom anxiety
- Activity Reports
- Lehre am Sprachenzentrum der UZH und der ETH Zürich: Positionspapier
- Communication course for future engineers – effective data presentation and its interpretation during LSP courses
- Dialogic co-creation in English language teaching and learning: a personal experience
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The fascinating world of language teaching and learning varieties
- Research Articles
- Aspiring multilinguals or contented bilinguals? University students negotiating their multilingual and professional identities
- The (im)possibility of breaking the cycle of rippling circularities affecting Australian language education programs: a Queensland example
- Lernen mit LMOOCs im universitären Deutschunterricht: Entscheidungshilfen für Deutschlehrende
- Enhance sustainability and environmental protection awareness: agency in Chinese informal video learning
- Gamification and learning Spanish as a modern language: student perceptions in the university context
- Seeing innovation from different prisms: university students’ and instructors’ perspectives on flipping the Spanish language classroom
- Investigating syntactic complexity and language-related error patterns in EFL students’ writing: corpus-based and epistemic network analyses
- Using Google Docs for guided Academic Writing assessments: students’ perspectives
- Digital storytelling as practice-based participatory pedagogy for English for specific purposes
- Is individual competition in translator training compatible with collaborative learning? The case of the MTIE Translation Award
- Tackling the elephant in the language classroom: introducing machine translation literacy in a Swiss language centre
- Institutionalised autonomisation of language learning in a French language centre
- The story of becoming an autonomous learner: a case study of a student’s learning management
- The effect of collaborative activities on tertiary-level EFL students’ learner autonomy in the Turkish context
- Learner autonomy and English achievement in Chinese EFL undergraduates: the mediating role of ambiguity tolerance and foreign language classroom anxiety
- Activity Reports
- Lehre am Sprachenzentrum der UZH und der ETH Zürich: Positionspapier
- Communication course for future engineers – effective data presentation and its interpretation during LSP courses
- Dialogic co-creation in English language teaching and learning: a personal experience
