Managing translation projects in class: bringing the workplace to the classroom

Abstract

Translation is, maybe, one of the disciplines that uses most a procedural and operative knowledge of those belonging to the Arts and Humanities area (Anderson, 1983) and, as a procedural knowledge, it is obtained through practice (Hurtado Albir, 2001). That is the reason of the importance of offering practical activities in order the students to acquire the skills needed to elaborate an appropriate translation. It is essential for teachers to create motivating activities that able to practice the biggest number possible of translations skills. With this objective, a practical activity is presented so students can experience in the classroom what a translation project managing is like. With that objective in mind, the students were asked to translate a scientific paper with a high level of complexity (due to the specificity of the terminology or the inexistence of translation of certain English terms), which allows to introduce STEM aspects and to develop them through a Humanistic perspective. Additionally, the students had to form groups and decide which role had to fulfil, such as “translator”, “copy editor” or “translation project manager”, important figures in this profession. Since the difficult level of the proposed text was high, it was organised as well the visit of the researcher that wrote the article as a scientific “proof-reader” (ASATI, 2009) during one class session, so the students could ask about the processes and concepts from the article they had to translate. This educative process is based on a teaching and learning modality: the Project-Based Learning (PBL), where the students are responsible for their own learning (Toledo Morales y Sánchez García, 2018). After the activity finalization, participants were asked to fill out a survey to know their degree of satisfaction. This activity belongs to the subject Introducción a la Traducción, taught in the ULPGC to second-year Translation and Interpretation grade students