Cultivation of Student Translator Autonomy in UK Higher Education

Abstract

This study, based on two questionnaires directed to translation lecturers in UK Higher Education (HE), aims to explore the teacher awareness of learner autonomy in the UK university translation classroom, and the extent to which students of translation are encouraged to become autonomous learners. It covers six aspects of translation education, i.e., objective setting, learning strategies, resources, technology, learner reflection and assessment, and teacher’s role. The results provide insights to the teachers’ understanding of student choice, control and responsibility in autonomous translation learning. The findings suggest that the translation students in UK HE are offered the most choice in translation resources and technologies, and the least choice in co-deciding translation syllabi, specialized professional goal and teaching materials; they seem to share consistent control with their teachers over the whole learning process, from goal-setting, to translation task completion, group collaboration, final version and translation quality criteria decision, to self-evaluation and reflection; they are encouraged to take responsibility for their translation products, collaboration in class, for learning to translate, and learning to evaluate and reflect. Nevertheless, the importance of encouraging student self-evaluation, peer-evaluation and self reflection in UK translation education seems to be underestimated, and is recommended to be brought to the forefront of further research.