The Implications of Online Translation Courses on Instructors’ Philosophy of Teaching

Abstract

The paper aims to shed more insights into the impact of online learning on the philosophy of teaching online translation courses. It starts from the premise that online translation courses have peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics which differ from those available in conventional teaching settings. The traditional styles of teaching translation courses have generally focused on linguistic competence and translation and interpreting skills with a little focus on the increasing demands and changing conditions of the translation industry. In spite of the effectiveness of online translation courses in addressing the needs of both translation students and labor market in terms of offering diverse programs and courses including computer-assisted translation tools, subtitling, document management, and localization software, different challenges remain unresolved. These challenges can be attributed to different factors including the lack of a reliable philosophy of teaching that addresses the peculiar epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of online learning. In order to explore the role of philosophy of teaching in the effectiveness and quality of online translation courses, twenty seven online instructors were interviewed about their philosophy of teaching and strategies of addressing the online learning problems and challenges. It is suggested that instructors’ unawareness about the peculiar nature of online learning and learners’ needs has negative implications on students’ achievement and online learning process in general. Online translation instructors are thus recommended to integrate different teaching philosophies in order to