Translation Pedagogy in the Digital Age

Abstract

The language service provision industry is rapidly developing, with the market growing on an annual basis (Drugan 2014; DePalma et al. 2014; 2017; Pym 2016) due to voluntary and non-voluntary human mobility, increased social agency (Cronin 2013), as well as the worldwide provision of services, goods and cultures (Orlando 2016). As a result, the practices of modern-day language service providers are being altered via the implementation of Machine Translation (MT) (TAUS 2013) and Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools (Bondarenko 2015) so that the industry can cope with increased volumes of text to be translated, shrinking deadlines, and decreasing remuneration (Choudhury & McConnell 2013). At the same time, the translation market is becoming convergent as language service providers expand, while freelancers attempt to retain a competitive edge by teaming up (Breen 2017). Whatever the case, online solutions are being implemented which permit translation teams to work flexibly via telecollaboration (Pym 2016; Schaeffner 2016). The sign of the times is the need to keep abreast of the shifts in work modes and tools necessitated by them, which requires translators to display a set of skills relating to both translation technologies and telecollaboration and communication tools (Bondarenko 2015). What it brings to the forefront of contemporary translator education — and also language education, for that matter — is the learner’s capacity and preparedness for self-directed, autonomous learning (Kukulska-Hulme et al. 2015). Having said that, today’s translator education systems must create conditions for students not only to learn about translation but also develop a range of soft/employability skills, e.g. critical thinking skills, communication skills, problem-solving skills and collaboration skills, which will help them live up to the expectations of the Language Service Providers (LSPs), or the market at large (Mirza 2017). This paper investigates how translator education may respond to that need through a pedagogic shift from traditional, positivist epistemology, consisting in teacher-centered instruction and knowledge transmission, towards emergentist education, which emancipates the learner, situates the learning experience, emphasizes collaboration and aims at developing translator competence, which is viewed as a complex system of interactions between a myriad of context-dependent factors (Göpferich 2008; Kiraly 2013; 2015; Kiraly and Hoffman 2016). The author examines how this new pedagogy affects the learner, their self-perception and conceptualization of the translation profession, with particular emphasis on Web- and CAT-based pedagogies and work-modes. It concludes with a number of evidenced predictions which altogether constitute a voice in the debate about the future outlook for translator education.