What Gulf Universities Ask About Translation Pedagogy

I recently interviewed with three universities in the Gulf region, and the questions the panels asked told me a great deal about where translator training in the region is heading. In one university, the head of department even asked searching questions about my PhD research on teaching with technology, which I appreciated enormously.

The Questions

All three universities asked versions of the same questions:

• What is the difference between teaching EFL/ESL and teaching translation?
• How do you design and develop a translation course for future translators?
• How do you teach translation theory: by lecturing, or otherwise?
• How do you integrate technology into a translation course?
• How do you evaluate translation students' learning and performance?
• How do you organise training for consecutive interpreting?

These are specific and intriguing questions, and I was genuinely pleased to hear them. As a researcher, I now know where the tendencies are heading in the region's translation programmes, and I will keep readers of this blog abreast of current orientations in the Arab world, particularly the Gulf.

A Discipline Still Misunderstood

One further conclusion: stakeholders' perception of translator training in the region, with a couple of exceptions, still misreads the complexity of the discipline and the profession. Training a qualified, professional translator, interpreter or reviser transforms not only the individual, as with language students, but also, and mostly, society and the economy. A translation programme capable of delivering that kind of output needs competent faculty and well-designed, well-developed curricula and pedagogies.

Students Are Not Daft

Finally, students, our clients, are digital natives. They consult social media and online forums to see what is happening in their discipline and future profession, and they will quickly spot the absence of fresh, market-oriented content and of qualified faculty who can respond to their aspirations. Student demographics and translator working patterns have changed. New content and pedagogies are needed to meet those needs and those of the professional and local context.