Jacques Tardif : L'approche par compétences – Jacques Tardif on the Competency-Based Approach

A lecture by Jacques Tardif on the competency-based approach and the change of paradigm it demands – foundational viewing for anyone designing competency-based translation programmes.

Apprendre et enseigner à l'ère numérique – Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age

A French-language talk on learning and teaching in the digital age – relevant to how we blend online and face-to-face work in translator education.

Les compétences au coeur du dispositif pédagogique

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The Complex Profile of the Translation Instructor

Being a doctoral student in a faculty of education has taught me a great deal about my own practice, both as a translator educator and as a member of the translation profession. Many concepts used across the education field, from primary and secondary to tertiary, professional, online and continuing education, can be transferred to translation and interpreting studies, and above all to translator education, training, teaching and programmes.

Some of these concepts are already in use in research or teaching. Others remain unexplored, especially at the regional level, in the Arab world and particularly in Gulf universities. Because academically based translation programmes are new in many of these countries, the research field is still largely virgin territory.

Why the Instructor's Profile Matters

One such unexplored element is the identity of the teacher, faculty member or instructor, and the competencies required to teach in a university translation or interpreting programme. To many this seems a trivial matter; even research in applied translation studies has neglected it (Kelly, 2008). But things have changed in recent years. Translation programmes are booming worldwide, and there is growing interest in professionally oriented programmes, driven by globalisation and by developing countries' need to join the knowledge-based society. The profile of the faculty working in such programmes must therefore be taken seriously (Gambier, 2012), since a programme's success depends heavily on the professional, disciplinary and pedagogical competencies of its instructors.

Four Typical Profiles

Because translation and interpreting are occupational fields, the true professional identity of the instructor raises concerns. These are the profiles most often found in translation programmes:

• PhD holders in translation studies with little or no up-to-date professional know-how. This profile is fine, but such educators are most likely to be assigned theoretical or semi-theoretical courses. Translation is an academic discipline, but reflection on practice counts, and students make sense of concepts more readily when the educator offers authentic examples and scenarios drawn from the profession, whether in-house work in the private and public sectors or freelancing online and offline. In a professionally oriented programme this is crucial: students, whether traditional adult learners or returning professionals, want a trainer who can bring everyday professional knowledge into the classroom and theorise it. Professional students are allergic to detached theory, so the choice of content matters. Recruiting only PhD holders in TS without considerable, multidimensional professional experience is a point administrators and recruiters should review.
• PhD holders in language studies or comparative literature. Here we may face a serious problem. The educator's baseline education in linguistics or literature will inevitably shape how they design, develop and assess courses and learning. They carry an identity gained in a discipline that once housed translation, but translation studies has since developed its own frameworks and concepts, along with a socio-professional dimension that must inform teaching and course design.
• MA holders in translation with professional experience, hired to run practical courses. Their disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical abilities need questioning. This profile usually delivers the skills the market needs, but years of non-academic identity in the profession, combined with a lack of sound pedagogical competencies for facilitating practical courses, may compromise the quality of outcomes.
• The dual professional. Teaching and translation are both recognised professions in many countries. An instructor with exposure to both may face a double identity. Juggling the two can produce a hybrid, balanced framework (a double agent, if you like), or it can lead to clinging to a single identity, teaching or translating, simply to make a living. The first is desirable; the second needs to be questioned, because it creates problems for quality assurance and performance at programme and outcome level, in other words for how graduates contribute to society after graduation.

NB: The author addresses this problem in his ongoing doctoral research.

Simultaneous Arabic Interpreting

A demonstration of simultaneous interpreting into and out of Arabic – useful material for interpreting classes.

6th Annual Translation Conference Day 2

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