Some earlier reflections on teaching translation in Morocco (Higher education level)

http://www.proz.com/doc/3029

Fouad 

Reflections on my expereince as a teachers and research in translation pedagogy( and studies).

   In the MA course I facilitated between 2009-11 (Translation Studies and the real world), I tried to bring in the real life situation of the translation profession through creating my own innovative approach, resulting from my early readings on   translator pedagogy literature and else. The course was made for the first time and I had to choose, plan and deliver, assess the contents myself. I had a preliminary outline about my intervention, but I was lucky to find the students had just been back from their internship so I had asked the course administrator for their reports, and spent about half of the time during the first day discussing their internship experience. This discussion had helped me to reshape my course outline, and I presume that the more the teachers know about their students learning styles and needs the better they will be in a position to assess their teaching and improve it accordingly ( Viau et Bouchard, 2006, p1).

   Being a course about professional issues in practice, I resorted to use active pedagogies, workshops mixed with ICT tools. The focal point was to create simulations of the real world of translation, how language services are carried out in the real world or the virtual world (online freelance) and the constraints. I was trying to link between the course at hand and the profession ( Viau et Bouchard, 2006, p. 38). From time to time I present a brief lecture to students to guide them through some declarative knowledge they might need to help them apply it and reflect on it while dealing with Problem Situations or Case studies.

     Nevertheless, I must admit that I faced problems in trying to apply the active pedagogies as well as the ICT tools in the MA class due to:

·         -Students uneasiness with these types of activities, since they are still influenced by the old paradigm whereby knowledge is and should be transmitted from one fountain (the teachers) and that students should absorb that knowledge and compete with each other to be distinguished. The professor is judged on how bright she or he is in delivering the course content.

·        - I tried to incite them to bring in their lap tops or use internet at home to communicate with each others on online discussion groups and do research on special sites to get them used to the online environment since it takes a big chunk of their future work. Nevertheless, neither the university infrastructure nor students financial situation helped me to run this activity smoothly.

 Fouad

Importance of the course plan and outline.

When I was teaching   in higher education between 2008-11, I was not taking seriously the idea that designing and planning an efficient course outline as being a crucial factor to determine the success or not of the intended learning outcomes of the course I was facilitating. Content was king, then. What was stressed was topics/contents and teachers objectives. However, it turns out that what is really important is to target achieving learning outcomes, designing adequate learning  activities for those specific objectives or outcomes and then create assessment tools to assess whether learners had achieved those outcomes to a degree. The alignmnet between all these elements is very important, otherwise course learning objectives will be derailed.

Also, I doubt any of the teachers or faculty I was working with in the MA  or even the diploma course in translation did have the course plan well before starting their course, including the pedagogical approach, intended learning outcomes and assesment tools they design in a conscious and responsible way... and that's crippling the quality of learning and misguiding the learner or student...worse off, in translation teaching for instance, the lack of adequately designed instruction that reflects real world experiences, requirments and practices was lacking....It is very important to know why should I be using practicums in an MA course and what is the best way to engage students using activities that are similar to the ones used either in translation offices, bureaux or between online freelance translation agencies or online translation outsourcers.

In 2011, I took a graduate/development programme at Sherbrooke University (Canada) on teaching in Higher education. The course was very practical. It allowed me to reflect on how to approach better the content, the classroom, students characteritics and learning styles, the type of pedagogical approach to undertake ( or a mix of harmonious approaches) and apply them to translator training and education...Yes, education.

The good thing was that : I took this course  fully online, and this had pathed the way for me to specialise in my PhD ( a year later) on online education applied to translator training.  However, after two years in my PhD I changed the topic: pedagogical and curriculum practices in f2f2 translation programs. Yet, my exposure to online interactive education and scholarship taught me interesting new and key points in educational technologies in general, more specifically, those adapted to translator education and training contexts.

Fouad

Educational technology in translator training, research and practice

Educational technology in translator training, research and practice

Hi everyone,

My current Blog will be a resource as well as a discussion space for students, teachers or reserachers in translation / interpreting as well as translation practioners to exchange ideas and create knowledge for our community of practice and research.

Welcome to everyone in the community...students in translation seeking help, willing to exchange ideas, teachers wanting to exchange their ideas and reflect on their practices, discuss reserach issues in translation or interpreting studies or teaching !


Myself, I am going to post my reflections on the modest teaching and learning expereince I had before as a translation and interpreting  lecturer. Also, I will share with you my current experience as a PhD research student on e-learning in relation to translator training in higher education.

Regards
Fouad