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Suggestions to improve the course
All the suggestions of SAR and SAI referred to the necessity of providing more practising time and extending the period of the translation course from one period of 1h 30 minutes per week to at least two periods. However, other important suggestions were made and some of them are given below:
x Student 1: More practice is needed using various text types.
x Student 2: What about practising the translation of texts which are required in the job market: business texts…
x Student 3: We need books that give us translating methodology.
x Student 4: We need training in oral as well as written translation.
x Student 5: Trying to deal with all the aspects of a text is not very efficient. One should focus on one aspect only; i.e. either text type,
genre or discourse.
x Student 6: The translation course should be carefully graded; elementary level in the first year, intermediate in the second and third years and advanced in the fourth year. Moreover, the texts should not be too long as, I think, the aim is to learn how to
translate and not how much you can translate.
x Student 7: students should be involved more in the course by giving presentations and translating texts dealing with topical issues.
Analysis of the questionnaire administered to teachers
The analysis will focus on questions 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 24, 25 and 26 of the questionnaire reproduced in Appendix B.
Question 3: Have you received any training in translation ?
For this question, 8 teachers answered negatively and 3 answered positively. Two of the latter group have studied for a Master’s degree in translation in England (at Heriot-Watt University and Salford University).
The third has received a short training period in France. Thus, the majority of these teachers were not trained to teach translation.
Question 5: What are the objectives of a translation course?
For this question, 8 teachers said that the main goal is to test the students’ comprehension and composition abilities in the two languages and to enrich their vocabulary. One teacher maintained that the main goal is to undertake a contrastive analysis: making the students aware of the difference and similarities between languages. The two teachers who studied in England put the view that the main objective of the course is to train students to be able to translate different text types.
From these answers it can be concluded that the main concern of the majority of these teachers is linguistic: improving the students’ language performance. What is overlooked, however, is an attempt to develop in the students a clearly defined sense of the translators’ tasks as interlingual and intercultural mediators.
Question 8: Do the students enjoy the translation course?
Only one teacher answered negatively. For all the other ten, translation is a course which appeals to students since it provides them with an opportunity to match the expressive capabilities and limitations of two languages and to compare the cultural background of each.
Teachers have to capitalize on this fervour and offer students didactic tools and theoretical insights so that they would enjoy the course even more.
Question 9: What is the students’ attendance like?
For five teachers, students’ attendance is average and for one of them it is rather poor. One of the teachers tried to account for this situation by invoking a certain negative attitude on the part of the absentee students; they reason that since they will have access to the dictionary on the day of the exam, there is no need to attend the course.
Teachers have to instil into their students’ minds that the dictionary is merely a working tool which has to be used carefully when necessary and that to produce a functional translation, they have to go through the necessary preliminary stage of analyzing the source text.
Question 10: Do you enjoy teaching this course? All the teachers answered yes.
Question 12: What requirements should a translator have?
All the teachers said that the first requirement is a good command of the SL and TL. Two teachers also added that knowledge of the theory of translation is a second requirement. One of all the teachers answering the questionnaire made the point that the course should be taught by teachers with postgraduate degrees in translation.
The answers to this question clearly indicate that the majority of the teachers do not see the value of including translation theory in their courses. Thus, it seems that they prefer to go their own way teaching translation without any reference to any theoretical framework. This may be considered to be a blind strategy, to borrow Farghal’s expression (2000: 88).
Question 13: What are the main problems that confront the teacher?
According to the teachers, the main problems they have to face are: the large classes, lack of material (translation textbooks and specialized dictionaries), shortage of teaching time, lack of training in the didactics of translation, the translation of culture-specific texts and making the students understand that translation is not always word for word.
Question 14: What do you think are the main problems that confront students in the translation class?
The main problems that face students according to the teachers are: The weak level in the SL and TL (vocabulary, collocations, idiomatic expressions, grammar , writing in the foreign language, comprehension of the source text…), the lack of training in text linguistics, the misuse of
bilingual dictionaries, and resorting to word for-word translation.
Question 16: Do students use knowledge of text type features when translating?
For this question six teachers answered negatively and five answered positively.
Question 20: Do you conduct a pre-translation activity of the ST before it is translated?
Eight teachers answered negatively and three answered positively. This means that, in most cases, students embark on translating without having first performed the necessary ST analysis.
Question 24: Are the students introduced to the theory of translation?
Almost all the teachers answered negatively to this question (8 teachers); only three of them stated that they generally introduced their students to the theory of translation.
Question 25: Can the insights of text linguistics contribute to the improvement of translation teaching?
All the teachers answered positively.
Question 26: What is the best approach to teach translation?
Only four teachers have attempted to give a specific answer, namely, making students aware of text types and language in context. The others, however, gave answers that were too vague, such as, for example: all approaches are good, or that there should be a combination of theory and practice.
Question 27: What are the main criteria that you use for evaluating a student’s translation?
Almost all the teachers answered that they evaluate the accuracy of the translation in terms of its form and meaning. Only, three teachers stated that in addition to the evaluation of accuracy they also took into account the way the register and the text type were rendered.
CHAPTER VI CONCLUSIONS
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