Collaborative Student Translation Projects: Sharing Best Practices From the EMT Network

Pbl Best Practices From The Emt Network

Project-based learning approaches emerged in response to teaching practices which emphasised passive, individualistic and competitive knowledge acquisition instead of promoting a more meaningful focus on “purposeful learning” (Dewey, 1938) and applied, cooperative skills acquisition. Subsequently, PBL gained in popularity in all subjects because of its proven benefits with regard to student achievement, student attitude to learning, as well as student soft skills acquisition and relationship-building (Slavin, 1991). As opposed to other cooperative learning approaches, PBL is flexible enough to allow individual group members to explore learning points individually as long as at the end of the task there is an actual project result delivered by the team.

Because of these benefits, the importance of PBL cannot be overstated in translation studies training, especially in light of relevant language services industry surveys, such as ELIA et al. (2017) and Carnegie-Brown (2013). The former study highlights that, in addition to native language competence, foreign language competence, and translation competence, language service providers currently also need their recruits to have—in reverse order of importance—computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools skills, generic ICT skills (e.g. office, file management), interpersonal skills, organisational skills, localisation competence, machine translation (MT) post-editing skills, and MT system management skills.