New professional profiles have recently emerged in the translation sector. Within these, transcreation is worth mentioning. Nevertheless, transcreation training is not yet extended within higher education in translation and interpreting. The main objective of this chapter is to present a task-based learning experience introduced in a French-Spanish translation course at the University of Granada (Spain), aimed at promoting transcreation and transcreation skills. This is divided into (1) to describe the task-based proposal, the materials and methods used, and its learning objectives and (2) to identify the strategies the students put into play. Students' answers were processed with the qualitative analysis software NVivo. Results show that students activated creative strategies to adapt linguistically and culturally the materials proposed and displayed cross-curricular competences such as creativity or decision-making. Including transcreation in translation and interpreting training seems a promising line of research. Nevertheless, further progress is needed in the evaluation of transcreation.
TopIntroduction
Globalization brought about by technological advances has opened the world to international trade more than at any other time in history (Singh et al., 2013). Nevertheless, this new scenario has likewise given rise to many communication problems (Tigre Moura et al., 2016). One of these problems is the language and cultural barriers between users.
In response to these communication problems, in the language service industry new professional profiles characterized by the use of new software tools, the mastery of communication channels and the acquisition of market knowledge have emerged (Olvera-Lobo & Gutiérrez-Artacho, 2017). Within these, transcreation is worth mentioning.
This new trend began to be observed and studied only a few years ago. Different authors provide extensive research on the history of the term transcreation and its importance today (Benetello, 2018; Gaballo, 2012; Katan, 2016; O’Hagan & Mangiron, 2013; Pedersen, 2014, 2017). Through their work, we can define transcreation as an intralingual or interlingual process through which some parts of a text are translated, others are adapted and others are (re)created. The balance between these elements will depend on the characteristics of the text and the needs of the client. Transcreation is characterized by the high degree of creativity involved in the process (Gaballo 2012). Thus, transcreation differs from other similar practices, among other reasons, because of the competences needed to implement it.
Therefore, in addition to the competences assumed by translation professionals, transcreation specialists must acquire a series of skills that belong to other areas, such as marketing, advertising, and communication. Furthermore, transcreation differs from translation itself in other matters such as the transcreation brief. As Risku, et al. (2017) concluded, a transcreation brief should be different from a translation brief in terms of extension, description of the communicative strategy and the target audience, degree of creative freedom, and details about whether the text can shortened/extended or whether a piece of information can be omitted.
Transcreation is also characterized by working with inter-semiotic texts. For example, texts intended for web dissemination, in which linguistic elements, images, colors, disposition, animations, voice, music, etc. come into play (Rike, 2013), and video games (O'Hagan & Mangiron, 2013), or marketing communication materials (Pedersen, 2017; Risku et al., 2017). For these multimodal texts, language is no longer the dominant semiotic source, but just another resource that interacts with the rest, generating meaning (Munday, 2004). When it is necessary for this inter-semiotic website content to be culturally adapted to the point, perhaps, of having to create an almost completely different website, then it is being transcreated.
It is only recently that initiatives have surfaced aimed at including transcreation training in higher translation studies. For example, universities such as the University College London (2020) and the University of Roehampton (2020) are currently offering transcreation courses from their translation departments. In the case of Spain, Morón & Calvo, (2018) have worked on a teaching innovation project to introduce transcreation training into a translation program at the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain), in the context of the marketing and advertising sector. The recent proliferation in Spain of this and other private courses in transcreation training is further proof of the recent importance this discipline is obtaining.
In recent years, new trends have emerged in education that propose new disruptive methodologies that favor learning and the acquisition of skills. In the following training experience, the collaborative work and task-based learning approaches were applied.