Choosing effective teaching methods for translation technology classrooms

Abstract

Abstract Although it is generally agreed that translation students need to learn how to use translation technologies, there would appear to be less agreement on what teaching methods are most appropriate to achieve that end. In our survey of eleven translation-technology teachers in Australia and New Zealand, we found a significant association between the contents and methods (p = 0.031). Lecture-based methods are reported as being used to teach background knowledge such as history and current trends, while hands-on skills can be learned in a variety of student-centred activities that run from task-based groupwork to large-scale simulated projects. Focus-group discussion indicates not only the distribution of appropriate methods, but the ways teaching can adjust to different class sizes, becoming more collective or more individual. A case study further indicates some of the institutional variables that inform the use of one teaching method or another, with particular attention to heterogeneous student groups.