Responding to Students’ Errors in Online Practical Translation Classes

Abstract

In practical translation classes it is inevitable that students make translation errors. Making errors is in fact a characteristic of translation training process, and the role of the teacher is to respond and offer timely and appropriate correction/feedback so that students are able to differentiate between correct and erroneous translations. Training students to develop the ability to produce correct and accurate translation is part and parcel of any practical translation classes. This paper, which has a pedagogical nature, investigates the treatment of students’ errors in online practical translation classes. It extends the area of ‘responding to errors’ to translation studies, on the one hand, and to online classes, on the other hand. Following Thompson’s (2007) model of responding to errors, the paper attempts to find out when and how teachers respond to translation errors made by students in online English-Kurdish practical translation classes. The results show that the teachers respond to the vast majority of translation errors occurred in the course of the online classes. In terms of time, the teachers never interrupted students instantly but waited until the end of translation units or utterances and then responded to the errors. In terms of the method of responding, the results revealed that the teachers mostly focused on meaning and used various techniques of error responding, including students’ involvement and offering their own corrections (with or without feedback). These results, coupled with critical comments provided, are hoped to offer useful insights to would-be translation teachers and trainers to better understand how and when to respond to students’ errors in online practical translation classes.