Moving beyond the text – translation project as a tool of self-evaluation and refl exivity in the LSP-translation classroom: a case study

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of translation quality assessment (TQA), focusing on quality and assessment in the LSP-translation classroom. In the Polish context, text oriented approaches to assessment and teaching methods tend to dominate both in translator training research and the translation classroom. The article presents a team translation project as a flexible, real-life oriented tool for training translators as language service providers and an alternative to text-bound exercises and evaluation models. Based on a case study, which was a translation of a feasibility study concerned with waste management, the article discusses the project stages (preparation, implementation and monitoring, consolidation), students’ roles (translator, coordinator, reviser), assessment methods as well as advantages and disadvantages of the project as a teaching method. The assessment of the project was twofold, consisting of the instructor’s correction of the final translation product and of students’ selfevaluation reports, in which both the translation as a product and process was considered. The project work proved an effective tool, teaching comprehensively various competences, including team work, time management, project management and terminology mining. Of relevance were also issues of professional ethics and conduct such as responsibility for one’s own work and meeting deadlines. In the initial stage of translator training, as was the case here, the preparatory stage requires adequate time and clarification as students tended to overlook some less explicit requirements of the translation brief. The project’s shortcomings in a didactic setting include its relatively long duration and, in the case of individualized students’ tasks, an increased workload for the instructor. Translation projects as teaching methods meet the demand for market-oriented training as specified in EMT documents and relate to professional standards set in the EN 15038:2006 standard.