Canada’s First Training in Translation Pedagogy Program: Theoretical Foundations

Abstract

In July 2016, the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation launched its first Training in Translation Pedagogy Program (TTPP). The program, the first of its kind in Canada and perhaps in North America, was set up in response to requests from a number of participants in another summer training initiative, the Chinese-English Translation and Interpretation Program (CETIP). Building on its initial success, the TTPP ran again in 2017 and 2018. At time of writing, a fourth edition was being planned for the summer of 2020. This chapter presents the theoretical foundations of the 2016 program, which comprised lectures and practical work on theories of instruction and assessment and their application to translation teaching; the teaching of specialized and literary translation, revision, editing and post-editing; the teaching of translation technologies; the teaching of terminology and documentation research; and the teaching of translation theory and research methods. For its theoretical underpinnings, the program draws not only on translation pedagogy research, including the work of Nord (La traduction professionnelle. Former et perfectionner. Institut Etienne Dolet, Lausanne, pp. 37–58, 1999; Training for the new millennium. Pedagogies for translation and interpreting. John Benjamins, Philadelphia, pp. 209–224, 2005) and Kelly (2008) but also on aspects of “generic” education theory developed by Wiggins (Educative assessment. Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance. Wiley, San Francisco, 1998), Wiggins and McTighe (Understanding by design. ASCD, Alexandra, VA, 2005), Anderson and Krathwohl (A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing. Longman, New York, 2001), Pintrich (Theory Pract. 41(4):219–225, 2002), Prégent et al. (Enseigner à l’université dans une approche-programme [Program-based university teaching]. Presses internationales Polytechnique, Montreal, 2009), Wesselink (Comprehensive competence-based vocational education: The development and use of a curriculum analysis and improvement model (Unpublished thesis). Wageningen, Netherlands, 2010), Biggs and Tang (Teaching for quality learning at university. Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2011), Knowles et al. (The adult learner. Taylor & Francis, New York, 2012), and Mulder (J. Agric. Educ. Extens. 18(3):305–314, 2012), among others. Accordingly, the chapter describes how elements of “generic” education theory were applied to the translation curriculum and teaching/learning activities during the first week of activities.