Teaching Translation into Spanish Asynchronously: Assessment and Engagement in the Times of COVID

Abstract

Translation has always played a pivotal role in language learning, but its use as a pedagogical tool has been the object of controversy, particularly after the development of communicative approaches and the rejection of the grammar-translation methodology in the second part of the twentieth century. This controversy seems to have grown even more around the use of translation into a foreign language in the language classroom since, although it is acknowledged that language graduates may translate into their first language as part of their professional practice, translation into the foreign language is seen as a rather unrealistic exercise (Carreres, Strange bedfellows: Translation and language teaching. the teaching of translation into L2 in modern language degrees: Uses and limitations. In Sixth Symposium on Translation, Terminology and Interpretation in Cuba and Canada. http://www.cttic.org/ACTI/2006/papers/Carreres.pdf. Accessed 21 November 2022, 2006). Yet, translation into the foreign language is frequently still part of the language syllabus in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Negative perceptions of its role in language acquisition have been challenged and reassessed (Cook, Translation in language teaching. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010; Leonardi, The role of pedagogical translation in second language acquisition: From theory to practice. Peter Lang, Bern, 2010; Malmkjaer, Handbook of translation studies, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2010; Laviosa, Translation and language education. Pedagogical approaches explained. Routledge, New York and London, 2014; Carreres, Interpret Transl Train 8(1):123–135, 2014) and the concept of ‘mediation’, which includes translation activities, has recently been introduced as one of the key language activities in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Landing in the middle of this debate, COVID-19 has further problematised these questions rendering them more critical than ever, as universities rethought their teaching strategies, while exploring new ways of assessment and enhancing community building in the online environment.

In this chapter, we analyse a case study looking at translation into Spanish. The purpose of this case study was to explore the use of discussion boards and other asynchronous activities, as well as the role discussion boards play in delivery, monitorisation, assessment of translation-into-Spanish tasks, and community building. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of these findings and discusses their role in informing and shaping our post-pandemic teaching delivery. Results suggest that translation into the foreign language is a skill of integral value to language students. Moreover, the activities presented are engaging and useful from the assessment angle, and discussion boards provide students with opportunities for reflection and bonding.