Ahmed Alaoiui

Knowledge re-production and transfer: implications for translator training

The translation landscape in the Arab World is marked by the absence of an open, sustained and structured dialogue and collaboration among researchers, professionals and educators.  There have been many calls for the “need for a cross-fertilization between research, training and practice, where the practice generates questions, the research takes them up and finds answers, the training applies the answers and generates more questions and the cycle continues” (Hale and Napier 2013: 20). The consequences of this deficiency are outlined from various perspectives in Mossop (2003), Chesterman and Wagner (2002), Alaoui (2015), En-Nehas (2017), Hernándz et al. (2016), El Karnichi (2017) Al-Qinai (2010) and Atari (2012). Whether this shortfall is the cause or consequence, the size of the divide between theory and practice should be measured, explained and reversed for the benefit of the profession and the future of translator training at the university.

The objective of this paper is demonstrate that cross-fertilization among translation academic researchers, practitioners and trainers is both needed and beneficial for all the actors involved in the translation enterprise. It argues that a practice-based research model is required to materialize the mechanisms needed for the interaction and collaboration of the three stakeholders, which would have positive impacts on the translation landscape. Given that this cross-fertilization can only be beneficial if it is structured and sustained, then it has to be formalized and institutionalized. A plan will be proposed as to how this can be materialized.

Working towards providing such a model would serve four major objectives:

• It would encourage a much needed synergy between translation scholars and practitioners (including trainers),
• It would induce practitioners to engage in academia and serve as co-producers of knowledge,
• It would encourage researchers to be involved more in the professional practice of translation with a view to developing new translation research lines and
• It would provide translation trainers with the much needed insights as to what and how to teach translation for trainees to develop the competencies required to translate to a professional standard.

 It is a thesis of this paper that professional practice needs academic research (theories) to shape it, and theory can only be meaningfully tested and developed through professional practice; therefore, there is a pressing need to bridge the gap between “knowing” and “doing” in the translation landscape. To the extent that this position is valid the university is invited to play a leading role in materializing this objective, with a view to shaping the future of the translation profession and preserving translation education in Arab universities.

Key words: cross-fertilization; knowledge transfer; practice-based model; academics; trainers; professionals