Joacyr Oliveira

Teaching Translation Practice Classes with Electronic Spreadsheets

A professor teaching university-level translation practice course may face daunting situations such as dealing with large groups, not being able to deliver proper feedback to all students on their translations, dealing with students’ aloofness and not getting all learners involved.

This presentation aims at introducing a teaching method developed and systematized as a result of our extensive experience teaching translation practice in large groups of students in Brazil. Our theoretical bases rely on Albir (1998), on suggestions to get students involved in the class; Bernardini (2002) on translation-learner education; and Santos (2014), on the analyses of a learner translation corpus.

The method we propose takes into account the compilation of a learner translation corpus and its exploration during class by means of electronic spreadsheets.

The main advantage of using spreadsheets is the possibility to align innumerous translations to its source text. The use of formulas makes it possible to handle text data in a variety of ways.  This procedure allows: a) class preparation and lesson plans to be based on the analyses of learners’ translations, so as to cater for students’ real needs, leaving behind traditional methodologies which claim that there is a “correct” translation; b) spreadsheets to be used during the class as a tool to explore all translations, giving students the opportunity to read every suggestion to each source language segment; c) both instructor and students to evaluate each translation; d) students to develop a sense of criticism and learn how to evaluate their own texts; and e) students to work harder on their task, since their translation will be read by everyone, and, consequently, become more involved in the class.

Easy-to-implement ideas on how to make the most of electronic spreadsheets in translation classes will be presented

Joacyr Oliveira is currently a teaching professor at UNICAMP – The State University of Campinas in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. His research interests lie in compiling and exploring learner corpora for course design and materials preparation based on students’ needs. He has been a translation instructor for more than 15 years. He holds a B.A. in translation and interpreting and a Graduate Certificate in translation, both from The Ibero Americana School of Translation in Brazil. He also holds two M.A.s, one in general linguistics from the University of Minnesota in the USA and one in English linguistics (research focused on corpus linguistics) from USP – Sao Paulo State University in Brazil. He is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation on the use of electronic spreadsheets as a teaching tool in translation practice courses.