Publication type: Conference other
Type of review: Not specified
Title: Soft skills are getting harder : collaboration and competence in translator education
Authors: Massey, Gary
et. al: No
Conference details: The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022
Issue Date: 26-Jun-2022
Language: English
Subjects: Translator education; Language industry; Language mediator competence; Soft skills; Transferable skills; Hard skills; Experiential learning; Collaborative learning
Subject (DDC): 378: Higher education
418.02: Translating and interpreting
Abstract: Since Kiraly’s influential A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education (2000), which quintessentially “holds that meaning, knowledge, and the mind itself are inextricably embedded in our personal interactions with other people” (Kiraly, 2000, p. 7), collaborative learning has become best practice in translator education. Combining individual reflection with collaborative knowledge-building, it marks an evolution from a transmissionist to a transformationist perspective on learning as “a personal, holistic, intrinsically motivating and socially effectuated construction process” (Kiraly, 2000, p. 23). Often implemented as authentic experiential learning in collaborative projects involving real-world praxis partners (or simulated equivalents), it aims for students to become “proactive seekers of knowledge” and teachers “partners in learning” (Kiraly, 2013, pp. 214-215). A range of qualitative studies have shown student outcomes to include greater responsibility, autonomy, critical reflection, self-regulation, motivation, initiative and self-efficacy (e.g. González-Davies & Enríquez Raído, 2017; Kiraly & Massey, 2019; Van Egdom et al. 2020). Collaboration places a premium on soft, entrepreneurial and phronetic skills, which under the umbrella of service provision, interpersonal and personal competences have progressively been ‘hardened up’ to occupy an increasingly central position in translator competence modelling and curricular demands (e.g. EMT Board, 2017; Rodríguez Céspedes, 2017; Galan Manas et al. 2020). But it can be notoriously hard to operationalise, monitor and assess their development. Moreover, the social constructivist principles of collaboration cast teachers as partners in learning, although the broader collaborative dimensions of teachers as learners within their institutional contexts, and learners as teachers and assessors, are rarely addressed in the research and practice of translator education (Massey et al., 2019). In this talk, I trace the development of collaboration in translation didactics, discussing the implicit and explicit shift towards ‘soft’ skills, phronesis and entrepreneurship in competence models and in the job profiles that guide them. I explore the issues of collaborative competence development among the various actors engaged in translator education – students, teachers, praxis partners – including the potential for epistemological and institutional conflict in operationalising learning, teaching and assessment. I use socio-constructivist and emergentist concepts associated with student learning to draw wider implications for collaborative teacher, organisational and community development. References van Egdom, G.-W., Konttinen, K., Vandepitte, S., Fernández-Parra, M., Loock, R., & Bindels, J. (2020). Empowering translators through entrepreneurship in simulated translation bureaus. HERMES–Journal of Language and Communication in Business, 60, 81-95. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v60i0.121312 EMT Board. (2017). European master’s in translation. Competence framework 2017. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf Galan-Manas, A, Kuznik, A, & Olalla-Soler, C. (2020). Entrepreneurship in translator and interpreter training. HERMES - Journal of Language and Communication in Business, 60, 7-11. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v60i0.121307 González-Davies, M., & Enríquez Raído, V. (Eds.). (2017). Situated learning in translator and interpreter training: Bridging research and good practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2016.1154339 Kiraly, D. (2000). A social constructivist approach to translator education. St. Jerome. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760186 Kiraly, D. (2013). Towards a view of translator competence as an emergent phenomenon: Thinking outside the box(es) in translator education. In D. Kiraly, S. Hansen-Schirra, & K. Maksymski (Eds.), New prospects and perspectives for educating language mediator (pp. 197–224). Narr Francke Attempto. Kiraly, D., & Massey, G. (Eds.). (2019). Towards authentic experiential learning in translator education (2nd ed.). Cambridge Scholars. Massey, G., Kiraly, D. & Ehrensberger-Dow, M. (2019). Training the translator trainers: an introduction. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 13(3), 211-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2019.1647821 Rodríguez Céspedes, B. (2017). Addressing employability and enterprise responsibilities in the translation cur¬riculum. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 11(2-3), 107-122.
Further description: Keynote address
URI: https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/25196
Fulltext version: Published version
License (according to publishing contract): Licence according to publishing contract
Departement: Applied Linguistics
Organisational Unit: Institute of Translation and Interpreting (IUED)
Appears in collections:Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik

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Massey, G. (2022, June 26). Soft skills are getting harder : collaboration and competence in translator education. The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022.
Massey, G. (2022) ‘Soft skills are getting harder : collaboration and competence in translator education’, in The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022.
G. Massey, “Soft skills are getting harder : collaboration and competence in translator education,” in The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022, Jun. 2022.
MASSEY, Gary, 2022. Soft skills are getting harder : collaboration and competence in translator education. In: The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022. Conference presentation. 26 Juni 2022
Massey, Gary. 2022. “Soft Skills Are Getting Harder : Collaboration and Competence in Translator Education.” Conference presentation. In The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022.
Massey, Gary. “Soft Skills Are Getting Harder : Collaboration and Competence in Translator Education.” The 10th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF10) on Collaboration in the World of Translation and Interpreting: New Changes and New Modes in the New Era, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China, 25-26 June 2022, 2022.


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