3. Web-based translator training


The so-called blended learning (b-learning) is a learning methodology using both face-to-face classes and e-learning and tries to combine the advantages of both. In fact, it narrows the gap between traditional and e-learning methods. Although sometimes b-learning is implanted because of the financial problems of fully shifting to e-learning, it can often be a question of pedagogic quality. B-learning allows instructors to assume their new tutorial role, but allows for a personal, face-to-face relationship. In this way, both learners whose learning style is social and those are who prefer the auditory, visual, kinesthetic or metacognitive modality are accommodated.

Most of the materials offered in VLE may combine information within different codes such as traditional linear text with hypertext that can include multimedia like sound and video files, links to other text types, etc. This permits users to choose variable reading order and sequences and to switch between different texts and materials that represent diverse information and senses. Locating them on different computers within a network increases their educational potential.

As we said before, the goals of the course have to be very clear in order to construct the adequate exercises and select the best-fitting techniques. Our proposals aim at practicing linguistic and ICT skills as well as professional habits with Spanish mother-tongue learners who have already studied German for three years and have learnt to translate general texts from and into German. Moreover, our intention is to gradually steer learners toward autonomous learning, and prepare them for their future lifelong learning.

We normally begin by giving them authentic texts from the Internet, from friends, or using texts which we wrote for translation jobs assigned to us. It is extremely important to pay attention to the quality of the composition (e.g. that there are no spelling or grammatical errors except for using them with pedagogical purposes) and to use the suitable text type and degree of difficulty for our purposes. But we also prepare auxiliary material like parallel texts, background information, bibliography and resources such as specialized web sites, and glossaries. Apart from offering materials, resources and tools, we conceive suitable exercises for the goals we want to reach together with the learners. Regarding the skills we want to practice, we can distinguish among the following ones:

to deepen linguistic knowledge,
to increase cultural knowledge,
to improve research techniques, especially the technological ones,
to practice translation techniques,
to learn the professional aspects of translation such as working under time pressure, stress toleration, contact with clients (client acquisition, contact with clients, and the financial side of the assignment),
to revise a translation and quality assurance,
to manage a translation project and to be able to work in a team,
terminology management, and
to strengthen learners' autonomy to learn by themselves and to assess themselves.
Of course, we could make this list larger, but we limited it to the most important points. The following examples show the possibilities that the Open Source Learning Management System Moodle offers for translator training. We have excluded the tools scorm, book, lesson, and assignment as they are quite close in their application to the resources that basically allow for the addition of material like texts, files in different formats, hyperlinks, etc. We also excluded the surveys because their use is for course evaluation by learners. However, we will concentrate on those tools that are used not only for factual, but also for procedural learning.


3.1.Questionnaires (also called quizzes)

This activity allows instructors to design questionnaires with closed or open responses. Normally, instructors believe that they can use this activity only for testing knowledge acquisition. But it can also be useful for increasing language skills. So choosing the option "short answers" (open responses) one of the exercises we can think of is to revise text chunks of a faulty translation by comparing it with a source text. The chunks can be contiguous parts of one text, but they would be presented more or less like the working interface of a translation memory. Therefore, the errors have to be clearly identified as linguistic and/or cultural ones, and a collection of model solutions for each sentence or paragraph has to be offered. The difficulty of the exercise can be increased by emphasizing stylistic aspects or grammar aspects studied in high level-courses. As learners can be given the chance to make several attempts, this type of exercise is suitable for self-training. Besides a general point system which assesses the learner after successfully finishing the exercise, there will be automatic feedback on the performance in each presented text unit. The possibility of an automatic comparison between wrong learner solutions and model solutions should also be given. In the case of a bad performance, the checking the related grammar topics in referred bibliography or supplied additional texts will be suggested. In addition, learners will be given the chance to repeat parts of the units. A variant of this exercise could be proposing various alternative translations of which learners have to select the version they deem the best. In this case, the skill focused on is the critical view of correcting and revising target texts.

All these proposed activities can also be developed under time limits by configuring the settings, having learners trained in dealing with stress and working under time pressure.

The skills trained directly with the propose method made would be a), b), e), f) and i).


3.2.Chat

Chat is a synchronous tool by which communication among people can take place while they are at different places. Normally, it is used like a virtual forum, but since it permits conversations of the participants to be saved, it can have quite a different use.

So, for example, teams of not more than five learners translate a short text, but each member communicates with the rest of the group through the chat utility and explains why he or she would make this translation decision, and no other, and suggest how to research or look up terminology and where. In this way, learners are forced to think carefully about and become aware of the different steps of the translation process. Besides, instructors can observe translation as a process and examine it closely, although the result will be distorted up to a certain point, as learners will not have the same level of spontaneity as in a conventional translation process. Instructors will not be "big brothers", and as to legal limitations, learners have to know before beginning the exercise that their chat conversations will be recorded. A variant of this exercise could be the participation of the instructor in order to give feedback or a new idea. Exploitation of this approach has already been initiated by researchers like Neunzig (2001). Exercises like the one proposed emphasize collaborative learning and construction of knowledge, but they also make the students see the translation process as a series of problem-solving and decision-making steps. So, skills c, d), and i) are directly trained.


3.3.Wiki

Wikis are shared workspaces similar to web pages where several people can write and rewrite the same text. The wiki-concept is already widely known through the already mentioned Wikipedia. The feature of this tool is that old versions of a wiki are stored and can be restored if wanted. We experienced a blended use of wiki with chat in a project initiated by our colleague Àngel Tortadès from the Vic University in Northern Spain, who is a specialist in the use of new technologies in translator training:6 learner groups of two or four members, each one consisting of one-to-one or two-to-two learners from Vic University and Malaga University, were supposed to discuss translation solutions and to solve problems through chat communication, then they had to write down the subsequent variants on the wiki. This way the instructors could afterwards track the translation processes of each team, which was very interesting for research on problem solving in translation. Wiki and chat worked as complementary information tools. In order to make learners aware of the features of the translation process as a whole, and their own process in particular, they could read afterwards not only the wikis and chat debates they had taken part in, but also the ones of their companions.

Another way to use wiki in translation classes is as an e-portfolio7. The portfolio is a resource frequently mentioned nowadays. Because of its utility as an assessment tool for instructors and self-assessment for learners it is more and more employed in the teaching-learning process. This digital resource gives samples of the personal development in a set area like the gradual achievement of one or several learning goals, as an assessment tool, as a curriculum vitae, and much more. The advantage of wiki is that learners can easily attach documents of all format types (not only text files, but also sound, picture and video files, etc.) from their work during the course or at home which fit in with the goals of the course. These documents are briefly commented on in order to get to know the relevance they want them to have. This way, learners can select what they want to be assessed, choosing what they consider the best sample of their work, their most favorable side. An example could be a wiki with the learners' best translations, best terminological and research work and their self-assessments, all of them commented. Instructors can demand publishable and printable translations according to professional quality criteria (perhaps saved in set format models, using translation memories, etc.).

The portfolio has several advantages: learners become more self-confident and motivated as they observe their progress and capacity for good performance, but also the instructors' assessment task becomes easier to fulfil and even also to justify if a student's best work does not reach the goal. At the same time, learners become familiar with an instrument they can use to reflect their lifelong learning evolution.

With the uses of wiki we mentioned, we focussed on skills c), d), f) and i), although, in short, the portfolio use can cover them all.


3.4. Forum

Forums, like chats or emails, can be used as tutorial tools. Instructors work also as chairpeople and as motivators to facilitate interactions and debates. Basically, it is a tool that has to do basically with social interaction and attitudes. That is why it is often used as an element of collaborative learning. Translator training can hereby be developed in several ways. So, instructors can hand out a source text where problems are already marked, or with an imperfect translation to be corrected. Another variant would be to have the learners correct each other's work. Solutions proposed on the forum have to be discussed and justified. It is an exercise similar to the one suggested in the paragraph about the chat. But when working with a forum, learners have much more time to decide what to write, and so their contributions are much more reflected. The skills trained working with a forum are a), b), c), f) and i).


3.5. Glossary

The aim of this activity is to create a list of equivalences and/or definitions that works like a dictionary. The instructor can configure the settings so that the defined terms will be marked by hyperlinks leading to the glossary entry, wherever the term appears in texts used in the virtual campus. The requirements of the glossary entries can be as strict as the instructor wishes, comprising the consulted sources such as dictionaries, corpora, and web sites, definitions, grammar and other linguistic information, context examples, visualizing figures and pictures (interesting above all for specialized translation), and much more. The glossary does not only work as an information instrument, but also assures quality as it standardizes the terminology that should be used in certain texts and homogenizes it.

The skills trained are a), b), f), h) and i).


3.6. Workshop

The workshop is an activity that allows a great number of diverse group tasks. The most common one is the proposal of a text, which can be accompanied by questions which the instructor raises, with the assignment of a proper translation done in teamwork. This teamwork may simulate an authentic project translation such as in a virtual translation company, where each member has to perform different tasks like previous thematic and terminological research prior to compiling parallel texts, translating, editing and post-editing, revising linguistic and content accuracy, terminology and consistency checking as part of the quality assurance. As in real life, a deadline must be set for sending the job to the platform. Afterwards, the groups can discuss problems that arose, explain why they chose a certain solution, etc. During the whole process, the instructor must be available to the learners and give them advice. Once the translations and the justifications are sent to the platform, each group will vote the best solution with the most adequate reasoning. The assessment of colleagues' translations can be included as an element to construct the final grade.

Instead of translation assignments, we can vary this exercise by, for example, asking for the creation of a common terminological database or the construction of comparable and parallel corpora related to a source text to be translated.

The workshop can be use for training of skills c), d), f), g) and i).