Assessing the Development of Translation Competence Acquisition: A Case Study of MTSL Students at Abdelmalek Essaadi University –Tetouan

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the evolvement of translation competence acquisition while relating it to the progression in translation training. The assessment of the progress (if any) in translation competence acquisition is conducted through the investigation of the performance and the perception of MA translation students in the Faculty of Letters and Humanities in Tetouan. The study is meant precisely to shed light on trainees’ perspectives on translation assessment and to trace the development in acquiring translation competence via identifying indicators of that development in learners’ translations at different stages of learning. The aim is to reveal areas of translation sub-competences where learners exhibit more progress and to detect sub-competences that they find more challenging to develop. The descriptive method we implemented draws upon questionnaires that were delivered to MA learners to gather data about their perspectives on the acquisition and development of translation competence, and the observation reports that describe the common teaching practices as well as the assessment tools used to gauge the progress of learners’ translation competence. The selection of texts that pose prototypical translation problems allows for the identification of indicators of the trainees’ acquisition of the required sub-competences to deal with these translation problems. The findings of the study reveal that even though establishing specific competencies to be acquired by the end of translation training is a prior step in designing programs, there is always room for adjusting these competencies to align them with the trainees’ profile, the objectives of the course and the curriculum at large. To this end, assessment of the trainees’ proficiency provides useful information, at different stages of learning, on the learners’ achievements and on the learning areas that require enhancement.