Investigating translation trainees’ self-perceived competence

Abstract

Pushed by the increasing internationalization of education and recent economic dynamics, training programs are shifting their focus to acquiring competences and know-how through real-life materials to enhance learners’ employability and access to the work market. Moreover, recent research has called for the implementation of editing/revision content in translation programs, overcoming the assumed distance between translation and editing/revision professions. In light of social constructivism and process-oriented pedagogical trends in translation training, an intensive twenty-hour seminar was designed and piloted in a Master’s degree program in Specialized Translation with the intent of increasing students’ awareness of the translation process, including translation revision and their sense of perceived competence. Rasch analysis of pre- and post-test questionnaires detected positive changes in students’ self-perceived proficiency in translation, translation revision, and editing, with critical implications for the usefulness of process-oriented, realistic approaches integrating both translation and editing/revision content in translation training programs.