Unit Handbook Hispanic Culture and Society (MMU), 2017

I believe that language learning and teaching should reflect current research findings in the field and that both cognitive theories and interactional/sociolinguistic/sociosemantic ones should be taken into account when trying to understand how languages are learnt. Evidence has been emerging that seems to substantiate the claim that linguistic proficiency and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) –pragmatic competence in the target language in particular–can be enhanced by the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), as is well summarised by O’Dowd (2013) reporting on the findings of research on telecollaboration

An edited collection of manuscripts on the teaching and learning of languages

Students are expected to attend ALL scheduled classes. Attendance at lectures, seminars, tutorials and language classes is compulsory, and a register of attendance will be kept by the tutor. Some classes have a built-in attendance factor in the assessment.

Learning and Advanced Teaching Methods. Volume I of the Innovation in Education Series, 2014

Kent's Liberal Arts programme teaches you to see the world from a range of perspectives–political, cultural, historical and economic–and to develop your understanding of how each impacts on the other. You learn to unpick the causes of crises, whether financial, cultural or political, and are encouraged to be creative in developing alternative approaches to the challenges facing societies around the world.

Learning and Teaching Forum, Towards 2025: Inspiring Learning | UNSW, Australia, 2016

As part of the 2016 Learning and Teaching Forum, staff were invited to develop a poster around the theme Towards 2025: Inspiring Learning.

2016

Translator education within a higher education context aims for student-centred learning that is collaborative and that produces employable graduates. Curriculum is designed with learning activities that encourage collaborative, project-based learning with authentic assessment tasks. There is a close connection between curriculum and the translation labour market, with two mechanisms ensuring that market demands in Europe and Australia are met: competence models and NAATI. In Europe, translator competence models, which were pioneered by the PACTE (Process of Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation) Group and then later developed by Dorothy Kelly and the EMT Project, influence curriculum design so that it reflects student-centred principles and remains closely aligned with translation market demands. In Australia, the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) similarly connects translator education with the translation labour market. The opportunity to attain NAATI Professional certification is included in programs which are designed to produce employable graduates for the translation industry. This research uses an ethnographic case study methodology to investigate features that support and inhibit learning in translator education programs. In order to do this, I selected two quite difference places: Spain and Australia. Given the number of differences between the two settings – language, culture, education systems etc. – one was not strictly compared with the other. Rather, contrast was used to emphasise these differences and to provide insights by highlighting areas as interesting and curious where they would otherwise be considered ordinary. Fieldwork, including observations, informal and semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, was undertaken at one site in Spain over the course of one academic year, and at two sites in Australia over the course of three months for each site. The research revealed that high-stakes, student-centred translator education programs that are grounded in understandings of employability have to contend with washback and testing consequences and impacts. This was particularly the case in Australia, where NAATI certification is integrated into education programs. However, it was equally the case at the site examined in Spain where competitive practices secured learners a place in the program, and then continued to impact learning that took place in the classroom.

The paper is aimed to shed the light upon problems of designing the content and syllabus of the course “Internet Technologies in Translation”. By the method of the literature review the study discusses several research questions concerning the key competences of the effective translator, market demands to translators to perform professionally applying ICT tools, milestones in developing technologies for the purposes of the professional translation, enhancing digital competences of the pre-service translators in the context of the formal education. Based on the analysis of the recent publications and successful practices of other institutions the tentative syllabus is designed and presented in the paper. The conclusion of the article discusses solutions for the research questions as recommendations for defining the content and designing the course aimed to develop digital competences of pre-service translators.