Ensuring accuracy and quality for oral examinations in translation

Abstract

Viva voce or oral examinations are an intrinsic part of the examination of many doctoral theses. There is some ambiguity about their purpose; however, they are generally perceived to be an opportunity for the candidate to respond to the examiners’ comments and questions. They also allow examiners to assure themselves of the candidate’s grasp of the topic and research process. In most cases, the examinations are conducted in the institution’s language of instruction. However, it is possible for an examination to be held in another language, for example in bicultural countries with more than one official language or to make use of the expertise of an examiner who does not speak or read the language that the student has been supervised in. If the examination is conducted a language that is not common to all the participants – candidate, examiners and examination convenor – then there needs to be a clear process for accurate translation to ensure the examination is valid. This paper contributes to an acceptance of the importance of validating a student’s ability to be assessed in their own language.

Keywords:

• Oral examination
• interpreting in higher education
• language of assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Carr has worked in higher education for over 20 years, specifically within the fields of quality assurance and international education. She is the Programme Director for the University of Otago Business School Doctor of Business Administration degree, teaching research methods and supervising a range of students. Her research focus has been in student engagement with learning and effective doctoral supervision. Recently she has been working on issues of student readiness for postgraduate study and the impact of language and other support on students’ success at university.

Dr Suzanne Sun earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Otago in 2020. Her expertise and training in translation, she holds a Masters in Translation from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and experience as an English language teacher helped to develop the processes for the Otago DBA.