Developing assessment literacy among trainee translators: scaffolding self and peer assessment as an intervention

Abstract

Recent growth in research on assessment has focused on the importance of university students’ assessment literacy, yet few studies have investigated how self and peer assessment combined with scaffolding can develop student assessment literacy. To address this, we developed scaffolding self and peer assessment (SSPA) as an intervention to build student assessment literacy. A quasi-experimental design was implemented to test its usefulness; one class (N = 21) received the intervention and the other (N = 23) did not. The findings indicated that SSPA had a positive effect on the trainee translators’ assessment literacy levels. Consistent across the time points, the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in self and peer feedback provision. In contrast, no such trend was noticed among the non-intervention group. The intervention group also significantly outperformed the non-intervention group in translation performance. Students were generally positive about SSPA, showing its feasibility in translation instruction. This study highlights the role that teacher scaffolding can play in helping trainee translators develop assessment literacy to meet language service industry requirements.

Keywords:

• Assessment literacy
• scaffolding self and peer assessment
• translator training
• quasi-experimental study

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [22BYY015].

Notes on contributors

Guangjiao Chen

Guangjiao Chen is a doctoral candidate of Translation Studies at Hunan University, China. Her research interests include formative assessment and evaluation in translation education and cognitive translation studies.

Professor Xiangling Wang is Director of the Center for Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, Hunan University, China. Her publications and research interests focus on translation education, cognitive processes of translation and interpreting, and machine translation post-editing.

Dr Lyu Wang is a lecturer of Translation Studies at Hunan University, China. Her research interests concern translation education, translation and cognition, and machine translation post-editing.