Why not go online?: A case study of blended mode business interpreting and translation certificate program

ABSTRACT

Because of the globalisation of business transactions and trade, the demand for translation and interpreting (T&I) services has continued to grow in South Korea. A 20-week-long Business Interpreting and Translation (BIT) Certificate Program was designed to teach basic T&I skills to people who were interested in acquiring such skills for their work or those who wanted to improve their language skills through T&I training. This paper discusses the course design of the online classes that the BIT programme offered in the first half of 2015, with a focus on the instructional design, advantages, and challenges perceived by trainees and trainers. This paper presents findings from surveys and interviews with trainees and trainers, offering insight into the effectiveness of the online T&I training course. The results indicate that trainees were generally satisfied with their online learning experiences and positively evaluated the efficacy of online translation training, whereas trainers had mixed views on online teaching and learning. Despite some limitations, this paper points to promising aspects of delivering online T&I training for specific purposes.

KEYWORDS:

• Business interpreting and translation
• online training
• training experiences
• ICT-based training
• community of inquiry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this paper, no distinction has been made between training and education.

2. Online learning is used interchangeably with e-learning in this paper, which refers to instruction delivered on a digital device that is intended to support learning (Clark and Mayer 2011, 8).

3. Since 2013 95% of trainees have completed the certificate programme, while some dropped out or skipped classes because of their heavy workload or frequent business trips.

4. The first author managed the BIT programme and the second author participated in teaching online.

5. The tuition for the blended mode was approximately 20% lower than the face-to-face mode for promotional purposes.

6. Reference translation and interpreting is rarely provided in face-to-face classes because it is regarded as interfering with trainees’ reflexive and critical thinking and only encourages copying, but in the online mode, it was allowed to some extent in an effort to compensate for the absence of lively discussion in classroom. For beginners in T&I training, it may help them understand what a good translation is. In this case, it is important to inform them that the reference is only one of numerous approaches to translating and interpreting.