Incorporating social responsibility into translator training through situated learning in translation projects: making room for a sustainable learning environment

ABSTRACT

The majority of previous studies focused on the role of social responsibility (SR) in business settings, however, how to incorporate SR into translation training appears to be unexplored. This study concerns incorporating SR authentic activities into translator training through situated learning in translation projects. It investigates how incorporating SR into translator training benefits the development and learning of translation students and preserves a sustainable learning environment. The aim is twofold: to gain a deep understanding of the processes of development and implementation of SR initiatives at translator training, and to reflect on the adoption of Participatory Action Research (PAR) in this context. A representative sample of final-year translation students at a public university in Saudi Arabia completed two distinct types of authentic translation tasks and turned in final project reports. The qualitative findings indicated that students’ attitudes toward SR were generally positive. They further revealed that collaborative project-based education is a very effective way to improve translation and generic skills and increase awareness of SR necessary for learning sustainability. In light of the findings, valuable pedagogical insights for university and curriculum designers to create or adapt curricula for situated translator training in line with learning sustainability are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory action research
• situated learning project
• social responsibility
• sustainability
• translator training
• translation education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author is thankful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at Najran University for funding this work under the Research Priorities and Najran Research funding program. grant code (NU/NRP/SEHRC/12/3).

Notes on contributors

Muneera Muftah

Muneera Muftah (Associate Professor) is currently with the Department of English Language at the College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, Saudi Arabia. Her main research interests are in the areas of translation technologies, syntactic and morphological mental representation and development, vocabulary development in SLA, generative syntax and morphology, discourse studies and second language assessment. Currently, she works on Information and communication technologies (ICT) in English language teaching and learning. She has published numerous articles related to these areas in scholarly journals.