‘Spontaneous Virtual Mobility’ in translation and interpreting: results from an exploratory project

ABSTRACT

Universities today offer a whole new range of learning opportunities for translation students. One of these is virtual mobility (VM), conceived as the phenomenon that arises when foreign students visiting under academic mobility programmes share learning spaces with local students at the partner institution. This article presents the main results of a descriptive exploratory project aimed at analysing the impact of VM in the training of translation students. Given the value of mobility nowadays, and its reported gains in terms of competence development, this article intends to promote further reflection on students’ perceptions in terms of specific learning outcomes and to encourage trainers to analyse and self-assess their teaching practices when confronting VM environments. This is one of the first studies on this issue, and hence also intends to establish the basis for future research in this line.

KEYWORDS:

• translator training
• virtual mobility
• intercultural and international training
• case studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Hereinafter, translation (when referring to Translation Studies, the translation profession or the Translation degree). The term includes translation and interpreting.

2. Cf. Morón (2010) or García Izquierdo (2012), who uphold that translation training was adapted to the EHEA premises even before the common area of education, and its corresponding education system and methods, became a reality.

3. Arabic is offered as a second foreign language of study, but it is not represented in the project as incoming registration details showed no students enrolled in Arabic courses during the period of implementation of the Movirtei project.

4. It is worth noting that 25% of our incoming subjects surveyed reported that they lacked Spanish language skills before taking part in the academic mobility programme at UPO. However, the pilot experience and the subsequent implementation of the survey took place at the end of their study stay, so it seems they had developed their Spanish skills, and they even showed themselves willing to complete the survey in the Spanish language. In fact, our incoming students did not report any linguistic problem, or any reticence in submitting their responses in Spanish.