The first step to incorporate intercultural competence into a given translation curriculum: a micro-level survey of students’ learning needs

ABSTRACT

Based on the constructivist view of learning and needs-based philosophy of education, this research aims at analysing students’ learning needs in six intercultural competence (IC) components at classroom level to inform course design. Fifty-four participants contributed to data collection by completing two online questionnaires. Results showed that the participants rated all IC components as highly important, that they had moderate to medium-high levels of competence in some IC components and low levels of competence in others, and that they had preferences for some course materials, instructional methods and assessment formats over others. Pedagogical implications for IC course design were then discussed. Some results of this micro-level survey in a non-EU context are similar to those of PICT’s EU-based macro-level survey, confirming the universal value of the PICT’s contributions in guiding IC course design. The two surveys also show a divergence, highlighting the necessity of considering the particularities of local contexts in course design and adapting the PICT products to serve local needs. As an initial attempt to illustrate the integration of IC into a given translation programme, this study may shed light on the use of micro-level learning needs analysis in IC course or module design in various teaching contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural Competence
• course design
• translation curriculum
• survey
• learning needs analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For the full list of programmes please see http://cnbti.gdufs.edu.cn/info/1006/1276.htm

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shaanxi Social Sciences Funding Programme under Grant [number 2016K007].