Educating the Future Workforce: Soft Skills Development in Undergraduate Translation Programs in Iran
محورهای موضوعی : نشریه زبان و ترجمهSajedeh Sadat Hosseini 1 , Gholam-Reza Tajvidi 2 , Koen Kerremans 3
1 - PhD Candidate in Translation Studies, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba‟i University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba‟I University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics & Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
کلید واژه: Needs Assessment, Professionalisation, Soft Skills Development, Survey Research, Translator Education,
چکیده مقاله :
The present study set out to investigate the concept of soft skills in academic translator education in Iran. To this aim, a needs assessment was conducted with two groups of stakeholders: i.e. translation professionals and translation students. The professionals were asked to indicate the importance of a set of soft skills in the context of the translation profession. Next, we examined through the basis of a self-assessment survey for students to what degree these skills are felt to be acquired by the transla- tion students. Our comparative study revealed that four soft skills pairs that professionals consider important for the translation profession seem to be lacking among students of translation in Iran: i.e. „critical thinking and rational inquiry‟, „problem-solving and creativity‟, „motivation and satisfaction‟, and „responsibility and autonomy‟. This study produced results that corroborate the findings of a great deal of previous research into the shortage of soft skills highly demanded by the professional market among university students and graduates. The article concludes with suggested instructional methods to develop soft skills among undergraduate translation students. This provides valuable guidelines for translation educators in their decisions on the whats and hows of course design and the evaluation of current courses to identify the shortcomings and refine them to meet the needs of the stakeholders.
پژوهش پیمایشی حاضر به بررسی جایگاه مهارت های نرم در تربیت دانشگاهی مترجم در ایران می پردازد. برای نیل به این هدف، یک نیازسنجی با شرکت دو گروه از ذینفعان، مترجمان حرفه ای و دانشجویان رشته ترجمه، صورت گرفت. از مترجمان حرفه ای خواسته شد میزان اهمیت مجموعه ای از مهارت های نرم در حرفه ترجمه را تعیین کنند. همچنین بر اساس خودارزیابی دانشجویان، بررسی شد این گروه از شرکت کنندگان تا چه حد از چنین مهارت هایی بهره مند است. این مطالعه تطبیقی نشان داد کمبود چهار دسته از مهارت های نرم که مترجمان حرفه ای در پیشه ترجمه مهم قلمداد می کنند، میان دانشجویان ترجمه در ایران وجود دارد: «تفکر انتقادی و تحلیل منطقی»، «حل مساله و خلاقیت»، «انگیزه و رضایتمندی» و «مسئولیت پذیری و خودگرایی». نتایج به دست آمده از این پژوهش موید یافته های حجم زیادی از مطالعات پیشین در خصوص کمبود مهارت های نرم مورد نیاز بازار حرفه ای میان دانشجویان و فارغ التحصیلان دانشگاهی است. مقاله حاضر با ارائه روش های آموزشی پیشنهادی جهت پرورش مهارت های نرم در دانشجویان دوره کارشناسی ترجمه جمع بندی می شود. این دستورالعمل های ارزشمند، مربیان ترجمه را در تصمیم گیری در خصوص چگونگی طراحی دوره های جدید آموزش ترجمه و همچنین ارزیابی دوره های کنونی برای شناسایی کاستی ها و انجام اصلاحات در جهت رفع نیازهای ذینفعان، یاری خواهند کرد.
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