The Exchange Student in Translation Courses:
Their Influence on Different Aspects of Teaching

Marie-Evelyne Le Poder
Instructor           
Spanish-French Translation
University of Granada (Spain)                
E-mail:  lepoder_ugr@hotmail.com

The Phenomenon of Internationalization

The evolution of European Exchange Programs, especially the Socrates/Erasmus program, is evident. An increasing number of students from foreign universities incorporate themselves into lectures at a Spanish university. Resulting from this exchange is the phenomenon of multiculturality that affects even the most diverse degrees. This article concentrates on the European Exchange Program in effect at the University of Granada (UGR) and, in a more specific way, the Faculty of Translating and Interpreting at the University.

Every academic year the UGR welcomes approximately 1500 students into its exchange program, a number that situates it at the head of study-stay destinations in Spain chosen by European students.

Referring to the Faculty of Translating and Interpreting itself, there are three main ways of entry: the Socrates/Erasmus program and, within that framework, the Applied Languages Europe program (ALE), and other agreements.

The ALE is a unique program which provides UGR with a significant amount of foreign students every year. It symbolizes the maximum optimization of the Socrates/Erasmus program, as it gives it the aspect of a multilateral circuit. Created during the academic year 1989-1990, it selects students on the basis of their competences in two foreign languages (English and French or German) and offers them the possibility to study two years at their home university and one year in each of the target language countries. Concerning the other agreements, the ones directed in EU countries should be mentioned but also those at other geographical areas such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, North Africa, the United States of America, or Canada.

If we put this multiculturality into numbers, we can conclude that 10% of the students of the Faculty of Translating and Interpreting are exchange students. To complete this information, it should be added that another 10% of the permanent students - those studying a whole degree in Granada - are not Spanish. 

However, this information is insufficient to measure the impact of exchange students in the translating classroom. It is necessary to consider other parameters: firstly, the branch from which they proceed to know whether they have the required competences for translating; secondly, the duration of their stay; and finally, the level of linguistic competence they possess. The data at our disposition allows us to evaluate the fact that exchange students tend to come from schools that do not dedicate themselves to the formation of professional translators and interpreters but from Departments of Applied Foreign Languages, Modern Languages, or Business Studies with languages. Hence, the students do not enjoy the development of specific competences for translation, as I will discuss herein.  As for the duration of the stay in the Faculty, a whole academic year is usual.  

Concerning their linguistic competence, the panorama is very diverse. In these programs, Language B is considered the first foreign language, whilst Language A is the native language.  It is worth noting that in the majority of cases Spanish is not even the student’s Language B.

At this stage, the not so much less heterogeneous character of the home students should be noted.  These students, according to Guatelli Tedeschi and Le Poder, include “Spaniards of all provinces whose Language B tends to be badly developed due to Secondary Education deficiencies as well as a lack of Spanish, a few ‘bilinguals’ proceeding from a diminishing supply, … Spaniards returning from France or Germany with a slightly eroded Language B, [or] European students that have chosen Granada to obtain their degree and do not have Spanish as Language A.” (272).

The Meeting of Teaching/Learning Processes

As was previously mentioned, the majority of exchange students do not proceed from schools that dedicate themselves to the formation of translators and interpreters with plans of an optimal insertion into the job market.  In the case of French ALE students, however, the situation is different. Generally, they have already spent the first two years of study at their home university and tend to incorporate themselves in the Faculty with the certainty of a high familiarity with translating.

In effect, the degree of Lenguas Aplicadas [Applied Languages] includes translating subjects but with a focus on the didactic of the languages in the didactic of translation. This means that the translation is employed for the teaching of foreign languages. The focus is one centered on the analysis of different grammarian structures from one language to another and often without any type of communicative context. For that reason, it is ruled out as a method for the formation of professionals of intercultural communication, such as translators.

Along with other requirements, the formation of professionals involves the acquisition of the translation competence, which is the set of subcompetences—skills and knowledge that differentiate the professional translator from the non-professional and non-expert. The development of the concept of translation competence includes deciding what the general objectives of the formation are, whilst the distinct subcompetences that integrate it serve to establish more specific objectives. Unfortunately, exchange students in general, not only those of the ALE program, are not aware of this concept of translation competence.

In the same way, these students are not aware of the functionalist orientation that is an important part of lecturers given by the Translating Faculty.  The orientation allows very interesting didactic applications for the teaching of translating.

What is attempted in the lecture room is a simulation of the activity carried out by translation professionals. This implies that the student has to analyse the objectives, be aware of the expectations of the initiator of the translation, and manage with being an intercultural mediator-adviser. Hence, he or she needs to produce a target text (TT) that works within the communicative context produced in the target culture (TC). The center of attention of the translating process is no longer the original text but the assignment itself, just like it would be on the professional translation market. The translator receives the assignment from the initiator of the translation, and it is only afterwards that he or she will show interest in the process of comprehension of the original text.

The importance given to the skopos of the translation means that one now speaks of a circular translation process; it stops being a linear translation process. In this way, the process only begins once the initiator has established the skopos of the original text (OT) with an analysis of the OT´s purpose.

Generally, the exchange students have not worked with textual analysis models for translation.  Furthermore, having a lecturer announce 15 days in advance of the exam not only the topic but also keywords defining the context of the original text to be translated in order for the students to finish an appropriate documentary research is not understood. Even less understood is that all type of documentary sources are permitted.

The situation is certainly a bit different for those students who stay in the Faculty for an entire academic year, because they are provided with advantages not afforded to those that incorporate themselves into only half of the year. Not only do they experience a greater linguistic and cultural integration but they also have the opportunity to approach new methods and strategies, all of which are taught and applied in the Translating and Interpreting Faculty of Granada.

It is not about negatively judging the situation generated by the presence of exchange students. However, some aspects that differentiate a school of formation of translators and interpreters from those that are not need to be highlighted, knowing that the meeting of distinct teaching-learning processes does contribute to the distortion of didactics and that pre-hand established directionality is inverted or simply loses sense.

The Matter of Directionality

For a long time Western translation studies have claimed translation into the mother tongue to be superior, putting aside the matter of directionality. It did not consider that a translator could translate into a foreign language. However, the professional translation market proved that reality was different. And, in the words of Kelly (2003), “just like in many other matters, including this one, the professional practice denies the criteria established by the academy: translating towards languages that are not native forms part of the usual activity of thousands of translators in practically all over the world” (13). Based on this fact, specific research completed throughout the 1990s emphasized the importance of such translation discipline for the profession, including formation and analysis of the translating process. In reference to the case of Spain, amongst other research stands out those of Martínez Maelis (1988), Pym (1992), Nobs (1993, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 1997), Sánchez (1994, 1997), Kelly (1994, 1997, 1998), Beeby (1996), Weatherby (1998), or Roiss and Weatherby (1998), that discuss aspects of translation towards non native languages.

Nevertheless, this directionality between a translation from a foreign language (Language B or C that is the second foreign language) into a native language (Language A) or from a native language (Language A) into a foreign language (Language B or C) begins to lose sense, due to the phenomenon of internationalization.

In a translation classroom from Spanish to French, theoretically a translation classroom from a native language into a foreign language, the important presence of native students of the French language reverses the directionality previously established in the curriculum of the degree. This segment of students translates towards their mother tongue, which causes a diversion: the class is still a translating classroom A/B or C for some, but for others, it is a translation classroom B or C/A. Not to mention those whose native language is neither Spanish nor French; hence, neither A/B or A/C nor B/A or C/A.

The Chaotic Didactic

The progress of the classroom is slowed down, as students from abroad need to be introduced to the concept of the translation competence, whose acquisition determines the formation of professionals. It is about making them understand that teaching to translate is carried out in a professional focus. This implies considering parameters that have little in common with the concept that they may have of translation.

With regards to the topic of directionality of the translation, it does have a direct impact. This impact occurs at one concrete stage of the progress of the translation process, which can be outlined as follows:

General knowledge and reading of Original Text
↓
Analysis/Comprehension of Original Text
↓
Transfer from Original Language to Target Language
↓
Restructuring
↓
Rereading
↓
Revision

More explicitly, translating from Language A towards Language B or C involves being more comfortable at the comprehension stage of the original text. On the other hand, translating from Language B or C towards Language A involves an easier passage at the restructuring and rephrasing stage. This has immediate didactic implications: in the first case, it is about emphasizing the comprehension of the original text, whilst in the second case the attention is centered in the final textual production. 

In an inverse translation classroom the decoding of the original text should not cause major interpretation and comprehension problems. The presence of exchange students, however, changes the rules of the game. The decoding becomes more complex, and the lecturer sees himself or herself becoming involved in being a language teacher for exchange students, which should not be his or her role. Regarding the restructuring/reformulating stage of the process, the French ALE exchange students distance themselves from their companions, the latter being keen to reformulate the text in their mother tongue. They recreate the text, using words, phraseology or stylistic effects, and therefore, dedicate themselves to enhancing the TT.  The result is excessive attention paid to the final product at the expense of the process. As a result, the specific objectives of the translation class are no longer met.

On the other hand, the role carried out by lecturers and students becomes distorted. Initially, a translation class has to be a class in which the student assumes the role of the protagonist. This means that he or she decides which of the translation strategies are to be adopted, whilst the lecturer is limited to guiding and advising. However, as can be seen in lectures, the presence of exchange students erodes this principle. The home native student of Spanish loses his role of decider in the restructuring/reformulating stage. In effect, as Guatelli Tedeschi and Le Poder state, the student “is inhibited by the greater linguistic competence of the natives, he thus hands them over the decision and becomes shy, often renounces to defend his opinions” (278).     

Facing such a situation, the role of the lecturer suffers a devirtualization. He or she is asked to know how to face all the situations that occur in the classroom, acting as a Spanish language teacher for foreigners, a Spanish language teacher resolving comprehension problems located in the original text, and a teacher of direct and inverse translation all at the same time. To sum up, the lecturer needs to assume a role that moves along the line of multicultural education, an irrefutable reality of the times in which we live.

The promotion of group work is the best way to enjoy this multiculturality and to integrate each one of the identified student segments, in favour of an optimal development of the translation classes. In addition, such collective work helps to develop the interpersonal subcompetence, which the professional translator needs to dominate to realise their work under the best conditions.

Kelly (2003) defines this subcompetence in the following terms: the capacity to interrelate and work professionally in teams, not only with other translators and professionals of the same branch (revisers, documentalists, terminologists), but also with the clients, the initiators, the authors, as well as with experts of the subject which is the object of translation).

Thus, suitable workgroups are those that include a native student of Spanish language, a native student of French language and another whose native language is neither Spanish nor French. Students with Spanish as their mother tongue manage the stage of analysis/comprehension more easily, while those of native French language prove to be more agile in the reconstruction/reformulation.

Concerning the other students, they offer an external objective point of view that is nonetheless important. In addition, they represent a growing group of users of languages which are not native to them but to which they resort to as their own in distinct circumstances.

Conclusion

In Europe today growing internal and external mobility, brought about in particular by programs such as Socrates/Erasmus (also by the European Higher Education Area and the enlargement of the EU), is leading to increasingly heterogeneous student groups: language, cultural background, learning styles, expectations.  The University of Granada, and specifically the Faculty of Translating and Interpreting, is affected by the vivid reality in the classroom that is the direct consequences of the new framework in which students and lecturers work. I refer to the phenomenon of the multicultural education that affects the most diverse degrees.

The massive presence of exchange students in the translation classroom of the Translating and Interpreting Faculty of UG implies in advance a clash of different teaching-learning processes which, inevitably, directly influence the didactic.  It also means a distortion of the directionality, previously established in the curriculum of the degree in Translating and Interpreting, since this directionality is seen to be inverted or even loses sense.
 

References

Guatelli Tedeschi, Joëlle and Marie-Evelyne Le Poder. La direccionalidad en Traducción e Interpretación. Perspectivas teóricas, profesionales y didácticas. Granada: Atrio, 2003: 267-286.

Kelly, Dorothy. “Prólogo”. La direccionalidad en Traducción e Interpretación. Perspectivas teóricas, profesionales y didácticas. Granada: Atrio, 2003: 13-17.

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