ISSN: 1579-9794
Hikma 22(1) (2023), 189 - 217
A Tool Designed to Streamline the Search for Scholarly
Literature Addressing Online Translation and Interpreting
Pedagogy
Una herramienta para la búsqueda ágil de literatura
académica sobre didáctica en línea de la traducción e
interpretación
A
NDREW TUCKER
jatucker@semo.edu
Southeast Missouri State University
Fecha de recepción: 16/06/2022
Fecha de aceptación: 22/09/2022
Abstract: Translator and interpreter educators seeking new pedagogical
ideas and working in the face-to-face, blended, online, and remote modalities
would benefit from reviewing the pedagogies proposed during more than two
decades of research into translator and interpreter training and education in
virtual environments. This paper contains a description of the methods
employed to review scholarly publications addressing online and blended
translator and interpreter training and education (1997-2022). The results are
used to create an evolving public linear bibliography of scholarly literature
named «Online Translator and Interpreter Education». The paper begins with
a description of the need for a specialized bibliography, a justification for
hosting the bibliography in timeline software, and a discussion of the terms
used in the bibliography name. Following this, the means of locating literature
on the topic of online and blended translator and interpreter education are
detailed. Finally, the literature is categorized and arranged in the timeline in
ways useful to individuals consulting it. The article concludes with a
demonstration of how the resource can be queried for information on
developments in online translator and interpreter education over time. The first
portion of the demonstration considers the needs of interpreter educators
seeking to incorporate curated online practice materials into their coursework.
The second illustrates how the need for robust online translation coursework
is being addressed within the context of two ongoing initiatives.
Keywords: Distance education, Online teaching and learning, Translation
and interpreting pedagogy, Translator and interpreter training
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Resumen: Esta investigación parte del supuesto de que una revisión de las
propuestas didácticas de las últimas dos décadas sobre la didáctica de la
traducción y la interpretación en entornos virtuales contribuye al trabajo de
los formadores de traductores e intérpretes, sobre todo al profesorado que
busca nuevas ideas aplicables a cursos presenciales, semipresenciales, en
línea o remotos. El presente artículo contiene una descripción de los métodos
empleados para revisar los estudios publicados sobre la didáctica
semipresencial y en línea de la traducción e interpretación (1997-2022). Los
resultados se utilizaron para crear el recurso en línea «Online Translator and
Interpreter Education», que es una bibliografía lineal de libre acceso y en
evolución de la literatura académica. El artículo comienza con una descripción
de la necesidad de una bibliografía especializada de este tipo, una explicación
de por qué la bibliografía se aloja en un software de línea temporal y las
definiciones de los términos que se encuentran en el título de la línea
temporal. Posteriormente, se describe cómo se localizó la literatura
académica sobre la didáctica semipresencial y en línea de la traducción e
interpretación. Después, se describe cómo se clasificó la literatura y se
organizó de manera cronológica y útil para los usuarios de la línea temporal.
El artículo concluye con una demostración de cómo se puede consultar el
recurso para obtener información sobre la didáctica semipresencial y en línea
de la traducción e interpretación de manera cronológica. La primera parte de
la demostración considera las necesidades de los formadores de intérpretes
que buscan incorporar en sus cursos materiales de enseñanza y aprendizaje
en línea elegidos y organizados con rigurosidad. La segunda parte aborda el
uso de la línea temporal en el diseño efectivo de cursos virtuales de
traducción, en particular, en dos iniciativas en curso.
Palabras clave: Educación a distancia, Enseñanza-aprendizaje virtual,
Didáctica de la traducción e interpretación, Formación de traductores e
intérpretes
I
NTRODUCTION
The topic of online translator and interpreter training and education
began emerging in the literature in the late 1990s
1
. However, the last well-
documented wide-ranging discussions on the topic took place some 20 years
ago, when approximately 380 participants took part in a worldwide online
symposium held by the Intercultural Studies Group (Pym, 2001, p. 6) to
assess the state of the field of translator and interpreter training (Pym et al.,
2003). An overview of developments since that time is pressing given that the
challenges of online teaching and learning have been exacerbated by the
1
For example, Reinke (1997) and Lu-Chen & Zeng (1999).
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COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a rapid shift from face-to-face to remote
instruction and could lead to a shift in how translator and interpreter training
and education are organized in the future.
A resource consolidating and categorizing research into online and
blended translator and interpreter training and education would help educators
to explore the online pedagogies worth incorporating into their curricula.
However, locating literature on online and blended translation and interpreting
(T&I) pedagogy is difficult for several reasons. For one, keywords used to
index publications can be ambiguous. Keywords such as blended, distance,
and online are sometimes not used to index publications at all, while the
keyword e-learning is used to index research addressing teaching and
learning taking place in the blended, online, and face-to-face modalities.
Secondly, not every publication may be indexed, especially in languages of
lesser diffusion. Finally, keywords are often quite broad in scope, resulting in
numerous non-relevant search results. As an example, the search phrase
«internet teaching» in the Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation (BITRA)
(Franco-Aixelá, 2022) currently yields 374 total hits. Of these, less than one-
third (around 120) address the use of the internet as the medium of instruction
in online and blended courses. Over the longer term, such a resource can be
used to determine if and to what extent the practical problems identified during
the early years of online and blended translator and interpreter training and
education have been addressed and whether teachers, students, and
researchers are benefitting from advances in related disciplines, like distance
education, educational technology, and instructional design.
In response—and taking a cue from the Introducing Translation Studies
timeline created by Jeremy Munday— an evolving public searchable timeline
addressing various areas of online translator and interpreter training and
education has been created using corpus methods and the corpus analysis
tool AntConc (Version 3.5.8) (Anthony, n.d.). The timeline for the specialized
linear bibliography described in this article currently ranges from 1997 to 2022
and is hosted by the Tiki-Toki
2
website. The timeline presently consists of 113
publications in six languages (Catalan, English, French, Galician, German,
and Spanish) by individuals based in 31 countries. Additional publications in
other languages (Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese) have already been
identified. The literature is categorized by title, domain, type of research,
2
The timeline is located at https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/1263444/Online-Translator-
and-Interpreter-Education/. The author has no personal or business ties to the timeline software
company.
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backdrop, and the country of each author’s institutional affiliation at the time
of publication
3
.
The timeline software that was used to create the bibliography was
chosen because it allows individuals to conduct word searches and filter
results using the previously mentioned categories. Users can observe
patterns and developments in online and blended translator and interpreter
training and education and determine where the bulk of the research has
taken place. This is useful not only to translator and interpreter educators and
researchers but also subject librarians, who help researchers locate
bibliographic records on special topics. Finally, the resource is publicly
available and can be modified to include additional entries
4
or to correct
mistakes.
1. T
HE DIFFICULTY WITH LOCATING RELEVANT SCHOLARLY LITERATURE
Publications made over the past several decades addressing
developments in translator and interpreter training and education primarily
focus on T&I pedagogy in general, and not on the blended and online
modalities. A specialized resource consolidating the body of online and
blended translator and interpreter training and education literature would be
helpful to ensuring that the state of the field can be analyzed, and pertinent
conclusions drawn. As mentioned on p. 3, such publications are not easy to
locate due to the ways in which they are currently indexed.
In addition, the pivot to remote instruction brought about by the COVID-
19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a specialized bibliography of online
translation and interpreting pedagogy, especially in cases where time is of the
essence. Examples of publications made during the pandemic that could have
benefitted from a bibliography of the kind described in this article include
Hubscher-Davidson & Devaux (2021), Seresi et al. (2021), and Mazzei &
Ibrahim-Aibo (2022).
That said, a representative database of online and blended translator
and interpreter training and education literature requires contributions by
scholars able to read the languages in which publications on the topic are
written; summarize methods and findings in English, the language most
accessible to TIS researchers around the world; and categorize these
publications in ways that are useful to those interested in the topic at hand.
Therefore, authors must be provided the means to contribute in any language
and thereby improve the relevance of the resource.
3
See section 3 for a description of each category.
4
The timeline directs users to a form where they are prompted to submit information on missing
publications. This form is located at https://tinyurl.com/yc2yq4j4.
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2. STEPS FOR LOCATING RELEVANT SCHOLARLY LITERATURE
In order to address the aforementioned difficulties with locating relevant
literature, various steps were taken to create a database of as many peer-
reviewed publications as possible on the topic of online translator and
interpreter training and education. This section contains a description of how
the corpus was compiled. It begins with definitions of the terms central to the
database and is followed by an illustration of how initial texts were selected to
identify keywords. It concludes with a description of how search strings were
formulated to ensure a thorough search for relevant literature. A variety of
digital tools—bibliographic databases, web search engines, academic social
networking sites
5
, and tools for visualizing and exploring networks of
publications
6
—were used to find publications, each of which has been or is
currently being read and its features documented in a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet prior to being added to the timeline.
2.1. Defining key concepts
Creating a centralized record of literature on a topic requires a definition
of the topic in question. Moreover, the name of the bibliographic record
described in this article must be descriptive and, ideally, succinct. Therefore,
three terms will be operationalized within the context of the timeline described
here: online, translation and interpreting, and education.
2.1.1 Operationalizing online
Though terms like computer-assisted learning, distance education or
learning, distributed learning, e-learning, internet learning, networked
learning, online education or learning, online teaching and learning, open
learning, tele-learning, virtual learning, and web-based learning are
sometimes used interchangeably, differences exist among them. According to
Ally (2008), commonly used terms for online learning imply distance between
a learner and instructor as well as the use of some kind of technology to
access learning materials (p. 16). Moore & Kearsley (2012) provide a similar,
yet more specific definition for distance education: «teaching and planned
learning in which the teaching normally occurs in a different place from
learning, requiring communication through technologies, as well as special
institutional organization» (p. 2). Moore (2019) says that «in distance
education the use of communications technology is not an option but is a
defining characteristic of the teaching-learning relationship» (p. v). He refers
to online learning as used today as distance education in its contemporary,
5
Academia.edu and ResearchGate.net were particularly helpful in this regard.
6
Connected Papers (https://www.connectedpapers.com/), which is connected to the Semantic
Scholar Paper Corpus (Ammar et al., 2018), yielded several results.
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«most evolved» form (Shattuck, 2014, p. xiii). Here, the internet is used «to
access learning materials; to interact with the content, instructor, and other
learners; and to obtain support during the learning process, in order to acquire
knowledge, to construct personal meaning, and to grow from the learning
experience» (Ally, 2008, p. 17).
The effective incorporation of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) into T&I curricula is a longstanding focus of research
7
.
However, using the above definition of online, the bibliographical resource
described here does not include TIS publications that address e-learning
taking place in coursework without a significant online component. Though
continuums of face-to-face to fully online have been posited
8
, and the courses
referenced in this bibliography can be classified in such ways, authors typically
do not use a shared definition of what makes a course online or blended.
Therefore, to merit inclusion in this bibliography, publications must address
translator and interpreter training and education primarily taking place through
the use of ICTs at a distance in either a fully online environment or a blended
environment. Moreover, the authors of these publications must place special
emphasis on the use of ICTs during instruction
9
.
2.1.2 Operationalizing translation and interpreting
Educators will find it useful to consult a bibliography of T&I that covers
the greatest possible number of TIS domains, from interlingual translation
(Jakobson, 1959/2021, p. 157) to domains of intra- and multilingual
communication that have received much attention in TIS, as well as
localization, project management, revision, translation technology,
terminology, and the creation of content alongside subject-matter experts.
Publications on online translator and interpreter training and education
7
Calls for the pedagogically sound incorporation of technologies into online and blended
translation coursework can be found as far back as the early 2000s.
As mentioned above, online
coursework necessarily relies on the use of technologies to bridge distances. In translation
pedagogy and elsewhere, these technologies are typically referred to as information and
communication technologies, which are a «diverse set of technological tools and resources used
to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information [and] include computers, the
Internet . . . live broadcasting technologies . . . recorded broadcasting technologies . . . and
telephony». (UNESCO, 2017)
8
See Sener (2015) for an updated list of e-learning definitions at the course and program levels
according to the parameters of instructional delivery mode, time, and flexibility.
9
The earliest publication the author has identified on the topic of distance translator and
interpreter education is dated 1993. However, the coursework addressed there is
correspondence-based, where instruction and teacher-student communication occur via mail
delivered by a postal system. Therefore, this publication has been omitted from the bibliography,
even though it is of historical interest to T&I pedagogy. For more information, see Sammons
(1993, pp. 49-50) regarding this correspondence-based indigenous-language medical
interpreting curricular alternative developed for the Canadian Eastern Arctic.
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primarily focus on preparing students to translate or interpret in professional
settings. Consequently, translation and interpreting as used in the timeline
name typically refers to T&I practice taking place in the language industry: «an
expanding range of branches that all share some facet of multilingual
communication as a common thread» (Angelone et al., 2019, p. 1). In the
language industry, translators and interpreters engage in an assortment of
tasks that vary from one job to another. They must also be able to function
socially by interacting with other stakeholders engaged in a multitude of tasks
linked to a given communicative situation. In addition, language industry work
can imply both inter- and intralinguistic communication, the most notable
examples of which are audiovisual translation, which involves an interplay of
various channels of communication and media accessibility, and sign
language interpreting. Finally, theories of T&I as well as the online and
blended delivery of theory coursework are important components of T&I
curricula. Therefore, the goals of translator and interpreter training and
education are broad and multifaceted. These goals are reflected in the
timeline domains described in section 3.2.
2.1.3 Operationalizing education
The word training appears to be used more commonly than education
in T&I pedagogy in English
10
, perhaps in line with the corresponding division
of Applied Translation Studies proposed by Holmes (1972/2005). The timeline
name employs the broader term education to cover the widest possible variety
of teaching modes. Moreover, this timeline is not only directed toward
academics familiar with TIS terminology, but also scholars from adjacent
fields, such as linguistics, who may have no formal TIS background and may
be called to teach translation or interpreting online, as well as the subject
librarians who support teachers and scholars in their bibliographical research.
In summary, the distinction between training and education is not the primary
concern of this study.
2.2. Locating relevant literature
Several steps were taken to locate literature for inclusion in the timeline.
In a first step, 10 journal articles published between 2005 and 2015 in English
and Spanish were selected. The selection was made based on a perusal of
the bibliographies of journal articles treating the subject of online translator
and/or interpreter education. Therefore, this selection was biased in favor of
the author of this paper’s previous encounters with literature from these
10
Searches in the Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation (BITRA) (Franco-Aixelá, 2022)
yield 4,954 results for the word training and 2,758 for education. Since BITRA lemmatizes search
words, there are more possible hits for the relatively less frequent education. Several search
results for education actually correspond to educating and educational.
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domains. To expand the search, each article was scanned, with a focus on
title, abstract, and keywords. Words that could be used to search the
Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation (BITRA) (Franco-Aixelá, 2022)
and Translation Studies Bibliography (van Doorslaer, 2022) for additional texts
addressing online translator and interpreter education were manually
extracted. Table 1 contains two alphabetized lists of keywords identified using
this method.
English
Spanish
blended learning
enseñanza a distancia
distance education
enseñanza en línea
e-learning
enseñanza virtual
hybrid
entorno virtual
internet
internet
online
online
virtual
semipresencial
Table 1. Initial list of keywords used to locate publications in TIS bibliographies
Source. Elaborated by the author
The keywords of texts identified by querying the previously mentioned
TIS bibliographies were used to find additional texts and keywords. While the
TIS bibliographies are undoubtedly robust, they may not have a record of all
peer-reviewed texts published on the topic of interest. Therefore, the search
was expanded using search engines such as Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, Google
Scholar, Google Books, and Google. Search strings were formulated based
on a list of nodes compiled using the results of the searches conducted in the
previous step.
Table 2 contains the alphabetized final list of nodes used to search for
peer-reviewed texts addressing online language industry education. These
nodes are truncated forms of single words used to create search strings. For
example, the English truncation collaborat results in hits for collaborate,
collaborates, collaborating, collaboration, and collaborative when paired with
the asterisk wildcard (i.e., collaborat*) in some search engines. The similar
Spanish truncated form colabor results in hits for several verb forms (e.g.,
colaborar, colabora, and colaboran) and adjective forms (e.g., colaborativo
and colaborativas) when paired with the asterisk wildcard (i.e., colabor*).
Nodes were often combined to create longer strings and paired with
translation or interpreting when performing searches for online translator and
interpreter education publications (e.g., online translator training in English
and enseñanza de traducción entorno virtual in Spanish). The genres located
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using these steps were book sections, conference papers, doctoral
dissertations, journal articles, and project summaries.
English
Spanish
autonom
aprendizaje
blend
atractiv
CAIT
aula.int
chat
autonom
collaborat
campus virtual
computer assist
colabora
dialog
comodidad
digit
debat
discuss
e-learning
distance
enseñanza
ecolore
entorno
ecolotrain
espacio
effective
flexibilidad
elearning
inconveniente
eportfolio
internet
hybrid
mixt
ICT
modalidad
information and communication
technolog
nueva tecnología
internet
online
modalit
presencial
mode
semipresencial
multimodal
sincronicidad
online
tecnología
synchron
TIC
teach
trabajo virtual
video
tradumática
virtual
ventaja
web 2.0
virtual
webct
wiki
Table 2. Final list of search nodes
Source. Elaborated by the author
The final corpus consisted of 225 publications in Catalan, Chinese,
English, Galician, German, French, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Either
an English or Spanish title, abstract, summary, introduction, or keywords were
available for all texts. Of the 225 texts, 113 have already been manually
double checked to ensure they cover online translator and interpreter
education as defined in sections 2.1.1-2.1.3. The most common reason for
removing a text was when it addressed coursework taking place in a face-to-
face environment.
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After the corpus was compiled, the titles and abstracts were converted
into plain-text files. Then, the corpus was mined for topics related to online
language industry education. This was done in a three-step sequence using
the corpus analysis tool AntConc (Version 3.5.8) (Anthony, n.d.). First, the
Word List feature was used to obtain raw frequencies of words related to
online teaching and learning. Second, concordance plots were generated for
frequent words to determine whether these words were distributed throughout
all or most files in the corpus. The Clusters/N-Grams feature was then used
to identify 2-, 3-, and 4-grams and thereby pinpoint clusters related to the
previously identified nodes.
Table 3 contains a list of clusters identified in this manner. This table
only includes clusters with a range of more than one text in the corresponding
subcorpus. While both the equivalent English and Spanish nodes were
consulted, for the sake of brevity, only English nodes and clusters are
provided. These may prove useful when formulating keywords for future
publications related to online translator and interpreter education.
Node
Sample cluster
autonom
autonomous learning
autonomous learner
blend
blended learning
blended e-learning
blended learning environment
blended teaching and learning
blended learning models
collaborat
collaborative learning
collaborative work
collaborative learning and working
digit
digital environment
digital tools
distance
distance learning
distance education
distance teaching
distance training
e-learning
e-learning environment(s)
e-learning course
Node
Sample cluster
internet
internet teaching
multimodal
multimodal working environment
online
online course(s)
online education
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online teaching
online translator training
online training
synchron
asynchronicity
asynchronous learning
virtual
virtual learning
virtual classroom
virtual conference
virtual (learning) environment(s)
virtual platform
virtual campus
web
web-based
Table 3. English clusters related to online translator and interpreter education
Source. Elaborated by the author
3. CATEGORIZING PUBLICATIONS
A linear bibliographic record of the publications identified using the
previously described methods was created as a timeline in the Tiki-Toki
software. Each record is distributed among four categories, or «bands»
(Figure 1). These bands will be described in greater detail in sections 3.1-3.5.
Band entries corresponding to each publication are aligned from top to bottom
for ease of consultation. Individuals may use this category/band breakdown
to localize topics useful to their own teaching and research
11
.
11
The configuration of this timeline—an evolving resource—is subject to change based on user
feedback. The total number of publications in the timeline will vary as contributions are made to
it.
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Figure 1. A single bibliographic record distributed among timeline bands
12
Source. Elaborated by the author
3.1. The Title band
A title entry (Figure 2) includes at least three components: title of
publication, abstract, and full citation. Titles are provided in the original
language of publication. An optional, fourth component, labeled «Find out
more», links users to the publication, where available online. All entries
correspond to the correct year of publication. However, the timeline is not an
historically specific resource, and the months and days at which each entry is
plotted within a given year are approximate.
12
Users must click an entry to view its content in full.
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Figure 2. A Title band entry
Source. Elaborated by the author
If no publisher-provided abstract exists, an author or other agents may
share an English-language abstract. Abstracts are primarily descriptive
abstracts, which «briefly summarize the contents of a work without comment
or criticism» (Killick, 2010), though this is sometimes not the case, for
example, when the editor of a volume summarizes the content of a section of
the volume in the absence of an author-provided abstract or when a publisher
provides a blurb promoting the publication. English abstracts ensure
accessibility to the largest possible number of users, independently of whether
the abstract was originally published in English. The English version of each
abstract precedes any available versions of the abstract in other languages.
Full citations employ American Psychological Association (7
th
edition) style.
Contributors receive credit for the abstracts and other information they
share
13
. Figure 3 contains an English-language abstract supplied by a timeline
contributor for an article published in German with no accompanying German-
language abstract.
13
The timeline links contributors to a form under «About this timeline». This form contains step-
by-step instructions for providing the required information and can be viewed at
https://tinyurl.com/yc2yq4j4.
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Figure 3. A contributor-supplied abstract of a German-language publication
Source. Elaborated by the author
3.2. The Domain band
Domains presently include audiovisual translation, interpreting,
localization, sign language interpreting, terminology, training the trainer,
translation, translation and interpreting, translation for language learning, and
translation technology. These are further divided, where applicable. Table 4
contains a breakdown of current domains and subdomains based on the
topics covered by publications. This list of domains only covers those
addressed in the publications in the timeline and will grow as more entries are
added.
Subdomain
subtitling
interpreting
community
consecutive
conference
dialogue
liaison
medical
public service
remote
sight translation
simultaneous
videoconference
N/A
audio description
N/A
N/A
N/A
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Domain
Subdomain
translation
CAT tools
general
literary
machine translation
non-professional
open
public service
project management
revision
specialized
theory
translation and interpreting
general
specialized
translation and multimodality
N/A
translation for language learning
N/A
translation technology
N/A
Table 4. Current timeline domains and subdomains
Source. Elaborated by the author
A small number of publications address online translator or interpreter
education generally
14
and are, therefore, not assigned a domain in the
timeline. Figure 4 corresponds to a publication covering both an interpreting
mode and setting.
Figure 4. Domain band entries for a publication covering an interpreting mode
and setting
Source. Elaborated by the author
14
See Fernández-Rodríguez (2002) for an example.
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3.3. The Type of Research band
The timeline breaks research down into two broad types: empirical
and conceptual. Figure 5 depicts the type of research assigned to and located
below an entry from the Title band.
Figure 5. A Type of Research band entry under its corresponding Title band
entry
Source. Elaborated by the author
In The Map, Williams & Chesterman (2002, p. 58) refer broadly to
different kinds, or forms, of research: conceptual/theoretical and empirical, the
latter of which is divided into naturalistic/observational and experimental
(p. 62). Saldanha & O’Brien (2014) primarily address empirical research,
which «involves gathering observations (in naturalistic or experimental
settings) about the world of our experience» (p. 5). They also note that:
Our understanding is very broad: we simply suggest that empirical
research needs to address questions of «why» at some point in the
research process. Sometimes explanations remain at the level of
speculation but the research should at least point out potential
avenues for further research which could explain the results, and
these suggestions need to be grounded in the evidence and in the
state of the art in the field. (Saldanha & O’Brien, 2014, p. 6)
They mention the wide range of research methodologies used in the
interdisciplinary field of TIS and themselves cite Williams & Chesterman
(2002), who describe empirical research as emphasizing evidence,
hypotheses, and operationalization (p. 58) all while recognizing the blurred
line between conceptual and empirical research
(Saldanha & O’Brien, 2014, p. 4).
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Methodological complexity is not a factor when breaking research down
into empirical or conceptual. For example, the lack of a statistical analysis or
triangulation is not an issue for meeting the criterion of empirical. However, to
warrant the experimental label in the Type of Research band, studies must
make use of a control group. Some authors of the works included in the
timeline label their studies as experiments when no control group is specified.
The timeline does not classify these studies as experimental, though they fall
under the category of empirical studies when empirical methods are used in
them. The timeline creator had to classify multiple publications without a clear
methodology, methods, research design, research strategies, or research
techniques. The ensuing categorization may challenge the way a researcher
describes their own study, especially in the case of the experimental label.
It is not in the timeline creator’s interest to criticize these publications,
as multiple editorial decisions affect the final form of a publication and TIS has
become more methodologically mature over time. TIS scholars also hail from
different disciplines whose research methods terminology differs. However,
the Type of Research category is useful to those attempting to determine what
types of research have been conducted in their TIS domains of interest
15
. The
configuration and public nature of the resource should encourage those who
disagree with a given classification to contact the timeline curator and
reconsider the type of research under which the publication is classified.
3.4. The Backdrop band
The Backdrop band of the timeline is comprised of the most varied
subcategories and provides context for each publication. Multiple Backdrop
band entries repeat throughout the timeline, as these contexts give rise to
clusters of publications, ongoing research, and the evolution and refinement
of pedagogical initiatives. General regional contexts, such as the Bologna
Process and European Higher Education Area (EHEA), have triggered the
largest number of publications in connection with backdrops such as curricular
changes, isolated conferences and conference series, special issues of
academic journals, and academic projects and consortia. However, the
timeline assigns the Bologna Process and EHEA only one entry each to avoid
visual clutter. Specific backgrounds are supplied for studies published within
these macrocontexts. Table 5 contains examples of current backdrops from
both within and outside the EHEA.
15
The lack of clearly described methods points to a larger issue in online T&I pedagogy, namely,
that it is difficult to describe and evaluate the methods used in this domain when they are not
clearly presented.
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Subcategory Example
academic consortium The Consortium for Training Translation Teachers
academic program
Graduate Program in Translation at University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
educational initiative Aula.int
event for researchers
International Conferences on Translating and the
Computer
event for teachers
Seminars of the Consortium for Training
Translation Teachers
research project Trans-Atlantic & Pacific Project (TAPP)
special issue of academic
journal
Special issue of trans-kom 11:2 (2018):
Approaches to didactics for technologies in
translation and interpreting
virtual community
Word Association of Arab Translators and
Linguists (WATA) online discussion forums
Table 5. Backdrop band subcategories with sample entry headings
Source. Elaborated by the author
In some cases, more than one subcategory can be assigned to a single
publication. For example, publications arising out of the Multilingual eLearning
in LANGuage Engineering (MeLLANGE) project also result from work done
among the members of a consortium bearing the same name. In such cases,
the timeline only assigns one subcategory to the publication to avoid visual
clutter. The «Find out more» link contains information on both the project and
consortium (Figure 6).
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Figure 6. A Backdrop band entry for the MeLLANGE consortium
Source. Elaborated by the author
Several backdrop designators have changed since the times of
publication. For instance, Mansilla & González-Davies (2017) describe the
program in which their study takes place as the Programa de Traducción de
la Universidad de Massachusetts Boston, or the translation program at the
University of Massachusetts Boston. However, the backdrop entry directs
users to the landing page of a Spanish-English Translation Certificate. It is
unclear why the authors chose the former designation over the latter without
additional information. The publication does not contain enough information
to determine this. Within Europe, the reason for some name changes is more
clear-cut. Spanish degrees designated as licenciaturas prior to the creation of
the EHEA may now be referred to as grados. The web pages corresponding
to these programs have, naturally, been updated to reflect this change. Finally,
a few publications do not mention a specific background. In these cases none
is assigned. Users with missing background information are encouraged to
share this with the timeline curator.
3.5. The Country band
The Country band provides information on geographical areas yielding
research into online translator and interpreter education. This band helps
users identify places of both new and longstanding research output, especially
in their languages and regions of interest. Additionally, the variety of countries
represented raises awareness among the research community of the broad
range of research taking place worldwide and of underrepresented areas that
remain marginalized in TIS.
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Though the country category would seem to be clear-cut, this is not
always so. Two examples illustrate this. The authors of several publications
were affiliated with universities located in the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland at the time of publication. Though only one subdivision
of the United Kingdom—England—is represented in the timeline at present,
United Kingdom is the label used in the Country band of the timeline.
Moreover, a relatively large number of Spanish publications originate in the
autonomous community of Catalonia, which has on multiple occasions sought
independence from Spain. In the case of the former, all publications are in
English. However, in the latter case, a number of publications are in Catalan,
Spanish, or English, or a combination of the three. Though it is not possible to
avoid taking a political stance while foregrounding, in the form of a label, the
name of a geopolitical subdivision whose sovereignty and self-governance are
disputed, researchers seeking information on the places out of which
publications arise should find the country of publication adequate for such
purpose.
The following is the current list of countries that correspond to
universities with which the authors were affiliated at the time of publication:
Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan,
Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. Where more than two countries correspond
to the same publication, the label «Various» is used and the entry description
lists each country. Figure 7 contains an example of such a publication. The
timeline search function allows users to filter per country independently of the
entry label.
Figure 7. A Country band entry for a publication by authors from several
countries
Source. Elaborated by the author
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4. SEARCHING FOR DEVELOPMENTS IN ONLINE TRANSLATOR AND INTERPRETER
EDUCATION
The timeline can be queried to pinpoint developments in online
translator and interpreter education. Below are examples of developments in
two domains: interpreting and translation. Searches involve typing words into
the integrated search bar (Figure 8), which is located in the lower right-hand
corner of the page
16
. To open the search, users click the spanner/wrench icon,
which expands the timeline controls. Individual entries—or «stories», to use
the software’s terminology—containing a search term are highlighted
wherever the search term appears in all four category bands. The timeline
search also highlights hits among clusters of entries plotted along a scrollable
timeline found at the bottom of the page (Figure 9).
Figure 8. Timeline search bar showing the number of entries containing
interpreting
Source. Elaborated by the author
16
The timeline does not permit truncated searches.
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Hikma 22(1) (2023), 189 - 217
Figure 9. Highlighted entries containing interpreting above highlighted hits on
a scrollable plot
Source. Elaborated by the author
4.1. Evolving online interpreter education
Interpreting instructors working in various modalities may wish to
supplement their teaching with resources they can readily implement. The
timeline has multiple records addressing the conference setting and
consecutive and simultaneous modes of interpreting. These may be found by
using the search words conference, consecutive, and simultaneous. The
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example below, from the Domain band, shows multiple results linked to the
ORCIT project, which represents a nexus of publications helpful to interpreting
instructors (Figure 10). The Backdrop band entry for these publications links
users to curated practice materials that can be used in conjunction with
instructor-provided assessment (Figure 11).
Figure 10. Three Domain band search results converging on an interpreter
training project
Source. Elaborated by the author
Figure 11. A Backdrop band entry for the ORCIT project
Source. Elaborated by the author
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The abstract visible when clicking on the Title band entry explains that
the ORCIT project has been underway since 2010 (Figure 12) and that its
corpus was substantial enough to warrant empirical evaluation as of 2016
(Carsten, 2015, p. 1). In 2020, Carsten et al. provide the most up-to-date look
at this evolving project (Figure 13).
Figure 12. The earliest ORCIT-related Title band entry
17
Source. Elaborated by the author
Figure 13. The latest ORCIT-related Title band entry
Source. Elaborated by the author
17
Users must scroll downward to view the full abstract and citation.
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4.2. Evolving online translator education
Evolving initiatives useful to translation instructors can be located in a
similar fashion. For example, the search phrase translation (general) yields
hits for three publications related to the Spanish-language Aula.int initiative
(Figure 14).
Figure 14. Three Domain band search results converging on a translator
training initiative
Source. Elaborated by the author
This initiative is first logged in the timeline in 2005 (Aula.int) (Figure 14). The
Aula.int website hyperlinked in the Backdrop entry lists an array of resources
as well as information on how to incorporate ICTs into translation coursework
in pedagogically and professionally relevant ways.
Importantly, publications falling under the umbrella of this initiative
depict a chronological progression concerning how a variety of course setups
play out. These texts also address how the tools used within the initiative
support communication between course participants. This information
supplies translator educators with ideas for designing robust online translation
coursework.
The timeline also plots references to similar projects for readers of
English. Figure 15 contains an example of a project notable for its
geographical coverage and number of publications—eight in the timeline
alone—stretching back over two decades.
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Figure 15. A long-running project tied to multiple publications
Source. Elaborated by the author
CONCLUSIONS
As new online and blended programs are launched, translator and
interpreter trainers must familiarize themselves with over two decades of
relevant research in order to build upon existing knowledge. The public
bibliography described here is designed to support teachers, researchers, and
subject librarians, respectively, in their attempts to locate pedagogical
proposals worth adapting to local contexts, build upon a particular vein of
research, or help others gather useful bibliographical references. Individuals
wishing to implement online and blended coursework will find in the Online
Translator and Interpreter Education timeline ideas for both effective remote
courses and long-term online and blended learning solutions. This centralized,
searchable bibliographic record points researchers around the world to the
work of others from whose experiences they might learn. As teachers and
researchers, we need not feel alone in our efforts to develop, implement, and
improve online learning for the benefit of our students and the language
industry at large.
Importantly, the resource is a curated, more specialized bibliography
than those currently available. It serves as a point of departure for analyzing
the discourse surrounding online and blended translator and interpreter
education. The methods described above have already yielded a range of
potential keywords, and the resource can be used to map trends and
developments in online T&I pedagogy as well as identify gaps in the
knowledge of users to ensure forward movement in the field. The number of
publications and ongoing initiatives visible in the timeline suggests that online
translator and interpreter education is an emerging specialty in T&I pedagogy
Andrew Tucker 215
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as well as in TIS more generally. It is hoped that the specialized bibliographical
resource described here will aid interested scholars in defining this specialty
and exploring it further.
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