How can the type of feedback provided by teachers influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs? A quasi-experimental study in the translation classroom

Abstract

This paper presents a quasi-experimental field study, performed in the translation classroom, aiming to analyse the influence of teacher’s feedback on the students’ self-efficacy beliefs. This study was performed in three groups of a specialized translation course (Spanish-English) and adopted a mixed-method approach where the following techniques were implemented: classroom observation, interviews conducted with teachers, focus groups with students and the survey, which included The Translator’s Self-efficacy Beliefs Scale (Haro-Soler, 2018a). According to the results obtained, constructive feedback, including indirect, elaborate and dialogic feedback, fostered the self-efficacy beliefs to adequately solve translation problems of the students in two of the groups in this study. On the contrary, direct negative feedback provided by the teacher in a transmissionist learning environment decreased the students’ confidence to solve translation problems in the third group. Therefore, despite the difficulty in performing quasi-experimental field studies in the classroom (Nunan, 2007), this study will contribute to satisfying the need, identified by Bolaños-Medina (2014a), to perform (quasi-)experiments to empirically shed light on teaching practices that allow for the development of the students’ realistic self-efficacy beliefs in translator education.