Oral feedback practices in the translation classroom Analysis of the students’ perception

Abstract

The existing bibliography on feedback procedures in translation focuses almost entirely on written practices. Thus, some studies are centered on the description of the different methods or procedures that are used by some teachers in order to carry out translation assessment tasks, while others deal with some specific aspects. This work is based on the idea that the oral feedback given daily in classrooms is often students’ main formative assessment tool throughout the academic year. To these oral practices we can add the written assessment given to their tasks or activities, more specific at certain moments in the semester. Thus, it is necessary to know the dynamics that order these practices, how students perceive them and what usefulness they give to them in their formative process. Therefore, this study has a double objective: on one hand, to identify which are the most common practices in oral feedback, and, on the other hand, to find out which of these practices are more useful for students in their competence acquisition process. In order to gather this information, we have used a survey distributed to third and fourth year-students of a degree in Translation and Interpreting. The results of the survey suggest that oral feedback practices are appreciated by students very positively, despite certain lack of homogeneity in the teacher’s behaviour. Their main focus is not only the translation errors and the possible alternative solutions, but these oral feedback practices also deal with aspects such as translation strategies, tools to help the translator or extratextual factors that influence the translation process.