Psychological Foundations of Prospective Philologists’ Translation Competence Assessment

Abstract

The presented article is an attempt to analyse and bring together all the psychological factors, which, on the one hand, should be considered in the process of the assessment arrangement and implementation at university level in the translation classroom, and may contribute greatly to its efficiency in terms of informativity, objectivity and formative effect -on the other. Psychological foundations serve an important consolidating and integrating component that substantiates the key didactic and methodologic assessment provisions combining them with the relevant linguistic and translation aspects. To gain the declared aim, the author studies in details and interprets from the viewpoint of translation didactics and assessment such aspects of translation psychology as cognition, emotions and personality. Cognition appears to be one of the central processes to both translation performance and training. It rests on such psychological mechanisms as the students' attention, perception, memory of different types, creativity, problem-solving and mental faculty. The typical patterns, in which prospective philologists apply and combine them in the process of translation training by doing, frame their individual dominating learning styles that should be taken into account in the process of selection and design of translation competence assessment procedures and tools. Moreover, these patterns determine the students' individual translation styles, which are shaped in the process of learning and training and indicate their professional expertise. Affective or emotional factors deal with the students' motivation, attitudes and emotional intelligence. The ways to form and maintain intrinsic motivation to translation performance in the process of assessment are suggested. Attitudes and emotional intelligence require further investigation and research. While translator's cognitive functions affect its process, personality traits have influence on the translation product. The concepts of students' self-efficacy, explanatory style, locus of control and autonomy are also of great importance and should be taken into account in translation competence assessment. Finally, the concepts of reciprocal determination and zone of proximal development contribute greatly to the development of self-, peer-and group assessment procedures as well as the provisions of formative assessment accompanied with the scaffolding and feedback of different types and modes.