Threading metaliteracy into translation and interpreting undergraduates’ information literacy training: A reflective active learning approach

Abstract

Information competence is an essential component of translation competence and the basis for the lifelong learning of Translation and Interpreting trainees. This work describes the author’s updated approach to an information literacy course for Translation and Interpreting undergraduate students implemented at the Universitat Jaume I (Spain), which, due to the health situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, had to be taught entirely online. The article gives an account of how metaliteracy has been integrated as a guiding thread to encourage reflection and critical thinking throughout the course and awareness of its importance. The students’ feedback and the assessment results demonstrate that learning has been significant. Hopefully, the perspective, curricular proposal and experience analyzed here could be transferable to other discipline-based information literacy training programs. La competencia informacional es un componente esencial de la competencia traductora y la base del aprendizaje permanente del estudiantado de Traducción e Interpretación. Este trabajo describe el enfoque actualizado de un curso de alfabetización informacional para estudiantado del grado en Traducción e Interpretación implementado en la Universitat Jaume I (España), que, debido a la situación sanitaria generada por la pandemia de COVID-19, tuvo que impartirse íntegramente en línea. El artículo da cuenta de cómo se ha integrado la meta-alfabetización como hilo conductor para fomentar la reflexión y el pensamiento crítico a lo largo del curso y la toma de conciencia de su importancia. El seguimiento del estudiantado y los resultados de la evaluación demuestran que el aprendizaje ha sido significativo. Se confía en que la perspectiva, la propuesta curricular y la experiencia aquí analizadas puedan ser transferibles a otros programas de formación en alfabetización informacional para disciplinas concretas, y que pueda ser adaptada a titulaciones específicas.

Audiovisual translation, translators, and technology: From automation pipe dream to human–machine convergence

“…In the area of multilingual communication, "[t]ranslation and interpreting is a complex cognitive and expert communication activity that requires constant information management" (Sales Salvador, 2022, p. 3). Translators are therefore a professional community closely intertwined with information, where IL and metaliteracy have been recognized as key elements to take on board if one wishes to keep up with the demands of the digital age (Granell, 2015;Pinto & Sales, 2007;Sales Salvador, 2022).…”

Professional translators’ and interpreters’ views on information competence: An exploratory qualitative study from the Spanish context

“…Information literacy is key to the professional performance of translation and interpreting and therefore among the competences required in the training of translators and interpreters it is essential to foster information competence, that is, the whole set of knowledge, skills and ethical values connected with the efficient and responsible use of information. Indeed, most of the pedagogical proposals for translation and interpreting training reflect the relevance of information competence and include it as part of the degree curriculum (Kelly, 2005), and several studies (Austermühl, 2013;Gough, 2019;Massey and Ehrensberger-Dow, 2011;Olalla-Soler, 2018;Paradowska, 2021b;Sales, 2007, 2008;Pym, 2013;Sales, 2006Sales, , 2008Sales, , 2022aSales, , 2022bSales and Pinto, 2011;Sales, Pinto and Fernández-Ramos, 2018) stress the importance of information competence in the continuing education of translators and interpreters.…”

“…All in all, information competence is essential in Translation and Interpreting education, with training based on information literacy (Paradowska, 2021b;Sales, 2006Sales, , 2022aSales, , 2022b, given that translation is a reflective act involving constant decision-making, based on responsible research (Austermühl, 2001;Mossop, 2003). Information competence fosters adaptability and critical thinking skills in order to weigh up different options and to deal with every informational act with a critical, ethical and rigorous awareness.…”

“…Metaliteracy, devised as a lifelong learning framework, helps to engage learners in awareness of their own learning processes and offers a useful platform with which to approach the teaching of the key points of information literacy such as the ethical use of information. The metaliteracy framework is especially interesting for information literacy training in translation and interpreting (Sales, 2022b), emphasising the role of learners as producers (Mackey and Jacobson, 2022), precisely because translating and interpreting is rewriting, reverbalising, and therefore those who translate and interpret, as well as users and consumers, are essentially information producers and mediators.…”