An Assessment of the Context of Teaching Translation to Undergraduate EFL Students at Koya University

Abstract

In today's globalized world and with the emergence of advanced technology, there is an increasing demand for translation services to facilitate cross-cultural communication. Despite the existence of advanced translation technologies and tools that can facilitate and speed up the process of translation, these tools are not completely reliable since they cannot take into consideration contextual and cultural issues, which play a crucial role in understanding the meaning of a text. EFL undergraduate students who want to make a career in translation need to be equipped with different linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge and skills to be able to meet the market requirements. This study aims to assess the context of teaching translation to EFL undergraduate students at the Department of English (DENG)/ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) of Koya University to find out whether the translation course offered in the department matches the objectives for which it has been designed in terms of content, methodology of teaching and the resources allocated. The study also aims to identify the gaps and the obstacles facing the teaching of the discipline in an academic and professional way and accordingly make some recommendations to fill in the gaps. Data collection was done through two semi-structured questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students. Twenty university teachers and sixty six students of the third and fourth year stages of the DENG/FHSS of Koya University of the academic year (2023-2024) were involved in answering the questionnaires. The main findings of the study indicate that the course is inadequate in terms of content, teaching methods and allocated resources; therefore, it does not meet its objectives.