Vicarious learning in the translation classroom: how can it influence students' self-efficacy beliefs?

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.19.1.5

Keywords:

translator education, self-efficacy beliefs, vicarious learning, action research, students’ perceptions, mixed research

Abstract

This action research study aims to analyse the ways in which vicarious learning, one of the sources of self-efficacy beliefs according to Social Cognitive Theory, can materialise in the translation classroom. To achieve this aim, a mixed methodological approach was adopted based on the following techniques: the interview, the survey, classroom observation and focus groups. Results show that vicarious learning took place in the translation classroom where this study was performed both through the students' comparison with professional translators and between peers. More particularly, a collaborative learning environment and practices such as the presentation of translation projects by the students, role-plays or discovering the careers of previous graduates favoured vicarious learning and thus positively influenced the participant students' self-efficacy beliefs, according to their perception. The results obtained contribute to shedding light on some ways to incorporate students' self-efficacy beliefs in translator education, satisfying the need underlined by several authors.

Author Biography

María del Mar Haro Soler, Department of Translation and Interpreting, University of Granada, Spain

María del Mar Haro Soler holds a PhD in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Granada, Spain where she currently teaches on translation courses. From 2014 to 2018 she held a grant for the Training of Higher Education Teachers and Researchers from the Spanish Ministry of Education. She has published several chapters in prestigious publishing houses, such as John Benjamins, as well as several papers in journals, all of them on translator education. She is author of the forthcoming book Creencias de autoeficacia del estudiantado de traducción: ¿cómo favorecer su desarrollo? [Translation Students’ Self-efficacy Beliefs: How to Develop their Self-efficacy Beliefs]. She completed two research stays as a visiting scholar at Kent State University (Ohio) and Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz (Germany). María del Mar is a certified sworn translator.

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Published

2019-06-01

How to Cite

Haro Soler, M. del M. (2019). Vicarious learning in the translation classroom: how can it influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs?. English Studies at NBU, 5(1), 92–113. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.19.1.5

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