| Summary: | Translation has long been part of undergraduate language degrees, and its role has been widely
discussed in recent years (Cook, 2007, 2010; Hubert, 2017). Webb (2010) has indicated employers’
expectations of language graduates to possess translation skills, but there have as yet been few
studies conducted into the role of Chinese translation modules in enhancing the professionalisation
of language skills for undergraduate students of Chinese.
One UK final-year undergraduate module, Practical Chinese to English translation considered
here, explicitly aims to serve, ‘as a taster for those considering careers in translation and language
services’ (University of Leeds, 2017). In recent years, informal comments from students have
hinted that they view this module as very useful for preparing them for future work with regards
to the professionalisation of their language skills. However, no data is available as to whether this
objective is actually perceived by students as being achieved, so this study set out to survey student
perspectives in this regard, with the aim of further developing pedagogical approaches for greater
student gains, and gaining wider insights for such training more broadly.
Survey results indicate the module’s capacity to support student’s development of a wide range
of generic transferable skills, as well as comprehensively raising student’s confidence in their own
translation skills, that the module acts effectively as a taster and a bridge to such a vocational path,
and the need for intentionality in developing IT skills, in particular with regards to the usage of basic
machine translation tools.
It is concluded that there is evidence to support Starr and Hu’s (2019) claim of the necessity
of greater effort within Chinese undergraduate programmes for the intentional and disciplinary
teaching of translation. Further studies would help to give clearer picture of gains experienced by
alumni from having taken this and similar modules in other institutions to help guide the orientation
of further module development.
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