Education/Archive/Case Studies/translationspanish

Translation

Leigh Thelmadatter

Professor of English/Language Laboratory Coordinator

Instituto Tecnológico y Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Mexico

Course name
Sello A

Course level (undergraduate/graduate)
First year undergraduates

Learning objectives
Writing Skills Development
Media and Information Literacy
Critical Thinking and Research Skills   
Collaboration    
Wiki Technical and Communication Skills    

Discipline of course
Languages

Class size
4

Individual or group assignment
Both

Duration of assignment
16 weeks

Resources
Syllabus
Grading rubric

Assignment

My students principally work on translating articles from English Wikipedia to Spanish Wikipedia, with an emphasis on working with the communities of both languages.

This type of assignment takes advantage of Wikipedia as a focused social situation, something that foreign language learners, especially advanced ones, need. This kind of interaction mimics real world challenges such as using the language for communication of ideas and adapting the requirements of a previously-unknown social group. It is real enough to produce culture shock in a number of students. However, the same frustrations are also motivational as students know they are interacting with real people and their efforts have an effect outside the classroom.

(CC-BY-SA 3.0) by Alejandro Linares Garcia