Education/News/Drafts/Translating Wikipedia in Muscat, Oman: the story of success

The use of Wikipedia in teaching translation has been initiated by Khaled Al-Shehari at Sultan Qaboos University in August 2015. The Department of English welcomed the idea. Using this approach was the 2nd stage in a bigger project initiated by the instructor at Durham University (UK). The approach was adopted at SQU in a course called Practicum I, which aims at enhancing students' skills in translation and linking their projects to the real market of translation. Previously, students used to translate a book as one project but they could not publish their translation for various reasons. The use of Wikipedia in this course was different. Students each is given full freedom to select an article from English Wikipedia to translate to Arabic. The text has to be approved by the instructor in order to make sure that it meets the expected standards of the program. Draft pages are created for students on Wikimedia platform so they can translate and discuss their translational decisions online. Students are also required to revise each other's translations. Besides enhancing their translation skills, students learn how to edit Wikipedia articles and how to publish on Wikipedia. Students have translated 41 lengthy articles from English into Arabic in two semesters and have had all translations published in the Arabic Wikipedia.

Comments by Students (sample):

- I like the idea of using articles from Wikipedia to translate and publish

- I liked being able to choose an article, practice my translation skills, and figure out how to solve any problems I encounter when I translate. I also got to learn how to publish an article on Wikipedia, how to edit, and how to use the features provided, all of which encouraged me to voluntarily translate more articles, hopefully in the near future.

- Liked to be treated like a real life professional translator

- The idea of translating articles from Wikipedia is very genius; others will benefit from such works.

- أعجبني مدى اطلاع الدكتور والخبرات التي منحنا إياها في استخدام الويكيبيديا بطرق فاعلة ومبتكرة. كما أنني اعتقد بأن هذا المقرر كونه المشروع الأكبر الذي قمنا به إلى الآن في الترجمة قد أضاف لنا الكثير من الخبرات العملية والعلمية.

- تعلمنا شيئا جديدا في هذا المقرر، ألا وهو استخدام الويكيبيديا. لقد كان الأمر حقا ممتعا وفي نفس الوقت مفيدا لنا كطلاب ترجمة. هذا المقرر جميل من جميع النواحي على خلاف المقررات الأخرى التي تتبع الطرق القديمة في التدريس.

For more information and to access the source and target articles, visit the project pagein Arabic. You can also access an English version of the project page here.