For centuries, literary translation has been at the center of classical and modern language classrooms. In the 20th century, with the proliferation of communicative approaches, translation lost its former status for good reasons: Instruction centering around translation task had failed to prepare learners to develop the level of oral proficiency required for participation on international travel, commerce, and cultural exchange in an increasingly globalized world.
Rather than advocating a return to methodologies associated to the grammar-translation method, our project seeks to identify opportunities to integrate translation studies into a communicative, content-driven language curriculum at a STEM-dominated institution of higher education.
In our presentation, we will introduce a course on translation studies we developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Taught in English, but addressed to language learners of a variety of target languages, the course offers discussions of theoretical readings from the field of translation studies, hand-on tasks for students developing their individual literary translation portfolios, and opportunities to explore affordances and shortcomings of machine translation tools vis-a-vis literary texts.
We will share data collected among participants of the course that measured (1) their perceived linguistic gains as a result of the exposure to translation theory as well as practical tasks of literary texts, (2) their development of sensitivity for literariness and genre in their target languages, (3) their development of metalinguistic awareness, (4) their development of a critical appreciation for the art of literary translation, and (5) their development of a nuanced understanding of the shortcomings of current machine translation applications.
We will conclude with a critical reflection of the opportunities and limitations to integrate language, literature, and STEM education through translation studies.
