Scaffolding as a teaching strategy to improve students translation performance

Abstract EN

English as a foreign language classes are characterized by the cooperative nature between the teachers and the learners.

Translation classes at university level form no exception since different types of assistance are expected from the teachers to their students while engaged in the varied translation tasks.

As a result of teachers realizing the value of the assistance, they must give students activities to make translation assignments easier and progress them to the point where they can complete their translation work independently.

The concept of scaffolding has emerged as a central idea in education.

Scaffolding strategies form a variety of teachers’ competent means to enable learners move progressively towards better understanding and, ultimately, noticeable independence in the learning/translation process.

The current research aims at investigating the role of scaffolding in enhancing learners’ performance in translation by the two-fold approach it has adopted.

First, theoretical by attending to a set of topics and topics that are quite pertinent to the concept of scaffolding in education.

Second, practical by administering a questionnaire to a sample of 27 teachers of translation so as to validate the following hypothetical points: The use of scaffolding strategies in translation classes at university level, if any; the use of different scaffolding strategies in such classes, and the role of teachers’ gender and the students’ study stage in any differences that might be in the use of the different scaffolding strategies.

The results show that scaffolding is used in translation classes at university level, translation teachers use different scaffolding strategies and there is no effect of teachers’ gender and students’ study stage on the use of such strategies in terms of being different from one study stage to another.