Impediments to Translator Training at Arab Universities: Proposal for Change

Abstract:

This paper seeks to engage scholars involved in translator training/translator education in a debate on the current state of affairs in most Arab university translator training programs. The author offers a possible framework for such a proposed debate by highlighting the impediments to translator training. Several aspects of translator training are overshadowed by certain impediments reflected in such elements as a lack of complementarity in classroom teaching, the mismatch between workplace expectations and translation teaching norms in academic settings, and opposed ideologies among translator trainers. Finally, the author presents some translation descriptors for teaching and assessment and two modules for training trainers and trainees.