Exploring genre-based EN<>IT specialised translation training and its effects on self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

In the growing market of the translation industry, where 90% of the global output consists of specialised translation, the acquisition of familiarity with different specialised genres is critical for translation trainees to confidently prepare for their future professional challenges. Not only do professionals report dealing with a high diversity of texts and domains but low familiarity may result in poor translation performances and low self-efficacy. Due to the general orientation of Specialised Translation master’s programmes in Italy, it is often difficult to deliver genre-specific training, which translates to scattered tasks and avoidance of highly specialised genres and texts. This contribution describes training administered to final-year learners of a master’s degree in Specialised Translation, and it was designed to delve into four specialised genres by analysing and translating authentic professional materials. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires employing an adaptation of Chen, Gully, and Eden’s general self-efficacy scale (2001) were administered to explore learners’ perceived difficulties and to investigate whether the training could enhance learners’ self-efficacy about translation tasks.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation
• translation training
• self-efficacy
• genre
• specialised translation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2024.2307157.

Notes

1. This contribution utilises the term genre without explicitly addressing its specific distinction from the term text type, as it often occurs within translation studies (Biel 2017). Here, the term genre is favoured over text type since the first zeroes in on the interrelation between a text and its context of use, the identity of the source community and that of the one receiving its translated version, with the implications regarding epistemic ideologies and translation ethics (see Montgomery 2007). However, in the context of this article, the term genre is intended to encompass the definition of text types characterised by their expected features and prototypicality, as defined by Tsiplakou and Floros (2013).