The development of interpersonal subcompetence among translation students through Spanish- English translation of microstories

Abstract

The job of a translator tends to be seen as one that is performed individually and, therefore, working collaboratively with others is not necessary. Nevertheless, working in partnership is becoming more relevant so as to obtain better results when translating. Based on this premise, a literary project was carried out in which the university community was invited to send their short tales in Spanish, so that they could be translated into English. The main objective of this project was to contribute to the development of the interpersonal subcompetence in third-year students from the English-Spanish-English Translation programme from Arturo Prat University in Iquique, Chile, by translating short tales. The students participated in workshops, during one semester, where they created and translated short tales. Also, the students had interviews with the short tales’ authors, translated the tales and coedited them by working with other peers. Through surveys, a journal, a self-assessment as well as a focus group, it was possible to evidence the high level of appreciation students gave to collaborative work in the translation process, and the experimental knowledge acquired by means of this literary translation project, which benefits translators’ training.