How Can Translation Teachers Care for their Students? A Case Study on Verbal Persuasion and Translation Students' Self-efficacy Beliefs

Abstract

This paper presents a case study performed in three groups of a specialized translation course of the Degree in Translation and Interpreting offered at the University of Granada (Spain). It aims to analyze the impact that verbal persuasion by teachers can have on translation students’ self-efficacy beliefs, that is, on their confidence as translators. More generally, this study was developed to shed light on teaching practices and pedagogical approaches that can have an influence on students’ self-efficacy beliefs, thus attempting to fill the vacuum identified by several authors relative to self-efficacy beliefs in translator education. This case study, based on the comparison between groups, was developed following a mixed-method approach, where qualitative (interviews, classroom observation and focus groups) and quantitative techniques (a survey) were implemented. Results show that, according to the participant students’ perceptions, verbal persuasion positively influenced their self-efficacy beliefs when persuasive comments were realistic, that is, when they corresponded to the students’ real ability to translate. Therefore, a student-centred environment led by a caring teaching approach appears to be essential for verbal persuasion to work as a source of self-efficacy beliefs in translator education