Teaching interpreting theory through snowballing. Graduate students’ perceptions and its effect on competence, motivation, and attitude towards theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58859/resla.1225Abstract
The translation and interpreting literature indicates that theory is beneficial and that students hold a positive attitude towards it, reinforcing the conviction that theory should be a component of curriculum. Since students have expectations regarding how theory should be taught and teaching theory in a way that generates positive learning experiences and encourages internalization and application is challenging, a pressing issue to be tackled is how to teach theory, which is, unfortunately, an understudied area. This article aims to propose the use of snowballing as a transformationist approach to theory teaching and explore its reception among students and its effect on their self-perceived competence, motivation, and attitude towards theory. Twenty interpreting graduate students were involved as participants. A semantic differential scale was used to compare students’ perceptions of snowballing with those of their prior learning experiences. A one-group pretest-posttest design was used to check the effect of snowballing. The current study adds to previous studies to confirm students’ positive attitude towards theory. It provides new evidence that students’ motivation to learn theory includes identified regulation and intrinsic motivation, and that snowballing is well received among students and improves their self-perceived competence, motivation, and attitude towards theory.
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