The Linguist

32 The Linguist Vol/65 No/2 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist OPINION & COMMENT Email linguist.editor@ciol.org.uk with your views Translation teaching in the MENA region Educators and scholars have long scrutinised the teaching of translation and interpreting in universities and educational institutions, but until relatively recently no fixed strategies have been put in place, especially in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is in contrast to the many well-experimented strategies and theories for teaching foreign languages. English, French, Spanish and Italian comprise the largest proportion of the language services market in the Arabic- speaking sphere, particularly in Egypt and the Arab Gulf. However, the teaching of translation and interpreting there has only recently witnessed calculable developments. People study translation, interpreting and linguistics with the aim of working as professional linguists, yet in the MENA region it has always been difficult to find professors and scholars who work as professional translators and interpreters. This has created a gap between academic education and job market requirements. The lack of well-trained, professional instructors has impeded the development of specialised translation and interpreting courses. The teaching process typically starts with the instructor giving students excerpts of press texts (mainly political and economic) to translate, but they do not usually provide constructive feedback. The same applies to teaching interpreting: because of the lack of instructors who work as interpreters, teaching depends on theoretical concepts, with minimum practical approach to the subject. There is a shortage of research on teaching translation and interpreting in Arabic. Research papers are often requirements for promotion or academic diplomas, but these mainly focus on the process of translation and interpreting without considering how to teach the subjects. This limits instructors' ability to propose modern methods of teaching to help students to qualify for the language job market. Instructors, lecturers and even professors of translation and interpreting tend to rely on ready-translated texts in lecturing and testing. These factors combine to widen the gap between what students learn in educational institutions in many parts of the MENA region and the requirements they need to fulfil the needs of the job market. It also limits their ability to develop the much needed academic books on translation and interpreting. Furthermore, the materials used are rarely updated to a contemporary context, so students might be asked to translate an economic text tracing back to World War II rather than a text with more relevance today. Due to the widening education-work gap, language service providers (LSPs) struggle to find sufficient numbers of qualified and well- trained linguists in many MENA nations. Having students depend on machine translation (MT) without performing any type of machine translation post-editing (MTPE) paves the way for an even deeper problem with professionalism and codes of conduct. Fresh graduates are shocked to discover that they are not qualified to be hired by the smallest LSPs. It is essential that academic institutions integrate recent technological developments into the curricula, including but not limited to AI, computer-assisted interpreting/translation (CAI/CAT) tools, specialised translation and interpreting, localisation, caption generation in subtitle translation, and use of sophisticated remote interpreting platforms. Teaching translation/interpreting without providing the necessary legal framework for translators and interpreters, in terms of language, translation and intellectual property laws, should be unthinkable. Many MENA universities need to develop their human resources to the point that their professors and lecturers become adaptive to the changes around them. To attract professional and seasoned instructors, I would suggest using benchmark employment and promotion criteria. Experience as a professional translator and/or interpreter, and ever-evolving professional development, should be among the requirements, along with academic research and published papers. I would also recommend that the career portfolio of instructors incorporate feedback from students, rather than only from peers. No educational institution that teaches interpreting should be without consecutive interpreting laboratories and simultaneous interpreting booths. Some thrifty strategies, like partnering with global providers, can make these facilities more affordable for cash-strapped institutions.

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