The challenges of teaching and learning translation and languages during a pandemic: a case study with two courses in a business school

• Main Author: Tavares, Célia
• Publication Date: 2021
• Other Authors: Moreira Silva, Manuel
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/17531
• topic: b-Learning; translation; language learning; teaching-learning strategies

The challenges posed by the existence of a pandemic are clear and governments have sought to implement measures to contain the transmission of the new coronavirus. The contingency measures are implemented in the hope of saving human lives and protect the response capacity of the National Health Service. However, it is not only Health that faces these challenging times. The educational context is also not unaware of this impact, which can be seen as an opportunity to develop other alternative ways of teaching and conveying knowledge. Therefore, this paper intends to analyse the case of two different but complimentary subjects taught within the scope of two Higher Education degrees in Portugal. These particular subjects are Economic Translation within the Master's Degree in Specialised Translation and Interpretation and also the subject of Business English I taught in the Degree of Business Communication. Both degrees are from the Porto Accounting and Business School. In this paper, the contingencies related to the presence of the students in the classroom and at home will be developed and explained, as well as the methodologies and the new blended learning strategies that were implemented to solve or minimize the problems encountered. The educational tools and resources used to lecture theses classes will also be analysed. To finish, this paper will also present the results of a survey, which was answered by all students who attended these subjects in continuous assessment. The results hope to bring insight about the students' learning experience and the value of the strategies and tools used in this atypical context and will lead to additional conclusions.