Benefits And Challenges Of Online Collaborative Translation: EFL Translators’-To-Be Perceptions

Abstract

Online collaborative learning has widely become one of the trends in the pedagogical context, especially in tertiary education, but it still has advantages and drawbacks. Thus, this research introduced online collaborative learning in the course of a translation to explore its benefits and challenges from the perceptions of EFL translators’-to-be. The study employed the descriptive research with the semi-structured interview and a 35-item questionnaire used to collect data from 156 participants majoring in English Translation and Interpretation. The findings showed that online collaborative translation gave students opportunities (1) to develop hard skills related to translation competence, knowledge, and self-direct learning; (2) to improve soft skills such as abilities for operating a computer or laptop, information searching skills as well as communication skills; and (3) to study from home and save money and time for traveling. However, poor time management and technical problems such as unstable Internet connection were seen as common challenges. Besides, in this study, two new challenges were recognized, namely members’ idiosyncrasy giving rise to an argument among students, and the overuse of the computer-assisted translation, Google Translate. By and large, during the process of collaborative translation in the online environment, benefits outweighed challenges, and students had positive outlooks on this activity.