Cognitive Strategies for Effective Translation Teaching
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Abstract
Translation is a cognitively demanding activity that requires continuous problem-solving, monitoring, and decision-making under limited cognitive resources. Managing cognitive effort effectively is therefore essential for developing translator competence and for sustaining pedagogical efficiency in university translation classrooms. This article integrates insights from Cognitive Translation Studies, Cognitive Load Theory, and Gile's Effort Models to examine how cognitive effort can be explicitly addressed in translator education. Drawing on qualitative, classroom-based action research in an undergraduate translation program, it presents three pedagogical interventions—task segmentation, scaffolded collaborative work, and guided reflective logging—and analyzes their impact on students' perceived cognitive load, metacognitive awareness, and translation performance. The classroom cases indicate that segmenting tasks reduces intrinsic load, collaborative scaffolding helps redistribute effort and externalize reasoning, and structured reflection fosters germane load and self-regulated learning. The study argues that "cognitive effort management" should be treated as a core learning objective in translation pedagogy, with concrete implications for curriculum design, assessment, teacher training, and technology integration.
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