Intercultural Competence in a Translator Training Program: Exploring Students’ Self-Assessment and Perceptions

Abstract

Intercultural competence is significant for translators and it needs to be emphasized in translator training programs through comprehensive inclusion. However, students’ perceptions and levels in this competence are not always taken into consideration in the development of translator training program. Therefore, this study aims to explore students’ self-assessment of their intercultural competence (IC) and their perceptions along with how the case-study program develop IC among students. First, it introduces the definition and components of IC based on the literature. Second, it investigates an undergraduate translation program as a case study and it uses two questionnaires, designed on Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators project’s (PICT) identification of IC, to identify students’ IC and their perceptions of its significance. The results indicate a good level of students’ IC as well as high-level perception of the significance of IC and that the case-study program have a substantial inclusion of IC. In addition, the resuts are consistent with the results of PICT, which implies that the courses in the case study program in this study were sufficient to develop IC among students and emphasized the significance of IC to students. Also, the study offers tools which can be used by other researchers to self-assess the IC of students in different programs.