Title
A review of AVT training in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh-based universities as a case study
Conference name
New Trends in Translation and Technology 2022
City
Country
Greece
Modalities
Date
04/07/2022-06/07/2022
Abstract
Audiovisual translation (AVT) training was first added to universities’ curricula in the late 1980s by the University of Lille before being offered fragmentally by non-academic institutions. In Saudi Arabia, AVT training was established in the early 2000s, making it still a relatively recent addition to undergraduate programs at Saudi universities. Despite the importance of AVT training to a multicultural country such as Saudi Arabia that is distinguished by its religious tourism, it has been overlooked in the literature of translation and interpreting research. Available scholarly works have instead addressed AVT training courses as part of the overall AVT training in the Arab world (Gamal, 2009, 2019) and as an integrated element of in-class translation activities at Saudi universities (see, for instance, Zemni and Bounaas, 2020). Other works have broadly focused on either assessing translation competence in training courses at Saudi universities (see, for example, Abu-ghararah, 2017; Salamah, 2020; Alzamil, 2022) or reviewing general translation training courses in the MENA region (Al-Batineh and Bilali, 2016). The current state of AVT training in Saudi Arabia, in the particular context of universities, therefore, lacks systematic examination and analysis.
This paper aims to lay the groundwork for studying AVT training at Saudi universities and argues that a serious analysis of the existing training courses is vital. This study attempts to answer the research question about the current state of AVT training at Saudi universities and the perceptions of stakeholders involved in AVT training production and consumption towards the effectiveness of training curricula. This paper uses a case study of three Saudi universities based in Riyadh, two public institutions: King Saud University (KSU) and Princess Nourah University (PNU), and the private institution Prince Sultan University (PSU). All of these universities have a leading role in offering specialised undergraduate and postgraduate courses on translation and interpreting as well as domain-specific research activities. Additionally, these universities are located where the researcher is based, which facilitates ease of data collection. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach in order to validate the results. This involved combining content analysis of study plans of the translation programs under examination as well as using surveys that were distributed to three groups of participants who represent stakeholders: three heads of translation departments, 60 final-year students and three industry representatives from the most active Saudi platforms in hiring translators and providing translator training (Translator’s Virtual Academy, House of Translators and TRAAJIM). The sampling criteria of surveys was directly linked to the research question in order to examine the state of AVT training from the perspectives of the three sets of stakeholders. The findings suggest that AVT training has not yet been integrated effectively into the translation curricula at the selected Saudi universities due to it being an embedded part of courses on media translation offered by KSU and PSU. PNU only teaches a single AVT course. The results from the survey of the stakeholders reveal that more than half of the participants believe that AVT training is still insufficient in undergraduate translation programs. As a result, final-year students seek AVT training programs outside the university settings, such as online courses offered by the platforms of Translator’s Virtual Academy and House of Translators as well as other international virtual training platforms.
The findings of this study correlate with the figures from Alenzi (2016), which reveal that 71% of students and 81% of instructors think that AVT training should be added to university curricula as a useful domain of translation at KSU, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and Effat University. The findings also correspond to a wider scope study by Alkhatnai (2021), which shows that half of the surveyed translators call for the need to offer training courses on CAT tools and other relevant media tools by Saudi academic institutions. The macro-level findings of this study reveal an urgency to bridge the current gap between translation curriculum design and situational context by incorporating more AVT training by universities in order to match and keep pace with the fast-growing requirements of the Saudi job market.
This paper aims to lay the groundwork for studying AVT training at Saudi universities and argues that a serious analysis of the existing training courses is vital. This study attempts to answer the research question about the current state of AVT training at Saudi universities and the perceptions of stakeholders involved in AVT training production and consumption towards the effectiveness of training curricula. This paper uses a case study of three Saudi universities based in Riyadh, two public institutions: King Saud University (KSU) and Princess Nourah University (PNU), and the private institution Prince Sultan University (PSU). All of these universities have a leading role in offering specialised undergraduate and postgraduate courses on translation and interpreting as well as domain-specific research activities. Additionally, these universities are located where the researcher is based, which facilitates ease of data collection. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach in order to validate the results. This involved combining content analysis of study plans of the translation programs under examination as well as using surveys that were distributed to three groups of participants who represent stakeholders: three heads of translation departments, 60 final-year students and three industry representatives from the most active Saudi platforms in hiring translators and providing translator training (Translator’s Virtual Academy, House of Translators and TRAAJIM). The sampling criteria of surveys was directly linked to the research question in order to examine the state of AVT training from the perspectives of the three sets of stakeholders. The findings suggest that AVT training has not yet been integrated effectively into the translation curricula at the selected Saudi universities due to it being an embedded part of courses on media translation offered by KSU and PSU. PNU only teaches a single AVT course. The results from the survey of the stakeholders reveal that more than half of the participants believe that AVT training is still insufficient in undergraduate translation programs. As a result, final-year students seek AVT training programs outside the university settings, such as online courses offered by the platforms of Translator’s Virtual Academy and House of Translators as well as other international virtual training platforms.
The findings of this study correlate with the figures from Alenzi (2016), which reveal that 71% of students and 81% of instructors think that AVT training should be added to university curricula as a useful domain of translation at KSU, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and Effat University. The findings also correspond to a wider scope study by Alkhatnai (2021), which shows that half of the surveyed translators call for the need to offer training courses on CAT tools and other relevant media tools by Saudi academic institutions. The macro-level findings of this study reveal an urgency to bridge the current gap between translation curriculum design and situational context by incorporating more AVT training by universities in order to match and keep pace with the fast-growing requirements of the Saudi job market.