Translators, like many professionals, need to work to tight deadlines. However, university education has conventionally focused on quality rather than speed. Thus, students arrive in the workplace unable to meet deadlines or quotas, causing frustration for employers.

To address this challenge, we devised and tested a speed training framework, including elements of gamification, to help final year undergraduate translation students to transition more smoothly from the classroom to the workplace. The results indicate that students did learn to work more quickly, and that they also developed more confidence and learned to rely on their own judgment to a greater extent.

They were also less at risk of overthinking a problem. Gamification proved effective for engaging students. This approach to speed training in translation has the potential to be applied in other disciplines also.

This free lecture will be led by Lynne Bowker.