Translator education in the United States of America: A study of introductory translation classrooms in three mid-Atlantic universities

We know the attributes of successful foreign-language translators, and them is no shortage of theories of both translation and translation pedagogy. Much of the scholarship flows from the traditions of linguistics, comparative literature, religious studies, foreign language acquisition and the humanities. Except for some recent work in psycholinguistics, social scientists have not contributed to the growing body of knowledge in translation studies. Educational evaluators in particular have not examined translator education programs, in the United States or abroad.; Over the course of three semesters, the author studied three different introductory translation classes. One was an independent initiative by a language instructor to introduce his students to the field of translation; it was not part of a larger translator education program. The second was a pilot course by a university establishing a minor in technical translation. The third was the first course in a two-year sequence leading to a Certificate in Translating; the sequence constituted a translator education program that had been operating successfully for 20 years.; The overall research strategy rested on interpretive inquiry. Data collection consisted of classroom observation, interviews of participants and review of documentary material. Analysis was supported by NUD*IST 4.0, a software package developed to analyze qualitative data for grounded theory.; The goal of this study was to facilitate the evaluation of translation classes, by discovering considerations that were relevant to evaluation design.