Incorporating ergonomics into the translation curriculum : why, where and how

The recognition of translation as a situated event, as opposed to a purely internal cognitive act, has seen translation research and pedagogy reaching beyond the narrow confines of the translator’s mind to focus more broadly on the way translators interact with the physical, social, technological and organisational environments in which they work. This, in turn, has triggered a recent interest in researching the physical, cognitive and organisational ergonomics of translation, which Lavault-Olléan (2011) goes so far as to consider a promising new paradigm in Translation Studies. Underpinning this new framework are theories of distributed, situated and embodied cognition (e.g. Risku 2010, 2014; see also Ehrensberger-Dow & Massey 2014: 60-62), from which a variety of models have been derived and elaborated to account for translation competence and, more particularly, how it develops (e.g. Kiraly & Hofmann 2016). The corollary of such models is that ergonomic factors and the way they affect the situated activity of translation could well hold strong implications for translation pedagogy. Yet, it appears that ergonomic issues are seldom addressed in translator education, despite research indicating the potentially serious impact that ergonomic factors can have on the efficiency of translation processes and the quality of products (e.g. Ehrensberger-Dow & Massey 2014). This paper will therefore argue the benefits of incorporating an ergonomic perspective into translator education. Presenting an outline for introducing cross-curricular components to teach translation ergonomics within the frameworks of deliberate, reflective practice (cf. Shreve 2006) and co-emergent competence development (cf. Kiraly & Hofmann 2016), it will explore concrete options for incorporating key aspects of cognitive, organisational and physical ergonomics into various forms of intra-curricular process-oriented teaching and authentic experiential learning combined with accompanying action-research initiatives