Towards a technologised translation classroom: Practices and perceptions from trainers at a Swiss University

Nowadays, the translation market seeks profiles with increasing levels of technical skills that go beyond classical translation competencies. Over the years, university translation programs have tried to adapt their modules to this ever-evolving reality, with more or less success. In this paper, we present a study whose main goal was to obtain a holistic description of how technologies are used in translation classrooms at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (FTI) of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with 16 translation trainers. Preliminary results indicate that the integration of technology in practical translation modules varies considerably depending on the program in which the modules are taught (BA or MA), as well as on the trainer’s educational and professional background. In addition, data show that the type of technology most trainers often referred to (and were more concerned about) was Machine Translation (MT). Trainers’ attitude towards translation technologies was found to be generally positive, particularly in the case of trainers who also have professional translation jobs alongside their academic commitments. Paradoxically, this does not seem to be always reflected in their teaching methods, which tend to be more conservative – with few exceptions