Constructive Alignment in Translator Education: Reconsidering Assessment for Both Industry and Academy

Abstract

This article follows Toury’s example, when he turned the lack of consensus on a definition of translation into his definition or theory of translation, by theorizing the lack of agreement on how to assess translations in translator education. On the basis of two principles of assessment, i.e., constructive alignment and the assessment construct, this article argues that a unified theory of assessment in translator education is not viable and that, furthermore, the variety of translation theories that are used to conceptualize translation further complicates the matter of assessment. The article then proposes a particular assessment instrument as a case study in the implications of the theoretical stance. The argument against a unified theory of assessment in translator education also applies to translator certification.

Keywords

• translation studies
• translator education
• assessment
• higher education
• translation criticism
• translation pedagogy.