Pedagogical Remedies to Improve Translation Teaching at Iranian Universities

The main priority for translation educators is to improve the quality and outcomes of translation courses at the university level. The process of planning and implementing the teaching process and the design of teaching materials are the translation teachers' two major concerns among many. This research presents Iranian translation educators' views on the possibilities for improving the conditions in the English language departments of Iranian universities. The goal was achieved through conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with some of the experienced faculty members of the Iranian universities involved in translation teaching, whose suggested guidelines and perspectives were extracted and synthesized. The discussions centered around applying the constructivist approach to teaching translation, which the interviewees believed could provide opportunities for students to play an active role in their own learning by integrating and activating corresponding knowledge, skills, and attributes specifically in the form of group work or collaborative learning in translation classes. Furthermore, local policies, based on needs assessment, implemented by each department were considered to be highly efficient to face translation teaching and learning problems.