The World Café and the flipped class technique as collaborative learning methodologies in a translation course: a case study

When discussing translation, theory and practice seem at opposite ends. However, a mediation between the two cannot be discarded when designing and planning a postgraduate translation course. Translation teaching, though a relatively recent field, has traditional methods and manuals. In 2014, Kiraly argued for a revision of his cognitivist approach to translation teaching (first claimed in Pathways to translation, 1995) and its focus on mental translation processes, to embrace a constructivist perspective whereby meaning and knowledge are built in social interactions. Acknowledging previous research and aiming to stimulate students’ participation, a 30-hour theory and practice translation postgraduate module was designed. Flipped class activities and the World Café technique were implemented, aiming at dealing with short translation tasks (practice) alongside a focus on historical approaches and methods (theory) via selected readings from Venuti’s The Translation Studies Reader (2000). This research makes a case for the effectiveness of World café, a collaborative learning methodology, and of flipped class as a useful complement. The intention is to describe such teaching/learning strategies and the authentic assessment adopted alongside them to offer some provisional thoughts on the impact such learning experience had on students.