Abstract
Four online lessons were created to study the efficacy of teaching translation within a constructivist approach(Wilcox & Shaffer, 2005). The lessons were self-directed and project-based. Twenty participants supplied a baseline sight translation of an English story into American Sign Language (ASL). A model of “meaning” was used to assess the texts consisting of three levels: literal, enrichment and implicature (McDermid, 2012). A mixed-method evaluation was conducted and results showed that participants enriched their baseline target texts, ranging from 2 to 17 instances. Eight completed a number of online lessons and submitted a second translation of the text, which evidenced more enrichment (p* < .05). The participants described the lessons as beneficial and appreciated the design. However, the completion rate was low as was student-to-student interaction, perhaps due to the interface. Tentative conclusions of this small-scale pilot study were that for this cohort, self-directed, project-based learning led to enhanced use of enrichment and implicatures.
Recommended Citation
McDermid, Campbell and Pope, James
(2019)
"Online Project Based Learning: The efficacy for signed language interpreters,"
International Journal of Interpreter Education: Vol. 11:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/ijie/vol11/iss1/5
