Réflexions sur l'enseignement de la traduction au Département de français et de Traduction (Faculté des Langues et de Traduction (KSU-URS) (Etude descriptive et critique)

The circumstances related to the teaching of translation in our Department of French 
and Translation have become challenging. The level of students has started dropping. 
It has been strongly felt that there is an urgent need for a better understanding of this 
situation in order to make some suggestions to improve it. Thus, a questionnaire was 
drawn up and answered by some forty students mainly of advanced levels (9th and 
10th) in order to thoroughly understand and evaluate the teaching operation in all its 
aspects. Several issues were addressed, including the prerequisites for translation, the 
problem of selecting students for training and their motivation, the problem of 
directionality in translation, criteria for choosing texts, the employment of theoretical 
and didactic approaches, evaluation and scoring system, and the number of translation 
exercises offered in class. It has been found that most students have not sufficiently 
acquired the required skills in this area and that there are considerable theoretical, 
methodological and didactical differences between teachers in all aspects of the 
subject. Proposals were made with a view to improving the situation of translational 
practice, including the development of a system of student selection, the need for 
consultation within the teaching community, the establishment of a theoretical and 
didactic framework, the designing of a new curriculum, the development of two 
tracks, the abolition or reduction of English courses for the benefit of the 
concentrative learning of the French language, the placement of a professional 
Diploma/Master course in French translation, reinforcement of the supervisory 
system, etc.