•  
  •  
 

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.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.