Sight Translation as a Pedagogical Tool in Teaching Interpretation of Political Texts

Abstract

In translation teaching, sight translation has been used, for decades, as a pedagogical tool to enhance students’ interpreting skills in a myriad text genres. In this study, sight translation was used as a pedagogical tool to teach translation and interpretation of political texts to 37 undergraduate third year students of the academic year 2022/2023 at the university of Dodoma, Tanzania. The 3 collected English political speeches were chunked and organized in PowerPoint form to be sight translated into Kiswahili. The student sight translator displayed its content on the wall through a projector which was connected to a personal computer. When sight translating, the other students were comparing his/her verbal renditions into the target language with the content in the source language which was displayed on the wall through a projector. The study revealed that some English political expressions that refer to the address forms of the heads of state and government, the official residence of the heads of state and government, titles of foreign dignitaries, the etiquette of recognizing meeting attendees, and the capital city when used to denote a government or country could not be easily sight translated into Kiswahili for a number of reasons. Despite the challenges that sight translation may encounter during implementation, it remains a friendliest, adaptable, and inclusive pedagogical tool in translation and interpretation classes in all levels of learning.