Dynamic Assessment of Translation Quality: A New Approach to Translator Development

As English translation ability is a process and cannot be developed overnight, it needs continuous control of teachers at its initial stages. Thus, the researchers decided to explore the impact of dynamic assessment on Iranian English Translation students’ translation quality. The study was performed on 49 male and female English Translation students from two intact classes at Islamic Azad University – Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran. On a random basis, one of the classes was taken as the control and the other as the experimental group. The participants in both groups took the translation pre-test and translated texts from English into Farsi. During instructional sessions, the control group was taught based on traditional methods whereas the experimental group was taught and assessed according to the principles of DA. At last, the post-test was administered in both groups. Analysis of Covariance was run on the collected data, the results of which revealed a significant difference between the groups and the experimental group, who experienced DA, outperformed the control group. The findings of the study could prove useful for translation teachers, students, textbook designers, and material developers in paving the way for the development of skillful and independent translators.