From 2019 to 2022 the Queen’s College Translation Exchange ran a research project on the impact of creative translation workshops on young language learners. The project was co-funded by the John Fell Fund and The Queen’s College at the University of Oxford, and run in partnership with literary charity the Stephen Spender Trust.
Every year the Translation Exchange trains university students to design and deliver creative translation workshops in schools: our Creative Translation Ambassadors programme. In 2019 we worked with education researcher Clementine Beauvais to investigate the impact of these collaborative workshops on young language learners. The findings were published in an article in 2020 co-authored by Beauvais and Translation Exchange Director Charlotte Ryland: access the article here.
In 2021, due to the pandemic, our ambassador workshops were delivered in class by teachers, via asynchronous videos, ppt presentations, and worksheets produced by the ambassadors. During that year we worked with education researcher Clare Savory to investigate pupil and teacher responses to the workshops:Â Creative Translation In The Classroom Report
In January 2019 we held a forum for practitioners and researchers of creative translation in schools, at a very early stage in the development of the field.
Read our resulting status report on the field:
Creative Translation In The Classroom Report On Forum January 2019
The project closed with a virtual symposium that drew together panellists who are all engaged with bringing creative translation to young people. We were delighted to be joined by representatives from the main creative translation programmes in the UK and US. The symposium presented a unique opportunity to share challenges and successes, and to think together about how we can develop this field and its impact on young people.
We worked with the Stephen Spender Trust to share and develop best practice in evaluating creative translation workshops delivered by professional translators. The findings from this evaluation are here:
SST Creative Translation In The Classroom Summary
SST Creative Translation In The Classroom Teacher Survey 2022
