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. In Vygotskian Approaches to Second LanguageResearch, J.P.Lantolf and G.Appel (eds).1 32.Norwood, NJ: Ablex.McCluskey, B.1987. The chinks in the armour: Problems encountered by language gradu-ates entering a large translation department. In Translation in the Modern LanguagesDegree, H.Keith and I.Mason (eds).London: Information on Language Teaching andResearch.Miller, R.A.1977.The Japanese Language in Contemporary Japan: Some SociolinguisticObservations.Washington: American Enterprise Institute.Morgan, B.Q.1959.Bibliography chapter in Brower 1959.Page, G.1999.Inside the Animal Mind.New York: Broadway Books.Russell-Bitting, S.A.2001. Eliot Weinberger on translation, That problematic necessity. ATA Chronicle: XXX 2: 31 32, 65.Scherer, E.1878 86.Études sur la littérature contemporaine.Ten volumes.Paris: Calmann-Lévy.Showerman, G.1916. The way of the translator. In Unpopular Review 5: 84 100.Steiner, G.1975.After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation.Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press.Vinay, J.-P.and Darbelnet, J.1958.Stylistique comparée du français et de l anglais; méthode detraduction.Paris: Didier.Welty, J.C.and Baptista, L.1988.The Life of Birds.Fort Worth: Saunders College andHarcourt Brace Jovanovich. 2.Translation as product Learning through portfoliosin the translation classroomJulie E.JohnsonIntroductionPortfolios burst onto the academic scene (primarily at the secondary level)about a decade ago as part of the authentic assessment movement (Herman etal.1996: 27).They have become de rigueur in many writing and language artsclassrooms across the United States, and are also showing up in many otherdisciplines where critical thinking is central.Portfolios that are intended primarily as a summative assessment tooltypically consist of a selection of student work aimed at demonstrating accom-plishments, progress, and/or readiness to meet future challenges.Some portfo-lios include cover statements presenting why each piece was included or whatit shows.Learning-focused, or formative, portfolios often include re¶ectivestatements by the student (goals, progress, strategies, frustrations), as well.Such statements can serve a number of dixerent purposes, one of the mostimportant being re¶ective learning.Re¶ective learning occurs when students gain and reinforce their owninsights by re¶ecting on their own work.In a profession like translation, this iskey.According to Dewey, the student has to see on his own behalf and in his own way the relations between means andmethods employed and results achieved.Nobody else can see for him, and hecan t see just by being told, although the right kind of telling may guide his seeingand thus help him to see what he needs to see. (1974: 151)Because of their focus on process as well as product, portfolios make an idealtool for fostering and assessing student learning in the translation classroom,particularly the kind of on-going re¶ective learning required of a professionaltranslator. 98 Julie E.JohnsonThis article discusses the advantages of portfolios in translator education,presents the speciªc purposes, content, assessment, and impact of portfolios asused in translation courses in the Graduate School of Translation and Inter-pretation (GSTI) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and pro-poses design considerations for translation educators wishing to implement asimilar approach.Advantages of portfoliosA portfolio approach to both summative and formative assessment can sup-port a social constructivist approach to translator education. In his book bythis title, Don Kiraly (2000) argues that the goal of translation programs is notmerely to help students develop technical skill, but to transform them intocompetent translators.Describing how this is achieved, he states:If we see translator competence as a creative, largely intuitive, socially-con-structed, and multi-faceted complex of skills and abilities, then the primary goalsof translator education will include raising students awareness of the factorsinvolved in translation, helping them develop their own translator s self-concept,and assisting in the collaborative construction of individually tailored tools thatwill allow every student to function within the language mediation communityupon graduation.(Kiraly 2000: 49)A number of points in this summary paragraph merit highlighting.First, notethe absence here of any reference to domains of knowledge or speciªc skillsthat must be taught. Translation is not a mechanistic process, the translatorbeing a kind of language-manipulation machine that spits out product ac-cording to a deªned set of rules.It involves a whole complex of skills andabilities, and a good dose of intuition which is developed.Translationquality is a function of translator competence in a holistic sense that involvesthe translator as a person.Take, for example, an apprentice translator we ll call Bob.Bob has awonderful knack for expressing French statements in natural, idiomatic En-glish.Unlike many novice translators, he doesn t get hamstrung by the gram-matical form and syntax of the source language.But every one of his translationscontains instances of this very idiomatic English signiªcantly diverging from themessage conveyed in the French.Why? By Bob s own admission, he has a shortattention span.He works fast and furiously in short spurts, then loses all interest,eager to move on.Consequently, he simply runs with whatever idea he ªrstformulated upon reading the French.He rarely pauses to reconsider whether his Learning through portfolios 99initial understanding makes sense in context, only sporadically bothers todouble-check lexical meaning in a dictionary or other resource, and almostnever goes back to edit and revise beyond an electronic spell check and cursoryread through.While Bob recognizes this about himself (the most important step) andknows what he could do to ensure that his translations more accurately re¶ectthe message of the source text, he usually can t be bothered.His engines arerevving too fast.This is not about linguistic or translation ability in a technicalsense.It s about Bob.He is not likely to become a reliable, competent transla-tor until he resolves to harness and focus his restless energy, and discovers forhimself how to use it to advantage.Self-conªdence is another extra-linguistic factor that often emerges as aprerequisite to translator competence.Apprentice translators make astound-ing leaps in translation quality and professional readiness once they gainenough conªdence to stand on their own authority
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