Teaching Translation to Moroccan University Students: Challenges and Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter addresses some of the key challenges that teaching translation in Moroccan universities faces and that impede the achievement of the course objectives. The current state of affairs reveals that, in the English departments in Morocco, the fact that translation is not a majoring subject overshadows its importance in the eyes of undergraduates from the linguistics, cultural studies, and literature streams alike. Overall, students’ attitude toward translation is negative with evident underestimation of its value, misconception of its nature, and indifference toward its benefits. Moreover, weaknesses in students’ linguistic competence, which underpins translation competence, represents a serious stumbling block to their learning process. Another obstacle is the interference of students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Moroccan Arabic, Tamazight, Classical Arabic, and French), which often results in erroneous renditions of texts. Furthermore, reliance on electronic devices seriously diminishes the efficiency of in-class activities, for students disregard the role of print dictionaries, which are unavoidable, multi-purpose tools. Finally, students’ failure in the translation module is also due to their time mismanagement during exams. The observational study provides some recommendations likely to enhance students’ performance and help them cope with the identified challenges in order to recognize the fair value of translation at the university.