Teaching translation via Wikipedia

The experience described in this paper combines the relevance of Wikipedia to enhance the visibility of translation studies within the European Society for Translation Studies (EST) with a project to teach second-cycle university students professional translation within the context of the University of Padua’s project “Didattica con Wikipedia”. Wikipedia can give translation students a chance to test and further develop their translation competence by carrying out a real world translation task i.e. translating Wikipedia entries on Translation Studies created within EST and to develop all other subcompetences and skills required by the translator’s profession. We report on experience at the University of Padua, where we developed ‘translatathon’ activities on EST entries on translation studies in English Wikipedia to enhance our students’ translation competence and knowledge. While challenging and rewarding at the level of practice, especially as an experience in cooperative translation (Al-Shehari 2017), the project can provide invaluable insights into some specific aspects of translation and knowledge dissemination in the self-contained ecosystem of Wikipedia (Shuttleworth 2017; 2018). This might deserve further investigation in research on the didactics of translation, especially from the perspective of constructivist approaches and cooperative learning (Kiraly 2014; 2006).