Use of Social Media by Spanish University Lecturers in Translation and Interpretation Courses

Abstract

For years, experts in the field have been calling for university lecturers to become aware of the educational possibilities of social media and to apply them appropriately in their classrooms in order to face current and future pedagogical challenges. Since then, there has been a large number of publications blaming university lecturers for not using the full potential of these information and communication technologies to improve their students’ learning and knowledge processes and their immersion in the world of work. However, although the use of social media by lecturers of different degrees or postgraduate courses has been analysed, to date no analysis has been carried out to assess the behaviour of trainers of translators and interpreters. For this reason, this paper explores the knowledge that lecturers of Translation and Interpreting degree courses at different Spanish universities have about social media, the treatment they give them in their personal lives and in their teaching practice, and the critical opinion they hold about the importance/usefulness of these platforms for translators and interpreters, and for the current labour markets of translation and interpreting. Thus, the present work will outline the results of a questionnaire completed by 50 lecturers who teach translation and/or interpreting at 18 Spanish universities. The conclusions will reveal an (in)formative need on social media on the part of the lecturers, which should be covered in order to prepare students to adapt to the demands of the labour markets in which they will be inserted at the end of their studies