Motivation and linguistic mediation as factors in university language teaching in the context of translator and interpreter training in minoritised languages

Carsten Sinner

doi:10.32798/zl.1313

Published: 2025-01-31

Vol. 61 No. 2 (2024)

Motivation and linguistic mediation as factors in university language teaching in the context of translator and interpreter training in minoritised languages

Carsten Sinner

Zeszyty Łużyckie

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1313

Abstract

The contribution presents the results of a long-term observation regarding motivation to learn minoritized languages carried out among students of translation and interpreting at the Leipzig University and regarding the role language mediation played in students’ motivation and academic success. The studies include surveys and analyses of the students’ learning progress and the grades obtained in two minoritized languages, Catalan and Galician. The analyses show a wide range of motivations also reported in other surveys on the matter, but additionally demonstrate a series of motives closely linked to the study programs and the linguistic mediation activities that are part of the courses and that decisively improve students’ performance in translation-related subjects in other languages, playing an important role as a motivating factor.

Keywords:

Catalan and Galician, translation at sight, reformulation, longitudinal analysis, motivation

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Sinner, C. (2025). Motivation and linguistic mediation as factors in university language teaching in the context of translator and interpreter training in minoritised languages. Zeszyty Łużyckie, 61(2), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1313

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Carsten Sinner

sinner@uni-leipzig.de
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5394-7041

Affiliation:

University of Leipzig, Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translatology Germany

Bio Statement:

Carsten Sinner studied Spanish, Portuguese and Sociology in Berlin and Barcelona. Doctorate in Romance Studies at the University of Potsdam on the Spanish of Catalonia and Habilitation (Second Book) in Romance Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin on the history of Portuguese technical languages. Professor of Ibero-Romance Linguistics and Translation Studies (Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, Judeo-Spanish) at the Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translatology at the University of Leipzig since 2008, and Professor for Sociotranslatology and Applied Linguisticsat the same Department since 2024. Translation in the context of linguistic normalisation of minoritised languages is one of his main research interests.