Constructivist Translation Classroom Environment Survey (CTLES): development, validation and application

Abstract

This article reports the development, validation and application of the Constructivist Translation Classroom Environment Survey (CTLES) which assesses students’ perceptions of five scales of actual or preferred classroom environment, namely, Personal Relevance, Uncertainty, Critical Voice, Shared Control and Student Negotiation. The CTLES was field tested with a sample of 523 Iranian university students. Various analyses attested to each scale’s reliability, factorial validity, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classes. Furthermore, comparison of Iranian university students’ scores on actual and preferred forms of the CTLES revealed that students were not satisfied with their current translation classroom environment and preferred a more constructivist translation classroom environment on all scales. The work is unique since it is the first classroom environment study which is concerned with translation classrooms, specifically the application of constructivist ideas in translation classrooms. It also provides one of the few classroom environment studies conducted in Iran.