The number of translation programs within a university context has multiplied in many countries worldwide, which led to the need to question their quality (Gambier, 2012). In the Arab world, especially in the Gulf region, translator education is an emerging practice. For instance, in Qatar, the first translation programs were launched in 2012 at both Qatar University (BA minor in translation ) and the MA programs in translation studies at the Translation and Interpreting Institute (College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Hammad bin Khalifa University). Arabic scholars in the field of translation have highlighted the ongoing curriculum and pedagogical issues at the regional level. Many university programs in the Gulf region prefer to import foreign curriculum packages rather than invest in creating localized programs (Badry & Willoughly, 2015); hence, there is a need for programs relevant to the local and regional communities and contexts (Taibi, 2016). This could only be done through ground exploratory research to identify the problems and address them through a consensus process between the various stakeholders: academia, society and the profession. This doctoral thesis is a result of an exploratory and descriptive study carried out on the two existing translation programs in Qatar (a postgraduate program at the translation and interpreting Institute at Hammad Bin Khalifa University; and an undergraduate program at Qatar University) to identify the type of pedagogical and curricular practices in these institutions and align them with the findings from the practices in the translation and interpreting professions as well as translation professionals' perceptions in the state of Qatar. The present study has focused on the following objectives: 1) the identification and description of the professional translator profile in the Qatari context; 2) the identification of the pedagogical (teaching and learning) practices used in translation programs at Arabic universities in the Gulf region, such as Qatar; 3) knowledge required according to the opinions of professionals working in the field, and the competencies that these professionals believe should be developed in a translation program; and 4) a description of the necessary conditions to integrate such professional requirements in these types of professionally-oriented programs. The findings obtained from the study suggest that a knowledge of the working environments of translators and the required knowledge, skills and abilities to exercise the translation profession is crucial to a translation instructor as well as to a translation or interpreting curriculum developer. Such an awareness would result in the transfer of a different meaning of translation and translator status in society than the one it carries at present in Qatar. Also, there is a need to update the pedagogical and curriculum practices within a university context in Qatar to further integrate professionally oriented types of content, and adopt innovative pedagogies to educate multilingual service providers in the country. Although participants claimed that they are willing to integrate dynamic teaching practices, at the same time they also declared that they would keep the same curricular practices privileged by the institutions. The Interviewees from the profession reported the poor students’ performance in an internship in the local context. Other interviewed practising translators - who graduated from one of the translation programs in Qatar- suggested that the current modes of instruction need to be revised and that more situated, project and problem-based types of activities need to be implemented in the classroom. The results may be useful for teaching staff, instructors, administrators, and the management to improve and reconsider their existing curriculum and pedagogical practices within a university-based program by including the integration of research-based professional practices in the initial design of courses. The positive and consensus-based partnership between academic instances and the professional practitioners is a key solution in this regard. The addition or deletion of courses in a program and the focus on the importance of textbooks without diagnosing the social and community needs, as well the lack of a clear framework to assess faculty or instructor competency and eligibility to educate and train translators, has led to quality issues in existing programs.

Este trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão sobre o desenvolvimento da competência de leitura em alemão como língua estrangeira. A pesquisa empírica foi realizada em contexto universitário, mais especificamente no curso de Letras/Alemão da USP, e a análise dos dados obtidos teve como foco a compreensão de leitura dos participantes e os fatores que a influenciaram. A hipótese inicial era a de que frequentar uma disciplina CLIL ajuda no desenvolvimento da competência de leitura dos graduandos em Letras/Alemão. Após um estudo preliminar, que incluiu observações de aula e sondagens dos hábitos de leitura dos alunos da disciplina CLIL intitulada Aquisição/Aprendizagem do Alemão como Língua Estrangeira, ficou claro que a razão para essa suposta evolução da competência de leitura não é a carga de leitura que a disciplina exige, e sim a grande carga de input linguístico geral que ela oferece. A partir dessa informação, decidimos que o procedimento de coleta de dados incluiria um questionário sobre o perfil dos alunos e três testes para acompanhar a progressão da competência de leitura dos alunos da última disciplina obrigatória de língua alemã ao longo do semestre. Os instrumentos foram aplicados no ano seguinte, quando a disciplina foi oferecida novamente. Os participantes foram separados em dois grupos: alunos que cursavam Aquisição/Aprendizagem e alunos que não cursavam a disciplina. Três deles realizaram todos os testes e, ao início da graduação em Letras/Alemão, não tinham conhecimentos prévios sistematizados sobre a língua alemã. Analisando seus dados, percebemos que dois deles tinham trajetórias bastante parecidas na aprendizagem de alemão, mas somente um demonstrou melhora na leitura. Comparando ambos de forma mais detalhada, ficou claro que esse aluno teve seu primeiro contato com um input linguístico denso durante as aulas de Aquisição/Aprendizagem, enquanto o outro já realizava pesquisa de Iniciação Científica na mesma área da disciplina e, por isso, não encontrou dificuldades para acompanhá-la desde o início. Concluiu-se que cursar uma disciplina CLIL auxilia no desenvolvimento da leitura do aluno que já construiu uma base de conhecimentos da língua alemã, mas ainda não tem experiência como leitor. Portanto, um possível caminho para garantir uma melhor competência de leitura dos futuros profissionais em Letras/Alemão é introduzir a obrigatoriedade de ao menos uma disciplina CLIL no currículo, além de estabelecer o domínio das habilidades básicas de leitura como foco das aulas de língua na graduação. / This work aims to take part in the discussion on the development of the reading competence in German as a foreign language. The empirical research was carried out in a university context, more specifically in the Bachelor\'s degree in German at USP, and the analysis of the obtained data focused on participants\' reading comprehension and the factors by which it has been influenced. The primary hypothesis was that taking a CLIL course helps developing the reading comprehension of German graduate students. After a preliminary study, which included classroom observations and surveys on the reading habits of a course called \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem do Alemão como Língua Estrangeira\" [Acquisition/Learning of German as a Foreign Language], it was clear that the reason for this evolution is not the heavy load of reading during the course, but rather the load of general linguistic input offered. Based on that information, the data collection procedures were planned: a questionnaire on the profile of the students and three tests to follow the progress of reading competence of the students of the last mandatory German language course during the semester. The data collection took place in the following year, when the course was offered again. The participants were divided into two groups: students taking \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem\" and students who were not attending the course. Three of all students participated on all the data collection activities and had no systematized knowledge about German before beginning the graduation. The data analysis showed that two of them had gone through very similar paths while learning German, but only one showed improvement in their reading competence. A more detailed comparison made clear that this one had had their first contact with a dense linguistic input during \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem\" classes, while the other was already working on an undergraduate research in the same area of the course by its beginning, and, therefore, did not encounter difficulties to follow it. It was concluded that taking a CLIL course promotes the development of the reading comprehension of the student who has already built a solid base of knowledge in the German language, but does not yet have much experience as a reader.

Este trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão sobre o desenvolvimento da competência de leitura em alemão como língua estrangeira. A pesquisa empírica foi realizada em contexto universitário, mais especificamente no curso de Letras/Alemão da USP, e a análise dos dados obtidos teve como foco a compreensão de leitura dos participantes e os fatores que a influenciaram. A hipótese inicial era a de que frequentar uma disciplina CLIL ajuda no desenvolvimento da competência de leitura dos graduandos em Letras/Alemão. Após um estudo preliminar, que incluiu observações de aula e sondagens dos hábitos de leitura dos alunos da disciplina CLIL intitulada Aquisição/Aprendizagem do Alemão como Língua Estrangeira, ficou claro que a razão para essa suposta evolução da competência de leitura não é a carga de leitura que a disciplina exige, e sim a grande carga de input linguístico geral que ela oferece. A partir dessa informação, decidimos que o procedimento de coleta de dados incluiria um questionário sobre o perfil dos alunos e três testes para acompanhar a progressão da competência de leitura dos alunos da última disciplina obrigatória de língua alemã ao longo do semestre. Os instrumentos foram aplicados no ano seguinte, quando a disciplina foi oferecida novamente. Os participantes foram separados em dois grupos: alunos que cursavam Aquisição/Aprendizagem e alunos que não cursavam a disciplina. Três deles realizaram todos os testes e, ao início da graduação em Letras/Alemão, não tinham conhecimentos prévios sistematizados sobre a língua alemã. Analisando seus dados, percebemos que dois deles tinham trajetórias bastante parecidas na aprendizagem de alemão, mas somente um demonstrou melhora na leitura. Comparando ambos de forma mais detalhada, ficou claro que esse aluno teve seu primeiro contato com um input linguístico denso durante as aulas de Aquisição/Aprendizagem, enquanto o outro já realizava pesquisa de Iniciação Científica na mesma área da disciplina e, por isso, não encontrou dificuldades para acompanhá-la desde o início. Concluiu-se que cursar uma disciplina CLIL auxilia no desenvolvimento da leitura do aluno que já construiu uma base de conhecimentos da língua alemã, mas ainda não tem experiência como leitor. Portanto, um possível caminho para garantir uma melhor competência de leitura dos futuros profissionais em Letras/Alemão é introduzir a obrigatoriedade de ao menos uma disciplina CLIL no currículo, além de estabelecer o domínio das habilidades básicas de leitura como foco das aulas de língua na graduação. / This work aims to take part in the discussion on the development of the reading competence in German as a foreign language. The empirical research was carried out in a university context, more specifically in the Bachelor\'s degree in German at USP, and the analysis of the obtained data focused on participants\' reading comprehension and the factors by which it has been influenced. The primary hypothesis was that taking a CLIL course helps developing the reading comprehension of German graduate students. After a preliminary study, which included classroom observations and surveys on the reading habits of a course called \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem do Alemão como Língua Estrangeira\" [Acquisition/Learning of German as a Foreign Language], it was clear that the reason for this evolution is not the heavy load of reading during the course, but rather the load of general linguistic input offered. Based on that information, the data collection procedures were planned: a questionnaire on the profile of the students and three tests to follow the progress of reading competence of the students of the last mandatory German language course during the semester. The data collection took place in the following year, when the course was offered again. The participants were divided into two groups: students taking \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem\" and students who were not attending the course. Three of all students participated on all the data collection activities and had no systematized knowledge about German before beginning the graduation. The data analysis showed that two of them had gone through very similar paths while learning German, but only one showed improvement in their reading competence. A more detailed comparison made clear that this one had had their first contact with a dense linguistic input during \"Aquisição/Aprendizagem\" classes, while the other was already working on an undergraduate research in the same area of the course by its beginning, and, therefore, did not encounter difficulties to follow it. It was concluded that taking a CLIL course promotes the development of the reading comprehension of the student who has already built a solid base of knowledge in the German language, but does not yet have much experience as a reader.