Abstract:

This paper focuses on the implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodologies in the English Studies degree from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. More specifically, this project describes how this methodology is useful in developing key competences in students of early Medieval English language and literature as well as in translation students. This research was carried out in the framework of a Proyecto de Innovacion Docente at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, and it consisted in carrying out a collaborative translation of Old English riddles into Present-Day Spanish, which were, later on, compiled in a collective edition with introduction and commentary by these groups of students. In order to do so, two groups from the subjects Translation II and Old English Language and Literature were combined and split into different groups. In these groups, the Old English students were in charge of synthesising, summarising, and explaining the particularities of these riddles to the Translation II students who, thereafter, had to produce a translation of the Old English text. After this, the students were sent a questionnaire where they had to reflect on what competences they felt they had had a chance to develop throughout this project, and how it had affected their overall knowledge of the topic they had been studying, as related to their respective subjects. This project highlights marked differences in terms of competences between the Old English and the Translation II students, but, above all, it stresses how PBL is an effective methodology in developing key competences in this educational context.

Keywords:

Project-based learning, Old English, Translation, English Studies.