Intercultural teaching through translation: an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) literacy course case in Afghanistan

The purpose of this study was to teach and evaluate the effectiveness of an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) course through translation to students in Afghanistan. First, an interview was conducted to determine students’ computer skills. It was concluded that the students had almost no computer skills. The course was delivered to two groups of first-year students for 14 weeks during one semester. In group one, students were taught by a Turkish instructor through a translator. The course was delivered to group 2 by a native-language speaking teacher. At the end of the semester, students of both groups were given a final exam and were asked to comment about teaching speed, overall satisfaction, teacher reactions, course materials and future improvements to the course. Statistically, there was no significant difference between the final performances of students in both groups. The students also declared that they wanted to greatly improve their computer skills and use the Internet to make use of digital ICT resources for other courses, too. An additional finding was that there was a 20-min time-delay between the Turkish and native groups due to the translation process throughout each course session.