Didactics of Translation: Text in Context

Results and discussion

1. Introduction

Underlying the translation teaching experiment conducted in this research is the general hypothesis that translation training will have some beneficial effect on the students’ competence and performance. The main goal of this experiment is to verify the validity of this hypothesis, especially with regard to the focus of the present research, which is training translators in interpretive skills.
The translation texts used in the experiment fall into four major discursive categories or areas, namely: register, text type, genre and discourse. Following are some statistics concerning the major discursive areas covered and the rate of students’ attendance (regular or irregular attendance) for the year (2003-2004):

1. 
   Major Areas:
   

x Register
x Text types
x Genre
x Discourse

2. 
   Number of students and rate of attendance: (2003 – 2004)
   
   1. 
      Number of students: 75
      
   2. 
      Rate of attendance:
      

x Regular: 15
x Irregular: 15
The effect of the translation teaching experiment was evaluated using the following criteria:

1. 
   The students’ performance in the pre-tests and post-tests.
   
2. 
   Their feedback after the post-tests (interviews).
   
3. 
   Their impressions and reactions to the kind of translation teaching used in the experiment.
   
4. 
   Comparing the performance of two different groups of students: those who attended the course and those who never did.
   

2.