Didactics of Translation: Text in Context

Some current methodologies for the training of translators

The last two decades have seen the emergence of two main new approaches to the didactics of translation: process-oriented translation

methods and textlinguistic-based methods. The first method advocates the need for a descriptive translation pedagogy; i.e. a pedagogy which draws its principles and techniques from an accurate description of translation processes. It also seeks to merge the psychology of translation (i.e. knowledge of the hidden cognitive processes of translation) with the pragmatics of translation. Kussmaul (1995) and Kiraly (1995) are among the proponents of this method. The second method adopts a text-in-context approach to translation training drawing on the insights of textlinguistics. Hatim and Mason (1990) and (1997) along with Baker (1992) are among the main proponents of this method. Thus, for Hatim and Mason (1997:180),

Training programmes need to address the area of language use where text meets context and is thereby structured and made to hang together.
They also add:
It is perhaps worth stating our view that, if translator training is limited to those superficial characteristics of text which are most typical of what the technical or administrative translator is likely to encounter most of the time (specialized terminology, formulaic text conventions and so on), then the trainee will be singularly ill-equipped to deal with, say, metaphor, allusion, implicature when they occur - as they do - in technical texts. (Ibid: viii)
One of the most important pedagogical issues on which Hatim and Mason’s approach was brought to bear is curriculum design for the training of translators.
In this section, these two main approaches to the didactics of translation - the process and the textlinguistic - will be examined and assessed.

1.