Didactics of Translation: Text in Context

Genre and discourse in curriculum design

Using the notion of text type and the concomitant text forms in the translation training curriculum design is very useful in raising students’ awareness of text constitution, i.e. “the compositional plan and cohesion of texts”. However, for Hatim & Mason, introducing students to the notion of

text type should take place at a more intermediate, even elementary pre- advanced stage. At a more advanced stage, students should be introduced to how these text types and their forms become “operational” within a given genre, and particular discourse features, e.g. the use of a counter- argumentative text form within a Letter to the Editor as a genre, etc. According to Hatim & Mason,

A structural format or a cohesive pattern can only become operational by being appropriate to a given genre and even more significantly by being felicitous in relaying a given discoursal attitude. Thus, it becomes necessary at a second stage to refine our syllabus design by introducing discoursal and generic values. This second stage will be appropriate to a more advanced level of training. (Hatim & Mason 1997: 193)

4.