Enhancing students’ translation competence by implementing a contrastive analysis approach to language teaching for translation

Abstract

The present research work attempts to shed light on teaching language for translation. According to Malmkjaer (2004), though language skills are very prominent in translating, very little has been written about language teaching for translators. This is the case because, most of the time, translation teachers are not language teachers. Thus the subject still remains an issue requiring further theoretical attention as well as experimental exploration. It is common sense that linguistic competence is the founding component of the translation activity; without a linguistic competence, no translation competence could be achieved. Far from engaging into a debate over whether to teach translation and language simultaneously or not, language enhancement, reinforcement or even teaching per-se became a fait accompli. Most translation courses whether they are international (at L’ESIT for instance) or national (in all our translation departments) comprise language modules as part of their curriculum. In an undergraduate translation course which combines language with translation modules, it was assumed that these modules will support each other. In reality however, students' translations showed little sign of applying language knowledge to translation. Instead, students’ linguistic behavior in translation modules was incompatible with their linguistic behavior in language modules concerning previously learnt constructions. Aware of the urgent need to disentangle this critical issue and to bring about a modest contribution to translation teaching, we embarked on highlighting the status of language teaching for translation in different translation teaching approaches. New trends of academic research have emerged to explore innovative lines of language