The umbilical cord cut: English as taught in translator-training programs

With this study we pursue a three-fold objective. First, we want to re-assert the specific quality of the language taught in translation classes while contrasting the peripheral role of translation in EFL methods. Second, we intend to advocate interaction between translation theories and pedagogical theories, so that translation as a learning tool and as a linguistic (or interlinguistic) skill may be reconsidered in the light of the latest advances in theoretical and applied research on foreign language learning, and translation studies. Third, we want to focus on the concept of translation competence, and its sub-competencies, to formulate a definition that incorporates emerging approaches and models (Pym 2003, PACTE 2003).