Evanthia Saridaki

The theorization of the translator’s technological competence in translator training programmes: connecting academia to the profession

Recent decades have seen the work of translators shift from several new dimensions, mainly due to technological advances and the process of globalization. Becoming a professional translator today clearly entails not only acquiring linguistic-cultural skills, but, mostly, professional competence in a range of new technologies, and such developments are certainly transforming the landscape of translation didactics. This paper rests on the assumption that translation technology teaching could be integrated, apart from the “pure” technology courses, in translation theory courses as well, aiming to introduce students to information technology, but, basically, to encourage critical thought about the use of electronic technologies. Within this context, the purpose of the paper is to offer a framework of reflection on the implications of technological developments for the theorization of translation and propose a theoretical approach to translation technology teaching. First of all, it defines the overall aims of such an approach and describes some basic components that could be integrated in the course content, such as the concept of professionalization of translation, the communicative aspect of translation technology, the effect of information technology on the translator’s role as ideological and cultural mediator etc. Furthermore, the research examines the criteria for selecting the above components, which are closely related to the educational context in which training is taking place. Among the issues to be addressed are: academic versus vocational context, level of studies, degree of specialization of the programme etc. Other matters to be explored are didactic models for the theorization of translation technology and the difficulties involved in the teaching process, related to students’ background in the use of new technologies and a possible “technophobia”, teachers’ inadequate technological knowledge and academics’ negative attitude towards technology, by fear of “dehumanization” of the translating process. The overall intention of the paper is certainly not to give ready-made answers, but rather to provide food for thought and proposals for an integrated pedagogic approach to translation technology teaching, combining theoretical and practical components, by careful adaptation to each training context, student population and other important parametres.