COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH TO LSP-TRANSLATION

Abstract

The article presents the model of professional translator competences related to three levels of the ‘second language personality’. The article describes the development of translator competences (communicative, extra-linguistic and specialized ones) on the basis of the well-formed competence in the basic branch of study (the student’s major). Taking stock of the earlier research that has studied the relation between thinking and speech, the authors look into the process of generating the utterance on the basis of a stable mental image that can be interpreted in other language codes. The language interpretation of a conventional familiar mental image requires communicative skills, background knowledge and practical experience. In this case the language interpretation is regarded as an analytical and synthetic process that interpolates similar mental images into the base of stereotyped utterances in a specific subject matter developed through speech experience. Practical translation skills can be built on the basis of well-developed communicative competence and enhanced specialized translator competence.

The article highlights the need to introduce integrated programs that include several LSP areas, as they may facilitate the development of the specialized translator competences on the basis of the knowledge in the LSP area of the student’s major in the mother tongue and the communicative competence in the foreign language.