L’ENSEIGNEMENT DE LA TRADUCTION SPECIALISEE- UN PROCESSUS COMPLEXE ET INTERDISCIPLINAIRE
THE TEACHING OF SPECIALIZED TRANSLATION - A COMPLEX AND INTERDISCIPLINARY PROCESS

Summary/Abstract: We shall define, for the needs of this article, specialized translation as the translation of specialized texts, which means texts revealing from a certain domain of specialization or from a branch of specific activity. Thus the texts revealing from a certain field of knowledge will be considered specialized texts. These texts are characterized by a certain subject matter and a lexical and phrasal structure. The translation process should take into consideration two essential dimensions: the content and the form. This content and this form are exactly the elements the translator has to transfer from a source language A to a target language B. It is an interdisciplinary process as it implies translation methods and techniques and at the same time documentation work and terminological research in that field. A course in specialized translation must teach the student how to do this transfer efficiently, obeying to the rules of the genre. The aim of this article is to analyze the process of teaching specialized translation proving that it must deal with this double aspect: notional and linguistic. The student has to learn how to gather information quickly and efficiently and how to use the new knowledge. We shall analyze, as well, the way the documentation and the terminological work fit into the process of translation and which should be their role in each stage of this process. They are essential during the first three stages of the translation process, as they help to understand the text and to give equivalents in the target language. The last three stages don’t imply any documentation or terminological research. If the acquisition of a method of work and research represents the infrastructure of a course of specialized translation, it doesn’t represent its main objective. This objective should be the production of an adequate translated text in the target language, in the chosen domain. Even if, from a pedagogical point of view, it is useful and even necessary to appreciate the student’s effort and progress due to the documentation, the final evaluation concerns the quality of the translated text. The documentation and the terminological competence mustn’t replace the student’s translation competence, because a text which is the result of a good documentation is not necessarily a well translated text. Even if it is a technical text, the translator has his/her freedom and must use his/her creativity in translating it. The constraints do not concern the source text, but the target text, namely its mission.

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