Translation and Language Education: Pedagogic Approaches Explored

This book puts forward an approach to language and translation teaching that is framed within the ecological perspective on language education and is informed by convergent and interrelated principles elaborated in second language education and translation studies, i.e. the concept of 'symbolic competence' (Kramsch 2006, 2009, 2010) and the notion of 'holistic cultural translation' (Tymoczko 2007). The ecological approach to language education draws principally on sociocultural theory, ecology and semiotics, and is in unison with Tymoczko's holistic approach to translating culture. The proposed pedagogy is intended particularly for the graduate and undergraduate language and translation classroom. Since equal emphasis is placed on theory and practice, it is illustrated by sample activities undertaken in real-life educational contexts. Translation proved to be beneficial at pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced levels of linguistic competence.