What do Translators Do?: Investigating the Translation Process

In this paper we argue that enough is now known about the processes of translation for such insights to become an integral part and openly recognized part of foreign language education and for translation theory to take its proper place as major element in a broadly-based applied linguistics. It is further argued that both the two century-old paradigm of subjective, anecdotal and narrative evaluation of texts within which translation theory has operated and the century-old concentration on speech which has typified linguistics – both ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ – must both give way to a wider view of language as written text as well as spoken discourse; a view which must encompass, above all else, the study of translation. Specifically, the paper offers an initial model of the translation process; a sine qua non both for the development of an adequate theory of translation and for the application of insights from applied linguistics to translator training