Process analytical approach to translation and implications for translations teaching

The considerations which will be made in this paper can be located within the newly established field of translation process analysis (cf. Gerloff 1988; Jääskeläinen 1990; Krings 1986; Lörscher 1991; Séguinot 1989; Tirkkonen-Condit 1991). They are based on a research project which I have been carrying out since 1983. The aim of this project is to analyze psycholinguistically translation performance as contained in a corpus of orally produced translations from German into English and vice versa. This is done in order to reconstruct translation strategies. These underlie translation performance, operate within the translation process, and are thus not open to direct inspection. In the first stage of the project, translation processes of advanced foreign language learners were investigated. The results yielded are contained in my monograph Translation Performance, Translation Process, and Translation Strategies. A sycholinguistic Investigation. Tübingen 1991. The second stage of the project, in which professional translators’ and, later on, bilingual children’s translation processes are analyzed, is in progress (Lörscher in preparation).The considerations which will be made in this paper can be located within the newly established field of translation process analysis (cf. Gerloff 1988; Jääskeläinen 1990; Krings 1986; Lörscher 1991; Séguinot 1989; Tirkkonen-Condit 1991). They are based on a research project which I have been carrying out since 1983. The aim of this project is to analyze psycholinguistically translation performance as contained in a corpus of orally produced translations from German into English and vice versa. This is done in order to reconstruct translation strategies. These underlie translation performance, operate within the translation process, and are thus not open to direct inspection. In the first stage of the project, translation processes of advanced foreign language learners were investigated. The results yielded are contained in my monograph Translation Performance, Translation Process, and Translation Strategies. A sycholinguistic Investigation. Tübingen 1991. The second stage of the project, in which professional translators’ and, later on, bilingual children’s translation processes are analyzed, is in progress (Lörscher in preparation)