Description:
Professional translation is an excellent example of complex problemsolvingprocesses. Current teaching theory in tertiary education in general andtranslation teaching in particular has established a systematic competence approachthat allows teachers and trainers to apply new methodologies and strategiesin translator training. The effectiveness of a competence-based approach hasbeen shown in a number of graduate development statistics. But how can competence-oriented teaching approaches be developed and tested for the real classroomsetting as embedded in a specific teaching context (consisting of educationalsystem and institutions, university programme, exam regulations, curriculum andcourse system, target group and personalities, etc.)?This paper presents the results of an experiment testing such an adapted subcompetence-oriented teaching approach in the BA Translation programme atIALT (University of Leipzig). It compares two groups of students in an introductorycourse on LSP translation; one group is taught according to an establishedmethodology and one group is taught using a sub-competence-oriented methodology.The paper presents observations on teaching methods, student motivationand activity, and analyses their test results at the end of the semester. Thecompetence-oriented group showed slightly better results, validating the teachingmethod in principle. However, the experiment has certain limitations and theresults will have to be re-obtained to clarify these. The experiment can be used asa basis for developing further methods for testing the applicability of the competenceapproach and for exploring different approaches for different educationalsettings.