《TransComp_Gopferich_2016_Towards a model of translation competence and its acquisition》.pdf

Towards a model of translation competence and its 1 acquisition: the longitudinal study TransComp Susanne Göpferich Abstract The first part of this article gives a short survey of how translation competence and its acquisition have been modelled so far and of what we know from expertise research about the cognitive processes involved in expert performance. Drawing on this, a model of translation competence is presented as a framework of referen ce for the research project TransComp, a longitudinal study which explores the development of translation competence in 12 students of translation over a period of three years and compares it to that of 10 professional translators. The model will be used to generate hypotheses to be verified in TransComp. In the second part of the article, the design of TransComp, the research questions asked, and the methods of measuring those features which are assumed to be indicators of central sub-competences of translation competence will be presented. The article concludes with information on the availability of the materials used for the study and the data collected in TransComp. 1. Translation competence acquisition – providing empirical evidence for our assumptions The development of models of translation competence and, even more so, the development of models of translation competence acquisition is still in its infancy. One of the reasons for this is that investigating how translation competence develops is only possible by means of longitudinal studies, and longitudinal studies are extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. This 1 TransComp is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as project No. P20908- G03 (September 2008–August 2011). Towards a model of translation competence (acquisit