Klein-Braley, C., & Franklin, P. (1998). The foreigner in the refrigerator: Remarks about teaching translation to university students of foreign langu

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When translating in the language classroom, students are often given a model version to check their own translation against.

Translation tests are often used as proficiency tests in Germany.

There are two ways to teach translation: learning-by-doing or providing an introduction to translation skills

Students can be introduced to lexical items, dictionary use and other aids; contrastic phenomena and false friends; textual and register analysis; cultural concepts and reader-oriented text adjustment; the process of translation, revision and correction techniques; concept of the perfect translation

*The sequence of words in one language is not the same to the sequence of words in another. Thus, content is not directly transferrable, because it is impossible to transpose one culture into another.

Translation is complicated in that it could be completely delexicalized (disassembled and regrouped) in one extreme and should use an absolutely correct equivalent term (terminology) in another.

The use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries should also be encouraged in translation.

Translations should be corrected for colloquial and contextual correctness. Formulaics, idioms, metaphors, proverbs, and quotations should also be dealt with, as should neutralization and omission.

Sometimes, the translated text should depart the source text sufficiently to be linguistically and textually appropriate.

Translation texts should have linguistic (lexical, syntactical, register, linguistic conventions), textual (text type different between languages) and user (tailored according to different target users, deletion, addition, and changing to fit new circumstances) appropriateness.

For a translation class, instructors could present defective translation in the learners' mother tongue to raise their awareness towards defective translation. Another possible activity would be to replicate an authentic translation context with real translation aims and allowing the use of translation aids such as dictionaries, grammar references, other reference materials, consulation with the original author, other experts, native speakers or model texts in the target language. The model texts should be similar in subject matter, text type, text purpose, lexical elements, textual conventions, and/or a feel for register. Learners should be aware of the necessity of using models when translation from their mother tongue into a foreign language.

The author stated one final word of caution, emphasizing that no translation should be released into the world without having been checked by a linguistically sensitive native speaker. He also reiterated that a one-to-one relationship between words in two languages does not exist.

Sewell, P. (1996). Translation in the curriculum. In P. Sewell and I. Higgins (eds). Teaching translation in universities. Present and future perspectives. London: Association for French Language Studies & Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.