Eltam journal no 2 8th eltam iatefl tesol international biannual conference managing teaching and learning

3. Process and product approaches in translation 
Both product and process approaches have their advantages and their application in teaching 
writing depends mainly on students' needs and proficiency, the type of text, teacher's 
preferences and other factors. In product approach students are encouraged to study and mimic 
a model text. The approach has several stages, which include: 1. Studying and highlighting the 
charasteristic features of a model text, such as a formal letter or any other genre with relatively 
stable and recognisable genre features; 2. Controlled practice of the highlighted features in 
isolation; 3. Organisation of ideas; 4. Writing a new text by mimicking the original.
The process approach, on the other hand, is much more interactive, making use of 
brainstorming, group discussion, oral feedback, etc. The process usually goes through the 
following stages: 1. Generating ideas through brainstorming; 2. Discussing their relevance to 
the topic and selecting the most important point to be used as prompts in writing; 3. Organising 
ideas and planning through mindmaps or linear sequences; 4. Writing the first draft in pairs or 
groups; 5. Exchanging drafts, feedback and peer-correction; 6. Writing a final draft.

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As it can be seen the two approaches differ mainly in their beginning stages. While in product 
approach students see and discuss the target product right from the beginning, in process 
approach they start from scratch and create the text gradually, concentrating first on the 
meaning, and then on the formal features of the text. Thus, the considerable freedom of the 
process approach is opposed to the preemptive focus on form and structure in the product 
approach which requires pre-teaching of lexical and grammatical features to be used as building 
blocks for students' texts. An important consideration which is related to the relevance of either 
of these approaches is that certain genres "lend themselves more favourably to one approach 
than the other" (Steele 2004). Genres with fixed features are more suited to a product approach 
with a focus on layout, style, structure of the text and its grammatical correctness.
Applied to translation, this refers to texts belonging to media, business or academic discourse. 
Translation of fictional texts, on the other hand, will benefit more from applying a process 
approach, where generating and comparing different versions is important for choosing the best 
translational equivalents. Another advantage of the process approach is student-teacher 
collaboration, scaffolding and support by the teacher in providing students with the language 
resources they need for expressing intended meaning. Here is an example of a product approach, 
in which students can see both the source text (Bulgarian) and its translation right from the 
begining:
EstatIndex
на бизнес климата 
Изследването е проведено в периода 6 -14 
януари 2003 г. сред 399 фирми е и 
представително на равнище работещи 
предприятия. Критериите за подбор на 
фирмите от извадката са регион, 
сектор, брой на наетите и тип 
собственост. Методиката на индекса и 
математическият модел са разработени 
от Агенция за социални и маркетингови 
изследвания Estat. 
След края на последното тримесечие на 
2002 година интегрираната стойност на 
EstatIndex 
на бизнес климата е -2.55. 
Регистрираното 
намаление 
като 
абсолютна стойност е незначително (-
0,71 пункта), индексът остава в 
неутралната част на скалата, където 
състоянието на бизнес климата се 
характеризира 
като 
"нито 
благоприятно, нито неблагоприятно". 
Въпреки това обачеEstatIndex показва 
Estat Business Climate Index 
The survey was carried out in the period 
between 6 and 14 January 2003 among 399 
firms and is representative of operational 
enterprises. The criteria for selection of the 
company sample are region, sector, number 
of employees and type of property. The 
methodology 
of 
the 
index 
and 
the 
methematical model have been developed by 
the Agency for Social and Marketing 
Research Estat.
The Estate Index compound value stood at -
2,55 as of end Q4 of 2002. It registered an 
insignificant decline of -0=71 points over the 
fourth quarter of last year and and remained 
in the neutral section of its range, where the 
condition of the business climate is 
characterised 'neither as favourable nor as 
unfavourable'. Despite this fact, the Estat 
Index has shown a sustained tendency for 
decline, signalling a gradually worsening 
situation in the country's business sector. 

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устойчива тенденция на намаляване, 
което е сигнал за постепенно 
влошаващото се положение на бизнес 
сектора в страната. 
 
 
 
In Business, April 2003, p. 80 
 
The procedure might involve activities conected with: 1. Identifying the source of the text, its 
audience (target reader), the main purpose of the text and its genre. 2. Asking students to find 
the key features of the text which signal the genre. 3. Highlighting key vocabulary and 
stuructures in source text and target text. 4 Identifying different types of translation shifts - 
structure, class, unit, or intra-system shifts (see Munday 2001:81) . These could be features 
related to: word order, e.g. 
След края на последното тримесечие на 2002 година 
интегрираната стойност на Estat Index на бизнес климата е -2.55. - The Estate Index 
compound value stood at -2,55 as of end Q4 of 2002.;
omission, e.g.
представително на 
равнище работещи предприятия - representative of operational enterprises; change of
syntactic structure from passive to active - 
Регистрираното намаление като абсолютна 
стойност е незначително - It registered an insignificant decline, collocations - устойчива 
тенденция на намаляване - sustained tendency for decline, shortening of a clause by means 
of a participle - 
което е сигнал за постепенно влошаващото се положение - signalling a 
gradually worsening situation
, etc. 
Applying the product approach to this type of text has the advantage of saving time and 
providing students with specialised knowledge (e.g. of terminology) which they are not 
expected to have. It does not mean that the product approach is not suitable for translating 
fiction.
The process approach, on the other hand, has its benefits in that it involves students actively, 
keeps them focussed and promotes collaboration for achieving better results. It contradicts the 
traditional idea of translation as a solitary self-sustained process and allows for intensive 
scaffolding and peer learning throughout the process. When presented with the source text 
students are involved in a brainstorming process of eliciting ideas about the text, which activates 
their mental schemata and helps them map the text against background knowledge, either 
elicited from them or provided by the teacher. The translation is done together in pairs or groups 
and the versions are then compared and discussed whole class.