Translation as a communicative unit in language

However, if we take into account the multidisciplinary nature of translation and its communicative function, the teaching / learning of translation must aim at both linguistic competence (the language and its rules) and translation competence ( translation techniques, documentation, research, etc.). To learn this means of communication that is translation, one must first understand the ST statements and re-express them adequately according to the conditions of communication. And the practice of translation according to this principle can only accumulate and improve the communicative competence of the learner.This is the principle adopted by the communicative method in teaching foreign languages. According to the communicative method, translation is an authentic activity, since it is on the one hand, practiced constantly in real life, outside the classes, and on the other hand, it is the only activity in relation with the foreign language. This leads us ultimately to the following question:

Then, how to strengthen language skills through translation?

Then, how to strengthen language skills through translation?

Between the „usefulness of translation“ and the „unfortunate way of its practice in traditional methods of language teaching“, there must be the view of ​​rehabilitating or restoring pedagogical translation. The didactic research that actually aimed at the restoration of educational translation was inspired by „enunciative linguistics“ and the „pedagogy of translation“ implemented in the training of professional translators. The first does not only focus on the language system (vocabulary + syntactic rules), but also focuses on the actualization of the language to produce discourses in a well-defined communication situation. On its part, “the pedagogy of translation” advances that „Translate means to understand“ to „make understood“.

This recourse to translation into language classes is, additionally, accompanied by modifications in the objectives of the practice, the method of work and on its content.According to this new vision, and for pedagogical purposes, the translation activity will make the student aware of the lexical and grammatical specificities of each language, within a communicative context. Translation allows the student to conceptualize the grammar of each of the two languages. It is necessary, at this stage, to speak of a process of active language learning, and not that of a normative grammar sustaining.