Legal translator terminology training

Abstract

The field of Terminology has come a long way since the 80s when Translation Studies (TS) were occupied with the debates about the concept of “equivalence” (Halverson 1997) and Terminology was introduced as an independent subject in many translation degrees. Our trainees, then, enter their legal translation classes, often in the later stages of training, with prior training in research, terminology and IT skills, bringing the baggage acquired in earlier translation courses. Rather than focussing on the “what?”, we propose an approach that is focussed on the “how and why?” necessary to lay the foundations to acquire legal terminology competence, with the tools to build towards expertise, needed to progress towards becoming competent, expert legal translators.