Chapter 12. Foreign language acquisition writing exercises fostering translation trainees’ language and translation competence

Abstract

This chapter intends to bring into beneficial interaction two language-based disciplines, i.e., foreign language acquisition (FLA) and translation studies (TS) and to demonstrate that the latter greatly benefits from the former. Concretely, by using FLA writing exercises in language courses for translation trainees (TT), it will be shown that the advantages from this implementation are not to be underestimated if these exercises are tailored to the needs of TT. Furthermore, these exercises not only improve the foreign language competence of the TT but also enhance other aspects of their overall translation competence. In order to tailor FLA exercises for translation trainees’ language courses, a specific methodological, didactical and conceptual basis is proposed which consists of an interactive implementation of constructivism, creativity theory, text linguistics and functional Skopos theory.