PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: TRAINING A WELL-ROUNDED TRANSLATOR

Language service providers and consumers alike are critical of professional competences shown by recent graduates of translation programmes. The dynamics of the translation services market and the comfort with technology it requires call for more effective approaches to translator training. The paper describes the advantages of project-based learning over the traditional teachercentered approach in translator training. Simulating a professional-like setting, the former facilitates a more effective acquisition of translator competence through solving a diversity of real-life tasks. So far, the translation project has been the only type of translator training activity which covers all the six professional competences of the EC European Master‟s in Translation project. Among the professional competences that graduates of translation programs should acquire are translation service provision competence, language and intercultural competences, information mining competence, technological competence, and domain-specific competence. The paper provides a number of ready-made solutions to setting up a translation project at the university. It dwells on the principles of active learning, lists functions and responsibilities of project teams, focuses on the issues of quality assessment, choice of practice material and CAT-tools. Illustrated by examples from translation projects implemented at St. Petersburg State University, Russia, the paper advocates for a more extended use of project-related activities in the classroom.