An Activity Theory approach to translation for a pedagogical purpose

Abstract

Translation pedagogy needs to be based on a theory of translation and a theory of ‘translation learning’. Though Kiraly's Activity Theory-based Social Constructivist Approach to translation pedagogy does shed light on to the acquisition and the development of translation competence, it cannot account for what pertinent factors of translation the student translators need to be aware of in translating. This paper suggests that Activity Theory can also provide an account of translation: translation is a rule-governed social and cultural activity that sustains itself by interacting with its target reading activity. A translation activity can be termed as a hierarchical structure of three strata: the socio-cultural stratum, action and operation. The socio-cultural stratum is realized by goal-directed translation actions, and actions are actualized by translation operations. In translating, a translator has to perform an operation not only in compliance with the ‘rule’ at the stratum of translation operation but also with the ‘rules’ at higher strata. Especially, s/he needs to prioritize the ‘rules’ of higher strata when s/he performs a translation operation or a translation action in the light of the ‘rule’ at the respective stratum. In the light of the notion that the meaning of TL text is derived from the interaction of the SL text with the translation context, the Activity Theory-based framework of translation outlines both the contextual and textual factors involved in translating, and it also projects a method to analyze translation problems as well as the possible ways to solve them.