Abstract
The article reports on a study conducted as part of a one-term undergraduate general translation course. In the fi nal assignment the students delivered L1 and L2 translations which wer e assessed based on their functionality/usability and other criteria related to preserving the content of the source text and assuring the ade quacy of the target text (ITI 2014). The students then worked on the pr oblematic sections marked by the instructor; they could either revise the excerpts or justify their decisions. The students were allowed to make use of electronic sources, which was recorded using Camtasi a Studio. The recordings were analysed to examine the types o f searches the students had made.
Highlights
The competence related to being able to use technological tools and sources of information, primarily in order to conduct research in the translation process, is included in all of the most influential componential models of translation competence
The increased number and variety of searches among students performing L2 translation may have been due to the fact that the students had made more errors when translating in this direction than those who had translated into their L1
Conclusions and practical implications An overwhelming number of students who were qualified for the study (94%) used external sources when revising and justifying their decisions, carrying out 29.1 searches and 7 various types of searches, according to the classification used in the study, on average
Summary
The competence related to being able to use technological tools and sources of information, primarily in order to conduct research in the translation process, is included in all of the most influential componential models of translation competence. The difference in the extent to which expert and novice translators are able to control their subcompetences is shown in the models of the “broadband” (expert) and “narrow-band” (novice) translators developed by Alves and Gonçalves (2007: 50-52). In the latter the sub-competences, including the instrumental one, are disconnected from self-awareness and metacognition, which means that novices do not have proper control over this sub-competence. The description of the first of them emphasises that sources should be used “effectively” and approached “critically” (EMT 2009: 6), which novices can be expected to have problems with based on the models discussed above and on the results of several studies which have shown that novices primarily use bilingual resources, often in an uncritical way (Barbosa and Neiva 2003, Faber 1998, Göpferich 2010, Krings 1986, Kussmaul 1995, Ronowicz et al 2005)
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