Daniel Gile

Daniel Gile is a former mathematician, former scientific and technical translator. Conference interpreter, member of AIIC. Doctoral degrees in Japanese and in linguistics. Professor of translation at Université Lyon 2. President of the European Society for Translation Studies www.est-translationstudies.org .
See also CIRIN http://perso.wanadoo.fr/daniel.gile

Abstract of presentation:

Theories for research, theories for training.

Over the past decades, the scholarly field of Translation Studies has been gaining an increasingly higher profile in translator and interpreter training programs, and translation theories and models are often invoked, taught and/or discussed even in those institutions which in the past tended to ignore them. However, perhaps due to the fact that integration of theoretical thinking in T&I training has not reached sufficient maturity yet, there is some confusion about the features of and requirements from theoretical elements depending on their role. Broadly speaking, theories for training achieve their purposes best if they help students make sense of phenomena they experience and guide their strategies and learning process, whereas theories for research achieve their purpose best if they help researchers explain and predict phenomena and are testable and open-ended so as to allow gradual fine-tuning and/or replacement by more accurate theories. Thus, simple non-testable or even deliberately inaccurate theoretical metaphors may be powerful as didactic tools but of little use in research, whereas testable complex theoretical systems may be appropriate for research purposes but of doubtful adequacy for training purposes. Examples from translation and interpreting will be analyzed, and it will be argued that much of the criticism leveled at current TS theories becomes irrelevant when the didactic vs. research dichotomy is taken into account.