Developing intercultural competence of trainee translators

Abstract

Intercultural competence is one of the key aspects of a translator / interpreter competence as it contributes to betterunderstanding of the source text and thus, its more ‘ideal’ conveying into the target language. The purpose of this research is toclarify the areas requiring improvement in the process of developing trainee translators’ intercultural competence in the contextof Kazakhstani education. Questionnaires for instructors teaching Practical English course and translation courses were used tocollect data about the most problematic aspects of to-be translators’ training and cultural awareness of students. Thepreliminary results of the research show the lack of cultural information at phonetic, intonation and grammar levels, whichsupposes developing of a special system of exercises and integrating two different pathways represented by theoretical coursessuch as lingua-cultural studies and practical courses like English for specific professional purposes. Keywords: intercultural competence, ELT, translator / interpreter trainin, interpersonal skills, communication strategies.