Translation and/or translator skills as organising principles for curriculum development practice

Since the 1970s, Translation Studies have embraced skills and competences for the mapping of translation as a complex and specialised type of knowledge. A number of authors within TS have already extensively reviewed and analysed most of the existing translation and/or translator competence models, i.e., competence models literature reviews by Campbell (1998); Schäffner (2000); Kelly (2002); Pym (2003a); Colina (2003); Kearns (2006) and Morón (2009). The existing plethora of definitions and competence models can make the concept difficult to pin down, particularly when trying to apply translators‘ and/or translation skills formulae to specific contexts and operational needs. One of the most apparent applications of some of the given competence models is as valid frameworks, the aim of which is to shape curriculum proposals in higher education —both to train professional translators or to apply translation skills to other more transferable training proposals. The purpose of this paper is not so much to shed light on the different competence models in place—curriculum products, curriculum designs—, but rather to focus on the means to ideally apply a given translation and/or translator competence model to higher education curricula. This paper follows an interdisciplinary approach where Curriculum Theory and Practice serve as filters for understanding how different translation and/or translator competence schemes can best respond to training contexts and needs.