Innovation in Language Learning

Translation has been a subject matter of teaching and training for many years. Different scholars suggested various lingua-didactic methods to develop translating skills from the native language into a foreign one and back. Nowadays translation as well as interpreting are considered as the elements of mediation that is a language activity according to the European Union documents. Consequently, translation should be referred to as a language activity, and developing special translation skills should be the purpose of foreign language for specific purposes teaching at a higher education institution. In this case the experience of previous lingua didactic tendencies might be very useful in modern educational environment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of the XX century theoretical ideas and practices of teaching and training translation from the point of view of the contemporary non-linguistic higher education. The positive outcomes of different scholars of the past should be studied and incorporated in the teaching practice nowadays. Some aspects of the teaching experience of translation skills training for lawyers-to-be at a non-linguistic University are presented.