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Part of
Handbook of Terminology: Volume 3. Legal Terminology
Edited by Łucja Biel and Hendrik J. Kockaert
[Handbook of Terminology 3] 2023
► pp. 594–618

Legal translator terminology training

Unravelling the mysteries

| University of Granada

The field of Terminology has come a long way since the 80s when Translation Studies (TS) were occupied with the debates about the concept of “equivalence” (Halverson 1997) and Terminology was introduced as an independent subject in many translation degrees. Our trainees, then, enter their legal translation classes, often in the later stages of training, with prior training in research, terminology and IT skills, bringing the baggage acquired in earlier translation courses. Rather than focussing on the “what?”, we propose an approach that is focussed on the “how and why?” necessary to lay the foundations to acquire legal terminology competence, with the tools to build towards expertise, needed to progress towards becoming competent, expert legal translators.

Keywords: terminology training, deconstructing prior practices, innovative activities, assessment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Situating legal terminology in translator training
  • 3.Back to basics
  • 4.Legal terminology translator training
    • 4.1The activities-based approach
      • 4.1.1Awareness of the ubiquitous nature of the Law, legal language and legal terminology
        • Songs
        • Literature
        • Cinema and television
        • Videogames
        • Art
      • 4.1.2Deconstructing prior knowledge
    • 4.2Suggested exercises
      • 4.2.1Comparing law degrees
      • 4.2.2Legal systems and translated sources
  • 5.A scaffolded decision-making approach to legal terminology training
    • 5.1The deliberate practice approach
      • 5.1.1Applying deliberate practice to terminology
  • 6.Assessing terminological work
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.3.leg5
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