This paper demonstrates to attempt how the investigation of psycholinguistic translation processes, in conjunction with an alternative educational philosophy, can serve as a pathway to overcoming this stagnation in translation skills instruction (TSI). Three major focal points are presented: (a) the collection of analysis of think-aloud protocol data in an experiment with nine novice and nine professional translators, (b) the development of a tentative model of mental processes on the basis of these data and psycholinguistic theory, and (c) the tenets of a constructivist educational philosophy as a pedagogical framework for translator education that converges with the analysis of the data and the model developed.