The translation and interpreting education have te focus of a two-year action research project at the School of Applied and Cultural Studies (FASK) of the University of Mainz in Germersheim. The objectives were 1/ to investigate the nature of currently used teaching/training activitiesand their effects on the learners and 2/ to propose and test alternative techniques that might be better suited for the training of professional translators than traditional classroom activities. In this article, the author clarifies this study.