Sequencing Texts on the Basis of Difficulty in a Translation Programme

Abstract

A major issue in teaching translation courses is how to sequence the texts designed for the practice of translation in a translator training course. The general policy is to sequence them in terms of difficulty. In the case of translation, text difficulty is of two types, one concerning comprehension (of the SL) and the other concerning translation-specific difficulties. Both types function at three levels: the lexical, the syntactic and the concept levels, the last of which seems to form the greatest source of difficulty. Concepts, either concrete-referenced (CRC) or abstract-referenced (ARC), may be universal or non-universal. Universal CRCs and ARCs are easier both to comprehend and to translate. Non-universal ones are not necessarily difficult to translate, particularly after the comprehension problems are solved. As for sequencing the material designed for practice, the article provides a framework for determining difficulty at lexical and syntactic levels, and suggests that the most effective technique is to rank the texts first on the basis to the type and category of their general concepts (CRCs/ARCs), and then on the basis of their lexical and syntactic difficulty as determined by the scales given in the article.