Instrument Encouraging the Development of Intercultural Perspective Taking and Reader-Orientation in Translator Training. Source Texts from Children's Literature as a Didactic Instrument in the Translation Classroom (German-Spanish)

Abstract

This paper will focus on the role that source texts from early reader children’s literature can play in beginners’ translation classes helping students to develop culturally sensitive concepts of translator role and responsibility and encouraging them to use reader-oriented translation strategies. In accordance with Functionalist Translation Theory, the translator’s ability to take into consideration culturally different perspectives is regarded as a basic component of his/her expert intercultural competence. It will be argued that students’ empathy and ability to take others’ perspectives can be fostered through source texts that enable them to connect both with the fictional world (“text world”) and the target recipient’s situation (“real world”)