New Tasks of Translation Teachers: the Challenge of Mosaic Thinking

Abstract

The research is aimed to determine how the mosaic thinking of the younger generation affects the process of translator training. Development of the mosaic thinking results in the need to solve new tasks by translation teachers. They include: to teach students how to determine the communicative task of the source text, or ST; to teach students how to analyze the logical structure of the ST; to teach students how to determine the relevance of specific linguistic units used in the ST with due account of the text’s logical structure; to teach students to doubt their interpretation of the ST; to teach students to produce a logically coherent text in the target language. To solve the tasks, a comprehensive system of actions must be designed. The aim of the system is to make students’ thinking more professional, i.e. to transform the mosaic thinking into the professional translator’s mentality. The conclusions are based on the analysis of the provisions voiced in the research of the mosaic thinking from the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical perspective as well as on observations of how translation is taught in Russian universities. The present investigation is innovative since it highlights the factors that make it especially difficult to form professional translators’ mentality now.