Dear Colleagues,

The fundamental focus of translation education and training is encouraging and enhancing translation and translators' competencies. Modern technology and economic globalization have made the globe more dynamic. We need more qualified translators with advanced translation training experience to satisfy the demands of businesses and clients. This implies that the way a translation is set up and the translator's skills are crucial.

There are four stages in which translation competence develops: (i) "The early stages": some academics and researchers link translation competence to bilingualism and maintain that translation competence is an innate skill. In contrast, other academics and researchers contend that translation competence is a product of "nature and nurture." In this period, linguistic competence is the primary focus of translation competence (Harris and Sherwood 1978; Zou 2015); (ii) "the developmental period": during this time, other competences are examined, including instrumental competence, linguistic competence, and world-knowledge competence; (iii) "an enriching period": during this time, scholars and researchers apply the functional theory in translation by granting contextual, communicative, and functional aspects of translation (Vienne 1998). This phase has seen the identification of certain competences, including those related to instruments, assessment, macro-strategy, and monitoring (ibid.); and (iv) "the burgeoning period": during this time, relevant empirical research methodologies have emerged. The concept of translation competence is drawn from a variety of academic disciplines, including psychology, intercultural studies, and sociology (PACTE 2014; Akbari 2022). In order to meet the needs of a society that is always evolving and updating, researchers "take a holistic approach towards TC (Translation Competence) and develop more comprehensive, systematic, and well-defined TC models" (Zou 2015: 787).

In recent years, efforts have been made to pave the way for the inclusion of translation competence in their curriculum by introducing different translation competence models such as PETRA-E (2020) (competences of literary translators), European Master’s in Translation (EMT: 2017) (language and culture, translation, technology, personal, and interpersonal competences), PACTE (strategic, bilingual, instrumental, knowledge about translation, and psycho-physiological sub-competences) (PACTE 2009), and Göpferich’s model (2007) (communicative competence, domain competence, tools, and research competence, translation routine activation competence, psycho-motor competence, and strategic competence). However, there are still challenges and obstacles in teaching translation competence and measuring a translator’s competence. This issue points to the need for further work to remove these obstacles. In this light, universities and institutions must boost students’ translation competence and enlarge students’ information literacy by underpropping translation competence teaching. Ergo, themes such as translation competence, translator’s competence, assessment, evaluation, testing, and teaching methodology must be theoretically and functionally chewed over and probed.

In this edited collection, we want to bring to the fore themes concerning translation and translator competence, which must be remitted by translation researchers, scholars, trainers, and university academic members. Hopefully, this edited collection contributes to researchers/scholars widening their perspectives regarding new insights into translation and translator’s competence. 

Issues which may be addressed include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Theoretical and functional/practical facets of translation competence/translator’s competence;
  

• Boosting students’ translation competence;
  

• Traversing functional methodologies for translation competence training;
  

• Empirical research on translation competence;
  

• Measuring translation and translator’s competence;
  

• Competence-based curriculum design for training translators;
  

• Tools for assessing students’ professional competence;
  

• Teaching intercultural competence in the setting of translation training;
  

• Evaluating pragmatic competence in translation training;
  

• Assessing stylistic competence in translation training;
  

• Exploring translation revision competence in translation training;
  

• Developing machine translation competence.
  

We kindly invite you to participate in this editorial project published by the Forum for Linguistic Studies (FLS-Scopus indexed). We expect the size of each chapter to be circa 8000-10,000 words (including the reference list). We accept contributions on a rolling basis. Writing and reviewing are scheduled until approximately September 2024, and final proofing is between then and the end of the year. The sooner you submit your chapter, the sooner it will be published online and citable. Contributions to this volume are strictly peer-reviewed.

Alireza Akbari, Mohammadtaghi Shahnazari

Translation competence; Translation evaluation products; Translation competence training; Machine translation competence; Translation revision competence; Teaching intercultural competence; Measuring translation and translator's competence; Competence-based curriculum design