The scaffolded language emergence approach in translation programs

Abstract

This chapter introduces the epistemological foundations of the Scaffolded Language Emergence (SLE) approach to promoting the emergence of additional languages in adults and suggests some ideas and techniques for its implementation in the classroom at university level. Developed over a period of some 20 years by Don Kiraly at the School of Translation, Linguistics and Cultural Studies (FTSK) of the University of Mainz, Germany, the SLE approach has been used successfully to introduce hundreds of translation students at that institution to one or more of 15 additional languages. The authors have found this approach to be an innovative way to foster additional language acquisition in the context of translator training. They believe that adopting such an approach at an early stage of one’s translation study program can provide a fertile environment for adults to establish a basis in a foreign language. Its early adoption can also help adult language learners develop and rediscover their natural skills for learning a language by means of personalized, embodied and authentic learning activities.