UPDATING THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORKOF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES: MEDIATIONAND PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION ACTIVITY

Анотація

The present study explores the correlation of mediation as the communicative activity and professional
translation/interpreting activity in the context of the Common European Framework of References for Languages
(CEFR) (2001). Particular attention is paid to the Companion Volume to CEFR (2017), which offers
a broader interpretation of “mediation”. It is claimed that the elimination of differences between mediation
and translation/interpreting in CEFR fi nally created possibilities for cooperation between translation studies
and foreign language didactics, as well as teaching methodology, in the fi eld of developing mediation
competence in the process of foreign language teaching. However, the results appear to indicate that the
authors of the Companion Volume to CEFR separated mediation and translation/interpreting. The author
believes their arguments to be unconvincing, rejects the idea that mediation and translation/ interpretation are
entirely different fi elds and illustrates her arguments with examples from the daily work of translators and
interpreters. The analysis further reveals that the interpretation of the mediation in the Companion Volume
includes three groups of competences: mediating a text, mediating concepts and mediation in communication.
Taking into account this three-dimensional division, the author argues that foreign language didactics and
teaching methodology can profi t from the experiences of translation studies by integrating main elements
of interpreters and translators training and take advantage of forming intercultural competence which helps
to avoid cultural misunderstandings.
Keywords: mediation, professional translation, Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages, the Companion Volume to CEFR, translation studies, foreign language didactics and teaching
methodology.