Translation competence and translation performance: Lexical, syntactic and textual patterns in student translations of a specialized EU genre

This paper reports the findings of a study aiming to reveal the recurring patterns of lexical, syntactic and textual errors in student translations of a specialized EU genre from English into Hungarian. By comparing the student translations to the official translation of the text, this article uncovers the most frequent errors that students made and links these errors to the elements of translation competence. In order to achieve these goals, textual analysis and retrospective interviews were used. The findings show that translation errors occur at every level of language, and they follow recurring patterns, stemming from different elements of translation competence. The outcomes of the study may aid specialized EU translation teachers in designing course syllabuses by highlighting which elements of translation competence to focus on.

► I compared student translations to the official translation of an EU text.
► The most frequent translation errors occur at three levels of language.
► The most frequent linguistic errors have various roots.
► Students mobilize different elements of translation competence during translation.