ADLP PUBLICATIONS

Publication in Forum Vol. 3 No. 1 (Presses de la Nouvelle Sorbonne)

Article by C. Degueldre entitled : Determining Language Proficiency Levels for Language Professionals : Issues and challenges for translators and interpreters in the United States

In the United States as in many countries many people believe that knowing languages is sufficient to be able to translate and interpret. What is the minimum linguistic proficiency required to translate and interpret professionally or even semi professionally? The goal of this article is not correct such a misconception. It is simply to present various linguistic proficiency scales used in Europe, in Australia and in the United States to better understand what the user is able to produce and understand at the various levels of proficiency. Some scales referrer specifically to the capacity to do informal interpreting. In this article our goal is to raise the awareness that speaking and understanding a language is not sufficient to translate or interpret it but that a high level of language proficiency must be complemented by specific skills that need to be imparted in the training off translators and interpreters to reach a professional level.