The purpose of this study is to examine the current state of translation teaching at the undergraduate level and to identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. In order to establish some perspective, brief discussions are provided on the state of translator training in Korea and the concept of translation competence. The notion of translation competence presented by Neubert (2000) forms the basic theoretical background as well as the classifications of the different types of competence used in the paper. The study reviews the curricula of three schools which have a translation department or offer a major in translation. The findings show a variety in the curricula, the educational goals, the emphasis placed on particular types of translation competence and the allocation of credit hours. The conclusion raises three major concerns. First, the lack of an established curriculum for translation teaching leads to inconsistencies in class offerings and credit hours from school to school. Second, all the schools provide instruction only in the foreign language, despite the fact that language competence requires mastery of both source and target languages. Third, it is necessary to have an overall review of educational goals which encompass the university as well as those of the translation program. Finally, the paper calls for a collaborative effort by all schools providing translation teaching in order to develop the most appropriate teaching model for undergraduates.

The purpose of this study is to examine the current state of translation teaching at the undergraduate level and to identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. In order to establish some perspective, brief discussions are provided on the state of translator training in Korea and the concept of translation competence. The notion of translation competence presented by Neubert (2000) forms the basic theoretical background as well as the classifications of the different types of competence used in the paper. The study reviews the curricula of three schools which have a translation department or offer a major in translation. The findings show a variety in the curricula, the educational goals, the emphasis placed on particular types of translation competence and the allocation of credit hours. The conclusion raises three major concerns. First, the lack of an established curriculum for translation teaching leads to inconsistencies in class offerings and credit hours from school to school. Second, all the schools provide instruction only in the foreign language, despite the fact that language competence requires mastery of both source and target languages. Third, it is necessary to have an overall review of educational goals which encompass the university as well as those of the translation program. Finally, the paper calls for a collaborative effort by all schools providing translation teaching in order to develop the most appropriate teaching model for undergraduates.