ABSTRACT
This chapter articulates that foreign language learning alone does not constitute adequate linguistic preparation for professional translators; they must also have acquired the languages they work with, and that acquisition can indeed be fostered in the classroom. It presents the ideas at translation education conferences, someone invariably voices the objection that our curricula simply do not allow for acquisition of this kind. The constraints of student's schedules filled with a myriad of required courses, in which knowledge is dosed out to them in digestible chunks a few hours a week, and of departmental curricula geared toward the objectivist ideals of compartmentalization and transmissionist efficiency do make it difficult even to try out alternative approaches. The chapter outlines two methods for promoting second language classroom acquisition which feel exemplify a constructivist view of learning and teaching: AVSG methodology, which was developed in France, the Natural Approach, created by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen in the US at about the same time.
