ABSTRACT
The use of metalanguages is an important point of research in education in general. It is also a heated issue of debate in L2 teaching. In this chapter we first summarise the role and position of metalanguages in education, in general, and in subject topics based on the main existing work on this topic, so that our discussion of metalanguages in translator education is not only interpreted within the context of translation but also within the context of education. We examine the development of translation and translator competences, pointing out that a general trend towards externalisation of the competences and broadening of the scope of competences is observed. The mapping of competence categories given in ISO 17100 and EMT 2017, two important practical schemes of competence categories, to metalanguage categories is given. We show that the metalanguages have two roles, i.e. scaffolding to understanding translations and nurturing translation competences, and one of the main translator competences in itself. After the possible use of metalanguages in translator education is discussed, desiderata for metalanguages in educational setups are formulated.
