Intercultural Communication at the Heart of a Translation Quality Assessment Model

Effective communication is crucial in a globalized communication technology-driven world. Translation and communication disciplines seem to meet in the field of Intercultural Communication, the study of communication between individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Translation, an interlinguistic and intercultural enterprise, generates quality translation products which portray not only a suitable linguistic format but also a cross- cultural component carefully thought out by expert translators. Fully aware of their responsibility in developing translator-to- be intercultural communication competence, higher education institutions did make their contributions for their graduates to become expert translators producing quality translations. Two such proposals are analysed to discern whether a traditional general approach effectively includes relevant intercultural components identified in a more recent study. At the outset, Lee-Jahnke’s 2001 comprehensive translation quality assessment model is explored to find out the extent and manner in which intercultural matters are taken in, thus making the evaluation tool suitable for academic and field work assessment. Then, PICT’s 2012 specific intercultural competence framework, developed as part of European Union- funded “Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators” project, is reviewed to identify specific intercultural competence fields and show their degree of correspondence with relevant sections in the general assessment model and its adequacy for judging translation quality.