In Section 2, we talked about thetranslator as an individual: we looked at features of translators at differentstages of their development (students, semiprofessionals, professionals) andwhat these features revealed about the psychological make-up of the translator.Translators, however, are not simply individuals; as professionals, they belongto a group that defines itself on the basis of occupation. If translationteaching has as its goal the integral education of translators as professionalswho not only perform and understand translation tasks but also function withina professional group in accordance with the norms and expectations of thegroup, the social aspects of translation must have a prominent role in anymethodology of translation teaching. Furthermore, teaching about the socialrole of translators and translation becomes unavoidable for a translation pedagogythat seeks to facilitate the acquisition of communicative translation competencedefined as the ability to “interact appropriately and adequately as an activeparticipant in communicative translation task” ( Kiraly 1990,215)
