The role of translation among the processes of production of knowledge on language teaching: outlining problems for research

Abstract

I herein circumscribe some problems for research by considering the act of translating a text as being side by side with other acts that concur to make an enunciation “interpretable”. I elaborate on this topic by questioning the production and circulation of academic texts on language teaching in Brazil. The question guiding this study is “how is translation related to other processes involved in the production of knowledge?” First, I expose how I conceptualize “knowledge” from a discursive perspective. Next, I investigate how Brazilian and foreign texts appear in the syllabus of a Brazilian Language Arts course and how other texts are cited in one of the texts recommended by the syllabus. Finally, I analyze excerpts from a master’s thesis from the same university. Translation turns out to be intertwined with different discursive procedures, not only as an activity that makes a text available, but also as a single gesture in which finding linguistic “correspondence”, making textual comments, and inscribing the enunciation into a new discourse are inseparable.