Translation and Easy-to-Read Language Skills in the Context of Professional Competence in Tourism

The article is a theoretical study of the role of translation/ interpreting/mediation as the 5th foreign language learning skill (along with the four traditional ones: speaking, listening, reading, writing) in tourism industry studies, taking into account the knowledge of easy-to-read language text production. In today’s globalized world and in the context of European mobility, interdisciplinary education is gaining increasing attention. Although the profession of an interpreter and translator is taught in separate study programmes in Europe and worldwide, the tourism sector is one of the areas where both interpretation and translation skills and the presentation of information in plain/easy-to-read language are essential. The aim of the author’s theoretical research is to outline the place of these skills in the structure of professional competence in tourism. To this end, the types of translation required in the tourism sector as well as the techniques of simplified text production are analysed in the context of translatology. The author also gives a brief overview of easy and plain language, its role in language use and also in foreign language learning in general, highlighting the tourism sector.