Suomi lähdekielenä, unkari kohdekielenä – voiko kääntämällä oppia kieltä?

"Finnish as a source language, Hungarian as a target language: Is it possible to learn language by translating?". Translation was commonly used as a language learning method before the functional communicative approach appeared. In earlier decades, the pedagogical emphasis was placed on formalistic language learning and translating textbooks word by word, whereas today the focus is on communication and functional language learning. In our project, university students translate authentic texts in interaction with each other. Meanwhile, they describe the translation processes. The aim of our research is to examine to what extent translating may prove to be a useful and efficient way to teach and learn a language. We analyse how the students improve their language skills and learn not only the language but also tools to describe the process. The context of the study is a Finnish language translation course in a Hungarian university. During the course, the students translated Finnish fiction into Hungarian under the supervision of a Finnish language teacher and a translation teacher. At the start of the course, an introductory lecture was given on translation theories and methods. After that the students produced a translation sample and a comment on their translation. A translation sample with a comment was also written at the end of the course. The authentic texts translated during the course were Finnish speculative fiction short stories on environment-related themes. The students were advised to describe their process of translation during the whole project. In our article, we analyse how the students described their learning process, and how their skills developed during the translation process. The results demon strate that different translator competences improved during the process, but the development of the language competence appeared the most pivotal. This may be due to the students’ presumption of the essence of translating: prior to the course, they regarded translating as a way to learn the language, which presumably lead them to pay special attention to language learning also in their comments.