Expanding interest in specialized translation increases the possibility that in a growing number of cases the task will be executed not so much by trained specialists as by inexperienced students and graduates of philological departments. These potential translators must therefore be made sensitive to the basic requirements and responsibilities they will have to take up in order to produce acceptable translations. The first part of the paper describes the distinction between foreign language teaching oriented translation and translation proper, and lays emphasis on those aspects of the latter which are of particular importance in translation didactics. In the remaining part, a tentative translation-training syllabus conformable to the needs of philological departments is presented, as well as specific procedures and tech -niques which develop translating skills in the trainees.