Gamero Pérez, Silvia (2010): Traducción alemán-español: Aprendizaje activo de las destrezas básicas. Castelló de la Plana: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I; Madrid: Edelsa, 316 p.

Silvia Gamero’s second edition of Traducción alemán-español: Aprendizaje activo de las destrezas básicas, constitutes a valuable volume for both teachers and apprentices interested in an active approach toward learning/teaching basic translation skills and strategies. Those who are already acquainted with the first edition of this book will discover some subtle changes – which we will comment in more detail below –, and they will also find that these do not substantially modify the structure or contents in comparison to the previous edition. Overall, this new edition of the book proves to be equally useful and original in its methodology, as can be seen in the following review. The author, Silvia Gamero Pérez, has ample experience in researching and teaching translation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the Universitat Jaume I, and also has numerous publications on general and technical translation between Spanish/German. The design of the activities and the handbook as a whole reflects the experience of the author because it is clearly directed toward responding to specific didactic goals and classroom-workshop needs, and doesn’t get lost in abstract and theoretical problems. The main objectives of the book are: to learn and improve basic translation skills and strategies, to promote the autonomy of learners and beginner translators, and to help them develop an automated routine of techniques for critically and effectively solving translation problems. All of these objectives are well met throughout the manual and the professor’s guide. It is important to emphasize that the readers will not find in the book any specific activities or training focused on specialized translation (e.g. technical, scientific, etc.). Instead – as we said before – the aim of the manual is to gradually build up a set of good basic translation habits. That point brings us to a fundamental question: Who will find this manual useful? The author claims that the public to which the book is addressed is composed of professors and instructors, translation students in universities (or modern language students who want to learn to translate), and Spanish-proficient self-learners with at least 300 hours of German language classes. With the exception of this last group – which could find some difficulties in completing some of the activities of the book without the appropriate guidance (or the opportunity to contrast and discuss their answers) – the professors and instructors will definitely find a valuable material for their classes and curriculum design. In addition, the university students will appreciate the step-by-step comprehensive approach found in TA-E. Finally, although TA-E is not intended for teaching German as a foreign language to Spanish speakers, it could be used for this purpose as a valuable complement due to its structure and content, which are grounded on the task-based approach. In regards to the organization and structure of the manual, two main sections can be found: the first one (Part 1) is the core section of the book, and contains a set of didactic units which deal with methodological aspects of translation; the second one (Part 2 and Part 3) includes a set of exercises and reference information about contrastive aspects between Spanish and German languages. There is also a brief third section (Part 4 and Part 5), which proposes both printed and electronic reference works which complement the book’s content. The first section of TA-E consists of twelve chapters, of which the first five are devoted to methodological aspects of translation (understanding the source text, developing a critical attitude toward the process of translation, use of dictionaries and other reference materials, the dynamic character of translation equivalences, and translation of cultural …