The functions of language and then text types defined as informative, expressive, operational and audio-medial can be found by looking at the perception that 'a language should be analysed within the varieties of its functions'. Our text is news which has reference function, peculiar to informative text type, cognitive and objective features. It is rather important to translate news, which is brief and to the point and clear by its nature, by using simple sentences influentially and to preserve

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... its content more than its form. The aim of the study is to assess translations of news from source language French to target language Turkish in terms of translation competence by basing on the idea that 'the most important presupposition for translation is the knowledge of mother tongue'. Authentic news from the news source of International French Radio (RFI) was selected. A criterion was prepared to assess translation competence. The translation as product was assessed out of 100, 60 of which is acceptable threshold level, according to solutions suggested for the identified problems. Population compromised of the second grade student-translators studying in the French Translation and Interpreting Department at Marmara University. As a result, it was determined that 9 of the 15 students (% 60) in the population had acceptable translations according to assessment. It was found that prospective translators is going to improve their translation competence by using their understanding and translation skills with translation competence, the ability to identify problems with text competence, ability to solve problems and make decisions with competency in specialized knowledge.