This paper focuses on undergraduate modern language students' representations of translation. To date work in Translation Studies has been primarily aimed at the 'expert' rather than the 'novice' who is pursuing her / his first degree in a modern language. Translation Studies in recent decades have concentrated on the theory of translation (often with a prescriptive emphasis on the ways in which translation should be approached) and have been marked by a high degree of contestation. The paper considers some of the implications of this contestation for the current study of undergraduate representations of translation including their impact on key methodological decisions.Overview of methods.The study involved semi- structured, in-depth interviews, guided by the topic set given below, with 18 second year students, 17 of whom were interviewed for a second time in their fourth year of study, i.e. following residence abroad. (10 students in their first year of study were also interviewed to capture a snapshot of the school - university transition in relation to translation.) The topic set discussed with students included, their own representations of: the task of translation, their expectations of themselves as translators, their approaches to the processes of translation and their understanding of translation within the teaching, learning and assessment framework of their course. The interviews explored the students' conceptions of: translation as an activity in general, translation as part of their academic studies and their understanding of procedural knowledge associated with translation. This paper highlights central aspects of student representations of these three categories of translation. Aspects of analysis.Turning to methodological concerns, given the contestation within Translation Studies over the norms which should guide translation it was important to avoid any prescriptive, top-down approach to analysis. Instead, analysis focused on a bottom-up approach investigating students' representations in their own right. Strategically alert to commonalities and contrasts, the researchers undertook the process of analysis in three stages; firstly each researcher's own fine-grained reading and annotation of individual interviews and, secondly, the coding of the data by substantive topic and at the conceptual level. The third stage was the cross-validation of interpretations between the researchers.Focus of reporting of findings.Analysis of the data identified as an important matter student conceptions of 'validity of discourse' and showed that, within this study, there were gradations in the sense of their own agency and authority in translation. The paper presents second year student representations of translation which fell into 3 main categories: Strongly target text oriented Source text alert Actively responsive to source text.Commonalities in representations in 4th year are then noted along with developments in understanding of, and sensitivity to, nuances in both source and target languages.The concluding discussion of findings centres on the challenges that they pose in terms of framing an appropriate pedagogical response that would foster students' agency in translation.