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Building on cognitive and discursive approaches to translation studies, this article aims at improving a didactic proposal made in earlier studies (Alves, Magalhães e Pagano, 2002; Alves e Magalhães, 2004) to develop expertise in translation by adopting a cognitive-discursive perspective in translator’s training. The article’s main goal is to analyze translations and retrospective protocols produced by novice translators whose initial training was based on the acquisition of declarative knowledge about language and reflections about their own translation processes. Concepts drawn from systemic-functional linguistics and translation process studies were used in order to enhance the translation competence of novice translators. Afterwards, their retrospective protocols were analyzed from a critical discourse analysis perspective. Methods used in the study comprised the development of critical reading, by means of concepts such as cohesion, register and genre, and critical writing, based on reflections on cognitive processes carried out with the aid of the software Translog. Critical discourse analysis was the basis for the investigation of hybridity of text types, genres and discourses in the retrospective protocols produced by translators. The results point out that there are positive effects on the development of declarative knowledge and meta-cognition among novice translators, interpreted through the generic configuration of the retrospective protocols and the discourses constructed therein. Keywords: cognitive-discursive approach, translation competence, critical reading and critical writing, meta-cognition, critical analysis of retrospective protocols.