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摘 要：Translation is required as a compulsory course for English majors in many universities in China. With the development of globalization, a large number of translators are needed. Therefore, translation teaching is significant for the training of high-qualified translation personnel for the society. The purpose of this study is to give a basic introduction of the misunderstandings existing in translation teaching in China and to offer some advices in hope of promoting translation teaching in China.
关键词：translation teaching; translation theory; translation teachers
We are all familiar with translation. Translation is a cross-linguistic activity.
However, though people are familiar with all kinds of translation work, they still hold many misunderstandings on translation and translation teaching.
The first misunderstanding is that translation class is not important. In traditional syllabus, translation teaching only takes a small proportion. In college, students do not have translation class until grade three or four, and there are only some translation exercises in perusal lesson. And the aim of those translation exercises is not to improve their translation skills, but to improve their basic English knowledge. In other words, this is ‘teaching translation’, not ‘translation teaching’.
The second misunderstanding about translation teaching is that the improvement of translation ability mainly depends on the improvement of students’ English ability. It is true that the ability to comprehend and master English is the basis of translation and the main task of language teaching. And teachers have been teaching like this for a long time. But the result is that many students who can understand English well cannot find proper Chinese to express their understandings and ideas.Nowadays, with the development of globalization, a large number of good translators are needed. They have to master both their mother language and foreign language as well as know the cultural connotation that different language represents.
The third wrong idea about translation teaching is that translation theory teaching is not important. Translation theory is the elite of translation process. It is a series of universal and particular principles and it is very important to the process and standard of translation. Translation theory can help translators find out problems in translation process and offer some guidance to help translators make a choice without making any unnecessary mistakes. We can say that translation theory originates from translation practice and serves translation practice in the meantime.
Some teachers hold the idea that the only task of translation class is to improve the students’ practical ability of translation. In many translation classes, translation skills and knowledge are taught while translation theory teaching is ignored. Some teachers take the improvement of the students’ language knowledge as their teaching target and pay too much attention to the translation product. For example, some teachers pursue the nicety of particular word or offer the ‘standard translation’ to their students. As a result, the only thing most of the students can learn after translation class is vocabulary and grammar. Some teachers just translate the text sentence by sentence with their own feelings and experience. Students know nothing about the translation theory. Learning translation theory can not only help students improve their theoretical ability, but also help them know the basic rules of translation. Besides, learning translation theory can help students recognize the significance of translation to the social and cultural development of the entire human being. It also helps students recognize the relationship between translation and other subjects and find the social and cultural value of translation. Therefore, translation theory is an important part of translation teaching. Without it, translation teaching cannot work well.
How to solve all the problems and improve translation teaching? First, students’ competence of Chinese and English should both be improved. In some senses, Chinese competence is the key to improve translation ability. So teachers should encourage their students to read more Chinese literature to improve their Chinese cultivation. Second, student’s communicative competence should be trained. As a subject of bilingual transformation, translation teaching has more responsibility on the cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cross-cultural communicative competence has much more significance to translation teaching than to the other subjects. For example, cattle represent hardworking in Chinese because cattle are used for farming land in China. However, in Britain, horses are used for farming land while cattle are rarely used. In this case, horse represents hardworking in English. Translation teachers should have the knowledge of both a foreign language and Chinese. Also, they should learn more about translation theory and the latest development in translation field.
参考文献
［1］Basil Hatim. Teaching and Researching Translation.Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2005.
关键词：translation teaching; translation theory; translation teachers
We are all familiar with translation. Translation is a cross-linguistic activity.
However, though people are familiar with all kinds of translation work, they still hold many misunderstandings on translation and translation teaching.
The first misunderstanding is that translation class is not important. In traditional syllabus, translation teaching only takes a small proportion. In college, students do not have translation class until grade three or four, and there are only some translation exercises in perusal lesson. And the aim of those translation exercises is not to improve their translation skills, but to improve their basic English knowledge. In other words, this is ‘teaching translation’, not ‘translation teaching’.
The second misunderstanding about translation teaching is that the improvement of translation ability mainly depends on the improvement of students’ English ability. It is true that the ability to comprehend and master English is the basis of translation and the main task of language teaching. And teachers have been teaching like this for a long time. But the result is that many students who can understand English well cannot find proper Chinese to express their understandings and ideas.Nowadays, with the development of globalization, a large number of good translators are needed. They have to master both their mother language and foreign language as well as know the cultural connotation that different language represents.
The third wrong idea about translation teaching is that translation theory teaching is not important. Translation theory is the elite of translation process. It is a series of universal and particular principles and it is very important to the process and standard of translation. Translation theory can help translators find out problems in translation process and offer some guidance to help translators make a choice without making any unnecessary mistakes. We can say that translation theory originates from translation practice and serves translation practice in the meantime.
Some teachers hold the idea that the only task of translation class is to improve the students’ practical ability of translation. In many translation classes, translation skills and knowledge are taught while translation theory teaching is ignored. Some teachers take the improvement of the students’ language knowledge as their teaching target and pay too much attention to the translation product. For example, some teachers pursue the nicety of particular word or offer the ‘standard translation’ to their students. As a result, the only thing most of the students can learn after translation class is vocabulary and grammar. Some teachers just translate the text sentence by sentence with their own feelings and experience. Students know nothing about the translation theory. Learning translation theory can not only help students improve their theoretical ability, but also help them know the basic rules of translation. Besides, learning translation theory can help students recognize the significance of translation to the social and cultural development of the entire human being. It also helps students recognize the relationship between translation and other subjects and find the social and cultural value of translation. Therefore, translation theory is an important part of translation teaching. Without it, translation teaching cannot work well.
How to solve all the problems and improve translation teaching? First, students’ competence of Chinese and English should both be improved. In some senses, Chinese competence is the key to improve translation ability. So teachers should encourage their students to read more Chinese literature to improve their Chinese cultivation. Second, student’s communicative competence should be trained. As a subject of bilingual transformation, translation teaching has more responsibility on the cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cross-cultural communicative competence has much more significance to translation teaching than to the other subjects. For example, cattle represent hardworking in Chinese because cattle are used for farming land in China. However, in Britain, horses are used for farming land while cattle are rarely used. In this case, horse represents hardworking in English. Translation teachers should have the knowledge of both a foreign language and Chinese. Also, they should learn more about translation theory and the latest development in translation field.
参考文献
［1］Basil Hatim. Teaching and Researching Translation.Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2005.