CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
In the process of China’s transition from a big country to a world power, the scale of demand and specifications of translation talents have undergone profound changes (Ye 2017), and the cultivation of high-level translation talents is particularly vital for achieving win-win cooperation and mutual development with other countries. The effectiveness of translation teaching plays an important role in the cultivation of translation talents. Therefore, seeking effective teaching methods to promote learning efficiency is still the theme of reforming translation teaching (Wang 2018). However, to date, translation teaching in China is still im-perfect because of some existing problems. For example, the studies of translation theory rel-atively lag behind the international level, which seriously restricts the development of transla-tion teaching (Mu 2004). What’s more, the translation teaching remains at the technical level, mainly focusing on the explanation of language knowledge instead of the improvement of translation ability (Luo 2002). In addition, the teaching methods are in lack of innovation and the content of textbook is backwards and monotonous (Wang 2010). Over the years, though the number of studies on the translation teaching has been increasing and the research has been developed and deepened, the empirical study on the translation teaching methods is not enough (Liu & Mu 2013).
On the basis of the above background, in order to improve the efficiency of translation teaching and cultivate the translator who accords with the demands of the society, exploration on translation theory and teaching methods is especially crucial in China. In recent years, ex-perts and scholars in China have carried out a series of translation teaching research, obtaining some achievements. Yang (2003) proposed the text-based translation teaching method. Firstly, students were required to complete translation tasks independently and then teachers ex-plained certain translation difficulties based on the text. According to Yang (2003), this method could combine theory with practice effectively, making students understand the im-portance of theory as well as enhancing their interest in translation.
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1.2 Purpose of the study
At present, the domestic research on extension hypothesis (Wang 2016) mainly focus on the writing continuation task. Moreover many empirical studies (Yuan 2013; Wang & Wang 2014; Jiang & Tu 2016) indicate that writing continuation task could effectively promote learning, which has important theoretical and practical significance for the current research on translation continuation task. In addition, there is only one research report on the Uy-ghur-Chinese translation continuation task (Xu 2016). And up to date, there is no study ex-amining the long-term effects of translation continuation task. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the effects of translation continuation task on the Chinese-English transla-tion of the novel Oh, Xiangxue, as well as the delayed effects of it.
Theoretically, it deepens the understanding on translation process, helping figure out the task features and principles in improving translation ability, which will inject fresh blood into the research of translation theory in China, providing theoretical guidance for the innovation of translation practice and the improvement of translation quality.
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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview
This chapter presents the context of this study, and delves more deeply into the research questions by reviewing previous literature. It reviewed literature in three main areas: the translation process research for improving translation ability, extension hypothesis and trans-lation continuation task with related empirical studies.
Improving translation ability is not only the main purpose of translation teaching, but al-so a constant concern of the translation academia. According to Wang (2012), the translation process research with the core of improving translation ability has long been the frontier of western translation studies. Research on this topic define the translation ability through the study of the translation process, explore acquisition and evaluation of translation ability, as well as the influence of different teaching methods on the translation ability. Besides, most of the research are case-based and empirical
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2.2 The translation process research for improving translation ability
The most influential translation ability (competence) research in the international is the PACTE (Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation) team at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. PACTE’s study (2009) took 35 professional translators and 24 foreign language teachers as two experimental group to explore the acquisi-tion of translation ability (competence). The results of the PACTE team also include the thesis “Investigating Translation Competence: Conceptual and Methodological Issues” (Beeby et al. 2005), which introduced the team’s research on the construction and acquisition process of translation competence from the theoretical and methodological perspectives. According to Wang (2012), the PACTE translation competence construction model has got wide-spread attention from academia. It is considered to be ‘the most systematic visualization model to date, which has a positive impact on translation teaching’. It is worth noting that the PACTE model has been rapidly applied to improve the translator’s translation quality. The “European Master’s in Translation” (EMT) is the most famous project (Wang 2012).
At present, domestic research on translation process with the core of improving transla-tion ability, especially empirical research, is scarce. Feng (2001) proposed a translation teaching method, which combined translation teaching with computerized classroom. There-fore, teachers could participate in the translation process of students directly. Compared to the traditional translation teaching method, it could solve students’ doubts and difficulties directly in the translation process, which was helpful to deepen their understanding of the translation problems. It also helped them to avoid making the same mistakes in the same translation text, so as to greatly improve the quality of translation.
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CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH DESIGN ..................................... 14
3.1 Overview .......................................... 14
3.2 Research questions ............... 14
3.3 Participants ........................... 14
CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS .......................................... 29
4.1 Overview .................................... 29
4.2 The occurrence of linguistic alignment ......................... 29
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION ...................................... 53
5.1 Overview ................................. 53
5.2 Major findings ....................................... 53
CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS
4.1 The occurrence of linguistic alignment
This section answers the RQ1 “Does participants of experimental group make alignment in the translation continuation task of the novel Oh, Xiangxue in terms of words, phrases and sentences?” and RQ3 “Does the translation continuation task of the novel Oh, Xiangxue have any delayed effects? ” from two perspectives.
Firstly, in accordance with the Interactive alignment model (Pickering & Garrod 2004), the operational definition of alignment in this study was linguistic similarity. That is to say, linguistic representations shared by both translation texts of experimental group and the given English translation text could be coded as linguistic alignment which consisted of aligned words, aligned phrases and aligned sentences. On the other hand, in accordance with Xu (2016), if the frequencies of using these repeated words, phrases and sentences in the experi-mental group were significantly higher than those in the control group, it indicates that par-ticipants of experimental group had read back the given English translation text and used the words and language structures in it when translating, hereby making alignment occur. Based on the two definitions of alignment above, the repeated linguistic items were coded and counted by two senior graduate students in MTI.
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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION
5.1Major findings
reference(omitted)