Data from the post-task focused interviews with the students

After finishing the group translation task, a follow-up interview was conducted in each group, which took over half an hour. The facilitators or assistants helped to ask the questions. The participants gave individual or collective opinions. Since tape- recording was not a feasible option in this situation, as far as possible I noted down the answers verbatim, ensuring the collection of all data for future analysis. An example of interview question 2 with students is given as follows (see Table 3.5; see the sample of original interview verbatim notes in Appendix 12). For ethical reasons, I coded each participant under a pseudonym. One reason why tape- recording would have been difficult, in the opinion of the facilitators which had to be adhered to, emerges (in a comment by 34) where the spontaneous laughter shows sensitivity to comments which if reported may be seen as inappropriate by some officials. On the other hand, participants could freely express some critical thinking

115 on some points, evidenced (in contributions by 31, 34, 41, 25) by comments about ‘mysterious’ theory, ‘narrow’ theory, ‘superficial’ textbooks and ‘not understanding’ what teachers said.

Table 3.5: Example of the second interview question with students Case

code

Interview question 2 and examples

C1 Assistant 30 All Researcher 31 Lin (C1-2) 32 Xiao (C1-1) 33 Lei (C1-4) 34 Xiao (C1-1) 35 Fang (C1-3) Researcher

Let’s see the second question: Can/Do you apply the theories of translation you have learned in this task?

No, I don’t think so (most said ‘No’)

Why? Can you give me some examples of what kind of theories you have learned?

We did learn many theories, but when we did translation, we couldn’t remember what we should use when necessary. What we could use was grammatical equivalence. Nida’s theory of

equivalence seems universal. We learned Yan Fu’s ‘three-word’ translation theory, but we feel that it is mysterious. It seems little help to do translation.

In the lecture of Translation Studies, the teacher talked about literal translation, meaning translation, text type. I know that the English form is different from that of Chinese text. When I dealt with this English text, I found that I easily followed the form of this English text. I am not sure of the translated text and form. The teacher also talked about functionalist theories. I understood at that time when we had them in lecture, but I feel that I don’t know how to apply them in practice.

Venuti’s domestication and foreignization can be used to translate this short text. However, I feel ease to use grammatical equivalence. I think that Chinese translation theory is not concrete. Translation skills and strategies are practical. My problem in this translation is that I was easily bound by the original source text. I translated its meaning. We learned some literary theory, like Shenyun,

foreignization and domestication, formal equivalence,

correspondence, etc. We know not much but superficially such conceptual knowledge. Sometimes the teacher did not explain clearly.

You should be careful for what you say. Somebody may report your saying (All burst into laughter).

Teacher, can you tell us of some programmes of Translation Studies in the UK? What kind of translation theories do the students there learn? Do they study Chinese translation theory?

I shared some information when I gave the talk at 2.30, if you were there. I am willing to talk to you when we finish this interview. I

116 36 Hai

(C1-5)

want to know if some others want to discuss what you have learned. Although we have learned many theories, for example, Yan Fu’s ‘Xin, Da, Ya’ and Fu Lei’s ‘Shensi’. These are too general. I only had their basic concepts. In my opinion, making the scope and content of translation theory are not an easy thing.

…… C2 Assistant 29 Song (C2-8) Researcher 30 Shi (C2-6) 31 Jian (C2-4) 34 Song (C2-8) 35 Shi (C2-6) 41 Feng (C2-1)

I am glad that you have talked very well. I want to stop this question for a while. Let’s see the second question. Can/Do you apply the theories of translation you have learned in this task? Linguistics and literature is our focus in our study. We learned Chinese translation theory, Western translation theory and literary theory.

Can you describe them specifically?

For example, ‘Xin, Da, Ya’, ‘Shensi’, and ‘Huajing’. However, they are very abstract. Nida’s theory is useful.

We think that we should not only learn Chinese translation theory but should have a systemic and multi-dimensional theory.

……

I agree with Jian and Yang. This means that literary translation theory is not singled out as the only theory we learned, but it should be combined with theories of other disciplines. We believed that the literary translation theory we learned was very narrow.

In the light of the translation course, we had modules of theories of modern literary criticism, translation theory, theory and application of translation, theories of traditional literary criticism. Our teachers presented them in Chinese. We understood them in Chinese. ……

Cultural difference certainly needs different ways or have this ability. My understanding of translation competence was that it should be good for dealing with culture-bound words. For example, a kind of Chinese tea is called Huacha花茶. It is actually a kind of green tea mixed with jasmines. I got several options here: flower- scented green tea, Jasmine tea. I feel that they are acceptable in Chinese. However, I would take it as a culture-bound word. //I would like to have some translation textbooks of good quality and worthy of keeping as my handbooks. However, I bought them, and I found that they were not much used because their contents were superficial and repeated. I wonder why we were required to buy them.

117 UK3 Assistant 21 Willam (UK3-7) 22 Mike (UK3-2) 23 Gaby (UK3-5) 24 Sheila (UK3-1) 25 Lewis (UK3-6)

Can/Do you apply the theories of translation you have learned in this task?

……

We didn’t have to wait for what a teacher taught us but we could initiate our steps with the clear and transparent instructional

objectives. If I have a good preparation each time before starting the module, I can understand more.

However, in terms of translation theory paradigms, I couldn’t often understand.

Me too. Sometimes I only had some terms, but there were close connections between courses. Our assignments can prove this. Of course. Among them, the compulsory courses were

fundamentally basic.

I agree with you. Though I felt that compulsory and optional modules are difficult for me, I insisted that I should go on because I knew that I could obtain something through each of the modules. I personally appreciated the thoughts which came from the teachers. They were inspiring me. //I can’t deny that sometimes I couldn’t understand what the teacher said.

……