Thirty-two non-English-major students from Sichuan Agricultural University were required to translate invitation letters from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. Given they are often very shy for their imperfect mastery of English that they lack confidence to carry out a translation task which is unfamiliar and challenging to them, the teacher has introduced the different formats of Chinese and English invitation letters, presented relevant translation skills and the evaluating standards of their translations which include the requirements of vocabulary, meaning, smoothness, and functional and textual equivalence, and requires them to translate the letter from English to Chinese first. Next, students read through the letter they are required to translate, discuss with their classmates the difficult points to be translated, the appropriate methods to overcome them, and the proper translation skills and strategies to apply in the translation. Then, the students fulfill the translation task on their own with reference to some essential resources such as dictionaries. After that, the students take turns reading their translations to the whole class and explain how and why they translated the letter in that way. The other students then offer feedback on the translations they have heard. After all the students have presented their translation to the class, the teacher will generalize the students’ feedback and select some representative student translations to express his or her own comments on the translations chosen, and afterwards, the students discuss the teacher’s comments on the translation selected. Later, given the comments from the teacher and their peers, the students revise and polish their translations. At last, the teacher assigns specified translation exercises to the students in hopes
that the students can consolidate their translation skills and some useful language expressions that they have just acquired in the previous study.
Teaching Effects of Task-Based Translation Class
In the class, students are listening attentively to the teacher’s elaboration of the task, participating actively in the discussion, taking the initiative to seek help from the teacher and their peers, which is quite different from their performance in the traditional teacher-centered class. When the teacher presents two corresponding English and Chinese invitation letters to the students and requires them to find the differences, the students’ performance is amazing, because they not only find the differences in the formats in the Chinese and English invitation letters, but also note the different usages of vocabulary, the different logical arrangements of the contents in the letters. For example, they notice the honorifics and the self- abasing terms in Chinese invitation letters cannot be properly translated into English. If these terms have really been translated into English, the students point out that the translation will appear awkward in the English culture. For instance, “Monday is my birthday, so the humble I solemnly invite you to my humble home to have a simple dinner”. The English translation faithfully conveys the self-abasing terms in the Chinese version, which will hinder cross-cultural communication. And their translations are better than their normal ones, for they not only achieve the semantic equivalence, but also the functional equivalence. In addition, the students can even defend their translations by expressing the reasons why they applied the translation strategies and skills, which is a breakthrough to them.
Findings from Sample Task-Based Translation Class
The task-based translation approach is more effective in arousing the students’ enthusiasm and interests, transforming their learning attitudes and improving their initiatives than the conventional translation approach. During the process of the task-based translation class, the teachers are always encouraging their students to participate in pair discussions or class discussions. Consequently, there are more interactions and cooperation in the class, where students feel relaxed, pleasant, and meanwhile, supported in the process of learning. Under such circumstances, they appear more active and eager to share their opinions and information with each other.
All in all, task-based translation instruction has many advantages in comparison to the traditional teaching, yet it still has some drawbacks to overcome. For example, authenticity of the language input is really difficult to achieve when the students’ command of English is considered. For lack of vocabulary, the texts required to translate may be simplified, thus resulting in pseudo-authenticity. More application of the task-based translation instruction is needed to make the most of its advantages and find effective methods to overcome its disadvantages as much as possible.
References
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