Screening sample case

Yin argues that screening the candidate ‘cases’ that best fit in the design of ‘literal or theoretical’ replication (2009: 91) in doing a multiple case study is an important procedure for producing either similar results or exploring results but for anticipatable reasons. Since this project is a qualitative multiple case study, selecting appropriate cases for this study is essential to purposefully fulfil the research aim and research questions. Dörnyei (2007) suggests that a purposive sampling in case studies, a careful selection of some particular cases, is the key, in particular to gain insight and in-depth understanding into a general community. For this, two things were necessary: one was to look at specific similar programmes and the other was to find out cases. After conducting an overview of similar current translation programmes in the UK and in China (see Section 2.5), I selected the three programmes (see Table 3.1) according to the following criteria which I pre-set for the purpose of this study: they should be legitimate and national institutions; there should be research access both to the sites and their websites; they should be

90 institutions which provide a Chinese-English translation programme at postgraduate level, and there is availability of formal documents, such as programme descriptions, curricular documents, course syllabi, teaching and assessment methods as well as the background knowledge of translation teachers.

Table 3.1: Three case translation programmes

Case Location Case code Mode of study length and programme

Case one China C1 Two-and-half years’ full time postgraduate

programme in Conference Interpreting and Translation Studies

Case two China C2 Two-and-half years’ full time postgraduate

programme in English and American Literature with translation orientation

Case three UK UK3 One-year full time taught postgraduate

programme in Conference Interpreting and Translation Studies

In this research, because multiple cases are involved, there are inevitably potential comparisons within and across them. However, any kind of educational comparison between institutions and programmes is complex and is even more challenging across two countries with different education system. This study, as the research aims and questions make clear (see research questions, Sections 2.7 and 3.1), is designed to explore students’ performance on a translation task and ascertain the nature and extent of any qualitative differences between and across the three case programmes.

In this study, the UK university for the main British case is known to be one of the best in Britain: as a highly ranked institution and with a good international reputation and specifically in the field of translation and interpreting it is considered by some as outstanding and can therefore be assumed to attract good or outstanding

91 students to its programmes, including international students who will have high English language scores (IELTS, TOEFL, etc.) prior to admission. Further, for the international students on the translation programme, it may be assumed that after some months in the UK (sometimes before the course begins - in pre-sessional courses or settling-down visits - or certainly after some months into the programme), they have developed at least some improved awareness of culture with relevant knowledge and skills in relation to living and studying in the West, besides having good opportunities to improve their English language abilities. Obviously such developments are not made equally well by all Chinese-speaking students and exceptions in the best universities can be encountered; many Chinese students in the UK tend to socialize within Chinese student networks and thus self-limit these social and cultural opportunities, nevertheless as a group the UK case study participants clearly have enhanced opportunities compared with students in the two Chinese case study programmes, which claimed that they were different each other.

In contrast, while many participants in the two Chinese case study programmes have travelled briefly and made visits to other countries, most are unlikely to have had any extended study period in the west. Although they also need high English language scores for post-graduate admission, their opportunities to practice academic and social English and to develop socio-cultural knowledge and awareness are restricted in China. While the two Chinese case study programmes are certainly located in reputable universities with good standing, they are not among the very top universities in China, as ranked or commonly perceived.

92 While the British case study programme enrols students from areas including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan besides the UK or other places like Singapore, the Chinese case study programmes enrol participants from China. Chinese universities of course increasingly enrol international students, mostly from neighbouring countries or the region, but these particular programmes rarely receive international students, since by definition participants must speak advanced Chinese and be literate in Chinese before they are admitted to these courses. Hence, whereas the British translation programmes tend to one academic year in length, those in China take two or two and a half years to complete and are thus clearly substantial and participants can be assumed to reach high levels of expertise within their field. Details of each case programme can be seen in Appendix 8. Section 3.5.1 will present the selection of the participants for this research.