A Study Of English Majors' Translation Learning Strategies Based On The Constructivism Theory

While the researches on language learning strategy researches, which have started from the 1970s, have proved that language learning strategies are effective in improving language learning and these strategies have been widely used by language learners, the researches on translation learning strategies have not started until recent years and various problems have been found in these researches. As a result, both the value of translation learning strategies and the importance of strategy use have not been recognized.This research, therefore, is intended to explore English majors' use of translation learning strategies and find out whether these strategies have been made full use of by the students. There are mainly two parts in this research. In the first part, the author reviews the previous researches on language learning strategies and translation learning strategies so as to analyze translation learning strategies' definitions, classifications and major functions from the perspective of constructivism. In the second part, the author mainly uses questionnaires to collect the data of the subjects' use of translation learning strategies. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used for analyses and discussions, with an aim to find out whether the subjects have made full use of those strategies. It is discussed mainly from three aspects: 1) the usage frequencies of every sub-category and every item of translation learning strategies; 2) the relationship between translation learning strategies and translation academic scores; 3) the differences between the high-level group and the low-level group in their use of different categories of translation learning strategies. In the end, suggestions are provided based on the findings and discussions of the thesis.The major findings are: 1) there are mainly three categories of translation learning strategies: meta-cognitive learning strategies, cognitive learning strategies and social/affective learning strategies; 2) The average means of the three categories of translation learning strategies are around 3, and about 67% of the translation learning strategies have means ranging from 2.4 to 3.5, so translation learning strategies have not been frequently used. However, certain learning strategies are very popular with the subjects, such as self-monitoring strategies, the use of dictionaries and the internet, improving English proficiency, and so on. 3) Only three translation learning strategies are significantly correlated with translation academic scores; 4) there are no significant differences between high-level students and low-level students in their use of cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies except for meta-cognitive strategies. About 73% of the translation learning strategies are used more frequently by low-level students than high-level students, yet low-level students have not been able to use learning strategies to improve their academic scores efficiently. Therefore, generally speaking, most of translation learning strategies have not been made full use of by the subjects.Based on the analysis of those results and findings, it is found that the use of translation learning strategies has been influenced by various factors, so the suggestions provided by the author are: increasing the amount of translation exercises, having clear learning goals, using the internet, strengthening students' strategy awareness and conducting more researches on translation learning strategies and so on.