Market-oriented Translation Teaching For Undergraduates Of English Major

With more and more communication with other countries of the world in such fields as economy, culture, technology, education and politics, China is in urgent need of large numbers of professional translators. Meanwhile, translation as a profession and an industry poses more and higher requirements for translators. However, the translators in China cannot meet the market demand. One major cause behind is that the traditional translation teaching can hardly cultivate students who can meet the market demand. In consideration of this, the thesis seeks to propose a translation teaching model on the basis of the gap between the present translation teaching and the market demand for translators, so as to better meet the market demand. To do this, the thesis intends to answer the following three questions: 1).What is the difference between translation competence and translator competence? 2).Through questionnaire survey, which translator competences are most/least satisfied by the translation market, which translator competences are most/least important from the perspectives of translation market, and which translator competences are the undergraduates'of English major strongest/weakest? 3).What is a translator competence-centered model? How can it help in improving students'translator competence to meet the market demand?Based on the researches on translation/translator competence that a professional translator is supposed to possess home and abroad, translator competence is defined and its components are established in the thesis. Translator competence is defined as the expertise or expert knowledge, both declarative and procedural, needed to translate. It consists of the following five competences: bilingual competence, extra-linguistic competence, strategic competence, instrumental competence, and profession-related competence. Two questionnaires are designed centering on the components of translator competence. Seventy translation companies and one hundred and forty-four undergraduates of English major concentrating on translation are surveyed. By processing the data with Excel, we come to the following results: First, generally speaking, the average scores of satisfaction with the translators'translator competences from translation companies are between"acceptable"and"satisfactory"; the average scores of importance of the translator competences are between"important"and"very important"; the average scores of the undergraudates'level of translator competence are between"weak"and"tolerable". Second, the strategic competence is the most important, followed by the bilingual competence, profession-related competence, instrumental competence and extra-linguistic competence. The translation companies are most satisfied with the translators'bilingual competence, followed by the extra-linguistic competence, strategic competence, profession-related competence and instrumental competence. The undergraduates'level of bilingual competence is the highest, followed by the instrumental competence, extra-linguistic competence, strategic competence and profession-related competence. Based on the results, we may conclude that in translation teaching for undergraduates of English major, in addition to the bilingual competence and the strategic competence, we should also pay much attention to the profession-related competence and the instrumental competence. Besides, the extra-linguistic competence cannot be ignored either.The results of the survey show that to meet the market demand, the traditional translation teaching model needs to be improved necessarily and be market-oriented. In combination of the survey results mentioned above, the course design of the undergraduates of English major and the acquisition process of translator competence, and on the basis of the teaching theories of objectivism and social-constructivism, a translator competence-centered translation teaching model for undergraduates of English major is proposed with the aim to improve the undergraduates'translator competence so as to meet the market demand. The model falls into two stages: the introductory stage and the developing stage. The aim of the introductory stage aims to help undergraduates set up a right attitude towards translation, master the basic knowledge and understand the basic theories of translation and the translation profession. As knowledge to be learned at this stage is mainly declarative knowledge, the traditional objectivism-based teaching model prevails. The aim of the developing stage is to improve students'translator competence. As knowledge to be learned at this stage is mainly procedural knowledge, the social-constructivism-based teaching model dominates. At this stage, authentic or simulated projects are used as the teaching content; the students are the center of the class; group collaborative learning dominates in class. By exposing students to all the possibilities in translation practice, all the translator competences will be cultivated, especially the strategic competence, the instrumental competence and the profession-related competence. By developing students'translator competence, the model is favorable for the students to get a job and for the development of economy in the translation industry. Meantime, the model can provide new thoughts on translation teaching, thus facilitating the development of translation as a discipline.