A Study On Translation Strategies Of Students From Different Academic Backgrounds In The English Translation Of Railway Technical Texts

With the trend of deepening translation studies,scholars in the translation field pay attention to the study of translation process,during which the translators' specific thinking activities when translating and the study of translation strategies are becoming vital issues.The globalization of China's high speed railway has become an essential part of “the Belt and Road Initiative”.In the process of the globalization of China's high speed railway,inter-disciplinary translators who not only master English but also have a good command of railway knowledge are the driving force for the development of high speed railway.In this context,the aim of this study is to explore the translation process of subjects and the translation strategies adopted by subjects from different academic backgrounds when they are translating railway technical texts.This study adopts an empirical method to study the translation process and the translation strategies used by subjects.Six student translators are volunteered to participate in this study: three graduate students majoring in English translation and three graduate students from other academic backgrounds.The research material is selected from the 2014 version of the Code for Design of High Speed Railway.This research adopts Think-Aloud Protocols,interviews,and observation method to collect data and use Nvivo11 to code and analyze the collected data.As for the translation strategies adopted by all subjects,this study finds six strategies adopted frequently by subjects,including Search SL-TL dictionary,Inquire meaning of a word,phrase,clause or sentence,Monitor for TL accuracy,Translate directly,Shift form,structure or intrasystem and Analyze structure.Compared with the previous studies on translation strategies,ten translation strategies are not used by all subjects,including Read the whole text,Break off translation and start over,Postpone attempt,Refer to author intent,Omit translation,Reduce meaning,Guess the translation,Make a word,Back translate and Recontextualize.Three new strategies are found in this study,including Propose several translations,Add a word or phrase and Divide a long sentence.This study also explores the similarities and differences in the selection of translation strategies adopted by subjects from different academic backgrounds.Regarding the similarities of translation strategies used by both subjects majoring in English translation and the subjects from other academic backgrounds,SL-TL dictionary search and Monitor for TL accuracy are most frequently applied while Construct explanatory context,Generate synonyms and Use associational word substitution are least frequently used by all subjects.Meanwhile,this study finds that there are differences between subjects majoring in English translation and subjects from other academic backgrounds on the total frequency of all adopted translation strategies,the types of adopted strategies and the frequency of some adopted strategies.There are also differences in the selection of translation strategies when subjects translate the same word.This study explores the translation strategies adopted by students from different academic backgrounds in the translation process through empirical research,which is conducive to gaining more insights into the translation process and enriching the empirical studies in the process-oriented research.It is helpful for translation learners to understand their use of translation strategies and then solve their problems in the translation process.It is helpful for translation teachers to appropriately design their teaching content according to students' use of translation strategies.It is also conducive to providing some basis for the selection of translators.