A Theoretical Reconsideration Of The Making Of Translation Textbooks In China

As translation studies tend to be multi-directional in modern societies, the making of translation textbooks has attracted increasing attention of scholars both at home and abroad. In western countries, researches in this field have been conducted by such representatives as James Holmes, Jeremy Munday, Andre Chesterman, Cay Dollerup and Dina Nikoulitcheva. They have touched upon translation textbooks from different perspectives, but there has not been any systematic theoretical study on the making of translation textbooks.In China, the studies on translation textbooks are few and far between. A survey of most Chinese periodicals from 1994 to 2005 indicates that there are only 31 articles focusing on the study of translation textbooks, the majority of which are the empirical subjective evaluations of some textbooks in a limited narrow field. From the 1980s on, Dr. Zhou Zhaoxiang at Hong Kong Baptist University has been making a comparative study on the adaptations and compilation of translation textbooks as well as on translation works in the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Later on, Professor Zhang Meifang made a macroscopic categorization and comparison of the existing translation textbooks in China, illustrating the merits and demerits by some concrete examples and figures. The research produced a book named English/ Chinese Translation Textbooks in China (1949-1998). In addition, the topic of designing translation textbooks is also discussed in the book Research of Translation Teaching in China, published in 1999, written by Professor Mu Lei. And the same topic is illustrated from different angles by such translation scholars as Fang Ping, Xu Jun, Guo Zhuzhang, Luo Jinde, Luo Xuanmin, Fang Mengzhi, Feng Qinghua, Huang Zhonglian, He Gangqiang Wen Jun and Tu Guoyuan. These studies have made valuable contributions to the study of translation textbooks.Despite all of this, there are still some issues left unexplored in a systematic way: what is the position of translation textbooks making in translation studies, what should be included in the theoretical framework of systematic compilation of translation textbooks, how to apply the theories from other disciplines into translation textbooks making, what are the major factors influencing the making of translation textbooks, how to make a systematic core translation textbook, to name just a few. With the development of translation studies, especially the applied translation studies, a further systematic and theoretical research in the aspect of making translationtextbooks is urgently needed in China.This interdisciplinary study mainly adopts the qualitative approach to studying the related issues about making translation textbooks in macroscopic and microscopic contexts from synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The research methods include literature review, writing questionnaires for users, inquiring the demands of the market and expectations of students, case interview and classroom observations. All the data are proved and summarized by either contrastive analysis or inductive analysis and inferential analysis.Based on the previous related studies, this dissertation discusses a theoretical reconstruction of translation textbooks from multiple perspectives. Focusing on the existing English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation textbooks for the undergraduates which got published during the period from 1980 to 2005, it intends to develop those traditional effective principles that are considered to be successful to varying degree in the practice of teaching and tries to combine translation studies with related teaching theories, psychological theories, communicative theories, readability theory and marketing theories, with a view to setting up a new systematic, theoretical framework of compiling translation textbooks with a Chinese color. Therefore, this study can be regarded as not only a complementary research of or extension to translation studies, but also a development of theories from other disciplines, it is my hope that this study could also have some possible implications for the selection of translation textbooks as well as translation teaching.After reviewing briefly the studies on the making of translation textbooks at home and abroad, chapter 2 of this dissertation argues that translation textbooks making should be included in the applied research of Holmes' Map, positioning the study of translation textbooks in the framework of translation studies. Thus, this study assumes a more important role in further developing Chinese applied translation theories.The making of translation textbooks should be guided by related macro theories. Chapter 3 incorporates five basic theories to support the making of translation textbooks: (1) this study employs skopostheorie to take care of the compilation of textbooks and the scope of translation studies has been thus expanded. The compilers can make corresponding translation textbooks based on demands of different users and different functions of texts to be translated. Furthermore, even the writing modes of target language can be covered in translation textbooks; (2) communicativetheories provide theoretical support for the compilation of translation strategies in a broader sense for the simple reason that the purpose of translation is to achieve successful communication;(3) this study favors such educational and psychological theories as learning theories and cognitive science to govern the making of translation textbooks. It is suggested that translation textbooks should be user-friendly and leave enough space and freedom for students and teachers to have interactions. The content should be designed based on the students' "cognitive schemata"; (4) readability theory reminds the compilers that the readers' abilities should be taken into account so as to make a textbook applicable and feasible in practice; (5) marketing theories offer an effective guidance to package and promote translation textbooks.However, the compilation of translation textbooks is influenced by many factors. Chapter 4 mainly analyzes such factors as teaching syllabus, translation teachers, students, linguistic and language theories, translation theories, societal and cultural factors.If the compilers intend to make a new-type dynamic textbook which integrates theories into translation methods and skills, they are advised to follow the ways presented in chapter 5: After making a careful needs analysis with clear criteria of a translation textbook in mind, the compilers may take a flexible approach to the designing of corresponding textbooks by following some effective principles of compilation, and organize the three components of translation textbooks (translation theories, translation methods and skills, translation exercises) with the guidance of such interdisciplinary theories as education theories and psychological theories. The lion's share of this dissertation is the discussions on how to develop a core translation textbook dynamically.The theoretical studies ultimately aim to provide guidance or help to analyze the practical problems in the practice, so chapter 6 applies the theoretical framework mentioned in this study to analyze the established translation textbooks at home and abroad, advancing some further suggestions for improvement and predicting the trend of translation textbooks making in the future.Chapter 7 includes conclusions of this dissertation, limitations of this research and implications for further research. The making of translation textbooks is a highly pregnant project. Besides, what has been discussed in this dissertation, there are many other potential further studies such as the study on translation textbooks of different subjects, the study on interpretation textbooks, the study on the evaluation andselection of translation textbooks, the corpus application and the making of translation textbooks, translation textbooks' integration with modern technology.This dissertation mainly focuses on the making of English-Chinese and Chinese-English translation textbooks for the undergraduates, but some of the theories, approaches and principles discussed could be also partly applicable to the making of translation textbooks in other languages for other learners at different levels.