A Study Of Applying Functional Equivalence Theory In Translating EST Into Chinese

English for Science and Technology (EST) is a major branch of English for Special Purposes. As the main medium of international scientific and technological communication, EST has gradually drawn extensive attention from scientists and linguists. Since China's opening up and reform in late 1970s, the importance of science and technology has been widely recognized by the whole nation along with the stipulation of the basic national policy of"making the country prosper with science and technology". In the course of China's introducing advanced science and technology from foreign countries, the EST translation into Chinese has played an important role. However, up till now, the status quo of EST translation into Chinese in China still leaves much to be desired. In addition, the researches on EST translation in the past are mainly focused on specific translation strategies and translation techniques. This thesis intends to introduce Nida's functional equivalence theory into the field of EST translation into Chinese as the translation criterion to guide the practical work.Since its birth, Nida's functional equivalence theory has been much valued and exerted far-reaching influences in translation studies. This thesis introduces functional equivalence as the translation criterion for the practice of translating EST into Chinese in order to achieve the purpose of improving the quality of EST translation into Chinese. Through summarizing the linguistic characteristics of EST from the aspects of lexicon, syntax and discourse, this thesis finds that there is great similarity between EST and the Bible in the respects of function, thus arriving at the further conclusion that functional equivalence theory is applicable to the field of EST translation into Chinese. After indicating the significance of applying functional equivalence theory in EST translation into Chinese, the thesis continues to discuss in great details how to achieve functional equivalence in actual translation practice. According to the four-step translation model put forward by Wu Xinxiang and Li Hong'an, this thesis conducts a thorough and systematic analysis on the concrete process of translating EST into Chinese, starting from word equivalence and gradually approaching to the ultimate goal of discourse equivalence. Finally, the thesis comes to the conclusion that under the guidance of functional equivalence theory, the quality of EST translation into Chinese can be effectively improved.