A Tentative Study On Translation Teaching In Senior High Schools In Shanghai

While it is true that translation teaching in higher levels has enjoyed much achievement in recent decades, the fact that translation teaching in senior high schools in China has long been ignored cannot be denied. Thanks to the new Shanghai English Curriculum Standard for senior students, students'ability to translate and interpret is again required. Under such circumstances, teaching translation in senior high schools has again been put on the agenda of everyday English teaching. So I make a point in my thesis that real stress should be laid on translation teaching in senior high schools in Shanghai and that the teaching should be guided by Nida's translation theory of functional equivalence.This thesis includes seven chapters. Chapter One discovers and analyzes senior students'poor capacity of translating. Chapter Two roughly presents Nida's theory of functional equivalence and its value in instructing senior high school translation teaching. Chapter Three recalls the history of translation teaching in senior high schools and describes the present situation as well. Chapter Four stresses the necessity and practicability of teaching translation in senior high schools. Chapter Five discusses the troubles and problems that exist in present translation teaching in senior high schools. Chapter Six proposes some tentative ways to teach translation, which mainly deals with some basic knowledge of comparative linguistics and Nida's theory of functional equivalence. It is desirable for high school students to achieve semantic and cultural equivalence when they translate. Chapter Seven concludes the paper.The paper emphasizes the necessity and feasibility of translation teaching in senior high schools, explores the problems and troubles that exist in current translation teaching, provides tentative proposals for teaching translation in senior high schools so as to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of translation teaching in senior high schools in Shanghai and China at large.