An Experimental Research On Business English Translation Teaching Based On Frame Theory In The Vocational Schools

Translation competence is a practical and demanding communicative skill whichfunctions as a transferring tool and a cultural carrier. And the translation teachinginvolves the painstaking efforts of teachers, researchers and students. The teachingmethodologies adopted in translation teaching affects the teaching results. So it isnecessary for the students to learn translation skills and strategies on purpose, and it ismeaningful for the teachers to try applicable teaching methods in translationpedagogy in accordance to the market requirements.The concept of cognitive frame derives from computational psychology. Ingeneral, frame is understood as anything that has distinguishable property. It can alsobe a field of science which serves to set the boundary between the marked and theunmarked. As a means of psychology, its function is to structure experience in thememory and make expectance of new objects or situations. The task of translation,therefore, is to find out in the target language the linguistic expressions which help toactivate the cognitive frames identical and similar to those in the source language. Soin this thesis, the author attempts to provide a new perspective for the translationteaching on the basis of cognitive frame theory.This study is composed of theoretical exploration of Business English translationTeaching and an empirical experiments. The thesis begins with the reasons to adoptframe theory in the translation teaching, especially, in Business English, by reviewingthe previous studies and the present research situation home and abroad. Herein, thedefinitions, characteristics, and some major theoretical basis are introduced asguidance to this empirical study. After the theoretical exploration, its effects in actualteaching practice are proved through an empirical experiment. The results show thatthe frame theory helps to motivate students to learn translation positively, and furtherimprove students’ translation competence. This experiment is carried out with twoteaching approaches in two different classes, each adopting traditional method andframe-theory-based teaching respectively with the purpose to make a comparisonbetween them. Questionnaire, interview and tests are used to get the feedbacks fromstudents and the differences between the frame theory-based translation teaching approach and the conventional translation approach. The relevant statistics collectedfrom this study are analyzed in details in order to provide some valuable suggestionsfor translation teaching reform.