A Study On The Application Of Translation Workshop Teaching Approach In College Translation Teaching

Translation Workshop (TW) first appeared in some American universities in1960s,and gradually developed into a practical translation teaching approach. Students under TWteaching approach are divided into several groups and work jointly to complete atranslation task with fierce discussion and mutual cooperation in an imitated workingenvironment.The current research focuses on the application of TW teaching approach in collegetranslation teaching. Based on the teaching procedures of TW teaching approach proposedby Leandro Wolfson and Xiao Hong, the author designs and conducts a12-week teachingexperiment among119university students (sophomore) of Huazhong University ofScience and Technology. The119students are divided into an experimental class (EC) anda control class (CC). In EC, the instructor employs the TW teaching approach, while inCC, the traditional translation teaching approach is adopted. The research is aimed toanswer the following three research questions:1) can the TW teaching approachsignificantly improve the students’ translation ability;2) can the TW teaching approacharouse the students’ interest in translation and improve their attitudes towards thetranslation;3) what are the students’ attitudes towards the TW teaching approach after theteaching experiment?As for the instruments, the author employs two tests (pre-test and post-test) and aquestionnaire in both EC and CC, as well as an interview with10students sampled atrandom in EC. After the teaching experiment, the data are carefully collected and analyzedwith SPSS17.0.It is found that:1) the translation ability of students of both classes has beenimproved, but students of EC have made a significant improvement;2) Even thoughstudents’ interest in translation of both classes has been aroused, students of EC showgreater interest in translation learning after the teaching experiment. Meanwhile, students’attitudes towards translation have been improved in both classes, but students in EC havea significant improvement;3) Students of EC show positive attitudes towards the TWteaching approach after the teaching experiment. Apart from that, based on the teaching procedures proposed by Leandro Wolfson andXiao Hong, the author designs a set of teaching procedures to conduct the TW teachingapproach (a sample teaching plan is attached in Appendix V) in college translationteaching and puts forward some relevant suggestions in terms of students, instructors,translation tasks and class management respectively, aiming to improve the quality of thetranslation teaching.