The Application Of Translation Compensation Study In Translation Teaching For Undergraduate English Majors

Translation compensation refers to the compensation for the loss of message,semantic meaning, pragmatic effect, cultural element, aesthetic form and itsfunction in the process of translation. As an effective way to bridge the gaps andachieve the equivalence between the source language and the target language, itdraws more and more attention. In China, Prof. Xia Tingde concludes manycompensation theories and makes a further study on it. He modifies the oldclassifications and states the principles and methods in detail. It is good for thestudy on translation theories as well as the translation practice.However, the study on translation compensation teaching is far from adequatenow. In the pedagogical field, the scholars always take translation compensation asa separate theory. There are no systematical instructions. Then some translationteachers pay much attention to the translation exercises and ignore the theoreticalexplanations and the translation compensation theory is still not well integratedinto the translation teaching. It prevents the further study on translationcompensation in the teaching field.In this thesis, the author reviews the compensation studies briefly and statesProf. Xia Tingde’s compensation theories with the examples taken from YangXianyi’s version of A Dream of Red Mansions. Then, according to the teachingstatus quo of translation teaching for undergraduate English majors, the authorapplies them into the translation teaching and attempts to explore the teachingeffectiveness of Prof. Xia Tingde’s translation compensation, especially for the impacts on students’ translation ability on lexicon, grammar and discourse.In this study, a pre-test was given to82English majors and they were chosenfor subjects. These82students were divided into an experimental group as well asa controlled group. Then, a three months’ teaching experiment was carried out.Three months later, these82students took part in the post-test. The contents for thestudents in the experimental group include English and Chinese comparative study,translation compensation principles and methods. By comparison, the controlledgroup was taught in traditional teaching methodology. Before the test, all aspectsincluding academic achievement, motivation, and interest were not significantlydifferent.3months later, students in both groups took part in the post-test.To ensure the validity, the author employed research methods of interviewand tests. The data collected was processed with the help of SPSS18.0and Excel.Results and analysis of the data indicate that Prof. Xia Tingde’s compensationtheory has positive effects on the translation teaching for undergraduate Englishmajors. The findings of the research also provide some implications for the furthertranslation teaching. Teachers should raise the students’ awareness of translationcompensation, pay more attention to the inter-cultural communication teaching,lay great emphasis on Chinese teaching, cultivate students’ proper attitudestowards translation and integrate translation theories into translation teaching. Inorder to make Xia Tingde’s translation compensation theory widely applicable intranslation teaching for undergraduate English majors, some further research stillneeds to be implemented.