The Effect Of Reading Efficiency On The Performance Of English-Chinese Sight Translation

The thesis attempts to explore the effect of English reading efficiency on theperformance of English-Chinese sight translation based on previous studies on thecognitive process of reading, reading efficiency, schema theory, the effort model of sighttranslation and reading comprehension in sight translation. Altogether, it plans to answertwo questions:1) Does English reading efficiency influence the English-Chinese sight translationperformance? If so, to what degree can the effect be?2) Can background knowledge reduce the adverse effect of reading inefficiency onsight translation performance? If so, can it counteract the effect of a low readingefficiency?The author carries out an empirical research by conducting an experiment on seniorEnglish majors from a university in East China. The experiment falls into two parts. Thefirst part is an English reading efficiency test through which the subjects are divided intotwo groups: one group has a lower reading efficiency and the other group has a higherreading efficiency. The second part is a sight translation test before which half subjects ineach group are provided with some background knowledge of the text. Thus, four groupsparticipate in the sight translation test: Group1has a lower reading efficiency and nobackground knowledge; Group2has a lower reading efficiency and backgroundknowledge; Group3has a higher reading efficiency and no background knowledge andGroup4has a higher reading efficiency and background knowledge. In the experiment,English reading efficiency and background knowledge are two independent variables andthe subjects’ sight translation performance is a dependent variable with other factorscontrolled as constants. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are adopted to evaluatethe subjects’sight translation performance in terms of accuracy, smoothness and timelinessof their reproduction. Individual cases are examined through example analysis. Bycomparing the sight translation performance of these four groups, the study draws thefollowing conclusions:1) English reading efficiency exerts a significant effect on the performance ofEnglish-Chinese sight translation; 2) Background knowledge can reduce the adverse effect caused by a low readingefficiency but can by no means counteract the effect of reading efficiency.Findings from the present study may benefit sight translation training and provideimplications for further research.