On The Relationship Between English Majors’ Translation Competence And Translation Learning Styles

The cultivation and development of leaner’s translation competence is the key objective of translation teaching. Under the translation pedagogy context, researchers at home and abroad probe into this issue in many aspects, ranging from curricular designs, teaching methods, materials development, testing and assessment, to teacher training. However, it is a pity that scholars pay little attention to the subjects of translation education, that is, potential qualified translators. Learning style, as one of primary components of individual differences, puts emphasis on the relationship with listening, speaking, reading as well as writing. Hardly do they combine students’ translation competence and translation learning styles to carry out the research. This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between translation learning styles and translation competence of English majors in Jiang Su University of Science and Technology.The research questions to be addressed in the present study are as follows:1. What is the general tendency of English majors’translation learning styles?2. What is the relationship between English majors’translation competence and their translation learning styles?3. Is there any difference of preferences for translation learning styles between the group of high-level translation competence and the group of the low-level translation competence?This present research employed quantitative and qualitative methods. The instruments used in the quantitative study were a questionnaire and a translation test from English to Chinese. The author combined the methods of a questionnaire and an oral interview to investigate subjects’translation learning styles. The translation learning styles questionnaire was administered to59juniors majoring in English at School of Foreign Language, Jiang Su University of Science and Technology. The scores of translation test were used to indicate students’translation competence. SPSS19.0was employed to analyze data in this study, which fell into three steps: descriptive statistical analyses were first calculated to obtain students’overall responses to the questionnaire, which reflected the general tendency of English majors’translation learning styles; then correlation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship between English majors’translation competence and translation learning styles; thirdly, independent samples T-test was adopted to examine the differences between the group of high-level translation competence and the group of low-level translation competence. A student interview guide was used as the instrument in the qualitative study. The participants in the oral interview were four students from59students who took part in the questionnaire. They were interviewed in two small groups and the talks were recorded in the tape for analysis.Based on the analyzed results of questionnaire and an oral interview, the main results were as follows:1. It has been found that English majors usually show multiple translation learning styles. Auditory style and kinesthetic style are most preferred and group style least. These findings are attributed to three factors. One is the teaching style, that is, teachers tend to give translation examples by spoken expressions in order to assist students to comprehend the connection of translation theory and practice, and simultaneously, students receive information by careful and attentive listening. Additionally, it is via listening that students can receive beneficial insights from classmates in the teaching form of workshop. Kinesthetic learning style is the second highest among the seven learning styles. Virtually, teachers and students hold such the perspective that translation teaching is a practiced-oriented course. They bear in mind that translation practice can facilitate translation study. Compared to the individual learning style, the group learning style is least preferred. It is closely associated with Chinese culture and students’learning experiences, which are relative factors exerting influence on learning style preferences.2. With regard to the relationship between translation learning styles and translation competence, only impulsive style has significant positive relationship with translation competence, and other six translation learning styles have no significant correlation with translation competence. The possible reason is that students’snap translation products without due consideration stem from the previous learning experience that more practice gains better results. What’s more, impulsive learners get more opportunities to practice than reflective learners in translation classes. Even though there are some errors due to little attention to translational details, students are still encouraged to practice translating. That is to say, impulsive learners match their learning styles with teachers’teaching styles.3. There is no significant difference in translation learning styles between the group of high-level translation competence and the group of low-level translation competence, which is not as great as expected and needs further research. Although translation learning styles of every hue are employed by two groups and there is no significant difference in translation learning style, there is no escaping the fact that such ingredients as translation learning motivation, translation learning strategy as well as language acquisition are bound up with translation competence.This study provides some implications. First, in terms of students, there is of great necessity for them to have a thorough understanding their learning styles in the translation process. Second, in the light of teachers, they should update their knowledge about translation learning styles; they should help students to identify their translation learning styles and raise students’awareness of translation learning styles; they should make best efforts to match teaching styles with students preferred learning styles and cultivate more flexible students’learning styles.This study has two limitations. First, the number of samples employed in this study may be not large enough to be generalizable to the whole population. Second, in this study, the subjects’translation competence is measured by their written translation, while their oral interpretation competence is excluded. Hence, the validity and reliability of this study still remains further to be tested and verified.