A Study On Translation Teaching In New CET-4from The Perspective Of Memetics

With the reform of CET-4in August,2013, the percentage of translation has risenenormously. Thus, the author employs Memetics in college English translation teachingfor the purpose of improving students’ translation proficiency under the guidance of anew theory.Memetics is a theory creatively advanced by Richard Dawkins in1976. Analogousto genetic theory, Memetic theory is applied to illustrate the law of culture evolutionfrom person to person or from generation to generation. In Memetics, memes areregarded as units of cultural transmission or units of imitation. Memetics is applied inmultiple fields of study, including linguistics, because language is believed to be part ofculture. The life cycle of successful language memes experiences four stages:assimilation, retention, expression and transmission. This process can be used to guidetranslation teaching in New CET-4. Language memes in new CET-4translation can bedivided into language memes of genotype and language memes of phenotype accordingto different forms of transmission. Language memes that have the characteristics oflongevity, fecundity and copying-fidelity are strong language memes. Thus, studentsneed to accumulate strong language memes of genotype and of strong language memesof phenotype to form their own meme pools in order to improve their translationproficiency.Under the guidance of Memetics, this paper attempts to explore three questions:1)Is Memetics-oriented translation teaching model more effective in improving students’translation proficiency in new CET-4than the traditional translation teaching fornon-English majors?2) Can this teaching model change non-English major students’attitude towards translation in new CET-4and their relevant learning habits?3) Whatkind of role do teachers play in conducting the Memetics-oriented translation teachingmodel? An empirical experiment is carried out to find the answers to the questions. Theresearch involves quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology. To be specific,literature review, experimental study, questionnaires and interviews are employed in thisresearch.From the analysis of the source data with the help of SPSS21.0, we could come totwo conclusions:1) The Memetics-oriented translation teaching model is more effectivein improving students’ translation proficiency in new CET-4than the traditionaltranslation teaching for non-English majors.2) This teaching model can change non-English major students’ attitude towards translation in new CET-4and theirrelevant learning habits. What’s more, by analyzing the teaching process in theexperimental class, we could also summarize the teacher’s role in Memetics-orientedtranslation teaching model.At last, the author concludes the findings of the research, puts forward theimplications and limitations of the research and gives some suggestions for futureresearch.