Alignment Effect On The Use Frequency Of Passives In Chinese-english Sci-tech Translation By Chinese EFL Learners

The present study investigates the alignment effect on the use frequency of passives inChinese-English(hereinafter “C-E”) sci-tech translation by Chinese EFL learners in theChinese classroom setting.To start with, alignment, in the working definition of this thesis, refers to asocio-cognitive process in which human beings interact with their social and physicalenvironment and dynamically adapt to it(Wang and Wang, 2014). Atkinson et al.(2007)arguethat alignment takes place not only between human beings, but also between human beingsand their social environment as well as physical environment and constitutes a crucial aspectof second language(hereinafter “L2”) learning. In recent years, the research concerningalignment has aroused an upsurge of interest. However, the existing research mainly pivots onits facilitative role in interpersonal communication as well as L2 writing. To delve into thepotential role of alignment in enhancing language learning, this thesis strives to explore thealignment effect on the use frequency of passives in C-E sci-tech translation by conducting anempirical experiment.The study was carried out by means of a translation continuation task. The participantswere junior English majors from two parallel classes, with one class defined as theexperimental group(hereinafter “EG”, n=33) and the other the control group(hereinafter“CG”, n=31). The EG participants were assigned 15 minutes to read the translation of thepreceding text prior to the translation task and then two groups were required to complete thetranslation task within 50 minutes. After the task, two participants from each group wererandomly selected to partake in a retrospective interview for a detailed inspection of theirtranslation mental process. In order to examine whether the magnitude of alignment differs indifferent translation proficiency groups, the 10 highest proficiency students and the 10 lowestproficiency students were singled out for a further comparison as the high proficiency group(hereinafter “HPG”) and the low proficiency group(hereinafter “LPG”) based on theirtranslation performance in Pretest Two which was designed to measure participants’ translation proficiency.The data obtained from the experiment was processed primarily by Independent SamplesT-test and Paired Samples T-test. The results show that alignment occurred in the translationcontinuation task, which can be demonstrated by the fact that the EG produced significantlymore passives than the CG with all else being equal. In addition, according to the result ofPaired T-test for the use frequency of passives of the pretest and the posttest produced by theHPG and the LPG, the magnitude of alignment for the HPG was stronger in contrast with thatfor the LPG. There was a further discovery in this study that there was a clear-cut cause-effectrelationship between translation proficiency and alignment in the sci-tech translationcontinuation task. The higher the translation proficiency is, the stronger alignment will be. Allthe aforesaid findings were discussed in light of alignment effect and relevant theories.The findings of this study suggest that alignment can take place in a translationcontinuation task, and can serve as a catalyst to foster more passives in sci-tech translations.The study broadens the research scope on which the extant studies have largely concentratedand provides pedagogical implications for English teaching and learning.