An Empirical Study Of English-Chinese Translation Strategies Based On Think-Aloud Protocols

Traditionally, translation studies focused on translation products, whereas the translation process was seldom examined due to the lack of reliable methods. Later on, with the development of cognitive psychology, the introduction of Think-Aloud Protocols (TAPs) provided a useful tool for exploring the mystery of the "black box".TAPs belongs to the introspective method in psychology, a method that collects data on mental processes. In a TAPs experiment, subjects are usually asked to perform a certain task while at the same time reporting everything that goes on in their mind. As thinking and verbalization take place concurrently, this method enables researchers to observe translators'mental process in real time.This paper attempts to study the strategies that the subjects use when doing English-Chinese translation. The researcher selects 6 second-year students from the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation in Beijing Foreign Studies University, and divides them into high and low proficiency groups. Each group has 3 participants. The subjects are asked to translate two English paragraphs into Chinese while at the same time reporting on their thinking process. Their verbal reports are recorded and transcribed into written texts. After finishing the experiment, the subjects are asked to fill in a questionnaire and hand in their target texts to supplement the TAPs data. The data analysis includes three parts:(1) determining the strategies that the subjects use based on the categorization of cognitive and meta cognitive strategies; (2) calculating the total number of times that each strategy is used; (3) studying the effects of those strategies through qualitative analysis.The researcher finds that the subjects use 12 cognitive strategies and 3 meta cognitive strategies. The strategy used most is direct translating, while the ones used least are speculating and delaying.The high proficiency translators differ from the low proficiency translators in terms of the strategies they used. The total number of strategies used by the high proficiency group is one third less than those used by the low proficiency group. The strategy used most by the high proficiency group is direct translating, whereas those used most by the low proficiency group are comparing and selecting, searching from memories and direct translating; speculating and delaying are used least by both groups.Then the researcher takes analyzing structure, reconstructing, transferring, comparing and selecting and consulting references as examples to study how effective these strategies are used. Based on the findings, the researcher offers three pieces of suggestion for translation teaching.This research has the following theoretical and practical implications. First, a descriptive study of translation strategies based on TAPs will help deepen the understanding of the translation process and contribute to the construction of theoretical models. Second, this research enables translators to gain more insights into their use of strategies, identify their strengths and weaknesses and thus improve their translation competence. It is also a valuable source of reference for translator training. With the help of the information gathered in this study, teachers will be able to design courses more effectively to make up for the shortfalls in strategy use.