A TAPs-based Research On C-E Translation Strategies

The translators with stronger competence are more likely to produce higher quality translations,of which the reasons can be explored by examining their mental experience when a translator is engaged in a particular translation task.This empirical research reports an exploratory case study of the C-E translation process with Chinese MTI students(Group A are holders of CATTI certificate,GB without any certificate)involved.The research is intended to examine the employment of translation strategy,one of the major factors in translating process.Thinking-Aloud-Protocols(TAPs)is used for both a way of the experiment and a method of collecting data.The subjects are required to finish a C-E translation of an excerpt from A Survey of Jilin Province and verbalize their thinking process when translating the source text into the target language.The transcribed and coded TAPs data,together with the questionnaires and interviews designed,are used to describe and analyze the differences of their mental performances in their translation processes.Major findings of the research are as follows:1.Group A identified more problems at a higher level than Group B,who tended to merely focus on lexical and syntactical aspects;2.Group A tended to address translation problems with global strategies,while the latter were limited to the use of local strategies;3.The same types of translation strategies were followed,but the translation units and translation strategies in the four phases of translation were found different between them.Conclusions can be drawn from the above findings and analysis: Certified student translators identify translation problems of a wider range and a larger quantity than their counterparts;they are also able to cope with translation problems more globally and skillfully than their counterparts.The causes behind such differences are summarized as below:Certified student translators have accumulated some experience through preparing the national certification test of translation and working as part-time translators;in addition,they have a global view of the nature of translation,seeing it as a problem-solving process,and thus actively employing translation strategies to tackle them to produce more acceptable translations.Therefore,some implications are to be obtained for translation study and translation teaching.Firstly,TAPs,rarely employed in Chinese-English translation experiment,proves itself an efficient approach to exploring the mental processes of the translators engaged in a particular translation tasks.Secondly,it is suggested teachers use TAPs to demonstrate to the students thattranslation is a complex process,in which translation problems arise and global strategies,together with local strategies should be adopted to address them.Lastly it is also advisable that the teachers take CATTI into account and encourage MTI students to strengthen their translation competency by engaging in the real translation tasks and to accumulate experience by solving various translation problems with effective strategies.