A Study Of The Relationship Between MTI Teachers’ Teaching Beliefs And Their Practices

With the development of national economy and the expansion of cultural exchanges with foreign countries,translation is gaining importance with each passing day.In this context,the Master of Translation and Interpretation(hereinafter referred to as MTI),which aims at cultivating high-level,application-oriented and professional talents,has been developing rapidly.However,there are many problems in current MTI training,and as a result,the quality of MTI graduates can hardly meet the needs of economic development for advanced translators.Teachers,as core participants in teaching,play a decisive role.In recent years,with more studies devoted to foreign language teaching and teachers’ cognition,teachers’ beliefs have become the focus of educational research both at home and abroad.More and more researches have been focusing on the relationship between foreign language teachers’ teaching beliefs and their teaching practices,but the study on the relationship between MTI teachers’ teaching beliefs and their teaching practices is comparatively insufficient.In order to understand MTI teachers’ teaching beliefs,improve their teaching practices,promote the efficiency of translation teaching and cultivate senior translation talents,this paper conducts a study on the relationship between MTI teachers’ teaching beliefs and their teaching practices,with a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.First of all,a questionnaire survey is conducted on the current situation of MTI teachers’ teaching beliefs and their teaching practices with a sample of 86 MTI teachers from 9 universities in China.Later,to further understand the relationship between teachers’ teaching beliefs and their teaching practices,and to uncover the factors affecting the relationship between them,three teachers are selected for case studies,and pre-class interviews,classroom observations and after-school interviews are conducted.The results show that the current teaching beliefs of MTI teachers are generally mature,but the teachers’ teaching practices don’t fully reflect their teaching beliefs,namely there are inconsistencies between them.By interviewing teachers after class,the paper find teachers’ knowledge reserve,teaching reform consciousness,students’ group structure,learning initiative,teaching equipment and resources are the important reasons why teachers cannot completely practice their teaching beliefs in teaching.It is suggested in this study that MTI teachers should deepen their understanding of teaching beliefs,pay special attention to the inconsistencies between teaching beliefs and teaching practices,so as to improve the teaching practices and enhance the efficiency of teaching translation.In addition,we propose that teachers should take the initiative to reflect on the consistency of teaching beliefs and teaching practices;MTI coordinators should try to usher in some translation projects to strength the students’ initiative in learning translation;deans of colleges should strengthen the training of teachers to boost the professional level of teachers,and presidents of universities should update the equipment and resources to improve the teachers’ teaching efficiency.