A Report On Translation Of Educational Text From The Perspective Of Shift Theory

The promotion of "double first-class" construction of higher education in China and the accelerated pace of globalization of higher education have promoted the rapid development of EMI(English Medium Instruction)teaching mode.Internationalization is one of the main characteristics of world-class universities,and the construction of EMI is a necessary means to realize the high-level internationalization of first-class universities.The source text of the translation project is an educational informative text,whose name is English Medium Instruction Programmes-Perspective from South East Asian Universities.It systematically introduces the application and effectiveness of EMI.And the source text is formal and has a great number of complex sentences and a distinct language logic level,aiming to promote the exchange of academic ideas between Chinese and Western countries.Based on the first two chapters,this translation practice report mainly focuses on the difficulties and their solutions in the translation process from three aspects,including level shifts and category shifts,and combines the source text’s linguistic characteristics,aiming to explore the guidance role of Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory in translation practice.It can be concluded that:level shifts settle translation difficulties in tenses and the singular and plural forms of nouns,so as to enhance the scientificity;structural shifts can reconstruct the sentence structure by changing passive voice into active voice,adjusting modifiers positions and changing impersonal subject into personal subject to reflect the objectivity of the text;class shifts deal with the conversion of word class,advancing the integrity of expression;unit shifts can transform various elements in sentences,and the readability of target text is enhanced;intra-system shifts solve the difficulties that the words in the target text do not correspond to the original text,and make the target text conform to the habits of Chinese expression.Catford’s Translation Shifts Theory can help translators better overcome formal barriers in the source text and more authentically convey the contents of informative texts.This translation practice not only deepened the author’s understanding of "EMI" and translation shifts theory but also consolidated the application of translation strategies.