Investigation Into The Application Of Translation Theories In Writing MTI Graduation Thesis From The Perspective Of Activity Theory

Thesis writing is an important part of postgraduate education.The theses written by MTI students are mainly translation practice reports,which have special characteristics different from the general master’s theses.The relevant studies have revealed many problems in the selection and application of theories in MTI theses writing,but few studies have analyzed the theoretical application and influencing factors in MTI theses writing from the writers’ perspectives.In view of this scarcity,this study focuses on the theoretical application in the process of MTI students’ thesis writing and attempts to answer the following research questions:(1)How do MTI students perceive the role of translation theories in their graduation thesis writing?(2)What is the basic situation of MTI students applying translation theories to graduation thesis writing?(3)What factors influence the application of translation theories in MTI students’ thesis writing?The study was based on an exploratory sequential mixed research design,with semi-structured interviews and questionnaires as the major means of data collection.Based on the activity theory framework,the data were analyzed by thematic coding and descriptive statistical analyses.The findings are as follows: 1)Only just one third of MTI students argued that the selected translation theory has played a good guiding role in their translation practice and thesis writing.2)For the MTI theses,the types of translation theories chosen by MTI students show a high degree of homogeneity,among which relevance theory,communicative translation theory and teleology account for the highest proportion.Moreover,MTI students indicated that they had encountered difficulties in writing MTI theses with translation theories,but the difficulties were not great.And the main difficulty participants encountered was that they did not know how to closely combine theories with the translation process.3)The factors that affected students’ application of translation theories concerned subjects,tools,rules,community and division of labor.Subjects include MTI students’ mastery of translation theories,MTI students’ understanding of the value of translation theories,and MTI students’ translation ability;Tools refer to courses learning and literatures reading and searching;Rules include MTI institutions’ requirements for thesis writing,tutors’(group)requirements,and reviewers’ opinions;Community is a writing learning community composed of students and teachers;Division of labor refers to the allocation of students’ roles and time in the writing process of MTI theses.At the same time,the complex interactions and contradictions between various elements of the activity system make MTI students experience four contradictions in the process of MTI theses writing.The secondary contradiction is the most prominent,manifested as the contradictions between subjects and rules,subjects and community,and tools and objects.Among them,the contradiction between subjects and rules is mainly reflected in the contradictions between the MTI students’ writing needs and MTI institutions’ requirements for thesis writing,tutors’(group)requirements,and reviewers’ opinions.According to the research results,this thesis puts forward relevant suggestions on theoretical teaching,translation practice,tutors and students.