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Productive Bilingualism and Translator Education by Mr. Wanwei Wu Chapter 4. This chapter presents the relationship between TEFL and translator training, highlighting the similarities and differences in pairs such as pedagogical translation vs. professional translation, TTBS vs. TTPS, linguistic competence vs. translation competence. Translation teaching used to be a necessary part of TEFL. For a long time, translation had been regarded as an important means of foreign language learning, a teaching or learning method with which to deepen understanding of the source text or to demonstrate one’s understanding of the original passage. Later on, translation training is treated “as a separate entity aiming to create professional translators as important as EFL itself.” (Chi-Chiang Shei “Combining Translation into the Second Language and Second Language Learning: An Integrated Computational Approach”) Pedagogical Translation vs. Professional Translation According to Prof. Simon S. C. Chau, there are three stages for the education of professional translation, namely, training of practitioner’s bilingual abilities, the training of practitioner’s bicultural awareness and the training of practitioner’s sensitivity, meaning transference and creative capacity for producing attractive prose. (Simon S.C. Chau “An Outline of Translation Training Program of Baptist University of Hong Kong”) In his book entitled Translation Teaching: Practice and Theory, Prof. Liu Miqing divided translation teaching into two types: 1) TTBS---teaching of translation as a basic skill which is regarded as a test of language proficiency or one of the didactic procedures; 2) TTPS---teaching of translation as a professional skill which is a part of career plan. (Liu Miqing, 2003, p.71) The former is to improve students’ linguistic competence while the later focus on students’ translation skills and competence. As is known to all, bilinguals are not necessarily good translators. There is a gap between good bilinguals and good translators, which should be bridged and filled by translator training program. This is what Prof. Yu Guangzhong mentioned as one aim of translation teaching----imparting the special adjusting ability to translator trainees. (Mulei, 1999, P.116) As for TTBS, Liu holds the idea that linguistic competence should be trained with a view of a holistic language: linguistic competence is based and accompanied with thinking; “no language skill is taught in isolation. As children listen and speak, they are thinking and they are preparing to read and write. Listening and speaking continue to be integral aspects of the reading and writing processes at all levels.” (I. M. Tiedt, 1989, qtd from Liu, 2003, p.76) In Liu’s opinion, translation should be added as the fifth ability, a kind of art, the transfer of learning at a higher level. Firstly, translation is supposed to exert cognitive function in the process of language learning in terms of perception---the deletion, organization, and interpretation of information, memory---the storage and retrieval of perceived information, reasoning---the use of knowledge to make inferences and drew conclusions, reflection---the evaluation of the quality of ideas and solutions, and insights---the recognition of new relationships between tow or more segments of knowledge. (Liu, 2003, pp.80-81) Secondly, translation is considered a necessary device to measure the total quality of foreign language teaching, individual learner’s language proficiency, cultural awareness and logical thinking ability. For TTBS, teachers are supposed to treat translation as supportive means, complementary means and testing means of reading and writing, make reading, writing and translating in an active interaction state. The main principles students should learn include 1) translation is meaning transference; 2) meaning is determined by context; 3) content, form and effect are interdependent; 4) translation is a purposeful activity. (Liu, 2003, pp.90-91) Linguistic competence vs. Translation Competence As for translation competence, i.e. requirements for professional translators, Shei adopts Sofer’s 10 requirements (pp. 33-37): 1) A thorough knowledge of both SL and TL; 2) A thorough “at-homeness” in both cultures; 3) Keeping up with the growth and change of the language and being up-to-date in all of its nuances and neologisms (self-updating); 4) Always translating from another language into one’s native language; 5) Being able to translate in more than one area of knowledge (content knowledge); 6) Having the facility for writing or speaking and the ability to articulate quickly and accurately, either orally or in writing; 7) Developing a good speed of translation; 8) Developing research skills, being able to acquire reference sources essential for producing high quality translation; 9) Being familiar with the latest high-tech developments; 10) Always checking to see what kind of a potential one’s language specialty has in a given geographic area. (Chi-Chiang Shei) A look at the two will tempt us to say that the boundary between linguistic competence and translation competence is not clearly cut. We might say the lexical-grammatical competence, textual competence, and sociocultural competence are the same core shared by the two. But translation competence entails something else, such as researching competence---knowing how to research and using reference materials, monitoring competence--- knowing how to evaluate one’s progress and edit one’s translation drafts, hi-tech competence---catching up with the latest high-tech developments, content-knowledge competence---knowledgeable in many aspects of human life etc. For a translation trainee, without the reasonably accomplished linguistic basis (the common core), the translation specific parts of competence might be of no use. However, during the translation and L2 learning activities, the two subsets of competence are closely interrelated and help each other grow. "Translation develops three qualities essential to all language learning: accuracy, clarity, and flexibility. It trains the learner to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity)." (qtd from Bugalski, Woitek “Translator as Foreign Language Learner”) “While translation serves to test and refine the learner’s competence in L2, the advancement in linguistic competence, on the other hand, helps to shape the learner’s performance, i.e. to produce better translation.” (Chi-Chiang Shei) Shei’s integrated computational approach is an attempt to find a bridge to connect translation and language learning, to achieve the goal of fostering linguistic competence and translation competence at the same time. This model is based on the ideas that L2 learning and translation can converge in the same corpus-based computer assisted instruction environment. The model is of practical value in that it offers bright prospects of products like translation memory software, MT systems, CATT software etc. The exploration on possibility of combining translation and TEFL prompt us to use productive bilingualism in translation teaching, this will be discussed in the next chapter. Related Articles
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