Investigating the Use of Translation Continuation Tasks in Commercial Translation Teaching: A Study on Translating User Manuals
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Qi Xu
Qi XU is currently an associate professor at the School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Her major research interests include SLA, xu-based instruction, and technology-enhanced language learning. Her recent publications have appeared in TESOL Quarterly, Computer Assisted Language Learning, and System.
Lijun DENG is currently an associate professor at the School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Her research interests have focused on translation teaching study, xu-based translation instruction, and literary translation. Her recent publications have appeared in English Language Teaching and Higher Education Studies.
Abstract
Based on the xu-argument, this study investigated the use of translation continuation tasks in commercial translation instruction. Forty-four second-year Business English majors at a Chinese university participated in the study. They were divided into equal-sized control and experimental groups. Members of the experimental group were asked to read Chinese-English parallel texts from a user manual, while those of the control group were asked to read the Chinese text only. Subsequently, both groups were required to translate the continued Chinese text into English. The results indicated the following: 1) the experimental group’s translated text was of significantly higher quality than that of the control group; and 2) the experimental group’s translations were well-aligned with the original text in their use of terminology, sentence structure, and stylistic features. The study concludes by suggesting that translation continuation tasks can improve commercial translation instruction and hence should be further applied in practice.
About the authors
Qi XU is currently an associate professor at the School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Her major research interests include SLA, xu-based instruction, and technology-enhanced language learning. Her recent publications have appeared in TESOL Quarterly, Computer Assisted Language Learning, and System.
Lijun DENG is currently an associate professor at the School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Her research interests have focused on translation teaching study, xu-based translation instruction, and literary translation. Her recent publications have appeared in English Language Teaching and Higher Education Studies.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Research Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant Number: 18YJC740120) and the MOE Project of the Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
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© 2021 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Xu-Based Approach to Second Language Learning
- From Xu to the Development of L2 Interactional Competence: A Conversation Analytic Case Study
- L2 Syntactic Alignment in the Reading-Writing Integrated Continuation Task: Evidence From Chinese EFL Learners’ Description of Motion Events
- Effect of Interaction Intensity on Alignment and EFL Learners’ Oral Production in the Reading-Speaking Integrated Continuation Task
- An Alignment-Based Approach to L2 Learning of Chinese Numeral Classifiers
- Creative Imitation: An Answer to the Fundamental Issue of L2 Learning
- Investigating the Use of Translation Continuation Tasks in Commercial Translation Teaching: A Study on Translating User Manuals
- The Construct of the Story Continuation Writing Task: Insights From the China’s Standards of English Language Ability
- A Quantitative and Network Approach to Alignment Effects in L2 Continuation Tasks
- Effects of Reading-Listening Integrated Dictation on Chinese EFL Students’ Listening Performance
- Abstracts
- Chinese Abstracts
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Xu-Based Approach to Second Language Learning
- From Xu to the Development of L2 Interactional Competence: A Conversation Analytic Case Study
- L2 Syntactic Alignment in the Reading-Writing Integrated Continuation Task: Evidence From Chinese EFL Learners’ Description of Motion Events
- Effect of Interaction Intensity on Alignment and EFL Learners’ Oral Production in the Reading-Speaking Integrated Continuation Task
- An Alignment-Based Approach to L2 Learning of Chinese Numeral Classifiers
- Creative Imitation: An Answer to the Fundamental Issue of L2 Learning
- Investigating the Use of Translation Continuation Tasks in Commercial Translation Teaching: A Study on Translating User Manuals
- The Construct of the Story Continuation Writing Task: Insights From the China’s Standards of English Language Ability
- A Quantitative and Network Approach to Alignment Effects in L2 Continuation Tasks
- Effects of Reading-Listening Integrated Dictation on Chinese EFL Students’ Listening Performance
- Abstracts
- Chinese Abstracts
