An Exploratory Study of the Chinese-to-English Translation in Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Textbook 1

• Main Authors: Angela Meng-fen Hsieh, 謝孟芬
• Other Authors: Fred J. Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8368zb

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 96 === Chinese-English translation in the textbooks is a common occurrence in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language. This study focuses on the Chinese-to-English translation in Practical Audio-Visual Chinese textbook 1. The positive transfer by the analysis in which the translation would be of help to English-CSL learners and the teachers is expected. This study is based on the framework of formal error typology, error analysis in Chinese language acquisition, common errors in Chinese-English translation, and functional equivalence proposed by James（1998）, Jen（2001）, Lixin（1993）, and Chen（2007）, respectively. The study is a qualitative research, aiming at the Chinese-English translation in the textbook. Interview of native speakers is used as the instrument for the explanatory investigation. The findings of the present research show that the formal error typology includes omission, addition, mis-selection, disordering, and blends. The functionally equivalent errors are composed of three categories – “cohesion”, “topic-comment structure and focus”, and “tense and aspect”. Others are related to culture or pragmatics, such as “title”, “judgment”, etc. Additionally, the levels of comparison ranging from semantics, syntax, discourse and pragmatics are discussed. The use of passive voice shift between Chinese and English is further analyzed. Seven factors that influence the passive voice transfer are proposed in the present paper. According to the analysis results, three abstract articles from the textbook are taken as the examples in order to verify whether the translations are functional equivalence or not. The author has designed a practical lesson plan as a contrastive illusion based on the Chinese and English translation investigation in the present research. As the end of this study, the researcher has also expressed an opinion on translation. Every writer should be aware of the reason why articles are translated. Faithfulness and acceptation are two critical principles that should be followed.