A Study of Literary Translation Teaching and the Development of Translation Professionals in Taiwan''s Universities

• Main Authors: Chien-yi Chen, 陳謙宜
• Other Authors: Yi-ping Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55761665684873525819

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語系口筆譯碩士班 === 101 === According to the translation and interpretation industry survey published by Executive Yuan’s Government Information Office in 2004, literary translation plays a crucial part in the publishing industry. Since there is no study available concerning the teaching and talent cultivation in literary translation in Taiwan, this study aims to investigate literary translation teaching in Taiwan’s universities and graduate institutes/programs. The three research questions are: How is literary translation course taught in Taiwan’s undergraduate and graduate programs? Do instructor’s training foci meet student’s learning expectations? What are the gaps between the training in academia and the professional translators needed in the publishing industry? The methodology of this study is a questionnaire survey. The three groups of respondents are: (1) five undergraduate and four graduate literary translation instructors, (2) sixteen undergraduate and twenty seven graduate students who have taken literary translation course, (3) six editors from four publishers and two professional translators working with publishers. The findings prove that the instructors’ course objectives and major training goals do not fully meet the students’ learning expectations. However, both the instructors and the students agree that ‘translation skills’ is one of the most important training goals. Nevertheless, the editors and the translators do not regard ‘translation skill’ as one of the top three training goals in literary translation courses. The survey result also shows that the instructors put emphasis on ‘translation skills’ and ‘English proficiency’ while the editors and the translators express that ‘Chinese proficiency’, ‘English proficiency’, and ‘cultural background knowledge’ are the three most important requirements for being a literary translator. The research concludes that gaps indeed exist between the academia and the publishing industry in literary translation training. Finally, it is suggested that instructors not to neglect the training in ‘Chinese proficiency’ and ‘cultural background knowledge’; meanwhile, they should take initiative to build contact with translation industry.