The Application Of Relevance Theory To English Undergraduate Translation Teaching

In China, translation teaching researches have attracted more and more attention of scholars, but translation teaching is still the weak point in China's translation researches which still remains at static level. That is to say, they only focus on the products of translation, ignoring the researches on the translation process, which is harmful to the improvement of translation teaching. In 1986, two linguists, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson published a monograph,"Relevance: Communication and Cognition". In the book, they proposed relevance theory, claiming that the optimal relevance is the best communicative principle of voluntary compliance; and translation, as a form of communication, is in essence a cognitive process of ostensive inference.Based on this situation, the present author intends to apply the dynamic relevance theory to the translation teaching of English undergraduate students by launching an 18-week long teaching experiment. Two junior classes are selected as subjects. Traditional teaching methods and the methods under the guidance of relevance theory are used respectively. Through one semester experiment, we intend to verify whether relevance theoretic approach to translation teaching can stimulate students'interests in translation, improve their translation ability and enhance their understanding of the translation process. After the teaching experiment, the present author employs quantitative and qualitative research methods, with the aid of"social science statistical analysis software package"to collect the experimental data and conduct detailed statistical analyses. The results show that the application of relevance theory to translation teaching can promote students'interests in translation and their translation abilities, and can help them obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the translation process.Through this teaching experiment, it can be seen that the traditional translation teaching method hinders the students'subjectivity and the interaction between teachers and students; on the contrary, relevance-theoretic account of translation, with more stresses put on translation process, improves the teaching effects. The significance of this paper is to provide certain theoretic reference and practical teaching experience for English translation teachers as well as a new perspective for translation teaching studies.