An Empirical Study Of Translation Competence

This thesis is a longitudinal empirical study of translation competence from the angle of decision making in translation by investigating sequence actions subjects made and the acceptability of their translations based on the theoretical framework and methodology of the PACTE group. It was carried out among MTI students from the Central South University and it was both process-oriented and product-oriented. Instruments for data collection included think-aloud protocols, translations, direct observatory charts and retrospective interviews. The research questions the present study tried to answer are as below:1) What is the case of translation competence for the novices in decision-making? 2) What is the case of improvement on novices' translation competence? 3) What is the case of sequence of action for the novices in decision-making? 4) What is the case of version acceptability? The major conclusions of the study are as following:1). Bilingual competence of the MTI students was poor. Extra-linguistic competence such as encyclopedic, subject and bicultural knowledge was in short supply of the translation students. Psycho-physiological components of the translation novices were weak, especially in attitudinal aspects like perseverance, self-confidence and creativity. Translation methods which belong to Knowledge about Translation sub-competence were overused by the students. The translators'lack of declarative knowledge like extra-linguistic sub-competence in target text production or source text comprehension was compensated by activating other sub-competences of translation competence (strategic, instrumental and knowledge about translation sub-competence) to obtain better results (PACTE,2009).2). Individual differences existed in solving the bilingual and extra-linguistic problems. Translation training was differently effective in improving the translation competence of different individuals. Relative speaking, the improvement on psycho-physiological component and instrumental sub-competence was typical.3). As to the translation novices, they mainly depended on internal support whatever the types of problems was before the translation training. And after four-month training, they adopted more external support whatever the types of problems was.4). The acceptability of both bilingual problems and extra-linguistic problems heightened with advent to more external support. Individual differences existed in the improvement of acceptability.Despite the demerits either in the research design or those in the think-aloud method itself, the study has contributed to the growing body of empirical research in translation competence. Nevertheless, further improvements on the methodology and the theoretical framework are expected in the coming years.