An Investigation Into Research Methods Employed In Interpreting Studies In China For The Past Decade

This thesis is a meta-research,i.e.a research on interpreting studies itself.It conducts a systematic study on one aspect of interpreting studies in Chinese mainland:the M.A.theses.This thesis collects a total of 226 M.A.theses produced from 1999 to 2007 in Chinese mainland with interpreting as their subject matters and uses a combination of quantitative,qualitative,and theoretical research methods to describe and analyze them.First,after relevant background research,this thesis establishes a quality assessment system for M.A.theses on interpreting studies which can serve as a theoretical framework that guides following analysis in the thesis.Second,the thesis classifies the sample data by mode of interpreting,research themes and research methods and uses a quantitative approach to conduct a descriptive study on the data in order to provide a panorama of interpreting studies in Chinese mainland.Third, through in-depth qualitative analysis of representative samples and outstanding theses appeared in the past decade,this research systematically inspects and analyzes, from a methodological perspective,the status quo and methodological maturity of interpreting studies in Chinese mainland.While examining existing problems,causes for these problems and possible solutions,the aim of this thesis is to shed light on the methodological achievements that China's interpreting studies field have made by highlighting some of the theses with noticeable scientific quality,and achievements made in interpreting studies from an objective perspective.Finally,based on above investigation and analyses,this thesis makes tentative predictions on the development trend of interpreting studies in China in favor of a more scientific and normalized direction and tries to propose more feasible research approaches and methods for future research efforts.