A Study Of The Training Strategies For MTI Students Through Failure Analysis In Their Interpreting Tests

With the further reform and opening up, especially after joining the WTO in2001,China has carried out the comprehensive exchange and cooperation with other countries.The growing economic and cultural exchange has given birth to a huge translation market.In2006, the production value of translation industry in the end broke through20billion,among which interpreting has accounted for a large proportion. However, presently, ourcountry is seriously lack of professional translators. What’s worse, the number of qualifiedinterpreters is far less than that of professional translators. In this occasion, in January,2007,the23rdConference of Academic Degree Committee in the State Council was held inBeijing. The meeting is agreed with the Design Scheme of Translation Master Degree, anddecided to establish the master degree of professional translation in our country. The fullname of the degree is “Master of Translation and Interpreting”, and the short name is MTI.From then on, the responsibility of cultivating MTI talent is on the shoulders ofuniversities’ teachers. Although MTI has a tremendous development since2007, as a newmajor, the development of MTI is in the exploratory stage. Misunderstandings andinsufficiencies exist in both conception and the process of training, for example, theteaching positioning is not clear; the curriculum setting is unreasonable; the teaching houris not enough; the opportunities of internship is in a shortage; universities are lack of thequalified teaching materials and teachers and so on.The history of translation research, as a subject in university, is short in the world. Atthe beginning, translation research was a branch of applied linguistics, and it was graduallyindependent in the1980s and1990s. In China, the discussion on translation hadn’t come toa head until the last century. What’s more, the teaching definition of MTI is different athome and abroad. MTI is short for “Master of Translation and Interpreting” in our country,but in Europe, the word between “T” and “I” is “or” but not “and”, said by Professor Fransde Laet, who was the former Secretary of FTI, which illustrates that the research mode ofMTI is different at home and abroad. According to Holmes, MTI education belongs toapplied translator cultivation, but presently, the problems in this kind of translation research such as teaching mode, test method and the formulation of teaching outline are the majorfields in applied translation researches, which has illustrated that MTI teaching in theforeign countries is also at primary stage. Because MTI has just been started in China, so,the MTI research is less than that of foreign countries. According to the published journalsin our country presently, the interpreting research in our country is still in the primary stage.The combination of interpreting research and interpreting profession, translation industryand the society waits for strengthening, and the relative research is very few. I searchedabout50papers on the subject of MTI in CNKI, and most of them stem from journals andmeeting minutes. About10articles talk about MTI cultivation mode, but they havedifferent emphasizes. The articles like On MTI Cultivation and Brief Discussion on MTITalents’ Cultivation---with the Translation Industry Development as the Guidance ofCultivating Specification Characteristics Study are having some similarities with myresearch. On MTI Cultivation is written by two students named Huang Lisha and HuangLimei. This paper explains briefly the reasons and background for setting up MTI (Masterof Translation and Interpreting), points out four key problems in China’s MTI training, andputs forward six countermeasures to deal with the above-mentioned problems. The secondarticle is written by Shi Yan from Zhejiang Industry and Commerce University. In thispaper, the author mainly talked about how to build characteristic cultivation specification ofMTI education under the quick development of translation industry, and this paperemphasizes on the characteristic construction of MTI. However, the above articles don’thave a detailed and specific introduction on MTI cultivation strategy, and neither haveenough discussion on the positioning of cultivation goal. The articles based on tests andquestionnaires are rare. So, my research is a complement of these articles. What’s more, Ialso have my own views on MTI training. As far as I am concerned, we can optimize MTIcultivation mode by clarifying MTI training conception, strengthening MTI teachers’construction, enriching MTI training content and unifying MTI training method.The innovation of this thesis is based on the following aspects: firstly, empiricalresearch. The subjects’ performances have inspected the current MTI training strategieswell. Secondly, a systematic and specific illustration from MTI training conception to thespecific training method has been made. Thirdly, the identity of researcher changed from the giver to the receiver. This thesis is based on the feelings and experiences of MTIgraduates, so it is more persuasive. On the one hand, this thesis is a modest spur to induceothers to come forward with valuable contributions, which means I hope to attract theattention of the authorities to attach importance to the students’ feelings when theyformulate the cultivation mode; on the other hand, this thesis has practical value, which cannot only provide some reference to the MTI teachers and students who havemisunderstandings on MTI, but also can give guidance to some MTI cultivation units.This thesis consists of a general introduction, main-body parts and a conclusion.In introduction, the author briefly introduces the rationale, the significance and thegoal of exploring MTI training strategies. The study method and the organization of thepaper will also be mentioned in this part.Chapter I mainly introduce the current MTI cultivation strategies and its problems,which is from cultivation conception and training teachers to curriculum setting andtraining method. Through the analysis of the current situation, we can point out the areas inneed of improvement.Chapter II is the introduction of an interpreting tests the author held in a famousuniversity. After the brief introduction of the method and basic situation of the tests, adetailed analysis on the performances of the subjects is carried out. The purpose of thisanalysis is to inspect the current MTI cultivation mode.Chapter III is about a questionnaire survey. The subjects’ and teachers’ views,suggestions and expectations are presented in the questionnaires. The first paragraph is theviews of the students, and the second paragraph is the views of their teachers and the lastpart is the author’s summary.Chapter IV is the main-body of the thesis. Through the analysis and illustration of theabove chapters, we have understood the current MTI cultivation mode and its trainingeffect. The author puts forwards MTI training strategies in this chapter, which is also fromthe following parts: concept, curriculum setting, teacher construction, training method andevaluation.Conclusion concludes the standpoint of this thesis. The setting of MTI is the inevitableoutcome of the development of society. It is not only a challenge of Chinese translation teaching, but also a good start of translation teaching. If the first step goes well, then it willhave a bright future. So we should solve a serious of problems primarily.