An Empirical Study On The Influences Of Mti Students’ Critical Thinking Of Translation On Translation Quality

Since the teaching reform in China, particularly after entering the21stcentury,education for all-around development receives unprecedented emphasis, which isclosely related to cultivating students’ critical thinking (CT). By introducing CT, awell developed term in psychology, philosophy, and education, into translation studies,an attempt is made in the thesis to put forward the notion of critical thinking oftranslation. Furthermore, an empirical research is made, through qualitative andquantitative analyses, to probe into the influences of MTI students’ critical thinking oftranslation on their translation quality by instruments of questionnaires, TAPs,observation notes, and post-interviews.The thesis is intended to tackle the following questions.(1) What is the statusquo of MTI students’ critical thinking of translation?(2) How is MTI students’ criticalthinking of translation reflected in the translation process?(3) How does MTIstudents’ critical thinking of translation affect their translation quality?The findings are as follows.(1) Firstly, MTI students’ CT of translation isdivided into four levels, namely TS≥80%,70%≤TS<80%,60%≤TS<70%, andTS<60%, respectively with3.3%,40.0%,48.3%, and8.3%of all the participants ineach level. Secondly, huge discrepancy exists among MTI students in CT oftranslation. And the top three elements with the greatest difference are inference,analyticity, and self-regulation. Thirdly, all the twelve elements are positivelycorrelated with CT of translation, and the three highest correlation coefficients arefound between CT of translation and analyticity, inference, and systematicity.(2) Tobegin with, MTI students’ CT of translation is embodied in stages of planning,comprehending, transferring and monitoring. More specifically, elements of CT oftranslation in every stage are explored. Second, throughout the whole translationprocess, the three elements with the largest proportions are self-regulation, analyticityand cognitive maturity, and the two with the smallest are self-confidence andexplanation.(3) Translation quality falls into three groups, i.e. the higher, lower, and medium quality groups. Members in the first group have better CT of translation.They are open-minded and do not exert too much time and energy in comprehendingbut in transferring and monitoring. Facts also show that emphasis on planningcontributes to better translation quality. Besides, cognitive maturity, self-confidence,inference, self-regulation, and systematicity also play vital roles in the translationquality. The lower quality group member has weaker CT of translation, and ranks firstin comprehending and last in monitoring. In addition, she is also the poorest insystematicity, self-confidence, explanation, evaluation, and open-mindedness.This research is interdisciplinary and exploratory, synthesizing methods oftheoretical exploration and empirical research. Theoretically, the conception of criticalthinking of translation is proposed and its dimensions defined. Empirically, in termsof the measuring instruments, the routinely used questionnaires are self-constructed.Furthermore, the think-aloud protocols, a way to explore the participants’ proceduralknowledge, are adopted to probe into their critical thinking of translation during thetranslation process.