A Survey On University Lecturers' In Translation And Interpreting

In recent years, translation pedagogy has become an important area in Translation Studies. It mainly focuses on teaching process, teaching content, and teaching activities, and yet seldom pays attention to faculty development. By comparison, in the field of foreign language teaching, faculty training and development has already become a major focus, and research findings have provided important theoretical basis for best practices in faculty development.This study is based on a questionnaire survey among 215 college teachers in translation and interpreting in 30 universities in mainland China. It investigates their work and living conditions, their concerns and expectations. The questionnaire consists of five sections:teaching, research, service, translation and interpreting practice, and personal life. The questions cover such shareholders as school, colleagues, students, community, family, and the teacher themselves, and SWOT (i.e., strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis was taken into account when the questionnaire was designed.Results show that the faculty of translation and interpreting are fairly satisfied with their working conditions and living standards, but still have some discontent. They are under considerable pressure from teaching and research as well as living conditions. They call to relevant shareholders for reform, particularly for the need of a specific system for evaluating the academic performance of the faculty of translation and interpreting and their promotion. On the other hand, the faculty of translation and interpreting still need to enhance their abilities in translation and interpretation practice, research abilities, teaching skills, and other aspects. As the language industry in China has not been well regulated and the social status of translator is not high, the enthusiasm of translation faculty to translate tends to be low.As reform in higher education in China progresses and social conditions improve, it is expected that the faculty of translation and interpreting in this country will enjoy better work and living conditions, and their level of satisfaction and happiness will increase.