A Study Of The Accomplishment In Professional Ethics Of Students Majoring In Translation From The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

As one of the major research topics in the field of translation studies,translation ethics has been discussed extensively from several perspectives such as the “loyalty” of translators,“equivalence”,“skopos” of translation,“manipulation” in translation and “norms” governing the process and evaluation of translation.With the development of translation industry,more scholars have begun to explore the ethics of translators by taking translation as a profession.Andrew Chesterman puts forward five models of translation ethics,which can be regarded as the cornerstone for the study on professional ethics in translation.However,the education of professional ethics in translation teaching has not received adequate scholarly attention,though the BTI and MTI education have developed rapidly in China.With Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics as theoretical orientation,the thesis aspires to fill this research gap by probing into three questions:(1)What are the dimensions of professional ethics for translation?(2)Under the framework of professional ethics built in this study,what is the current status of students’ accomplishment in profession ethics for translation?(3)How to improve the accomplishment in professional ethics of students majoring in translation?In the first part,the dimensions of professional ethics in translation are summarized based on Andrew Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics and the code of ethics stipulated by various translation associations.The most important professional ethics in translation industry are being trustworthy;respecting clients’ interests;striving for excellence and being fair.The thesis then identifies the current status of students’ accomplishment in profession ethics in translation education based on an empirical survey.The respondents of the survey are students who major in translation from 12 universities across China.The major results derived from 120 questionnaires and in-depth interviews are: 69% students majoring in translation do not choose the professional translator or interpreter as their ideal jobs because of poor salary and welfare in translation industry;77.5% of them are unsatisfied with the salary in translation industry;29% of them use the confidential information gained at work to make profits for themselves or others;professional translators are not well respected by the students;only 14.5% of them have heard about any code of ethics in translation industry.In light of the survey,the author explores ways to improve the accomplishment in professional ethics of students majoring in translation by drawing on lessons from other disciplines.This research has implications for both translation studies and translator education.It studies translation ethics from the perspective of translators’ professional duties.Besides,the study also indicates that the education of professional ethics is neglected in translation teaching.The thesis puts forward several measures to improve students’ accomplishment in professional ethics.