A Report On The Translation Of Children With Specific Language Impairment (Chapter 1)

This is a report on English-Chinese translation of the first chapter of Children with Specific Language Impairment,written by Laurence B.Leonard.Chapter 1 firstly gives a brief introduction of children with Specific Language Impairment(SLI for short)and the history of the study on SLI.Then it discusses the reason for and the significance of studying SLI,introduces diagnosis criteria for SLI and some limitation of it.Finally it briefly presents the current picture of SLI study and introduces what will be taken up in later chapters.There is no Chinese version of this book.Moreover,the language in this book is formal,standard and precise,based on which,the translator’s ability is supposed to be improved.The translation course is mainly guided by Skopos theory and it’s principles.Based on this,better understanding of the original text will make the translation more appropriate,so it is necessary to learn background information by reading some relevant materials.Also,it is essential to analyze the writing style,language features and other stylistic features.In the translation process,various translation strategies are adopted to solve the confronted problems and make the target language more fluency.The translator discussed such aspects as the translation of terminology,vocabulary,typical sentences,long and difficult sentences.Translation strategies like semantic extensions and conversion are used to translate vocabulary.Negation,change of voices,and free translation are applied on the translation of typical sentences.As for long and difficult sentences,the paper takes strategies as paraphrases and division.What’s more,it is a piece of academic writing,the language of it is abstraction and objectivity,so the target language should be as exact,precise and smooth as possible.Through translating Chapter 1 of Children with Specific Language Impairment,the translator not only improves the ability of translation,but also acquires a brief understanding of SLI study.Meanwhile,the translator has a better understanding of academic writing,which will be beneficial for my future translation practices.