A Report On The Translation Of The Self-Driven Child(Chapter One And Two)

This is a translation report based on the English-Chinese translation practice of The Self-Driven Child,a book about family education.Education,which is inseparable from the future development of mankind,has gradually become a hot topic in today’s world.Generally speaking,education is divided into two main areas,in addition to the well-known school education,there is an “invisible” education—family education.In recent years,family education has been studied by a great number of experts and scholars.However,the ideas of family education vary from country to country.Thus,the communication between different ideas of family education is essential.The Self-Driven Child was written by William Sticklud,an American clinical neuroscientist,and Ned Johnson,a founder of Prep Matters(an education company of America).This report focuses on the translation of Chapter One and Chapter Two of the book,with the purpose of introducing advanced foreign family education ideas to China,so as to promote the quality of Chinese family education.This report is based on the text typology theory of Katharina Reiss.Reiss proposed three functional text types,informative text,expressive text and operative text by linking the text types,functions,and translation methods.This translation material belongs to the informative text,which aims at transmitting information,knowledge,opinions and other facts.The emphasis of the informative text lies in its ideas.Therefore,when translating those texts,the translator’s first task is to convey the original information truthfully.In order to accurately convey the ideas of the original text,this report mainly uses the translation methods of literal translation and free translation.Sentences easy to understand directly use the translation method of literal translation,ensuring to transmitting the accurate information.For those obscure sentences or sentences with foreign characteristics,the author try to use free translation to express the meaning accurately.There are three difficulties in the process of translation.The first difficulty lies in some words or phrases.This translation material,which is about family education,contains some jargons on psychology and pedagogy.Therefore,it is necessary for translators to have not only the good language skills,but also the knowledge of psychology and pedagogy.Translator shall consult relevant documents and materials to ensure accuracy.The second difficulty lies in sentences.Some sentence structures are lengthy and complex.And the passive voice and noun structure are widely used.In the process of translation,translators should fully consider the characteristics and differences between English and Chinese in order to conforming to the Chinese expression habits.The third difficulty lies in the expressions in particular contexts.This translation material contains some oral expressions and letters.Therefore,translators should grasp the expressive styles in different contexts in the process of translating.The translation examples in this report provide examples respectively from three aspects,vocabulary,syntax,and discourse.The examples from the aspect of vocabulary mainly contain proper nouns,conversions and so on.The aspect of syntax mainly contains long and difficult sentences,passive voice and adjustment of word order and so on.Discourse translation is analyzed according to the context of the selected discourse.Through the translation practice of Chapter One and Chapter Two of The Self-Driven Child,the author has learned a lot of knowledge of family education and updated the education concepts.Besides,the author has learned a lot of translation skills,and has derived the pleasure of translation.