A Study Of EFL Students' Reading Comprehension Problems Of The EST Translation

EST(English for Science and Technology)translation is different from the general English translation,since it contains considerable professional knowledge and technical terms,as well as requires translators to be objective and rigorous enough.Actually,modern society has a good demand for compound talents who are proficient in both English translation and science and technology.However,if translators cannot improve their own competence of EST translation,maybe in the near future,the artificial intelligence could have a chance to replace them.In the previous studies of the cognitive process of translation,many traditional translation theories focus on the normative evaluation and prescriptive study of the finished products,while ignoring the problems EFL(English as a Foreign Language)students have faced with in the translation process.However,it seems to be difficult for EFL students to make a remarkable progress in the EST translation without solving the problems in the reading comprehension of the source text.Thus,in order to ensure the employment rate of college students and meet the needs of the times,this thesis invited 169 Chinese-speaking undergraduates who were majoring in information engineering in their freshman year at college as the subjects to have a study of their reading comprehension problems in the EST translation.On this basis,this thesis intends to seek answers to the questions below:(1)What are the main problems EFL students faced with in the reading comprehension of EST translation?(2)How do students' problems manifest during their translation process?(3)What kinds of translation strategies can help EFL students to improve their EST translation competence?According to Anderson's Language Comprehension Model,and with the help of the two EST translation excerpts,questionnaires filed out by 169 informationengineering students and retrospective interviews,this thesis attempts to find out,classify and generalize EFL students' problems in the cognitive process of EST translation reading,and the major findings are as follows:First,EFL students have encountered various problems in the reading comprehension of EST translation indeed,such as lack of vocabulary,distraction,unfamiliarity with rhetoric and phrases,etc.Second,these reading comprehension errors are manifested in the perception,parsing and utilization stages in turn,but actually,there are no clear boundaries of the three stages.Third,this thesis gives specific translation strategies from three aspects:vocabulary translation,sentence translation and cultural context influence.At the end of this thesis,there are some suggestions provided for EFL students and their teachers.However,both EFL teachers and students should realize that the problems in the reading comprehension of EST translation cannot be solved overnight,and only the suitable translation strategies can give a hand to EFL students to translate effectively.