A Report On The E-C Translation Of Designing An Educational Environment In Six Steps:the Guide

The translation practice report is based on an excerpt of Designing an Educational Environment in Six Steps: The Guide.There are 42,300 words in the source text and the translation was required to be completed within 90 days.A careful reading of the source text pointed to the conclusion that it belongs to an informative text,according to Text Typology.Such a text is aimed at providing information(facts and objects)with the focus on content.Therefore,the language must be logical,or “plain prose” where explicitation is required.The report is composed of five parts.The first part begins with a brief introduction of translation task,including its background information and significance.The second part is task description,mainly about comprehensive analysis of the source text from lexical,syntactic and textual levels.The analysis shows that the translation difficulties of words are educational terms.On the syntactic level,complex sentences,parentheses and passive voice are major problems.Cohesion and coherence are the obvious features on discourse level.The third part is about translation process,covering preparation for background information,translation resources and tools,choice of translation theory and parallel texts,forming of glossary,translation plan and translation methods.The fourth part is case analysis which mainly presents how translation difficulties on lexical,syntactic and textual levels have been overcome under the guidance of the text typology.Inspired by text typology,some translation methods are adopted in translation,such as,amplification,voice conversion,word order change in order to ensure accuracy and fluency of the target text.The fifth part is a conclusion as to what can be done to overcome difficulties in translating informative texts about education design.It is found that novel terms in education design can be translated following a glossary postulated by wide reading of parallel texts on education,education design,sociology,etc.Necessary changes in word order,voice,sentences patterns can help better present facts of the original,as is suggested by Text Typology.And to achieve cohesion and coherence of the target text,redundant cohesive devices can be omitted,and a change of thematic progression is advisable.