A Report On EST Translation From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

The production,development and application of new materials reflect the strength of science,technology and industry in a country and are related to the country’s overall national strength and international influence.The source text of the translation practice is selected from the reading materials in the two textbooks for materials science department English Translation&Writing Course for Students of Materials Department and English Listening&Speaking Course for Students of Materials Department.These materials are all from the original foreign textbooks and journals.The source text belongs to academic informative text which language is professional,rigorous,scientific and rich in technical terms.On the ground of the particular features of EST,this report focuses on the translation difficulties and strategies in the understanding and expressing of translation from the perspective of schema theory.Schema activation and reconstruction in schema theory ensure the high quality of the translation.The report explores the application of schema theory in the process of EST translation from linguistic schema,content schema and formal schema.As for the translation of technical terms such as compound words and abbreviations as well as non-finite verbs,the translator analyzed the linguistic schema of them and adopted strategies of literal translation,zero-translation,addition,omission,etc.,to activate and enrich the schema of readers;In the translation of semi-technical terms and metaphor,the translator activates her schema and understand the content of words by consulting parallel texts and searching background information,to avoid the misunderstanding and mistranslation of the source text.Translation methods such as shift,addition,extension and overt translation are adopted to make the translation more accurate and more acceptable by readers.For the translation of passive sentences and nominalized structures,the translator analyzes the formal schema and compares the differences between the source and target language expressions,appropriately adjusts the schema,and proposes strategies such as sequential translation,reverse translation,and addition to make the translation more in line with Chinese expressions,which is easier to activate readers’schemata.The main body of the report consists of four chapters.Chapter one describes the task including its background and significance.Chapter two introduces the process of the task including pre-task preparation,translation process and proofreading and revision.Chapter three is the case study,Chapter four is the reflection and summary of the whole translation process.The translation report aims at improving the author’s translation skills as well as providing some reference for translating English for materials science and engineering.