Status,problems And Solutions Of Master Education Of Translation Studies

To a certain extent,the master’s thesis represents the systematic research of young scholars on a specific research question in their field of study,and reflects the academic training skills of the succeeding scholars and their problems.At present,most studies on master’s theses associated to translation majors are centered on professional master’s degrees(MTI),lacking the examination of academic master’s theses on translation studies and the consideration of translation education.Through bibliometric method,visualized analysis,close reading method,this paper selects 1,440 academic master’s degree theses in translation from eight foreign language universities included in China Knowledge Network master’s thesis database from 2013 to 2021 as data sources,examines the characteristics and changes of theses in research themes,objects,methods and perspectives,and analyzes the problems at the theses selection.It is found that from 2013-2021,the selected academic theses show the characteristics of diversification,as the research themes and research objects cover literary translation,translation history,interpreting and translation research,etc.,the research methods mostly adopt documentary method,textual close reading method,etc.,and the research perspectives are mainly based on foreign translation theories,but the following problems and shortcomings mainly exist:(1)tendency of adopting theoretical perspectives;(2)imbalance in topic selection’s distribution;(3)non-diversification in research method of the theses.In view of the above problems,the following optimization proposals have been put forward:(1)focus on development of teaching materials;(2)cultivation of critical thinking for understanding the essence of translation studies;(3)active conduct of courses of research methodology for enriching research methods.This paper composes an overview of MA theses in translation studies,categorizes and analyzes the characteristics and problems,and aims to enrich the knowledge and understanding of MA students and the translation academic research community on the development status of MA theses.The optimization scheme proposed in this paper helps to provide some references and suggestions for the selection of MA master’s theses and the development of translation education in the future,and eventually cultivate more and better translation research talents.