Chapter One Introduction
1.1Background of the Study
Business English translation is enjoying a boom with the boost of the market demandunder the information age at present. Therefore, there is no doubt that more qualifiedtranslators are needed. And the translation teaching is confronted with a big challenge.Professor Mu Lei (1999)considers that what to teach and how to teach is a long-existed andunresolved problem in translation class. The goal of translation teaching is to help studentswho will become qualified professional translators make a better understanding of language,learn to think and master the comprehensive skills. Translation teaching is a kind ofcommunicative activity with a purpose. It lays emphasis on the cultivation of students’translation competence and calls for students to participate in lots of translation practiceactively.Nowadays, vocational education plays an important role in the education system inmodern society. The purpose of the vocational education is to cultivate advanced workerswith professional skills. Business English translation curriculum assumes the responsibility oftransporting staff and managers with high ability of Business English translation to enterprises.It becomes a top priority that how vocational education nurture a large number of qualifiedEnglish translators. Apparently, translation teaching is demanding and critical in vocationalcolleges.
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1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study
Although more and more attention has been paid to translation especially BusinessEnglish translation, how to improve the translators’ competence to meet the needs of oursociety is still a big problem. The Business English Translation teaching method is stillrelatively simple in vocational college. As a director and master of the class, the teacheralways delivers the content of the textbook to students directly, after translating,the teacherjust provides the referential answers. This kind of teaching just puts emphasis on the limitedtranslation practices and ignores students’ initiative and interest. Under the dull anddepressing class atmosphere students’ enthusiasm and translation competence can not beimproved.The significance of this study is not only theoretical but also practical. Although manyresearchers have conducted studies concerning the application of case method, the applicationof case method to Business English Translation is relatively lacking. The participants of theresearches are not from vocational college. This study will examine the effect of theapplication of case method to Business English Translation teaching in vocational college.In practice, students’ enthusiasm are stimulated by the typical cases and they will have afundamental understanding of Business English Translation’s context by analyzing the cases.The application of case method is to lead students to analyze,discuss, solve problems andpractice rather than providing them the referential answers. Through the analysis anddiscussion of cases, students can not only master the knowledge what they should learn, butimprove their abilities to speak out their opinions, how to cooperate with other students, howto think critically, how to learn independently and make decisions.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 The Overall Review of Case Method
Case can be explained as a event, condition, situation, example, instance, statement offacts involving a question for discussion or decision and convincing arguments or evidence.Since case method is used in the areas of law, medicine, business management and otherfields. Many researchers made attempts to define case in their own ways.In the view of L.R.Barnes(1994), a case referred to the real event which included vagueand complicated issues in life.Gragg(1951)indicated that a case typically is a record of a business issue which actuallyhas been faced by business executives.C.R.Silvernan(1992)and W.M.Wright(1996) considered that a case was authenticexperience of life.Wang Lvwei(1995)claimed that a case was an example or stood for something. It was acomplex event which was specific and vivid.Ye Junrong(1999)pointed out that a case was a real legal matter implying legal issues.Liu Changyong(1998)held the opinion that a case was the description of the enterpriseevent which contained problems.The author concluded that cases are based on real event. Case method teaching providesthe chance of simulation for students by means of actual events combing theories and practice. The function of case method may be affected by fictitious cases. But if the narration offictitious actual situation is adapted under the basis of real event, it can be called a case. Casesare selected from real life situations and guided by problems. It is not just the description ofevents.
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2.2 Constructivism Learning Theory
Case method is based on constructivism learning theory which was the furtherdevelopment of cognitive learning theory in the 1980s.It originated from Switzerlandpsychologist Jean Piaget’s theories of children’s cognitive development. And currentlyconstructivism learning theory has become the most influential theory and the latesteducational psychology. The core of the view of constructivism is that learners must figureout and transform complicated information by themselves if they expect to make it their own.Constructivism theory claims that learners review new information continually against oldrules and then reform the rules when they are not functional at all. Constructivism advocatesthat students’exploration of knowledge is uncontrolled and independent in a given frameworkor structure. As a promoter the teacher inspires students to find principles by themselves andto form their knowledge system by solving real problems.According to Piaget, children construct their cognitive structure step by step and enrichthem continually by means of assimilation and accommodation. Piaget holds that childrenconstruct their knowledge about the external world gradually and develop their own cognitivestructure in the process of interaction with the surrounding environment(He Kekang,1997).Piaget’s Constructivism Theory has been developed by the psychologist Vygotsky.He(1978) holds that learners do not simply assimilate and adjust to new knowledge and allcognitive functions result from and must be explained as products of social interactions; it isalso known as Social Constructivism. Social Constructivists point out that inpiduals are ledto a culture by more skilled members in the learning process when they take part socially intalk and activity about shared problems or tasks knowledge is constructed.
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Chapter Three Methodology........21
3.1 Research Questions......21
3.2 Research Participants.........21
3.3 Research Instruments.........21
3.4 Experimental Procedures......... 26
3.5Data Collection....... 28
Chapter Four Results and Discussion.....29
4.1 Results of the Pre-test and Post-test.....29
4.2 Results of the Questionnaires.........33
4.3Analysis of the Interview Questions.......... 37
4.4 Discussion........39
Chapter Five Conclusion........41
5.1 Major findings........41
5.2 Pedagogical Implications.........42
5.3 Limitations of the Research..... 43
5.4 Suggestions for Further Study........43
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 Results of the Pre-test and Post-test
According to the pre-test’s scores of the participants, it shows that there is no significantdifference between the experimental class and controlled class since they were taught by thesame teaching method under the same teaching circumstance. But after the experiment thatthe experimental class is taught by case method and the controlled class is still taught bytraditional method the scores of the pos-test are clearly different. The author makes use of theSPSS to analyze the data and make comparisons from two aspects: comparison with groupand comparison between groups. From the table 4-1 the difference of the scores of pre-test and post-test of experimentalclass can be observed obviously. The fact that the new teaching method has a great effect onthe students in experimental class since the Sig(2-tailed ) (.000)is lower than 0.05. The meanof pos-test is 69.78 is higher than that of pre-test which is 62.45. The students in EC haveimproved a lot after the experiment by analyzing the data. The case method is useful andeffective in students’translation competence.
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Conclusion
The author tries to apply case method to Business English Translation teaching invocational college by carrying out a contrastive experiment. The data are gathered by meansof research, data analysis, questionnaires and interview. In conclusion, the effect of applyingcase method to Business English Translation teaching in vocational college is positive. Theperformance of students in experimental class is better than those in controlled class.Case method is also able to stimulate students’ initiative and interest. Students considerthat Business English translation is very boring according to the date of the pre-questionnaire.They accept translation knowledge passively and imitate mechanically. The case is closelyrelated to real life situations which will attract students’ attention by the use of multimedia.The open-minded questions and intriguing problems posed for case analysis absorb students’imaginations and help stimulate their initiative and interests. The interview andpost-questionnaire after experiment shows that students in experimental class take a positiveattitude towards Business English translation and they gradually have interest in translation.The most important aspect for students major in Business English is to solve real practicalproblems depending on their translation ability and knowledge related to business.
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References (omitted)