Application of Interactive Approach in College English Translation Teaching

刘莹

（长沙师范学院外语系，湖南 长沙 410100）

Application of Interactive Approach in College English Translation Teaching

刘莹

（长沙师范学院外语系，湖南 长沙 410100）

Thispaper analyzesthe necessity ofadopting interactive approach in college English teaching and proposesthat teachers are supposed to mobilize students’intrinsic motivation when following proper translation teaching procedures.

interactive approach;translation teaching;intrinsic motivation

Translation teaching is very important in college English teaching as it plays a key role in understanding and transforming information between L1 (the first language)and L2 (the second language).It accounts for a higher percentage in CET4 and CET6 since August 14,2013.AccordingtoCollege English Test Committee, sentence translation has been adjusted to passage translation concerned with Chinese history,culture,economy,social development, and so on.As is revealed in the adjustment,English translation teaching has been an emphasis in English teaching reform in the new period.

1.Interactive approach

Interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts,feelings,or ideas between two or more people resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other(Brown,1999:159).It plays an important role in communicative competence as human beings use language in various contexts to express one's own ideas and comprehension.It emphasizes interaction of various aspects including teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction and student-material interaction. Moreover,it advocates motivating the learners'intrinsic motivation, and stresses the conversion of input into intake.Since English teaching is communication (Li songling:1999)and translation is an interactive process,interaction acts as the key to translation teaching situations and the Interactive Approach must be adopted in English translation teaching.

2.Application of the Interactive Approach in translation teaching

2.1 Mobilizing students'intrinsic motivation

Learner motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier,more pleasant and productive.The proper strategies to motivate students can be conducted mainly by selection of good learningmaterials and various classroominteractive activities.

2.1.1Selection oftranslation materials

The choice of translation materials has direct effects of the teaching.Good materials can raise the students'interest.The choice of materials should follow several basic principles:authenticity, originality,and interaction.According to these principles,informal talk and speaker visibility should be paid attention to.As for informal talk,most texts should be based on discourse that is either genuine improvised,spontaneous speech,or a fair imitation of it.For speaker visibility,conversation is interactive(Richards,2001:196).

2.1.2 Interactive activities in translation classes

Retelling is a kind of communicative behavior,which requires the students to tell a brief story in a different way according to the information the student has just read and grasped before it disappears in their short-term memory.Because the students have not seen the tape script,retelling impels them to describe the materials in their own words and therefore makes their expressions natural and the communicative behavior easier to happen.In this process the teacher should timely understand the students’obstacles in comprehending the original materials and help them overcome the difficulties of expressingand then check the students’degree ofcomprehension.

Discussion is another typical communicative way of interaction. In the process ofdiscussion the teacher should put forward some open questions without a fixed answer to let the students have a free expression of their own ideas.In this activity the students are usually divided into several groups and the discussion is conducted in each group.The topics used for discussion are usually text-related but more difficult.As every student will catch the specific information in L1,discussion can make up this information gap by making them negotiate with each other.

2.2Following proper translation teaching procedures

2.2.1Before translating

In addition to giving students plenty of practice,the teacher should make full preparation by setting up clear teaching goals, collecting teaching materials and design teaching class.When preparing a translation class,the teacher should let students be aware of the objectives of the task and pre-translating activities should also be given prior to a task in terms of discussion,questions,or a short paragraph to read providing information aboutthe situation, characters,and events.

2.2.2Duringtranslating

This is the most difficult but important step for the teacher to control.First,the teacher can practice them with some relevant materials in a language lab to help the learners to acquire the background knowledge.Second,let students translate a passage which is a little above the level with which they are already familiar. Furthermore,teachers can make the meaning clear by using pictures, mimes and body language to expand their language horizons.At last,in order to encourage students,the teacher can conduct integrated activities through recycling and revision of language which has already been taught separately in each skill.As translation is a receptive skill,receptive translation skills should give way to productive skills.

2.2.3 After translating

After-translating activities cannot be ignored for language points should be strengthened.At this stage,the teacher should summarize language points and finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students appreciate their translations.This could be a discussion group,craft project,writingtask,game,story,etc.

[1]BrownH.D.Interactivelanguageteaching[M].Beijing:Foreign Language TeachingandResearchPress,2001.

[2]Educational Department.College English Syllabus[J].Beijing:People’s EducationalPress,2004.

G64

A

1005-5312（2014）17-0222-02