The Pedagogy of Corpus-aided English-Chinese Translation from a Critical & Creative Perspective

With the advancement of corpus linguistics, there has been an increasing interest in using corpora as a tool for translator training and translation practice. Despite the usefulness of corpora in translation pedagogy, the more and more reliance on parallel corpora in translating activities has diminished the ability to determine the meaning of words within different contexts using dictionaries. However, it has hampered the enhancement of translation competence of trainee translators. This study investigates the necessity of adopting critical and creative thinking in the teaching of corpus-aided English-Chinese translation. It first examines the increasing importance of corpora in aiding translator training and translating practice. A critical analysis was adopted to analyze a translation case using a parallel corpus. Thirteen Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice's opening remark were compared and analyzed critically and creatively with the aid of different corpora. Pedagogical implications for translation teaching were summarized.

Philosophical and Pedagogical Beginnings

The Philosophical Investigations is an inherently pedagogical work. Wittgenstein claims throughout his later writings to be teaching a method and this method is both philosophical and pedagogical. It is the claim of this paper that if we do not take Wittgenstein's methodological claim seriously, we do not engage with the text in the manner for which it was written. Consequently, we begin and end in the wrong places and the text becomes (in the words of Wittgenstein) 'variously misunderstood, more or less mangled and watered-down.' §1 is philosophically and pedagogically complex. It presents the philosophical problems to which Wittgenstein will respond in the text which follows and it also, significantly, presents their solution. An investigation of the philosophical and pedagogical questions raised in the opening remark of the Investigations will demonstrate that we have not yet begun to use Wittgenstein's method and his writings to their full potential.