Teaching Translation With the Notion of Discourse Analysis Under Different Communication Patterns

The study of teaching translation has always been influenced by the theory of foreign language teaching, regardless of the theoretical or practical approaches the researchers used. In the classroom, students are frequently bored with translating grammar because they are seldom taught how grammar works. In view of this teaching gap, this study offers new translating skills for students to enhance their understanding and readability of the translated texts. Dr. Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture,” available in both video and text, was used as the study material because of the special language features of speech and written texts. Using Dr. Pausch’s spoken and written material, the study adopted Hall’s (1976) intercultural communication patterns together with discourse analyses by Halliday and Hasan (1976), so that students can learn how to analyze coherence and cohesion in their translations with different communication patterns. The subjects for this study were 80 English-major students, and the tools are four texts from Dr. Pausch’s speech and published books. Data from student learning journals and their pre-test and post-test results were collected for statistical examination. Rather than simply translating words and following grammatical rules, the study provides new ideas for teaching translating, enhancing the quality of student translations by melding the latter with their personal experiences of the words they read and hear.

Global Applications of the Japanese ‟Lesson Study” Teacher Education and Training Model

“Lesson study” has been used for over a century in Japan (Makinae, 2010). However, only recently, in 1999 with the release of The Teaching Gap by Stigler and Hiebert, did the practice begin to spread globally (Fujii, 2013; Ebaeguin & Stephens, 2013). The Teaching Gap is a summary of the Third International Math and Science (TIMSS) video study and included an entire chapter titled “Beyond Reform: Japan’s approach to the improvement of classroom teaching.” This chapter stated that the way the United States was reforming education was not systematic and offered lesson study in eight steps as a way to improve teaching and learning (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). From 2000-2006 the lesson study process spread across the globe to nations including Indonesia, United States, England, Philippines, Australia, Sweden, and several African Nations (Groves & Doig, 2014). This paper will describe Japan’s lesson study process and the successes and failures of global application.

Research-Teaching-Practice linkages: A challenge for Business Schools

Changes in the global business environment are driving changes to the way business schools deliver higher education. However, the long debated gap between academia and industry (research-practice) remains unsolved. This paper explores the integration of research-teaching activities as an alternative to overcome the sometimes conflictual relationship between research and teaching and, more importantly, as a mechanism to reduce the research-practice gap. The aim of this research is to evaluate the extent to which it is feasible to integrate research-teaching in higher education. The practical suggestions to reduce the research-teaching gap proposed by Burke and Rau (2010) are tested in this paper through action research. This research provides empirical evidence on the relationships between research, teaching and practice which could help to improve academic performance, produce better managers for industry and consequently, build a bridge between academics and practitioners.