中国学习者在以英语为媒介的教学环境下使用翻译学习专业课程的研究

Chinese Learners’Use of Translation in Learning Academic Subjects in English-Medium Instruction Context

许多研究者已经发现了大学生为克服英语授课课程中的困难而采取的学习策略,其中翻译是一种潜在的有用策略。本研究探讨了中国大学生在英语教学环境(EMI)下学习学科内容时,翻译作为一种学习策略的认知。虽然有许多研究调查了学习者在第二语言或外语习得中使用的翻译,但这些研究很少在高等教育的EMI背景下进行,特别是在中国。通过关注学生的观点,本研究提供了在EMI背景下翻译如何用于辅助学术学习的见解,并强调了翻译的有效性。数据包括对14名不同专业的中国本科生志愿者的半结构化访谈。研究发现,大多数参与者通过翻译来解决与语言相关的问题,尤其是在英语阅读和写作活动中。他们通常使用各种机器翻译,这对学生的学习并不总是有令人满意的效果。尽管大多数人认为翻译有助于学术学习,但对于在EMI环境下学习的中国本科生来说,翻译可能不是解决与学科相关的困惑的首选解决方案。

Many researchers have identified learning strategies that university students adopt to overcome difficulties in programs taught in English,among which translation is a potentially helpful one.This study explores Chinese undergraduate students’perceptions of translation as a learning strategy when learning content in the English-medium instruction(EMI)context.Although a number of studies have investigated translation used by learners in second or foreign language acquisition,those studies were rare in the EMI context of tertiary education,particularly in China.By focusing on students’perspectives,this study provides an insight into how translation is used to assist academic learning in EMI context and highlights its effectiveness.Data consisted of semistructured interviews with 14 volunteer Chinese undergraduates of various majors.It is found that most of the participants resorted to translation to deal with language-related problems,especially in English reading and writing activities.They usually translated utilizing various machine translators,which did not always have a fulfilling effect on students’learning.Although the majority considered translation helpful for academic learning,it might not be the preferred solution to subject-related confusion for Chinese undergraduate students learning in the EMI context.