Translation as a constituent part of bilingual education

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Translation as a constituent part of bilingual education

Formulation and justification of the relevance of the problem. Translation activity has one or more specific purposes and whichever they may be, the main aim of translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among peoples. In the past few decades, this activity has developed because of rising specialists' mobility, globalization and the expansion of the mass media and technology. For this reason, teaching translation plays an important role as a bilingual or multi-lingual cross-cultural matter while attempting to interpret concepts and speech in a variety of texts as accurately as possible.

Based on the communicative and cognitive needs of future non-philological professionals bilingual education at universities provides training students to read specialized literature in order to get all sorts of information; annotating specialized texts; oral communication for professional purposes; preparation of reports, essays, translations.

Thus, teaching translation is seen as a necessary step for the formation of students' bilingual skills. With regard to the translation process, systematic accumulation of knowledge and skills gradually leads not only to students' high leveled perception of professional subtleties of the content of the text, but at the same time to a deeper understanding of cross-cultural and bilingual features.

Analysis of recent researches and publications. Problems devoted to multicultural and pedagogical aspects of bilingual education are the issues of the research of such foreign researchers as J. Cummins, J. Lyon, J. Frederickson, G. Fred, C. Baker, S. McCarty, as well as such Ukrainian representatives as Shandruk, E. Tedeeva, Ya. V. Pozhenyuk, V. Shtyfurak.

It is obvious that recently, in the light of current trends in education, the problem of the development of the theory and methodology of translation has become a matter of focus. This resulted in the appearance of a number of interesting works in this direction, in our country conducted by O. V. Shupta, S. M. Shchur, T. O. Dolga, N. M. Sopiluk and others.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that the research under consideration does not touch upon all aspects of translation in the context of bilingual education, what is more important it does not define modern translation technics while providing bilingual education.

The objective of the article is to consider the place and role of translation in bilingual education practice. We also see the necessity of analyses of main translation techniques and their classification in the context of bilingual education.

The main material of the study. The scientific and methodological analysis of the educational process shows that, dealing with professional information it is a sufficiently developed skill of translation that allows the student to overcome the problems of cognitive nature [3; 4, p. 27; 5; 6].

It should be noted that the outdated today is the attitude of the teacher of a foreign language to the translation as a mere multi-step process of processing professional information. We consider it inappropriate to reduce the translation process to the mechanical finding of interlingual correspondences. From the school curriculum, young people are inclined to give the meaning of individual lexical units during the translation. As a result, there is a chaotic process of the text with a large number of translation errors, which leads to a misconception about the content of the information processed.

When planning any class particularly difficult and responsible issue is the selection of adequate means and methods. It is important that future professionals have the opportunity to develop translation skills - appropriately give meaning of the text orally or in writing, as well as integrative and communicative skills - to analyze, compare, summarize, draw conclusions based on listening comprehension or reading; interpret and comment features of the context from professional point of view and more.

Thus, taking into account mentioned above, we have reason to single out the following types of translation: oral and written, reproduction and transformation, interactive and non-interactive. [1]

However, the authors of the Common Guidelines among other types of professional written translation distinguish two more types: summarizing gist and paraphrasing [7]. We believe that these types should be used in teaching oral and written translation to future non-philological specialists.

While translating (in the phase of communication between addresser and addressee text-interpreter) students seek to transform the original text by means of a language-based equivalent of the original content and translation. They spontaneously try to establish connections between the words of the native language and a foreign one. Finding equivalent correspondences allows students to broaden the scope of grammatical phenomena and vocabulary. Solving this problem involves a detailed comparison of the original and translated content, which requires the system to detect relationships between two particular units of the languages when translating text from one language into another [6, p. 63-64].

Consequentially, translation is different from other types of speech activity that is carried out in terms of bilingualism. Mastering a foreign language vocabulary creates a need for students to enhance the knowledge in specialty. Undoubtedly, the most appropriate issue for the formation of speech is the use of specialty texts, which are small in terms of available content, rich in professional vocabulary collocations and grammatical structures, adapted for non- philological majors.

Classroom activities should be targeted on the following students' essential characteristics: reading comprehension ability in a foreign language; knowledge of the subject; sensitivity to language (both mother tongue and foreign language); competence to write the target language dexterously, clearly, economically and resourcefully.

Also we take into consideration Vinay and Darbelnet's classification of translation techniques that had a clear methodological purpose. They defined seven basic procedures operating on three levels of style: lexis, distribution (morphology and syntax) and message. The procedures were classified as direct (or literal) or oblique, to coincide with their distinction between direct (or literal) and oblique translation.

Literal translation occurs when there is an exact structural, lexical, even morphological equivalence between two languages. According to the authors, this is only possible when the two languages are very close to each other. The literal translation procedures are:

- Borrowing. A word taken directly from another language, e.g., the English word bulldozer has been incorporated directly into other languages.

- Calque. A foreign word or phrase translated and incorporated into another language, e.g., «це для мене не працює» (тобто щось для мене не становить інтересу чи некорисне) from the English «it doesn't work».

- Literal translation. Word for word translation, e.g., The ink is on the table and Чорнила на столі.

Oblique translation occurs when word for word translation is impossible. The oblique translation procedures are:

- Transposition. A shift of word class, i.e., adverb transpositions e.g., Indeed and Ваша правда.

- Modulation. A shift in point of view. Whereas transposition is a shift between grammatical categories, modulation is a shift in cognitive categories. Vinay and Darbelnet postulate eleven types of modulation: abstract for concrete, cause for effect, means for result, a part for the whole, geographical change, etc.

- Equivalence. This accounts for the same situation using a completely different phrase, e.g., the translation of proverbs or idiomatic expressions like, To be between the devil and the sea and Бути між молотом і ковадлом.

- Adaptation. A shift in cultural environment, i.e., to express the message using a different situation, e.g. cycling for the French, cricket for the English and baseball for the Americans.

What is more, in Harris and Sherwood's system, there are stages that a natural translator goes through. We consider it quite possible to transform them into our field of research and they are the following for a student:

Pretranslation is translation using mostly single words, which is hardly surprising since the beginner as well may still be in the «one- word sentence» stage. Pretranslation comes first before interpersonal autotranslation and transduction.

Autotranslation takes place when a student translates to others what he has said or written himself; and sometimes he translates to himself. When the subject translates to himself, this is known as «intrapersonal translation» and when the subject's own words are translated to other people, this is known as «interpersonal translation».

Transduction appears where a student acts as an intermediary between two other people. Transduction can be grouped as intragroup (within a group in the classroom) or extra group (out of the classroom) [2, p. 165-167].

From the point of view of bilingual education, mastering such communication strategy as translation, the use of appropriate planning stages of the session gains a new important evaluation. The first stage, preparation stage to be exact, which includes: setting the volume of material for processing; preorganization and maximum concentration of resources; selection of support technics; preparation of the vocabulary; taking into account professional content of the text. The second stage - the stage of implementation: active processing of information received; fixing variants of the translation, professional equivalents and other data; taking into account linguistic and extralinguistic issues; testing and error correction. The third stage - evaluation: check semantic consistency of the original version and interpretation undertaken; check the adequacy of linguistic tools used and knowledge of the specialty. The last stage - correction: clarification of using dictionaries, thesauri etc.; consultations with experts and sources.

At the same time, we take into account Malakoff and Hakuta point of view according to which translation requires language manipulation at two levels. It must both convey the meaning of the source text and produce an appropriate target text. If one considers natural translation, the translator would have to go through four phases: 1) understanding the vocabulary in the original work; 2) understanding the message in the original work; 3) reformulation of the same message in a second language; 4) deciding on the adequacy of the produced text [3, p. 143-144].

It is not only the meaning that the student reformulates while translating, but also the correct sentence structure in the target language. From this particular information, we support Malakoff and Hakuta who conclude that translation is both a communicative and a metalinguistic skill. Its communicative part consists in students understanding the message that is aimed to be given in the source language and conveys it in the target language. While doing this, the student considers the sentence structure and linguistic characteristics of the target language and this constitutes the metalinguistic part of translation skill. That is why translation proficiency requires both bilingual proficiency and metalinguistic knowledge.

In natural translation, which is translation by an untrained individual as Harris defines it (with us it is a student), one cannot talk of the linguistic knowledge of the bilingual. This explains why students can convey the message of a source language text by translating it to the target language, although they are unable to use correct sentence structures and syntax. Malakoff and Hakuta suggest that translation strategy is a learned thing and, in order to make translation that conveys the meaning of a source text, one must use correct sentence structures in the target language. This view brings a critical approach to natural translation by suggesting that the outcome of a natural translation may not be grammatically correct and a natural translator lacks metalinguistic awareness [2; 3, p. 145-- 146].

Teaching translation may be solid and fragmented. Holistic teaching translation helps absorb and consolidate the studied linguistic phenomena. Fragmented translation training aims at individual components, models, patterns, phrases, collocations. Objectives of such type of the translation - the assimilation of these components, their use, their ability to differentiate them, taking into account the professional content of the text.

Basic techniques of translation are lexical and grammatical transpositions that constitute the main mechanism of bilingual translation. Development of fixed skills of transposition is the most important task of the course. It can be done in various forms (oral, written, or their combinations), but the teacher should always emphasize that bilingual translation contains significant differences.

Conclusions and prospects for future research directions. In the context of a modern approach to language education, the task is to help students master the following communicative strategies, such as perception (receptive strategies), production (productive strategies), interactivity (interactive strategies), oral and written translation, referencing, retelling (mediation strategies). Thus, translation is considered as a special type of speech activity and a special form of communication with the use of two languages and can be determined as such having the essential role and place in the system of bilingual education.

speech language translation

References

1.Gerding-Salas, C. Teaching Translation / Constanza Gerding-Salas // Problems and Solutions Translation Journal.

2.Harris B. & Sherwood B. Translating as an Innate Skill / B. Harris & B. Sherwood // Language, Interpretation and Communication: [in Gerver, D. & Sinaiko, H. (Eds.)]. - New York: Plenum Press., 1978.

3.Malakoff M. & Hakuta K. Translation skill and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals / M. Malakoff & K. Hakuta // Language processing and language awareness by bilingual children: [in E. Bialystok (Ed.)]. - Oxford: Oxford University Press., 1991. - P. 141-166.

4.Shandruk S. Professional preparation of teachers in the USA and in Ukraine: comparative analysis / Svitlana Shandruk // Naukovi zapysky. Seriia: Pedahohichni nauky: zb. nauk. prats. - Vyp. 149. - Kirovohrad: RVV KDPU im. V. Vynnychenka, 2017.

5.Shandruk S. Reforming of teacher education: adaptation of international experience / Svitlana Shandruk // Naukovi zapysky. Seriya: Pedahohichni nauky: zb. nauk. prats'. - Vyp. 150. - Kirovohrad: RVV KDPU im. V. Vynnychenka, 2017. - С. 33-35.

6.Shandruk S.I. Inshomovna osvita u SSA z pozytsii multykulturnosti / S.I. Shandruk // Naukovi zapysky Berdianskoho derzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu. Ser.: Filolohichni nauky, № 7 - 2015. - S. 62-65.

7.Zahalnoievropeiski Rekomendatsii z movnoi osvity: vyvchennia, vykladannia, otsiniuvannia.

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