Measuring Chinese Undergraduate English Majors’ Motivation to Learn Translation in Higher Education Translation Courses

Abstract

Many studies have suggested that Chinese English majors tend to have a lower level of motivation to learn translation due to the conventional teaching method still prevalent in many a translation classroom. In this regard, from the standpoint of instruction, a translation course design that employed motivation as a central concept of the design may have positive impacts on students’ motivation to learn. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is known for its efficacy in making meaning-oriented choice in language use in context. And since translation is about recontextualized meaning transfer, a teaching method integrated with SFL may be motivating for students to learn translation. Grounded on SFL and guided by Keller’s ARCS Motivational Design, a new genre-based method was proposed. This study aimed to explore effects of an SFL guided genre-based method and the conventional method on Chinese students’ motivation to learn translation. Two intact groups were selected as the Experimental Group and the Control Group, each consisting of 37 students. The Experimental Group was instructed using the genre-based method while the Control Group using the conventional method. A motivation questionnaire adapted from Keller’s Course Interest Survey was administered to both groups’ students before and after the pedagogical intervention. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using ANCOVA test in SPSS (Version 25). The results show that students in the Experimental Group scored significantly higher mean in overall motivation and four constructs of the ARCS Model, namely, Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction after they were taught using the genre-based method in comparison with their counterparts in the Control Group. The findings indicate that in general, the genre-based method is effective in enhancing students’ motivation in learning translation. Therefore, future translation instructors may consider adopting the SFL-informed genre-based method as an alternative pedagogical tool to motivate students to learn translation.