Students’ reflections on integrating theory and practice in translation: A qualitative study of an academic–practitioner collaborative course

ABSTRACTThe history of the practice of translation in Iran dates back more than 2000 years. During all these years, translation has always played a prominent role in the process of intercultural communication between Iran and the rest of the world. The current article aims at presenting a concise account of major developments in the theory and practice of translation in Iran from antiquity to the modern time, focusing on important historical turning points, such as the Arab conquest of Iran, the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, and the Islamic Revolution of 1979, that have given rise to different translation movements in this country. The article then provides a detailed analysis of the practice and theory of translation in present Iran by addressing a whole host of issues, such as translation policy, censorship, translation industry, translation pedagogy, and so on.

This chapter comments on the theory and practice of translation from a radical feminist point of view. The chapter offers a radical view of the practice and theory of translation in counterpoint to the liberal perspective as currently dominating discussions of gender and translation and even feminist translation. It presents the 2011 translation into Japanese of Catharine MacKinnon's Women's Lives/Men's Laws, which highlights the radical feminist theoretical and activist engagement of the translators as an important contextual factor to their translation. The chapter discusses the translation and activist work of Morita and Nakasatomi and the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) to show how critical translation activity is to the forging of a global movement against the sex industry and also how critical political activity is to the successful translation of texts that reflect the core principles of the movement. Social practices that enact and entrench women's subordinate social status are the focus of radical feminist scholarship and activism.

In this article we considered theory of translation as a main theory of our comparative translation English-Kyrgyz research and tendency in development of theory and practice of translation related to both English and Kyrgyz languages in linguistic space of Kyrgyzstan. In our article, we consider a set of basic issues of theory and practice of translation and clarified them. The study of following five fundamental issues of the theory and practice of translation prompted us to find out two principles of translation equivalence, as “formal-grammatical principle” and “dynamic-culturological principle” into five types of equivalence, corresponding to five levels hierarchically located equivalence of translation, and highlighted by Russian Soviet translation scholars and their Kyrgyz researchers.

This study aims to investigate the impact of traditional versus reflective journals, enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI), on developing learner autonomy in writing skills among EFL learners. Following a quasi-experimental design, the data collection involved 36 college students in an English preparatory program. A demographic information questionnaire and the Learner Autonomy Scale (LAS) were used to collect the data. While the control group kept traditional reflective journals after each writing task, the experimental group wrote AI-assisted reflective journals using AI chatbot software for five weeks. The findings revealed that traditional reflective journaling had a negligible impact on students' autonomy. However, the implementation of AI-enhanced reflective journals showed a noticeable change in students' self-evaluation skills.

This study explores the extent to which learner autonomy can be cultivated through a digital storytelling (DST) project within a collaborative learning environment. Additionally, it examines students’ attitudes towards the DST project. The research was conducted with 90 nursing students enrolled in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, who engaged in a five-week DST project. Data were collected using three instruments: a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and weekly reflective journals. The findings indicate that the DST project significantly enhanced students’ autonomous learning practices, particularly by fostering independent learning and heightened awareness of their learning processes. Moreover, participants expressed predominantly positive attitudes toward the DST project, emphasizing its benefits for language development, motivation, and perceived usefulness. The findings suggest that a DST project can serve as a learner-centered pedagogical approach. Also, despite its inherent emphasis on independent learning, learner autonomy can be effectively fostered through working together with peers. Given these insights, future research employing a quasi-experimental design is recommended to examine the causal effects of DST on language development.

This study explores the extent to which learner autonomy can be cultivated through a digital storytelling (DST) project within a collaborative learning environment. Additionally, it examines students’ attitudes towards the DST project. The research was conducted with 90 nursing students enrolled in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, who engaged in a five-week DST project. Data were collected using three instruments: a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and weekly reflective journals. The findings indicate that the DST project significantly enhanced students’ autonomous learning practices, particularly by fostering independent learning and heightened awareness of their learning processes. Moreover, participants expressed predominantly positive attitudes toward the DST project, emphasizing its benefits for language development, motivation, and perceived usefulness. The findings suggest that a DST project can serve as a learner-centered pedagogical approach. Also, despite its inherent emphasis on independent learning, learner autonomy can be effectively fostered through working together with peers. Given these insights, future research employing a quasi-experimental design is recommended to examine the causal effects of DST on language development.

This exploratory case study investigates how Mexican, secondary English as a Foreign Language students (n = 5) turn to autonomous digital language learning to expand their learning beyond traditional classroom environments. By delving into the motivations behind this trend and examining the platforms chosen by students, this research, framed by Self-Determination Theory, uncovers the regulation types and levels of self-determination of the participants as they attempt to satisfy their basic psychological needs. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a review of students’ reflection journals. The findings indicate that the learners were successful in satisfying needs for linguistic competence and relatedness to native speakers of English by gaining access to native speakers, increasing linguistic input, forging personal connections with others, and aligning interactions to their interests. This supported their autonomy in language learning and movement along the learner autonomy continuum. These findings underscore the importance of recognizing and supporting learner autonomy in digital spaces. The article ends with a discussion of practical insights to maximize the linguistic benefits of digital platforms for future language learning and teaching, and suggestions for future research.

Teatro e tradução de teatro é uma publicação multifacetada que reflete as preocupações do GTT. Assim como o grupo advoga por suas abordagens multidisciplinares, que envolve pesquisadores de Letras, História, Artes e profissionais das artes, Teatro e tradução de teatro oferece ao/à leitor(a) múltiplas abordagens de pesquisa em teatro e tradução teatral. No prefácio do livro, as organizadoras apresentam um histórico do grupo, que elenca suas produções teatrais, publicações, que vão desde reflexões teóricas e metodológicas, que priorizam o trabalho colaborativo, a traduções de peças teatrais, assim como sua ideologia como grupo. A prática tradutória é vista aqui como um “exercício crítico: crítico de si mesmo e crítico do outro” e, portanto, é um “ato poético e político” (p. 8). O livro resulta numa projeção internacional do grupo e traz capítulos escritos por pesquisadores de diversas partes do país e alguns pesquisadores internacionais. Com dezessete artigos, o livro reúne perspectivas diversas sobre tradução teatrais, desde reflexões aplicadas a estudos de caso específicos a abordagens metafóricas que não tratam do teatro em si, mas de aspectos da dramaticidade presentes em outros gêneros textuais.

In this article, we examine how cognitive metaphor theories might contribute to the theory and practice of poetry translation. We focus on translations from Chinese to English by Xu Yuanchong, both because he is regarded as one of China’s premier translators and because he has published a detailed theoretical framework and justification for his translations. We argue that Xu’s theory and practice of translation is based on a traditional approach to figurative language in which metaphor is regarded as purely decorative, adding no independent meaning. By identifying underlying conceptual metaphors and potential perceptual simulations in both the original Chinese and Xu’s translations, we show that the metaphors Xu substitutes for those in the original poem (often in place of sparser, more ambiguous language), changes and limits potential meanings in ways that are sometimes subtle but in other cases quite striking. We argue that contemporary cognitive linguistics theories, particularly Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Perceptual Simulation Theory, can contribute in important ways both to creating and to evaluating translations of Chinese poetry into English.

Translation Studies presents an integrated concept based on the theory and practice of translation. The author adapts linguistic approaches and methods in such a way that they may be usefully employed in the theory, practice, and analysis of literary translation. The author develops a more cultural approach through text analysis and cross-cultural communication studies. The book is a contribution to the development of translation studies as a discipline in its own right.

The article studies a cognitive aspect of strategies for translating humor in movies based on the English-language version of the feature film “Pixels” and its dubbed versions in Russian and Turkish. The subject of the study is the strategies of trans­lating the humor of the film “Pixels” into Russian and Turkish. Examples of translating verbal humor into Russian and Turkish are illustrated on the basis of such research methods as compar­ative analysis, content analysis and quantitative analysis. The purpose of the article is to analyze the cognitive component within translation of humorous utterances into Russian and Turkish. The result of the study is the identification of universal strategies for translating the humor of a comedy film, where ad­aptation of cultural, phonetic, and lexical character plays the main role in Russian dubbing, and the tendency of literal trans­lation is characteristic of Turkish dubbing. The obtained results contribute to the study of the theory and practice of audiovisual translation, the theory and practice of translation, as well as the stylistics of the language. The main conclusions contribute to the methodological basis for continuing research on this topic.

Written in the form of a dialog between translator and translation theorist, this article considers both the difficulty and the necessity of a reciprocal, mutually informed relationship between translation theory and practice. The starting point of the article is my experience translating the poetry of Anja Utler, a contemporary Austrian poet whose linguistic experimentation poses a significant translation challenge. Utler's poetry functions in part by means of what she calls “interweaving” (“Verflechtung”), making use of highly polysemous words to efface boundaries between landscape, body, and language. In addition to blurring semantic lines, Utler also employs certain syntactical and grammatical characteristics of the German language (such as separable prefixes) in unorthodox ways that multiply possibilities of meaning. One of the greatest difficulties for a translator, then, is to find ways of approximating this semantic and syntactic play and innovation in a language that rarely offers a one-to-one equivalent. In addition to addressing specific practical issues in translating Utler's poetry, I consider the role that translation theory played in shaping my translation strategies, and more generally the interaction between the theoretical conceptualization of translation and its actual execution. I also describe my communication with the author, who has contributed greatly to the translation process, supporting an idea of translation as collaboration. Translation theory and practice appear less as correctives to each other than as a cooperative undertaking, part of a conversation between translator, theorist, author, and reader from which, ideally, all sides benefit in the end. By portraying this exchange as an internal dialog, I hope to demonstrate that the realms of translation practice and theory are not alien to one another, but rather engaged in constant, productive exchange, both within the mind of the individual translator/theorist and on the level of translation as a social phenomenon.

The authority and prestige of Uzbekistan are growing more and more among the peoples and countries of the world. The people of our country continue to get acquainted with the masterpieces of world literature, translated into Uzbek from other languages of the world. And our translators contribute to the enrichment of the treasury of world literature. In this respect, translation serves as a golden bridge between peoples, nations, countries. Thus, every nation in the world, getting acquainted with unique works created by other nations that enrich our spirituality, contributes to the treasury of human culture. Studying the history of the translation will help us to show the contribution of Uzbek literature and our translators to the treasury of world literature, to show the role and place of Uzbek literature in the context of world literature, and to determine the importance of translation in the development of world science and culture. Translation activity occupies a specifc place in the system of the national literature with a centuries-old literary tradition. Without studying the history of translation, it is impossible to fully cover the history of national literature and determine by what laws it developed, which schools of translation were formed at different times, and what role they played in world culture. Muhammad al-Khorezmi, al-Fergani, Abu Ali ibn Sino, Abu Raikhan al-Beruni, Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Kashgari, az-Zamakhshari, Yusuf Khos Khojib, Ulugbek, Alisher Navoi, Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur, and other thinkers who lived and created their works in various regions of the East, in particular, on the territory of our country, along with the creation of original works, they also translated the masterpieces of world science, culture, art, history, literature, etc. Today scientists from different countries of the world conduct various studies on the theory and practice of translation. Interest in the study of the history of translation is also growing in Uzbekistan. This article examines and analyzes such issues as the history of some translation schools of the East, the stages of development of translation activities in the world in the historical aspect, the development of translation activities in Central Asia, in particular in Uzbekistan, history, and mastery of translation in the East.

Writing is a productive language skill that is difficult to improve and derive confidence from. Despite the abundant studies on product, process, or genre approaches to teaching writing and teachers’ feedback, there is a paucity of research into English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ responsibility for writing improvement and diagnostic writing assessment feedback. The present study employed an action research approach to explore the role of diagnostic writing assessment in promoting Chinese upper-intermediate EFL students’ learning autonomy. Questionnaires, reflective journals, and portfolios were utilized to elicit data, which were analyzed within Benson’s three-dimension learning autonomy framework. It was revealed that the diagnostic writing assessment impacted all dimensions of learning autonomy, helping EFL students form realistic perceptions of their writing abilities, formulate approachable remedial learning goals, select appropriate learning methods and content, monitor learning processes, and evaluate learning outcomes. It was also found that teacher interventions could significantly enhance EFL students’ learning management. This study highlighted the role and tested the feasibility of adopting diagnostic writing assessment to facilitate EFL students’ autonomous learning.

Poetry translation, possibly the most debated form of translation, has been an important subject of discourse in Greece, especially since the 19th century, when significant Greek poets started translating poetical works into Modern Greek. The aim of this paper is to briefly present the work of Aristotelis Nikolaidis as poet-translator. Taking into consideration the fact that his translation of Eliot’s Collected Poems, 1909-1962 has been largely ignored, remaining thus unknown to the wider public, an attempt is made to explore aspects of his translation practice and, more importantly, his viewpoints on translation that reveal his true interest in its theoretical and practical problems. To this end, the paper examines Nikolaidis’ translation of The Waste Land within DTS, focusing on some of his microlevel choices and, especially, on syntax and grammar. The evaluation of the target-text based on the shifts witnessed is not part of the study carried out; instead, the ultimate goal is to examine the effect of the poet’s beliefs on his translation choices and, by extent, the relationship between translation theory and practice. Finally, the paper aspires at stressing the important role of poetry translation in Modern Greek literature, pinpointing the need for a systematic study of the translations produced by Greek poets over the last two centuries.