教與學的互動與制衡

The Interaction and Balance between Learners and Teachers

本文首先探討了翻譯課的性質與目標，在強調教學翻譯與翻譯教學區別的基礎上，提出了自己對翻譯課性質、目標的思考，以為翻譯課既不能以技巧傳授為目的，也不亦以抽象理念為目標，注重方法論雖然有一定的效果，但是，學生們最缺的，最需要教師培養的，同時也最有實際效果的是翻譯意識。什麼是翻譯意識？簡言之，就是初步的專業意識＋語言敏感度。所謂專業意識，即學生在動筆翻譯前，能明確地意識到自己將做什麼，並自覺地從譯學角度思索、揣摩自己的譯文。所謂語言敏感度，研究方向不同，所指內容也不同。對翻譯研究者而言，主要體現在對語境的高度敏感性上；任何時候都會從語境角度去思考原文字、詞、句的翻譯。即便一個孤句，也會在預設語境後才去討論原文的意義及翻譯。 其次，討論了教學方向與課程難易度問題。培養學生的翻譯意識，筆者認為最有效的做法是從「怎麼譯得好轉到怎麼譯得對」，讓「譯得對」成為翻譯課最重要的話題，“怎麼譯得好”在本科階段應當退居到第二位。翻譯課開設年級不同，講授內容，尤其是例文難易程度應該有所不同。無論哪個年級開設翻譯課，都應該從準確理解原文開始。具體教學有兩個重要原則。一是語境原則。沒有上下文的孤句不適合翻譯學習。語境原則的實質就是強調翻譯教學「是建立在宏觀的基礎上的。即翻譯的學習與研究強調從宏觀入手，強調從總體上去把握原文，然後再逐漸過渡到微觀的層次上」。筆者反對選用孤句進行翻譯教學和研究，因為它容易使翻譯教學和研究蛻變成語法研究或日語語法的漢語詮釋、注譯。二是例文難易度的把握。筆者一方面認為選擇例文「一個總原則是，所選例句應該是略高於學習者的外語水平」。另一方面，筆者發現，翻譯中最容易錯的不是未學過的詞語或語法，相反偏偏是那些早已學過的詞彙和語法最容易成為翻譯的絆腳石。因此，找出這種盲區裏的典型例文，對學生衝擊力很大，更有利於樹立他們的翻譯意識。 再次，筆者探討了課堂教授法與作業講評問題。筆者以為翻譯課不能沒有教材，但也不能全盤接受，照本宣科。無論什麼教材，最多也就是教師手中的半張王牌。另外半張則需要教師自己去打造。一方面對現用教材重新梳理，尤其是對教材部分觀點和例文提出自己的批評意見，另一方面補充一批新的典型例文，既可消弭教師照本宣科的毛病，又能成為教師手中的“新式武器”。在作業方面，筆者嘗試著把課堂補充例文和課後練習融為一體，即每次上課利用前30分鐘讓學生當場做補充講義的兩個例文。練習類型大致分3類：翻譯、改錯和同源譯文分析對比。這種教學方式能否成功，關鍵之處是例文的典型性。第一類作業要「一看就會，一做就錯」；第二類例文中要內含陷阱，讓學生一時丈二和尚摸不到頭腦；第三類則要讓學生有說不清、道不白的感覺。而老師的當堂講解能夠讓他們眼前一亮，恍然大悟。這樣的刺激持續十幾二十次之後，學生對翻譯的認識才會出現質的改變。 最後，筆者簡單地討論了翻譯理論教學問題，認為當今翻譯理論研究在大家的努力下終於與國際譯學接軌，並不斷拓展廣度和深度。但對完全沒有理論基礎的學生講授翻譯理論是不切實際的，也難以收到預期的效果。在課堂教學中，最多點到而已，不宜深究。

This paper first talks about the property and goal of a translation course. The study distinguishes pedagogical translation from pedagogy of translation, and then introduces my consideration of the property and goal of a translation course. In my point of view, a translation course should not aim at teaching certain skills or abstract concepts. Devoting our attention to methodology could be effective, but what students need to be trained most and what leads to the most pragmatic effects is consciousness of translation. Consciousness of translation is, in short, a combination of elementary professional consciousness and sensitivity to language. Students with professional consciousness are able to clearly realize what they are going to do before starting translating, and furthermore, they will be examining their translation self-consciously from a professional viewpoint. The concept of sensitivity to language has various meanings in various fields of research. For researchers of translation, it mainly refers to high sensitivity to context. That is, researchers should be thinking about the translation of every word, term and sentence in the original text depending on the context at any time; even to translate an isolated sentence, they set up a context before getting into the discussion of the meaning and translation of the original text. Secondly, this paper discusses the direction of instruction and the appropriate degree of difficulty in our courses. To bring up students’ consciousness of translation, “how to translate correctly” is the far more important and effective issue than “how to translate well”—which should not be the main discussion at the undergraduate level. In addition, the content of translation courses, especially the degree of difficulty, should vary in different grades. But in whichever grade, students should start from understanding the original text properly. The context principle and the degree of difficulty of sample sentences are the two important principles for the practice of teaching translation. Isolated sentences without any context are not suitable for translation study. The context principle asserts that pedagogy of translation is based on macrocosmic elements. In other words, research and study on translation should start from macrocosmic level to a more microcosmic level little by little. I argue against using isolated sample sentences to teach or study translation because with those sentences, translation would possibly transform into grammatical notes or Chinese glosses of Japanese terms. As for the degree of difficulty of sample sentences, although difficulty should be slightly higher than learners’ language level, I have also noticed that pre-learned words and terms stand out much more than those unlearned ones in the procedure of translation. Examples that show the above contrast are emotionally influential on students, and therefore are extremely helpful to build up their consciousness of translation. Thirdly, this paper looks at the issue of practical pedagogy, i.e. classroom instruction and feedback on homework. Textbooks are indispensable to translation courses, but one should not accept whatever the textbook says and convey it directly to students. Textbooks, no matter how good they are, should be at most fifty percent of what the instructor has to teach. The other fifty percent depends on the instructor. My suggestion is to teach not only according the textbook but also to give the instructor’s opinions concerning specific points and to provide original examples. By doing this, instructors would never rely too much on textbooks, and the new examples can always bring some fresh air to instruction. As for feedback on homework, instructors might try to combine new examples and students’ practice into one process. Having students do two examples from the supplementary handouts in thirty minutes at the beginning of a class is an effective exercise. The handouts should have three different types of exercise, including translation, correction of mistakes, and comparison of more than one translation of a certain text. How representative the examples are is the key that decides whether this methodology works or not. The following three types of homework are recommended. First, those examples with mistakes that are easily found out at the first glimpse but not easy to be corrected properly; second, those tricky ones that confuse students for a while but will be figured out later; third, those ones that are hard to understand without instructor’s hints. Repeating these steps several times will improve students’ understanding of translation essentially. Finally, this paper briefly touches on the issue of teaching translation theory. By virtue of researchers’ efforts, research on translation theory in China was greatly developed and is becoming more and more connected with international translation study, but teaching theory to students without the background is impractical and ineffectual. In class, avoiding too much discussion of theory is more appropriate.