The Impact of Corpus-Based Back-Translation Research on Enhancing English Writing Skills in High Schools --The Economist as an Example
Abstract
Currently, under the background of the new curriculum reform of the college entrance examination, the requirement of students' ability in the practical use of the English language is more and more emphasized, but the students' writing ability has not improved synchronously, and low-level errors and unorthodox expressions are often found in test writing. In order to analyze the inappropriate expressions in students' writing and improve their writing ability, the author introduces "back-translation" in the field of translation as a teaching method. Back-translation training is conducted with a focus on 30 selected students. These students are exposed to moderately challenging statements extracted from foreign magazines, designed to resemble the content found in high school students' test writing. Subsequently, a corpus of these students' translations is compiled for analysis. This analysis involves a comparison of their translated work with the original language used in the foreign magazines. This process serves to evaluate the writing proficiency of the students. Through the comparison with the original language of the foreign journals, this study analyzed the inappropriate aspects of the students' vocabulary to improve the accuracy of vocabulary expression to improve the writing ability and avoid the expression of "Chinese English". The study shows that the bilingual frequent interaction back-translation teaching method can help students understand the differences between Chinese and English expressions, and it can enhance students' subjective initiative in English writing and increase their active vocabulary compared with the mechanized template teaching.
References
- Sui, Y.S. (2022). A study of the effects of different pre-writing online interaction methods on the vocabulary richness of high school students' English writing.
- Chen, J, Xu, Q. (2014). The application of back-translation method in college English writing teaching. Journal of Hubei Institute of Science and Technology,34(11), 3-84.
- Shuttleworth.M, Cowie. (1997). M. Dictionary of Translation Studies.Manchester St.Jerome Publishing.
- Hou, M.(2013). The application of back translation in university English translation teaching. Shandong Normal University.
- Jia, W.(2018). The construction and application of back-translation strategy in high school English homework assignment - taking analogy-comparison strategy (C-C strategy) as an example. Teaching Examination, No.340(21), 52-55.
- Xu, J.(2016). Action research:back translation to improve college English writing and translation skills. Journal of Language and Literature, No.521(02), 88-93+95.
- Zhu, Z.M.(2023). A corpus-based comparative study of college English textbooks and Grade 4 reading texts. Knowledge Window(Teacher's Edition),(06), 24-26.
- Li, T.T.(2023). An empirical study on the improvement of high school English writing ability scaffolded by corpus. Harbin Normal University.
- Wang, Q.F.(2014). An investigation on the application strategy of English-Chinese comparison method in college English translation teaching. Good Parents, No.400(48), 33.
- Massey.(2005). Process-oriented Translator Training and the Challenge for E-learning.Meta, (50/2), 628.