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104THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
UDC 378.02:37.016 DOI: 10.17223/24109266/4/7
EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING A SYSTEM OF EXERCISES AIMED AT TEACHING LITERARY TRANSLATION BASED ON COGNITIVE-DISCOURSE TEXT ANALYSIS
S.A. Boyko
Abstract. In modern methodology, the problem of teaching literary translation is very topical. In this paper, a new approach to overcoming difficulties in teaching literary translation by applying cognitive-discourse analysis is presented. A variety of exercises aimed at teaching literary translation is introduced. Attention is focused on the necessity of important translation competences in the process of cognitive-discourse analysis of literary text. Keywords: discourse; text; discourse analysis; cognitive-discourse analysis; cognitive paradigm; structure of discourse; literary text.
Nowadays the research of such scholars as N.K. Garbovsky [1], N.I. Gez [2], Yu.V. Artemyeva and V.V. Alimov [4] has contributed to the creation of a significant number of various exercises aimed at the development of skills when working with texts. There are certain principles that build the basis of such exercises.
1. The principle of organizing work in a certain thematic environment.
2. The principle of overcoming psychological, linguistic and translation problems of comprehending original text.
3. The principle of sequencing of exercises from simple towards more complex ones.
4. The principle of comprehension of authentic material on a level of lexical meaning presented in text and on a level of understanding in general.
5. The principle of active fulfillment of different exercises.
6. The principle of loss minimization.
There are exercises in raw methods of literary translation teaching based on cognitive-discourse analysis aimed at professional competence formation of a translator. These exercises could be categorized into three groups according to the aforementioned principles:
1. Exercises aimed at formation of skills using different strategies for text analysis and text construction in conditions of literary translation: pre-translation analysis, translation analysis, discourse analysis, and cognitive analysis.
• Exercises aimed at development skills of pre-translation analysis with revealing key information of a text.
• Exercises aimed at development skills of pre-translation analysis and revealing of basic concepts in the literary text both in English and Russian.
• Exercises aimed at revealing lexical units in the concept sphere of text.
2. Exercises aimed at the formation of skills using knowledge of language system, of rules of functions of language units in speech: work with national text corpora, work with explanatory and etymological dictionaries, and determination of frequency of words use in context of a literary work.
• Exercises aimed at displaying / revealing of words usage frequency that form nominal field of key concept.
• Exercises aimed at determination of word meanings that form nominal field of key concept.
• Exercises aimed at development of skills of work with national text corpora.
3. A combinatory type of exercises aimed at the development of professional translation competence in the sphere of literary translation and also aimed at the formation of knowledge of language system and function of language units in speech.
Due to the choice of technology, learning a literary translation system consisting of tasks and exercises focused on the development of translation competence is the ability to apply them in the training of literary translation for the development of the important components of skills in the learning process, as well as in the professional activities of an interpreter. Exercises are introduced as a unit of teaching.
Scientific organization of training is essential for specialist training in the field of literary translation. It is the combination of learning models literary translation with the important components of cognitive-discourse text analysis. Such an organization of the learning process involves the creation of suitable curriculum conditions of modern educational system. The curriculum should consist of relevant sections and rely on the system of tasks and exercises. As part of each section there is a series of stages, such as:
1. Introductory:
- study of linguistic, cognitive, psychological foundations of professional activity of a translator in the field of literary translation;
- acquisition of skills with the proposed authentic material.
2. Practical:
- identifying in the source text essential, repeating, clarifying, additional and even zero information;
- identifying in the text of the key and basic concepts, as well as their verbalizations;
- work with the body of texts in English and Russian (ability to find information about the concept and make a table of data);
- work on the selection of vocabulary that is equivalent to the original, taking into account the difference in the values of concept nominees in Russian and English.
3. Final:
- full implementation of the process of translation of a literary text using cognitive discourse analysis;
- assessment of translation by students;
- assessment of translation by a teacher.
In each of these stages, a system of exercises and activities whose primary purpose is to teach literary translation based on cognitive-discourse analysis of a literary text is applied.
At the opening stage, students are introduced to the text and its discourse; they perform pre-translation analysis to identify key concepts, as well as to obtain the necessary information and rules for the implementation of tasks under the proposed literary text. It is important to perform the following tasks and exercises:
- read a literary text and run its pre-translating analysis;
- identify in the source text key information, as well as repeating, clar-ifyingadditional and even zero information;
- identify the key concept of the work and its nominees;
- exchange information with classmates, comparing and contrasting it;
- make a pictorial diagram of the proposed conceptual sphere of the literary text on the basis of the data obtained;
- specify basic problems of the analysis of a suggested literary text.
On a practical level, students develop various translation skills by performing practical tasks and exercises in the framework of the rules already known to them, thus concentrating their attention only on automation of the translation action:
- secure key information of the original text and perform its translation;
- write down the key and basic concepts of work, their nominees and lexical verbalizations;
- locate in the national texts' corpora original language units;
- collect available information on basic concepts, as well as their nominees;
- compare the set of lexical verbalizations of key and basic concepts of the original text with the samples from the national text's corpus of original language;
- locate in the national text's corpus of the language of translation available information identifying the key and basic concepts, as well as their nominees;
- compare and contrast the set of lexical verbalizations of key and basic concepts of the original text with samples from the national texts' corpus of the target language;
- make a clear scheme of conceptual sphereof the proposed literary
text;
- translate the literary text, taking into account similarities and differences of verbalization key values and basic concepts in the source and target languages, as well as features of conceptual sphere text and its discourse;
- compare received text translation options with your classmates, analyze the differences and similarities;
- match your scheme of conceptual sphere of a proposed literary text, analyze the differences and similarities;
- specify your joint variant of the scheme of conceptual sphere of a proposed literary text, as well as its translation.
At the final stage, students are obtaining practical skills of the process of translating a literary text using cognitive-discourse analysis; the students are also getting better prepared for their professional career:
- perform pre-translation analysis of original literary text, identify key information in it, basic and key concepts, as well as lexical verbalizations of these concepts;
- prepare available information on the identification of key and basic concepts, their nominees, a set of lexical verbalizations of samples from national corpus of the source and target language;
- present visual diagram of concept sphere of the original literary text;
- prepare a translation of the original literary text, taking into account similarities and differences of verbalization and the basic values of the key concepts in the source and target languages, as well as features concept spheres of text and its discourse;
- analyze other options of proposed translation of the original literary text based on three factors:
1) adequacy and equivalence of the translated text;
2) accuracy of the identification of key information and concepts of the original literary text;
3) reliability of the scheme of the concept sphere of the original literary text in accordance with the national text's corpus of the source language.
It is necessary to approach written literary translation from the perspective of synergetic theory. This means perception of the components of literary translation (literary text, translator and reader) and their open nature, which are regarded as a communicative relationship: the author of a literary text - translation - reader, using two languages (source language and target language).
Literary translation, as mentioned above, includes discourse categories: mental lexicon, interference, presupposition, implicature, explicature, references and proposition. Synergetic approach to the study of discourse, as well as the category of mental lexicon applied in our study were fully disclosed in the dissertation research of S.K. Gural "Learning Foreign Lan-
guage Discourse as Highly Complex Evolving System" [5]. It should be noted that the students studying these components and categories in each of the stages of learning acquire the ability to carry out deep and comprehensive analysis of the text, based on the results of which they master the process of translation.
It is worth mentioning that the principles proposed by N.I. Gez [2], have been used to develop a system of tasks and exercises with the use of cognitive-discursive analysis of a literary text. These tasks and exercises are based on the content of teaching literary translation based on cognitive discourse analysis, which includes:
- training to work with the literary text (original and translated version), namely with various methods of analysis and review of presented material;
- training of grammatical and stylistic aspects of literary translation in two languages: English and Russian;
- training of main types of translation correspondences and methods of translation of not equivalent linguistic units;
- training translational transformations and techniques of cognitive-discursive analysis of the text in order to achieve the adequacy and equivalence, as well as the pragmatic purpose of the translated text;
- training in discourse analysis and its components when working with the original and its translation;
- training in modern translation ethics, based on socio-cultural components of communication between the author of the original text and the reader.
The following principles of selection of teaching materials, exercises and assignments to train students on the basis of literary translation based on cognitive-discourse analysis are assumed in the development of the above-mentioned model of learning:
- use of authentic text materials;
- selection of literary texts of various authors and historical periods;
- presence in the text of a sufficient number of lexical units - means of concepts' verbalization that form the conceptual sphere of the text and express its meaning;
- use of exercises and activities that contribute to the formation of competences underlying professional competence of the translator in literary translation;
- consideration of students' age, personal traits and characteristics and logical progression of their development.
The main groups of tasks and exercises aimed at the formation of professional competence of the translator in literary translation were identified. Among them are exercises aimed at the formation of the ability to use certain strategies for the analysis and design of a test, exercises on the formation of mechanism of switching from one language to another, as well as on the ac-
quisition of knowledge of the language system, the rules of functioning of language units in speech. When choosing the means of learning literary translation, these groups of exercises were taken into account.
According to A.N. Shchukin [6], teaching aids can be called a set of training and technical devices by which the activities of a teacher and students can be managed. We consider it necessary to divide all means of learning into basic and additional. The first are mandatory and regularly used in the learning process, the second ones are used only in certain situations, for students' individual work.
Given the need for students to work with the authentic structure of the text, the primary means of teaching literary translation based on cognitive-discursive analysis are literary texts of English and Russian authors, which can be found at: Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/classic-english-literature) [7], Englishliterature (http://www.readliterature.com/eng-lish.htm) [8], Literature.org (http://www.literature.org) [9], Allbest.ru (http://allbest.ru/hud.htm) [10], LiveLib.ru (http://www.livelib.ru) [11].
The basic principles of material selection were: authenticity, availability of terminology corresponding to the selected historical period of the narrative, and the reliability of sources. As a result, there were selected 20 texts in English and Russian languages, which develop skills needed for literary translation. As part of each individual text, students had to learn the algorithms of text analysis, to visualize its concept sphere and perform a series of tasks, resulting in their being able to perform literary translation based on cognitive-discursive analysis.
As an additional means of teaching, Internet technologies are used in the process of learning literary translation based on cognitive-discourse analysis. According to P.V. Sysoyev [12], Internet technology means the totality of forms, methods and techniques of learning a foreign language using the resources of the Internet and social services. In his paper "Methods of Teaching a Foreign Language Using New Informative and Communicative Internet Technologies", P.V. Sysoyev argues that in didactic terms the Internet includes: forms of telecommunication (communication through Internet technologies), as well as informational resources containing texts, audio and video materials on a variety of topics in different languages.
P.V. Sysoyev believes that text, audio and visual materials on various topics aimed at the formation of foreign language communicative competence and the development of communicative and cognitive skills prompt students to search selection, classification, analysis and synthesis of information. We assume, along with Professor Sysoyev, that existing Internet resources of corpus linguistics of English and Russian languages may serve as a basis for the analysis of cognitive structures of literary texts and identify nominative fields of concepts presented therein.
This kind of educational online resources include: the British National Corpus(http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk) [13], the American National Corpus (http://corpus.byu.edu/coca) [14], and the Russian National Corpus (http://www.ruscorpora.ru) [15]. They represent a worldwide collection of samples of speech and writing from a wide range of sources, provided with links to these sources that facilitate finding the necessary data.
This type of educational online resources, according to P.V. Sysoyev, allows students to develop the following language skills: 1) find in the needed information; 2) identifying key words; 3) separating essential information from non-essential; 4) recording the necessary information; 5) detailing or summarizing the content; 6) compiling the information.
These skills are necessary for literary translation based on cognitive-discourse analysis. However, they contribute to the training of students not only in the educational process, but also in their subsequent careers as translators.
Presented in this Internet resource, data contribute to the development of understanding of the worldview of native speakers, as well as to the structure of the work with the cognitive structure of the literary text; they are all necessary for teaching literary translation based on cognitive-discursive analysis.
The degree of mastery of program material by the students is reflected in the different levels of formation of competences within the professional competence of the translator in literary translation. These competences must comply with the requirements for the phased control of the teacher and principal training objectives.
It is important to note that the formation of communicative competence meets general educational goals of learning literary translation based on discourse analysis of English texts. This is learning of "the language of universal communication and a global culture as a component of the global identity, which is a part of multiple (множественной) identity, and has caused ethnic groups to penetrate global economic, political, educational and cultural space..." [16: 12].
In this context relevant training of literary translation based on discourse analysis of the text becomes topical as a means of in-depth analysis of the country's culture and the target language to overcome the difficulties of intercultural communication because "failures in inter-lingual communication are inevitable in the case of insufficient mastery of communicants, not only as to purely linguistic means, but also to its cultural aspects, which are reflected in the idiomatic units" [17: 105].
We list the competences and skills that make up the professional competence of the translator in literary translation:
• Core competences and skills:
1) Communicative competences and skills are abilities to form correct conclusions from the message of the text, or speech situation and also ability to perceive and reproduce different types of discourse.
2) Linguistic competences and skills are abilities to apply knowledge of the language system, the rules of functioning of language units in speech, and with the help of this system to understand the thoughts of others and express their opinions in oral and in written form.
3) Text forming competences and skills are abilities to create various types of texts in two languages, taking into account stylistic features.
4) Technical competences and skills are abilities to apply theoretical knowledge on strategies of translation, translation and transformation methods, and the practical aspects of translation.
• Additional competences and skills:
1) Discourse competences and skills are abilities to use certain strategies for the design and interpretation of the test, as well as knowledge of the identities of the different types of discourse.
2) Strategic competences and skills are abilities to compensate for the lack of knowledge of other verbal / non-verbal means to achieve your goals.
3) Socio-cultural - the ability to take into account the students' national and cultural characteristics of the social and verbal behavior of native speakers: their customs, etiquette, social stereotypes, history and culture, as well as ways to use this knowledge in the process of communication.
4) Sociolinguistic competences and skills are abilities to select the appropriate linguistic form and mode of expression, depending on the conditions of the speech act: situation, communicative goals and intentions of the speaker.
5) The mechanism of code switching (from one language to another) competences and skillsare abilities to decide automatically.
On the basis of the skills listed above andincluded into competences, one can define criteria for the determination of level of development of translators' competences in literary translation:
1) ability to analyze the structure of the text, be skilled in working with national texts' corpora of two languages;
2) ability to extract key information when dealing with literary texts of the original language, as well as visualize the proposed scheme of concept sphere of a literary text;
3) ability to transmit properly and correctly the information obtained through text in the translation of a literary text.
Denoting the level of formation of competences in the professional competence of the translator in literary translation, we can identify types of monitoring in the process of teaching literary translation based on cognitive-discursive analysis.
By control, we mean the following: the need to determine the level of formation of competences in the professional competence of the translator in the field of literary translation that students reach after a certain stage of learning. The course of literary translation based on cognitive discourse analysis assumes an introductory, practical, and the final stages of training:
I. At the introductory stage of training, knowledge and skills of students are checked that are important in the study of the analysis of a literary text. For example, basic knowledge of pre-translation text analysis identifying the key information in the text, the ability to use this knowledge in the process of literary translation. The introductory stage has the following control requirements:
1) control is carried out both by students and by the teacher;
2) regular monitoring is carried out in order to optimize the learning process;
3) training phase determines the optimal form of control. Means of control are: pre-translation and translation of a literary text analysis, analysis of its conceptual sphere, text translation, etc.
II. At the practical stage, the efficiency of students' absorption of previously studied material is controlled. For example, it is established how well students have acquired the strategy of identifying concepts in the literary work, as well as have determined their lexical units.
The practical stage has the following control requirements:
1) control requires objectivity;
2) regular evaluation of students' work by a teacher.
The means of control are: pre-translation and translation analysis of literary text, identification and analysis of key concepts of basic literary text, construction of visual scheme of concept sphere of a literary text, and translation of a literary text.
III. At the final stage the level of formation of professional competence of the translator in literary translation is identified. For example, how well students can apply their knowledge in the field of text analysis in the process of literary translation.
The final stage has the following control requirements: 1) control requires objectivity; 2) teachers' assessment of the level of formation of competences within the professional competence of a translator in the field of literary translation. Means of control are: translation of the original literary text in view of the similarities and differences of their verbalization, and the basic values of the key concepts in the source and target languages, as well as peculiarities of concept sphere of the text and its discourse.
Subsequent work on the literary text is considered as communicative and cognitive activities that take into account peculiarities of this perception and interpretation and building of a solid foundation for further learning of
foreign language discourse, as well as for the development of cognitive-discursive approach in teaching foreign languages.
In the future, for testing quality and efficiency of the developed methods of teaching literary translation based on cognitive-discourse analysis, which is grounded on the system of exercises described above, experiential learning is to be planned, its main characteristics are to be identified and its main results are to be presented.
References
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classic-english-literature
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11. LiveLib. URL: http://www.livelib.ru
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13. British national corpus. URL: http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk
14. The corpus of contemporary AmericanEnglish (COCA). URL: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca
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