The Effect of Translation -Shifts Instruction on Translation Quality

Abstract

Inspired by the notion of "Descriptive Translation Studies", the present study looked for adopting new translation teaching methods. It tried to introduce the concept of translation shifts to a number of translation students in translation workshops. The assumption was based on the idea that the study of translation shifts can lead to finding some generalizations happened in the process of translation, the study of these general rules can help the translation students create translated texts which enjoy higher quality in comparison with translated texts, performed earlier. In pursuit of this aim, some English translation students were chosen from among BA students in North-Branch, Tehran-Azad University. The homogeneity of the subjects was determined through a TOEFL examination. The students attended some translation workshops to receive some instruction and became familiar and conscious about the general rules of translation process. Through the treatment, students were required to recognize the shifts happened in the process of translation in several translation texts. Finally, the differences between translation quality of the subjects before and after treatment were examined through two translation production tests. The tests were corrected according to Farahzad's "evaluation model" (1992). The post test scores after treatment confirmed the positive effects of the teaching on translation quality..

Keywords: Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Translation Shifts,