Implementing Formative Assessment in the Translation Course for English Majors—Taking Beijing Sport University as an Example

Abstract

Educational assessment as well as studies on it has been playing a pivotal role in language teaching since the concept of “educational assessment” was put forward by R.W. Tyler in the 1930s. As more and more emphasis is put on the development of students’ ability and the process of teaching, formative assessment, which differs from the traditional result-oriented summative assessment, is being widely applied. Although the benefits brought by and importance of formative assessment have been confirmed, most of the researches are carried out only in college English classes, with little practice in English majors. This thesis intends to implement formative assessment in the translation course for English majors, aiming at finding out its impacts on students’ translation ability as well as learning capabilities, and further providing suggestions on future studies in this area. The research finds out that the students’ role has changed from a listener to a participant, while the teacher from an authority to a guide. The students’ translation ability has been improved after the research and they have made progress in other learning capabilities like self-reflection, critical thinking and learning autonomy, which are crucial for future studies in other areas.

Appendices

Appendix A. Questionnaire on Students’ Opinions Toward Formative Assessment in Translation Course

Note. In order to make it easily understood by Chinese students, the questionnaire is designed in Chinese and all the items are translated as follows.

• Item 1: I prefer the translation course of the latter half semester.

• Item 2: I have learnt a lot from the self- and peer- assessment.

• Item 3: I participate in the process of self- and peer- assessment actively.

• Item 4: I think teacher’s assessment given to us is very helpful.

• Item 5: Evaluating others’ work helps me to figure out my weaknesses and improve my skills.

• Item 6: Watching other’s assessment on me is very motivating.

• Item 7: I become more interested in translation and know how to learn actively.

• Item 8: My ability of critical thinking has improved and I am able to evaluate others’ work objectively and accurately.

• Item 9: I become more active in the class discussion because of the pre-class assessment.

• Item 10: Through self-assessment, I am able to find out my progress and weakness, and ways to improve.

• Item 11: I spend more time in self-reflection, rethinking and summarizing my learning routinely.

• Item 12: I think regular self-reflections are helpful to my study.

• Item 13: I can learn translation effectively with only large amounts of practice and no assessing.

• Item 14: My translation ability would be the same as what it is now if there was no process of assessing in the latter half semester.

• Item 15: I suggest formative assessment be applied in next semester.

Appendix B. Interview Questions

• Q1. What is the difference between the translation course before and after Week 8?

• Q2. What can you learn from self-assessment, peer-assessment and teacher’s assessment? Please explain it respectively.

• Q3. Will you reconsider your strengths and weaknesses in translation after each class? What benefits have you got from it? If not, tell the reason.

• Q4. Have you made any progress in your translation studies? Any change in motivation? What should be done to improve the teaching of translation?

Appendix C. Pre-test (TEM-8 2002)

4.3.1 Part V Translation

4.3.1.1 Section B English to Chinese

Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chinese.

The word “winner” and “loser” have many meanings. When we refer to a person as a winner, we do not mean one who makes someone else lose. To us, a winner is one who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy, responsive, and genuine, both as an individual and as a member of a society.

Winners do not dedicate their lives to a concept of what they imagine they should be; rather, they are themselves and as such do not use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining pretence, and manipulating others. They are aware that there is a difference between being loving and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask.

Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and don’t pretend to have all the answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but come to their own conclusions. Although winners can adore and respect other people, they are not totally defined, demolished, bound, or awed by them.

Winners do not play “helpless”, nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume responsibility for their own lives.

Appendix D. Post-test (TEM-8 1999)

4.4.1 Part V Translation

4.4.1.1 Section B English to Chinese

Translate the underlined part of the following text into Chinese .

In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.

In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.

Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family—they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring.

Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile, world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance and in generational extension.