ОТБОР ТЕКСТОВ В ПРЕПОДАВАНИИ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОГО ПЕРЕВОДА

Introduction

Scientific and technical revolution, scientific collaboration, coming population explosion and other major civilization phenomena lead to contacts between different countries and societies. In that case, the role of translation as a method supplying economic, scientific and other relations extremely increases. Obviously, specialists in the field of technical translation are in great demand [1], [2]. In this regard the search for effective technologies in translators training has become relevant.

Scholars formulate translation strategies of technical documentation [1], didactic principles and methods of teaching technical translation to the students [3], [4], study cultural component in translation practice [5], methodologically significant aspects of translation training such as educational goals, content and teaching tools [6]. At the same time, the issues related to the methods of selecting technical texts have not been sufficiently studied yet. Apart from this, it is one of the key issues in teaching practice.

The paper is devoted to the technologies that can be used in the procedure of training material selection.

In this regard we set ourselves the task of identifying scientifically based requirements for selected materials and their sources. For this purpose, we will define the features of technical text as an object of technical translation. Another objective of the study is to facilitate the selection procedure of technical texts in teaching practice.

Methods

The research methods include analysis of linguistic and pedagogical literature, observation of the educational process, computer programming, experimental testing and sociological survey.

Results and Discussion

Technical Text Particular Qualities

In the contemporary research, technical text is approached as an autonomous object of theory and practice of translation, which is closely connected with the issue of text typology. Certain attempts to define a new textual category- technicality of a text - have been made [7], [8]. 

 If we are to consider technical text, we must bear in mind it is rather an ambiguous concept both in Russian and Euro-Atlantic linguistic science. Meanwhile, most researchers attribute to technical texts such essential features as predominantly written form, carefully structured terminology, well-thought composition, logic, coherent, clear evidence, selected vocabulary means, grammar patterns, high degree of accuracy. It is common to associate technical text with highlighting its non-fiction character [1], [9].

At the same time, some researches tend to discriminate between the two types of texts - special and technical, thus differentiating proper technical texts from those terminologically saturated but never contributing to technical communication or channeling technical knowledge, e.g. law, banking, finances, medicine [8]. 

In our research, we will stick to the point that technical text as an object of theory and practice of translation should contribute to technical communication, as it is created to describe certain technological processes and ought to be professionally oriented, based on applied knowledge from technical sciences. It is possible to speak about certain genres of technical texts, such as proposals, instructions, technical documentation, user documentation etc. 

A particular quality of any technical text lies in its pragmatic value and informativity. This quality can be attained due to the fact that the authors use terminology related to specific industry being described, avoid vague terms, colloquial speech, ambiguity, and emotional connotations, because, as Newmark states, “in a non-literary text the denotations of a word normally come before its connotations” [10, P. 16].

Thus, technical texts are characterized by the informative content, terminological saturation, strict style and syntactic parameters determined by technical language. Moreover, they are intended to transfer their authenticity, relevance and modernity as well as thematic diversity in the target text.

The following discussion will focus on the practical issues concerning text selection procedure.

Requirements for Training Texts and their Sources

First, we should note that all above considered peculiarities of technical text are methodologically relevant for text selection procedure. Training texts must be coherent and logic, terminologically and informatively saturated. 

The methodological basis for identifying the sources of training material is the requirements elaborated for the economic text selection in teaching translation [11]. They are fairly detailed and meaningful for our research. These requirements are divided into formal and semantic.

Formal requirements include:

1. Chronological parameters: the texts must contain current information.

2. Substantial and specific components:  the texts  must be authentic in their structure, content and design.

3. Geographical parameters: sources of technical texts must belong to different countries. This is due to the active interaction of enterprises around the world and the exchange of information presented in various technical documents. 

Within semantic parameters, training textual material must be thematically diverse and relevant to the curriculum. 

The compliance analysis of the textual material presented in official electronic websites for engineers shows that these sources meet the requirements for training texts [12], [13], [14], [15]. They contain authentic articles and publications characterized by coherence, logic, technical language peculiarities (terminological, informative saturation, etc.), modernity, different thematic focus, as well as sources belonging to different countries. Due to the fact that these sources include all mentioned requirements it can be concluded that they are reliable and can be used in  the selecting process of technical texts.

Another practical issue in the text selection procedure is methodologically relevant arrangement. As practice shows, in the course of translation training teachers are inevitably involved in the arrangement of textual material according to the degree of complexity. This procedure takes a significant amount of time as a teacher has to determine a number of terms that prevail in technical texts and the total number of printed characters, which undoubtedly complicates the selection process. To make it easier and effective one of us set the goal of creating a program able to accelerate selected texts in accordance with their complexity in relation to the number of terms or text volume. The further part of our research demonstrates the technical description of the program and opportunity of its methodological support.

Computer Programming in Text Selection Procedure

The program has been developed in collaboration with an IT specialist. The copyright holder of the program is Irkutsk National Research Technical University.         The electronic tool gradually arranges technical texts in the form of sorted lists depending on the selected mode. The operation system is based on working with a dictionary of technical terms. It is particularly significant that if necessary, this dictionary can be replaced by any other. Thus, the program can be used in the selection of any professionally oriented texts. In the context of our analysis let us consider its functions in more detail. The program contains the following requirements:

1. Requirements for the structure of the prepared document. The document must be prepared in MS Word format. The work of the program does not depend on the font and the size of the entered text. The document must consist of the following logical blocks such as the name of the text and text itself. The title of the text should be centered, so the program distinguishes the number of articles in the document. After the title the text itself comes out.

2. Requirements for the structure of the dictionary. The dictionary contains a list of terms, each of which is located on a separate line. The document must be prepared in MS Word format. The work of the program does not depend on the font and the size of the entered text.

3. User manual. Before you start working with the program, you need to prepare a document with texts and a dictionary. The prepared document can be stored on a computer, disk, flash memory or any other medium.

 The program provides a search for articles not only on the initial form of the word, but also on its various word forms. Changes in words are accounted for by adding endings / suffixes, regardless of whether they belong to any part of speech : adding endings-es or-ed, if the word ends in - s, - ss, - tch, - ch, - sh, - x, e.g. press-presses; change - y at the end of a word to - i and add-es or-ed, e. g. technology – technologies; addition - d or-s if the word ends in - e: digitize – digitized; addition - s, - ed in other cases: computer – computers, digit – digits; adding the ending-ing to the basis of the word: engineer – engineering.  The program works in one of three modes:

1. Сalculation of the number of printed characters

2. Сalculation of the number of terms

3. Сalculation of the number and printed characters and terms.

The program gives the result in the form of sorted lists depending on the selected mode. The work time of the program is approximately 5.5 minutes if the volume of the text is 2474 printed characters.

Approbation Results

The created program underwent approbation in the educational process. For this purpose we invited ten university teachers in Moscow and Irkutsk to test the program. They had been selecting technical texts for two months using this program. We conducted a survey to identify the opinion of teachers about the benefits of using the program. To achieve this goal, we set the following criteria:

1. Feasibility of using the program in training

2. Training opportunities

3. Difficulties the teachers face when using the program

4. Proposals for the further use of the program.

For our empirical analysis we used the questionnaire method. In the course of our study teachers’ answers showed their positive attitude to the use of the program. A large majority of respondents (90%) believed that the use of the program was appropriate.

The analysis also showed that eighty percent of respondents were satisfied with the requirements to the structure of the prepared document. Ninety percent of teachers found it convenient that the program provided a search for articles not only on the initial form of the word, but also on its various word forms.

With regard to the difficulties experienced by the teachers when working with the program, it was found that thirty percent of respondents faced difficulties due to the lack of ICT competencies required for this type of activity.

The next goal of our research was to determine further plans for the use of the program in technical translation training. We found that despite the difficulties faced by some teachers, a large majority of respondents (80%) still planned to use the program to achieve educational goals.

Achieving our final research goal we found that one of the most popular suggestions of the respondents (70%) was the need to publish instructional manual encouraging teachers to use our program.

Summarizing the data of the research, we concluded that the program had significant benefits: it would contribute to an effective organization of both educational activities and optimization of personal time spent by the teacher.

Conclusion

The theoretical and practical analysis enables to explore the key issues related to the selection of training materials. On the basis of our conclusions made in the course of analysis we determined methodologically significant requirements for texts and their sources. The use of computer program simplifies and accelerates the selection procedure. The approbation confirms its undeniable benefits in the teaching process.

Theoretical and practical conclusions made in the course of the study will serve the basis for further research in the field of teaching resources selection in universities.