Translation is not a subject easy to teach or learn (but wouldn’t there be any other subjects an exception to this?).
Over the years, I have tried different methods to help students learn this subject. Last year, I tried a new one. I asked students to underline the words, phrases or sentences that they found difficult to render into proper translation in their individual homework and assignment.
When I marked their assignments, I would note and find out the total frequencies of the words, phrases and sentences that they underlined. How they rendered the translation would also be jotted down. When I distributed the marked assignments in class, I would discuss with them those difficult problems that they encountered. I would analyse their common mistakes and offer my suggested translation. If there was a good translation rendered by a student, I would also show it to them.
There are at least two purposes that I wish to achieve in this exercise. First, I hope that students can reflect on what they did. If they can think about what are the problems that they encountered during the process of translation, they may be interested in knowing how the problems can be dealt with.
Second, I wish to understand more about the ability of the students. Sometimes, there are some words that seem easy to me, yet many students underline them as difficult. When I notice that, I will spend more time to explain those words in class for them. If necessary, I may adjust the level of difficulty for their subsequent assignments.
Asking students to do the above is a revised method of what I have been doing. In the past, I would note their common mistakes when I marked the assignments. After analysing the mistakes, I would discuss with them in class. However, I think this is not good enough, as it is only a one-way communication. I want students to reflect on their work and tell me what they think about the assignments before I do the analysis. As I only introduced this method last year, I will try again this semester. It is my small hope that I can help students learn the subject of translation better by improving my teaching methods bit by bit.