Effects of cooperative translation on Chinese EFL student levels of interest and self-efficacy in specialized English translation

Abstract

Translation instruction is very important in specialized English teaching activities. The effectiveness of current specialized English translation instruction (SETI) in mainland China, however, is unclear because university students have become less interested in, and less confident when doing, English translation. This study investigated the effects of online cooperative translation on EFL students’ levels of interest and self-efficacy with respect to specialized English translation through a questionnaire, focus group interview, interaction data analysis, and pre-test and post-test on 48 second-year college students in China majoring in educational technology. The results showed that online cooperative translations could significantly increase student interest and self-efficacy in specialized English translation. In cooperative translation, student engagement was significantly and linearly correlated with their interest and self-efficacy in translation. We conclude with recommendations on reforming current SETI practices in mainland China's universities.

Keywords:

• cooperative learning
• EFL
• cooperative translation
• self-efficacy
• interest

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Prof. Minjuan Wang, Prof. Gwo-Jen Hwang, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the readability and quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Notes

1. The web address is http://www.sojump.com/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was sponsored by a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions and the Qing Lan Project.

Notes on contributors

Xianmin Yang

Xianmin Yang is a lecturer at the Institute of Education at Jiangsu Normal University. His main research interests are technology-enhanced language learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning, and corporate e-Learning.

Xiaoshan Guo

Xiaoshan Guo is a graduate student of Institute of Education at Jiangsu Normal University. Her main research interests are knowledge management and computer-assisted language learning.

Shengquan Yu

Shengquan Yu is a professor at the Institute of Modern Educational Technology at Beijing Normal University. His main research interests are integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and teaching, ubiquitous learning, blended learning, and development of learning management systems (LMS).