application of grouping in interpreting teaching

1、<p>　　Application of Grouping in Interpreting Teaching</p><p>　　摘 要：A specific research is first made to analyze the types and features of grouping in language， especially interpreting teaching. Then， o

2、n basis of that， techniques of applying grouping to interpreting class are discussed， aiming at improving the teaching and learning effects. </p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：grouping interpreting class application </p>

3、<p>　　中圖分類號：G642 文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼：A 文章編號：1003-9082（2014）08-0247-03 </p><p><b>　　Foreword </b></p><p>　　As we know， traditional classroom teaching has many advantages. However， with the dev

4、elopment of the times， its limitation highlights day by day， and it’s necessary to be complemented by other forms of teaching. In the late 19th century and early 20th century， some bourgeois educationists reckoned that c

5、lassroom teaching couldn’t meet students’ individual differences， and put forward group teaching form. Group teaching greatly makes up the disadvantages of traditional classroom teaching， and the</p><p>　　Wi

6、th the change of the standards of talent in the 21st century， passive acceptance of knowledge teaching mode cannot meet the needs of modern students； therefore， with the belief of giving full play to students’ subjective

7、 initiative and community initiative and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude， the group teaching mode once again drew great attention in the field of education. Today’s grouping mode refers to a situation

8、 where the class will be temporarily divided into a number</p><p>　　Interpreting activity in China has a history of more than 2000 years. However， it was not recognized as international official profession u

9、ntil the early 20th century when the Paris Peace Conference was held. Since the reform and opening up， China has become increasingly active in the international arena， with the result of increasing demand for various int

10、erpreters. Therefore， to meet the need of era and market， the study of interpreting theory and teaching methods is imminent. In view of the a</p><p>　　一、 Grouping in Language Class 　　Grouping is widely used

11、 in language class to create an atmosphere conducive to interacting in English in meaningful ways and make language teaching more effective. Researchers have done a lot to investigate on its classification as well as the

12、 features of each category. </p><p>　　Different grouping methods have different values in language teaching classroom. The most common ways of grouping students are whole class work， pair work， group work， a

13、nd individual study. </p><p>　　1.Whole class work </p><p>　　Also known as lockstep， it refers to the situation where all the students are under the control of the teacher at the same pace. It is

14、 often adopted when the teacher is making a presentation， giving explanations， checking answers， or summarizing learning. During whole class work， students will answer the teacher’s questions either together or one by on

15、e. </p><p>　　a. Advantages： It is good for teachers to give instruction and explanation together and it is an ideal way to show materials and do presentations together； and it gives students both a sense of

16、belonging and competition， and they can compare themselves with others. </p><p>　　b. Disadvantage： Not everyone has the opportunity to express himself； it may lead to nervousness and anxiety when some studen

17、ts are asked to answer questions in face of many classmates； it prefers the transmission of knowledge from teacher to students rather than students discovering themselves. Therefore， it is not a productive way to enhance

18、 real communication. </p><p>　　2. Pair work </p><p>　　It refers to the time of fulfilling some tasks， when students need to work in pairs， such as a dialogue， a discussion and an interpreting. &

19、lt;/p><p>　　a. Advantage： It dramatically increases students’ performance time； it can create a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere for students； </p><p>　　b. Disadvantage： It is not easy for teac

20、her to monitor the class； the choice of the partner is sometimes a problem. </p><p>　　3.Group work </p><p>　　It refers to the situation where the activity requires contribution from more than tw

21、o students. The teacher can either join some groups as a participant， or a leader or an inspector. </p><p>　　a. Advantages： It greatly increases the time of play for every students； it offers great chances o

22、f different opinions and contributions to the work； it also encourages cooperation and negotiation skills； and it offers opportunity for role play. </p><p>　　b. Disadvantages： The domination of some students

23、 will lead others to passiveness and quietness； and it is difficult for teachers to monitor. 　　4. Individual study </p><p>　　Students are expected to work on their own and at their own pace. It is a form wh

24、ich is convenient for students to process information and to consolidate learning at their own pace. </p><p>　　a. Advantages： It can develop students’ autonomy to form good learning habits； it gives students

25、 free time， style and pace to study on their own； and it is less stressful compared with whole class work. </p><p>　　b. Disadvantage： It does not create a sense of belonging； the learning activity does not p

26、romote team spirit； and it does not benefit communication between students. </p><p>　　二、 Features of Interpreting Teaching </p><p>　　Interpreting is a kind of communicative behavior， through ora

27、l expression， quickly and accurately putting source language into target language， to achieve the purpose of exchanging information. It’s an essential language communication tool for human in cross-cultural and cross-nat

28、ional interaction activities. The process includes three steps， as is shown in the following formula： </p><p>　　Input→interpretation→output </p><p>　　Interpreting teaching is not a continuation

29、of language teaching， nor simple oral English practice， oral expression of printed articles， or check of memory ability. Because of its comprehensive application， there are many differences when compared with the teachin

30、g of other language skills. </p><p>　　a. The teaching goal： “The aim of language teaching is the capability of language communication， while interpreting teaching focuses on making use of one’s capability of

31、 language communication to develop interpreting skills.” We can realize that the goal is different from other language courses and actually interpreting learning is a high-level language course for excellent language lea

32、rners， which is different from that of such basic courses as listening， speaking， reading or writing. </p><p>　　b. The teaching essence： Because of its practicality， being different from other language cours

33、es，it is actually a practical and professional skill course. And in class， high-strength training is involved； while after class， huge amount of practice is necessary. </p><p>　　c. The teaching direction： In

34、terpreting teaching includes two parts， which are auxiliary to each other. One is skills learning and training in class， the other is exercising and accumulating after class. Therefore， adhering to theory as guidance and

35、 practice as main body is the teaching direction of interpreting course. </p><p>　　d. The teaching atmosphere： As interpreting is usually for formal occasions， an interpreter must highly concentrate on speak

36、ers， and might be nervous. Different from translation class， the interpreting course might make students feel high-strength， nervous or tired. That’s another prominent teaching feature. 　　e. The teaching contents： Inter

37、preting not only involves language skills of listening， writing， translating and speaking， but also interpreting skills such as memory， note-taking， public-</p><p>　　f. The teaching method： As it is a typica

38、l course which integrates basic theories with practice， the combination of traditional teaching method and grouping method is excellent so that situational teaching， simulation teaching， as well as role-playing teaching

39、are widely adopted in interpreting class. </p><p>　　三、 Application Techniques </p><p>　　In view of the specificity of interpreting and the features of interpreting teaching， it is necessary to c

40、reate an atmosphere suitable for interpreting learning. The teacher should try to create such an environment as to help arouse students’ initiative and enthusiasm and to give students more opportunities to practice. Grou

41、ping might be one of the best choices. </p><p>　　Grouping not only offers students more opportunities to practice， increases training volume， but also improves the efficiency of teaching. According to the te

42、aching contents and requirements， students can be grouped in different ways with different number of members. Grouping can be applied to almost all contents of interpreting class. Some examples of some specific applicati

43、on with different grouping methods aiming at different interpreting teaching contents are suggested as follows. </p><p>　　a.Listening training </p><p>　　The teacher may adopt the form of whole c

44、lass to organize some listening activity. A listening material will be played， after which the teacher will ask the students what they have heard， especially some fuzzy words. The guidance of teacher will help the studen

45、ts focus on important points， which makes the training more efficient. This whole class activity offers opportunities to compare with others and find their own deficiency and creates a competitive environment. Facing man

46、y classmates， the a</p><p>　　Or， group work can be applied in the listening class， too. In this way， every one of the group will read different materials one by one while the rest listening to him， so that s

47、tudents can be familiar with different pronunciation and accents. It is a free form， which allows students to choose some materials according to their own needs. Besides， in such a real environment， both sound recognitio

48、n and flow recognition can be trained. </p><p>　　Additionally， individual study must be used after class as a supplementary training. Practicing with different materials adapts the students to some impure or

49、 non-standard pronunciation， and some noisy environment and disturbance. Therefore， a large amount of after-class practice is crucial for their listening improvement. </p><p>　　b.Memory Training </p>

50、<p>　　First， whole class work is necessary. Shadowing exercise and retelling exercise are just the most common trainings. Take the following paragraph as the training material. </p><p>　　China’s Growing

51、 Trade Surplus </p><p>　　China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world just keeps on growing. While it means the country is being flooded with cash， it’s also causing the government a number of headaches.

52、// </p><p>　　The surplus for September jumped 56 percent on the previous year to almost 24 billion dollars. The surplus wouldn’t be so big if Chinese consumers bought more goods from overseas， but the rising

53、 middle class has been slow to spend its new-found wealth.// </p><p>　　For the first time， the teacher will control the pace and pause and every student is supposed to repeat each sound and catch up with the

54、 speaker’s pace， which is also named “l(fā)isten and repeat” exercise. For the second time， students are supposed to pay attention to the logical links： the teacher will pick several students to make a presentation， such as

55、retelling or structuring the story， after the whole paragraph is finished， so that the students may pay their attention to both general and spec</p><p>　　Then， working in pairs or groups is not very suitable

56、 for the shadowing， but for retelling part. In these forms， when the paragraph is finished， students can share their ideas about the logic links and check each other’s presentation in pairs or one by one in groups. The t

57、eacher will walk around the classroom， listening to them and giving advice promptly. Thus the teacher makes sure that everyone can do the exercise and provides more chance for students to get help of other members and th

58、e teach</p><p>　　To begin with， whole class， as a basic form of teaching， creates a competitive environment and tense atmosphere， which can also reach the goal of psychological quality practice. And it is ea

59、sier for the teacher to evaluate the performance of students. </p><p>　　Then， pair work is also a good choice. For example， when dealing with a material which involves both C-E and E-C interpretation， the te

60、acher may appoint different tasks to two partners： one is in charge of Chinese-English interpreting while the other takes the English-Chinese part. The students will feel more relaxed and with the help of each other， the

61、y can operate better. </p><p>　　Additionally， group work is promoted in this training. Taking the advantage of every group member， it’s a perfect mode to promote role play. For example， in group of 4 student

62、s， the roles of English spokesman， English-Chinese interpreter， Chinese spokesman， Chinese-English interpreter can be assigned. The simulated environment helps the students in such ways as： to improve their psychological

63、 quality and adapt to real interpreting situation； to give full play to students’ subjective initiative i</p><p>　　As for the individual study， doing a large amount of practice after class is dispensable. Th

64、e quantity accumulations will lead to qualitative change. It’s a way we can not ignore to improve the interpreting skills in a certain period of time. </p><p>　　四、Conclusion </p><p>　　From the a

65、bove suggestions， we can see that grouping can be adopted in every aspect of interpreting teaching. The biggest difference from traditional teaching mode is its emphases on giving full play to students’ subjective initia

66、tive in class. In the process of grouping， transforming individual competition into team competition will do great favor to cultivate students’ team spirit and competitive consciousness. Teachers can pay attention to stu

67、dents’ individual differences and weakness， too. H</p><p>　　References </p><p>　　[1]Cowan， N. Attention and Memory. [M]. Oxford University Press Inc. 1998 </p><p>　　[2]Gebhard， J.G.

68、 Teaching English as a Second Language.[M].The University of Michigan Press. 1996 </p><p>　　[3]Gong Longsheng. Business English： An Interpreting Course [M]. Shanghai foreign language education press. </p&

69、gt;<p>　　[4]Mei Deming. An Advanced Course of Interpretation； [M]. Shanghai. Foreign Language Education Press. 2000 </p><p>　　[5]Meyer， H.課堂教學(xué)方法實踐篇.馮曉春，金立成譯[M].上海：華東師范大學(xué)出社，2011：192. </p><p&

70、gt;　　[6]Liu Heping. Interpreting Skills， Thinking Science and Interpreting Reasoning Pedagogy. [M]. China Translation & Publishing Corporation. 2001 </p><p>　　作者簡介：宋燕（1972.08-），女，山東省泰安市人，山東科技大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院教授，碩士