Teaching Pre-Translation Analysis of the Original Text (original) (raw)

The paper addresses the issue of translation teaching practices. The focus is made on developing a cognitive translation algorithm which can be applied in practice when training would-be-translators. The algorithm was built on the results of student research into translation errors. Analysis of The Lower Depths by Gorky translated into English and Russian version of Stoppard's Arcadia helped reveal the most challenging areas in E-R and RE translation and establish strong regularities between the source and the target languages. The research resulted in a three-stage practice-oriented translation algorithm. At the first stage culture-specific elements are examined, including realia, stylistics, names etc. Then structural differences between inflexional Russian and analytical English language are considered. The next step is to analyze words, then proceed to morphology and, if needed, turn to phonetic level. This comprehensive approach makes pre-translation analysis a reliable translation tool and provides rationale for translator's decision-making.