Innovation in Language Learning

This study is mainly to investigate internal and scientific logic of numeral conception to form the Chinese proverbs, and translation strategies are applied to convey semantic and cultural meanings of Chinese proverbs in teaching and learning Chinese as a second language. An experimental study will be conducted to evaluate comprehending abilities of L2 and FL Chinese learners in understanding the cultural meanings of Chinese proverbs through the Pre-test and Post-test. This study adopted the translation strategies proposed by Nida (1982, 1969, 1964), Liao (2017), Cao (1996) and Ding (2011) to analyse the translation strategies were used to translate the numeral conception and cultural meanings of Chinese proverbs to English. The Pre-test and Post-test are applied to evaluate comprehending abilities of non native Chinese learners in understanding cultural meanings and numeral conception implied by the Chinese proverbs. The research outcomes are expected to be harvested from this study are listed below: 1) internal and scientific logic of numeral conception to be used in the formation of Chinese proverbs; 2) translation strategies are suitable to be applied for interpreting semantic and cultural meanings of Chinese proverbs; 3) abilities of non native Chinese learners in interpreting cultural meanings and numeral conception of Chinese proverbs. It is an expectation for this study to extend a new comparison study on the Chinese proverbs to be translated in the targeted language and source language.

Keywords: Chinese proverb, heritage language, numeral cenception, translation strategies, cultural meaning.

References:

• Cao, D. (1996). A model of translation proficiency. Target, 8(2), 325-340.
• Ding, L. P. (2011). An advanced course in Chinese-English translation theory and practice. Beijing: Peking University.
• Elaine, E. T., Gass, S. M. & Cohen, A. D. (Eds.)(1994). Research methodology in second-language acquisition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.