Urgent problems of teaching translation with the emphasis on actual sentence division

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the description of the teaching process at the Foreign Language Faculty of Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, concerning students of Linguistics, namely, the experience in teaching translation activities with the emphasis on the actual division of the sentence. The authors state the importance of taking into account the actual division of the sentence for correct rendering of the statement meaning in another language, relying on the experience of prominent scientists and specialists in the sphere of syntactic interference and syntactic calque, outline the existing common problem that arises in translation and teaching this subject, and point out the importance of paying attention to this complex aspect in a comprehensive manner, that is not only in translation classes, but also within both practical and theoretical grammar lessons. The authors present a number of exercises, which contribute to solving of the problem, provide examples of exercises aimed at the analysis and understanding of the thematic-rhemetic division of the sentence and, therefore, improving the quality of student translations. The paper also provides a number of typical translation models with different types of thematic division, using various morphological means and syntactic constructions, and analyzes students mistakes. The authors conception is based on authoritative sources in the spheres of linguistics, translation study, while the paper includes both the authors and authentic language material.