A Case Study on Improving MTI Students’ Translation Competence in Project-Based Teaching

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Introduction
In the early 21st century, with the expansion and deepening of China's international exchanges with the whole world, there was a surge in the demand for language service professionals.In response to this need, Chinese mainland officially established the Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) program in 2007, with a goal to cultivate application-oriented, practical, and professional translators and interpreters.Universities across the country with foreign language majors actively responded to this initiative, and over a short span of just a few decades, the MTI education developed rapidly.The number of higher education institutions offering MTI programs (both translation and interpretation) has reached 316, with approximately 115,000 students enrolled and about 97,000 graduates (http://news.china.com.cn/2023-04/07/content_85216571.htm).
The increasing demand for high-quality translation professionals presents a challenge for MTI training institutions.Incorporating translation projects into the curriculum emphasizes the development of students' practical skills, allowing them to accumulate valuable translation experience.This approach not only stimulates students' enthusiasm but also effectively enhances their translation capabilities and strengthens their professional identity.Consequently, project-based translation instruction has gained popularity among teachers and students in China.However, there is a relative lack of empirical research on how MTI students in China develop their translation skills within translation projects, and the specific methods of project-based teaching need further exploration.Given the importance of project practice in translator training and the gap in research on translation competence development, this paper focuses on the translation products and processes of an MTI student involved in a medical translation project, examining the evolution of her translation abilities and providing an insider's perspective on teaching practice.

Translation Competence
Translation competence refers to the set of qualities and skills a translator possesses during the translation process.Theoretical research on translation competence can be dichotomized into monistic and pluralistic views.The first approach, as advocated by Pym (2003), views translation competence as a kind of supercompetence, that is, the ability to generate and select appropriate translations.The pluralistic approach, on the other hand, considers translation competence as a multifaceted, multilayered, and interrelated set of sub-competences.Models of translation sub-competences have been developed, for example, by PACTE (2003PACTE ( /2017)), Kelly (2005), Göpferich (2009), and EMT (2009/2017).The most representative is the model by the PACTE group from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which includes bilingual competence, extralinguistic competence, translation knowledge competence, professional instrumental competence, strategic competence, and psycho-physiological competence.The pluralistic approach of PACTE and similar models represent the mainstream theories in translation competence research (e.g., Colina, 2003;Zhou & Ding 2017).
In Chinese mainland, scholars began to introduce Western research on translation competence from the early 21 st century (e.g., Miao, 2007;Wang et al., 2008;Tong, 2010), with domestic empirical studies often drawing upon Western theories (e.g., Ma & Guan, 2010).Yang and Wang (2010), based on existing research, categorized sub-competences of translation-apart from psycho-physiological mechanisms-into three types: basic competence (linguistic and extralinguistic), core competence (translation knowledge and strategic abilities), and peripheral competence (instrumental skills), with the core competence being essential to the nature of translation ability.In recent years, new breakthroughs have been made in the models of translation competence based on the context of English education in China, such as the written translation competence scale (Bai et al., 2018) and the interpreting competence scale (Wang, 2017).Zhang and Wang (2020) proposed the first model of translation competence for Chinese MTI students, distinguishing between cognitive translation competence, bilingual competence, specialized knowledge competence, professional translator competence and instrumental competence.In the milieu of rapid development of AI translation technology in recent years, Chinese researchers have proposed the concept of "translation research competence", defined as "the capacity of individuals engaged in translation practice or research to use critical thinking, appropriate tools, and methods to understand translation phenomena, reveal the regular characteristics of translation, discover and solve translation problems, and achieve innovative outcomes" (Lan, 2023, pp. 4-5).
Translation competence can be examined through translated products and translation process, namely, product-based and process-based translation competence studies (Fang & Wang, 2014).Shreve (1997) posits that a translator's competence develops from natural translation towards constructive translation.Chesterman (2000) outlines five stages in the development of translation competence: the novice, advanced learner, competent, proficient, and expert stages.PACTE (2000) divides the acquisition of translation competence into two processes: pre-translation competence and translation competence.Liu (2011) delineates a language ability cultivation stage and a skill training stage.However, generally speaking, the stage theory of translation competence is overly generic and lacks sufficient longitudinal research evidence, leading Göpferich (2009Göpferich ( , 2013) ) to remark that research on the development of translation competence is still in its infancy.Exploration into the regular patterns of students' translation competence development can provide rationale and direction for targeted and phased translation teaching practices.

Teaching Translation Through Project
Project-based learning or teaching is an educational approach where students acquire necessary knowledge and skills by undertaking tasks and completing projects within a specific socio-cultural context.It is a social constructivist teaching model, where learners actively construct meaning to gain knowledge and abilities (Kiraly, 2005).This pedagogy uses real-life projects to trigger students' interest and motivation, emphasizes self-management and self-monitoring by students, values the process of project management and underscores teamwork.Translation project teaching is often applied in teaching translation theory and practice in China.For instance, Chen (2013) combined a news webpage translation project at Hengyang Normal University with a five-step method of teaching action research to propose an organic integration of teaching, production, and research, thereby comprehensively enhancing students' translation abilities, collaboration skills, and hands-on capabilities.Jiang (2014) introduced translation projects into undergraduate business English translation courses, creating simulated work environments and focusing on the job responsibilities of business assistants as translators, to cultivate students' translation abilities and innovative spirit.
Internationally, in response to the translation market's demand for professional language service talent, many universities have established a variety of translation project management courses aimed at cultivating application-oriented translators whose skills match industry needs.In China, since the establishment of MTI programs in 2007, there has been an increasing enhancement of translation project teaching, with related teaching reforms being vigorously carried out.Scholars have proposed different translation teaching models in line with project teaching.For instance, Wang and He (2008) introduced a "project-driven and collaborative" translation teaching model, where students collaborate on real translation projects and complete tasks like professional translators.Zhang and Zhang (2012) examined the specific implementation process of bringing projects into the classroom at Beijing Normal University's MTI program for Computer-Assisted Translation of 'Management Information Systems', improving students' translation skills and technical abilities.Xu and Cao (2017) took the book translation project at Shandong Normal University as an example to discuss the development of students' professional qualities in translation project management, translation technology application, and quality control.In the era of artificial intelligence, with the rapid development of machine translation, Xiao (2021) explored a new model at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, driven by book translation projects with a mode of "Computer-Assisted Translation + Machine Translation + Post-editing," focusing on the collaborative cultivation of post-editing capabilities among teachers and students.
In summary, project-based translation teaching is significant because it emphasizes the connection between translation instruction and real-world societal needs, highlighting the social attributes and functions of MTI education, which is why the teaching feedback and effectiveness are notably pronounced.

MTI Program in China
The full English name for MTI is Master of Translation and Interpreting, a professional master's degree that was officially established after approval by the National Degree Committee in 2007.The core purpose of the MTI is to enhance students' translation capabilities, training applied, practical, and comprehensive professional translators for the nation.
The MTI program aims to cultivate various types of professional translators for the nation and society, with the improvement of students' translation competence being central to the practice of translation teaching.One of the requirements for MTI students in their training process is to complete a certain amount of translation project practice (MTI Training Guidelines).Most MTI degree theses are primarily practice-based reports centered on translation projects (Mu & Zou, 2011;Wu, 2013).Therefore, both institutions (training units, teaching guidance committees, etc.) and individuals (tutors, students, project clients, etc.) place great emphasis on high-quality translation project practice.
Integrating real translation projects into the curriculum represents a trend towards a process-oriented translation teaching model (Kiraly, 2005;Wang, 2017).In practical teaching scenarios, student translators are often perceived as lacking in translation competence, merely acting as code converters, and lacking confidence in their translations.Project-based translation teaching, on the other hand, fully affirms the subjectivity and agency of students as translators, constituting a form of situated learning (Kiraly, 2012), oriented towards problem-solving (Mitchell-Schuitevoerder, 2013), and akin to task-based teaching (Nunan, 1989).In this process, teachers can utilize various supports like translation logs, group discussions, and action learning to help students identify problems, self-reflect, and adjust their learning process as needed.Participation in real translation projects is also an important means to quickly enhance the translation competence of MTI students (Zhang & Wang, 2020).However, project-based teaching poses significant challenges for teachers (Wang, 2017), primarily due to the current lack of project-based, multi-stage, instructive translation competence training schemes.Although China's MTI education is entering a new stage, there is still a lack of comprehensive research on tiered written translation teaching-specifically regarding at what stage of teaching, which aspects of ability improvement, and what requirements should be met (Cao, 2020).Given the composite nature of translation competence, beyond cultivating students' cross-language and cross-cultural communication abilities, it is also necessary to focus on developing their professional competences, instrumental skills, and methodological and strategic abilities (Sun & Wang, 2023).

Research Methods
The research question addressed by this study is: In the context of real translation project, do the various components of MTI students' translation competence improve, and if so, how?To address this question, we incorporated elements of translation project teaching into the translation courses for MTI graduate students.

The Translation Project
The translation project in this study is the simplified Chinese translation of Cochrane systematic reviews, a genre of evidence-based medical texts.Cochrane is an international, non-profit, independent medical organization dedicated to providing the latest information on health care and policy to medical professionals, patients, and their families.Cochrane's primary working language is English, and in 2014, it initiated a simplified Chinese translation project.This was undertaken by a volunteer translation team comprising multiple institutions and participants, organized by the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM).In 2018, the authors established a volunteer translation team for the Cochrane Sinicization project at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (JUFE), under the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at BUCM， Simplified Chinese Translation and Dissemination Working Group, Cochrane China Network Affiliate, and MTI students in JUFE joined the program as a part of their course requirement of Advanced Translation Theories and Practice.
After receiving translation tasks from BUCM, the JUFE team organizes and assigns them to each volunteer translator; each translated article can be considered a sub-project.Before starting, the students took pre-translation training, such as terminological and normative studies, familiarizing themselves with the project and technical issues.During the translation project, each translation product undergoes multiple reviews from the team leaders and medical experts, and the team regularly discusses translation problems within group meetings.At the project's conclusion, students reflect on their work and write translation logs; workgroups share translation experiences and conduct periodic post-translation interviews.Post-translation activities can continuously feed back into the translation and pre-translation stages, offering significant insights for translation teaching.

Data and Analysis
This study focuses on an MTI student, pseudonymously referred to as Guo Hong.During her participation in this project (from October 2019 to April 2021), she completed and published a total of 15 translation tasks, consisting of 1,2024 words in English (16,256 characters in Chinese).The translations included 45 documents, with an average of three versions per translation task.Her translation logs, two semi-structured interviews (transcribed into 11,000 Chinese characxters) as well as recorded group meetings that she attended were included as our research data.
In reference to the five dimensions of translation competence proposed by Zhang and Wang (2020), we first examined the changes in Guo Hong's linguistic abilities, professional knowledge, and cognitive abilities as evidenced by her various translation drafts.A reduction in linguistic errors can be seen as an improvement in linguistic competence; the accuracy of professional terminology usage is one manifestation of progress in professional knowledge; cognitive ability involves processing information from the source text to the target text, with the translation of complex and lengthy sentences particularly reflecting the translator's information processing methods.Secondly, we investigated the development of her professional and tool-use competences through data from the translation process data, including translation logs and group discussions.Thirdly, we compared these findings with post-translation interviews to provide a multi-dimensional explanation and elaboration.

Results and Discussion
Guo Hong's translation competence shows an overall upward trend, with her specialized knowledge competence and instrumental competence improving the most rapidly.Her linguistic abilities and cognitive abilities, particularly in translating complex sentences, have also demonstrated a significant progress.Through interviews and examination of her translation process, we explored her identification with the translator's role.The interviews revealed that the enhancement of students' instrumental competence benefited from discussions in group meetings.Each volunteer translator utilized different search engines and resources, sharing how to dig for relevant and useful information during meetings, achieving a true exchange of knowledge.Search engines such as the Dingxiangyuan forum, CNKI, and the simplified Chinese Cochrane collaboration website were among those they learned to use from their peers.Therefore, we spared no a separate section discussing the development of instrumental competence.

Bilingual Competence and Specialized Knowledge Competence
We compared the initial drafts of Guo Hong's first and last translation tasks, summarizing the types and frequency of errors in each draft.When quantifying the errors, we counted the occurrences, meaning that if the same type of error appeared twice, it was counted as two separate errors; if a single error pertained to both syntax and discourse, it was counted twice.Firstly, a reduction in linguistic errors can intuitively reflect the effective improvement of translation competence.For instance, in T1, the total number of errors (compared to the final published translation after multiple revisions) was 37, containing 16 lexical errors, 14 syntactic errors, and 7 discourse errors.By contrast, in Tf, the total number of errors was only 5, with 3 lexical errors and 2 syntactic errors.The progress in Guo Hong's linguistic abilities at levels is quite obvious.
Secondly, Guo Hong made significant progress in her professional knowledge abilities, particularly evident in her error-free translation of terminology.Terms in evidence-based medicine can be categorized into two types: one where general nouns are used as specialized terms, such as "include," "meta-analysis," "adverse event," "arm," "bias," and the other consisting of medical terms like "schizophrenia," "Optical Coherence Tomography," "Laparoscopy," "Antineoplastic treatment," "Metabolic syndrome," "Antiangiogenic drug," "endometrial cancer," "hysterectomy," etc. From her fourth translation task onwards, Guo Hong's translations exhibited virtually no errors in evidence-based medicine terminology, which also benefited from the effective enhancement of her tool-use abilities.Her interviews reflect her self-affirmation of progress in language and professional knowledge.
"Firstly, there's [in me] a deeper understanding of medical knowledge.Previously, I might have known about something [a disease, treatment] but not the related background information.Now [after the translation project], at least, I have gained some understanding of these things.I have also gained a deeper understanding of English grammatical and syntactic structures, like the handling of complex sentences.Before, I would just go with the flow, thinking that getting the general idea across was enough, without much thinking about the logic-just finish the translation as soon as possible.Now, through this training, my language expression has become more fluent, and I have a better understanding of sentence structure, such as nominalizations and of active and passive constructions."

Translation Cognitive Competence
According to Zhang and Wang (2020), translation cognitive competence primarily refers to information processing and structure, which can be aptly demonstrated from the translator's handling of complex English sentences.In fact, errors at the syntactic and discourse levels both reflect, to some extent, the translator's accuracy in information processing.In Guo Hong's first task, there were four instances of misunderstanding of the source text, manifested at the syntactic level.However, in her last task, despite the presence of many complex and long sentences, there were no significant syntactic errors.Let's look at one example.
T1-Source text: These types of practices are the most appropriate setting for evaluating 'routine scale and polish' treatments; and although both included studies were done in the UK, it would be reasonable to assume that the findings would be the same in other high-income countries.
Comparing with the final draft, it is evident that Guo Hong made a mistake in processing the discursive information of "These types of practices".This phrase, which originally referred to "these medical clinics" in the previous text, was incorrectly processed as "these types of studies," leading to the subsequent misinterpretation of "setting" as "设置".Additionally, the latter half of the sentence deviated in the representation of the subject and predicate from the source text.The translation misplaced "reasonable" in the predicate position, diminishing the emphasis of the core content "studies from other high-income countries are the same."This example shows that in the information processing of this complex sentence, Guo Hong was still quite a novice, lacking flexibility and integrative ability.However, comparing to her handling of complex sentences in the initial draft of her last task, it is no doubt that she became very adept at processing the source text's information, resulting in a Chinese translation that is very natural and conforms to the reading habits of Chinese people.In the interview, Guo Hong also mentioned, "Through handling these sentences and tasks in the translation project, when I encounter similar structures and sentences again, I can deal with them more comfortably.Instead of translating on a whim, I'm now more conscious in understanding and processing them.There's been an improvement in my ability to grasp important points, to capture these knowledge points."

Professional Competence-Translator Identity
We demonstrate Guo Hong's identification with her role as a translator through the evolution of a translated excerpt from a task on smoking cessation that she undertook.
Source text: One of the most well-known and widely used of these drugs is varenicline, which is licensed as a first-line treatment for smoking cessation, and marketed as Champix or Chantix.Other types are cytisine, which is not licensed widely, and dianicline, which has been withdrawn from further development.
First daft: 这些药物中最有名且使用最广泛的是瓦伦尼克林，它被许可作为戒烟的一线用药，并以畅沛戒 烟药的形式销售。其他类型包括未获广泛许可的胱氨酸和已停止进一步发展的 dianicline。 Revised draft from the 1 st reviewer: 这些药物中最有名且使用最广泛的是瓦伦尼克林， 它被批准作为戒烟的 一线用药，并以"畅沛"戒烟药为名销售。其他类型的戒烟药包括未获广泛许可的胱氨酸和已停止开发的 神经烟碱乙酰胆碱受体部分激动药 dianicline。 Final draft from the medical expert reviewer: 这些药物中最有名且使用最广泛的是瓦伦尼克林，它被批准作 为戒烟的一线用药，并以"畅沛"或者"戒必适"为名销售。其他类型的戒烟药包括未获广泛许可的胱氨酸和 已停止开发的丁香通(一种神经烟碱乙酰胆碱受体部分激动药)。 The term in concern in the source text is the underlined "dianicline" and its Chinese counterparts in different drafts.After multiple rounds of revisions, the final published translation of the term "dianicline" was decided on "神经烟碱乙酰胆碱受体部分激动药迪阿尼克兰," a transliteration accompanied by a description of the drug's component.Before this translation was published, there was no established Chinese term corresponding to dianicline, hence Guo Hong did not translate it in her first draft but retained the English term and annotated the issue in her translation log, demonstrating her problem-identification ability.After the first review, her supervisor suggested that using the English term was inappropriate as it wouldn't convey the essence of the name to the audience in the blog.Consequently, Guo Hong researched the English definitions of the term on Wikipedia and foreign websites, translating it as "神经烟碱乙酰胆碱受体部分激动药" and still retaining the English term dianicline.The final review by medical experts at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine changed it to "丁香通 (a partial agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors)."Guo Hong challenged this, as "丁香通" is more commonly known in China as a professional biomedical information platform under Dingxiangyuan.She collected extensive information online, corresponded with the final reviewer, and eventually convinced the medical expert to settle on "神经烟碱乙酰胆碱受体部分激动药迪阿尼克兰," which explains the drug component "partial agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors" and includes the transliteration "dianicline."Throughout the translation process of the drug name dianicline, Guo Hong's agency was evident.She was proactive in identifying and evaluating problems, taking measures, and making decisions.
As an MTI student from a finance and economics school, faced with opinions from medical authorities, she was able to stick to her own judgment, proactively and independently search for information and find out the solutions.We can see that she had her own opinions on the translation issues and raised questions in the face of authoritative reviews, challenging the "mistakes" of authorities.The successful challenge to the translation of "dianicline" will also allow the translation decisions made by Guo Hong to circulate within the medical knowledge domain.In our interview with Guo Hong, she candidly mentioned, "Although I am not a medical expert, I had ample evidence to prove the reliability of the translation choice I made, so I stood by my ideas and worked hard to convince the experts.I am glad that my efforts were recognized, and I am also pleased that my translation will become a circulated version." During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Guo Hong efficiently completed multiple translations related to the prevention and treatment of the virus, showing a strong sense of social responsibility and public service awareness.At the end of the project, Guo Hong received a certificate of appreciation as a volunteer translator from Cochrane.After graduation, she continued to participate in our project and became a translator-reviewer for the JUFE team.Despite having her own teaching career, she still identifies with her role as a volunteer translator.
In the interview, she mentioned: "My attitude toward translation has changed; there has been a shift in how I approach it.I used to treat translation merely as homework, completing it and getting a high score was enough.But now, this project is related to medical knowledge, and there's a collective expectation for accuracy to avoid misleading others.
A single translation error could misguide many readers, rooting misinformation in their minds.If I were to make a mistake, it could lead many astray.This is extremely important; one must not mislead others.So, I hope to provide the most accurate knowledge within my capacity, fostering an understanding that is accurate.The attitude is like reverence, not just finishing a task for a high score any more.It's about more about respect, respect for knowledge and science.Even if I might not work on translation projects in the future, no matter the field or specialization, there needs to be a commitment to seriousness, to respect the source text and to ensure accuracy.That is not only for being responsible for oneself but also for one's translations."

Pedagogical Implications
From Guo Hong's participation in the translation project, we observe how translation projects shape various translation competencies and offer some insights for translation teaching.
Firstly, a phased style of teaching can be adopted tailored to the overall progression of student translators.
Step (1): before or at the beginning of translation tasks, teachers should focus on enriching students' professional knowledge (general and disciplinary knowledge) and instrumental ability (text processing, software applications, information retrieval) because these are the most accessible skills for students.For instance, terminology lists and tool retrieval exercises can be assigned for self-study.
Step (2): during the translation project, teachers should prioritize the development of linguistic (vocabulary, grammar, discourse, pragmatics) and cognitive competence (information comprehension and restructuring), as these skills can only be demonstrated and practiced within specific translation tasks, together with heuristic, interactive, and discussion-based teaching.
Step (3): after the translation project, through reflection, group sharing, and logging, teachers should help students expand their professional competence (project management, terminology management, professional identity), fostering a sense of mission as a translator, subtly developing their translator identity and a confident translator persona.
Secondly, it is found that Guo Hong exhibited a stronger sense of mission and identity when involved in real translation tasks, leading to a more engaged participation, especially given the practicality and public-service value of medical translation projects.In terms of specific teaching, we can help students recognize their shortcomings in translation competence and their translation style to cultivate their unique style, thereby strengthening their self-identification and identification with the translator's role.Moreover, ideally, translation classroom teaching should be integrated with project practice.Students can gain a tangible sense of accomplishment and experience the responsibilities of translators within real translation projects, fostering professional translation literacy.Lastly, translation educators and MTI mentors should responsibly engage in students' translation practices, guiding their translation like a craftsman and true mentor, genuinely and effectively aiding students to cultivate linguistically competent, responsible language service professionals with correct values.

Conclusion
This study, grounded in a medical translation project, examines the development of student translators' abilities from a micro-individual perspective, providing empirical evidence for meso-level translation teaching and promoting macro-level talent cultivation policy.The implications and significance for teaching are two-fold.First, we have gained unique insights into students' motivations and needs from an internal perspective through translation projects, which informs teaching and assists students in quickly transitioning into the role of professional translators.Second, we have suggested pertinent methods to enhance translation competence at different stages and offered possible ways for bottom-up, targeted professional written translation teaching reforms, improving the quality of MTI training, and serving the talent cultivation and mechanism reform in foreign languages at Chinese universities.
As the enrollment scale of translation majors in China expands and the market demand for translation quality increases, under the rapid development of AI technology, the technical and professional requirements for translators are heightened.In this context, new combinations and definitions of translation competence elements are needed.For instance, a Chinese scholar Lan (2023) proposed the concept of translation research ability, which we have not yet discussed in this study but will undoubtedly be a key topic in future project-based translation research.

Table 1 .
Error statistics for the initial draft translations of T1 and Tf