Virtual Teaching Environment and Translation Teachers’ Roles

【Abstract】With the development of information technology， there has appeared a virtual environment for translation teaching. This paper illustrates the advantages of this environment， points out translation teachers roles and the requirements for them to fulfil these roles.

【Key words】virtual teaching environment； translation teachers roles； requirements

1. Introduction

With the development of information technology， there has appeared a virtual environment for translation teaching， which has not only brought about changes to the roles of translation teachers， but also made new demands on them.

2. Virtual teaching environment

Teaching in the information age encourages the interactive teaching style. The application of this style requires specific teaching environment which is made possible by the development of modern information technology. In such an environment， students establish their own learning platform with the computer network and the information databases processed by multimedia technology， accomplish learning tasks under the guidance of teachers and expand their knowledge scope. The appearance of virtual teaching environment， in particular， has opened up expansive space and prospects for translation teaching in the information age. It boasts the following advantages at least：

2.1 Imaginary world

Virtual teaching environment has got rid of static method of description， illustration and transfer of content as well as the monotony， flatness and abstraction of traditional translation teaching. With the help of the net and multimedia technology， a realistic， vivid， audio-visual and three-dimensional teaching environment can be created. This will not only broaden students vision， expand the capacity and information of classes， intensify students initiative in participation， trigger their learning enthusiasm， but can also inspire their imagination and creativity so as to improve teaching results more effectively.

2.2 Simulated experiences

Virtual teaching environment enables us to find a virtual society beyond the realistic world. This society provides simulated environment in which invisible things are displayed. It enables us to overcome the limitations of the material world， and to experience in a simulated way sorrows of failure， joys of success as well as those things which are hard to experience or have not been experienced in real life. In this way， it shortens the process of humans comprehension of society and elevates the standard of their early socialization.

2.3 Distant communication

Virtual teaching environment breaks through the limitations of time and space， makes distant education and communication possible and even fashionable， and promotes human transcultural communication. In virtual communities， students need not feel ashamed of temporary inferior language skills or worry about sources of language materials. The sharing of net resources has strengthened the friendship and solidarity of people all over the world and has contributed to the common senses of human beings.

3.Translation teachers roles in the virtual teaching environment

Translation teaching in the virtual teaching environment has undoubtedly challenged teachers roles. It makes higher demands on teachers personal information literacy as well as their nurturing style of their students information literacy. In this teaching style， teachers should self-consciously play the part of：

3.1 An invisible designer

Teachers in the virtual teaching environment should possess the ability to design information. S/he should not only be good at collecting， analyzing and comparing various teaching information， more importantly， s/he should be skilled at designing teaching materials behind the scenes， designing how to present them and the teaching environment which corresponds to the teaching strategies.

3.2 An invisible coordinator

Teachers should reduce the time of performing “on the stage”， but spend more time on information tracking in the background and be willing to be an active “invisible person” in teaching. S/he should track timely her/his students learning conditions and gather the students feedback， find out the differences in their learning process， make prompt response to the information from the students so as to adjust the teaching aim and be a competent navigator for the students learning.

3.3 An invisible guide

Teachers in the virtual environment should also be a good invisible “guide”. The ultimate goal of teaching will not be attained with the students grasp of much information. The key issue is how to teach students to select appropriate information sources to solve practical problems. Thus， teachers should， while offering students information support， improve their abilities of selecting， judging， processing， utilizing， explaining， evaluating and integrating information， of discovering new information， searching for links to the needed knowledge， and creating new knowledge systems.

4. Required skills for teachers in the virtual teaching environment

In order to play the above roles successfully， teachers in the virtual teaching environment should possess the following abilities so as to give a full play to the potentiality brought by the information technology：

4.1 The ability to produce high–quality CAI courseware to assist teaching

Teachers should improve their comprehensive capability of utilizing multimedia technology by learning to produce high-quality CAI courseware according to different contents of their courses. The combination of image， sound and text can not only make the class on theories more interesting， but also help students better memorize the contents， thus securing the objectives of the class.

4.2 The ability to analyze the requirements of teaching

A good courseware should be based on a clear thorough understanding of the objective of a specific class， its focal points and difficult points， and the students knowledge background. So teachers should analyze the following points before producing CAI courseware： a） knowledge to be taught and the expected skills to be acquired by students， b） focal points and difficult points in teaching， and c） objectives difficult to be reached through the traditional teaching methods.

4.3 The ability to utilize network technologies

With the application of network technologies， resources and information can be shared by people round the globe， breaking through the barriers of time and space for teaching. Teachers of translation can make good use of Internet resources to provide text and translated texts of various styles for students to compare and learn. They can even create their own space for the exchange of translation techniques， or for tutoring students， to fully tap the potentialities of network technologies to help translation teaching.

5. Conclusion

The appearance of virtual teaching environment has provided an abundant development space in a unique way unrestricted by time， place， or space for students and immense arena for teachers to carry out their individualized teaching. Translation teachers need to be fully aware of their unique roles and be equipped with necessary techniques to promote translation teaching with new concepts and methods.

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作者简介：倪宇红（1972.10-），女，硕士，副教授，主要研究方向：英语语言文学与英语教学。