Thinking Critically to Evaluate Research

We live in a research-oriented society. From the pioneering breakthroughs on the cutting edge of medical science to the semi-annual choices network executives agonize over regarding what television programs to air, research is a fact of modern life. We rely on it, and with this reliance comes an inherent danger, for research findings can be easily misused, distorted, or taken out of context to say something other than what they are meant to.

Thinking critically goes hand in hand with developing an appreciation of the enormous benefits, and inherent dangers, of scientific research. Research is a double-edged sword; when misapplied, its ability to obscure knowledge is as great as its ability to illuminate. Research that is soundly conducted can answer difficult questions with more certainty and objectivity than any other method of inquiry, but the casual reporting of research can be fraught with distortions that, intentionally or unintentionally, mislead an unsuspecting public. Studies may be poorly designed or conducted, findings can be taken out of context and misapplied, and "results" can be carefully worded so as to subtly, but wrongly, imply the truthfulness of a dubious claim.

As we've already mentioned, the field of psychology has as one of its cornerstones a commitment to empiricism, or the research-based validation of its concepts. As such, the study of psychology is a particularly helpful context in which to hone your skills of assessing and evaluating the merits of research.

Psychologists say many things about human nature, based on the research they conduct. However, rather than believing something simply because a psychologist says it (beware the method of authority), critical thinkers carefully scrutinize research to determine, for themselves, how sound it is.

 

Задание 9.Проанализируйте содержание данных текстовых фрагментов и установите русскоязычные соответствия названиям организаций.

1. With funding from the National Science Foundation, NEON program managers plan to collect and archive data online for at least 30 years. The information can be used by scientists to conduct studies, by policymakers to make science-related decisions, and by educators to teach students about the environment.

2. Doctor AleidaGuevara was recently in London, invited by the Cuban Solidarity Campaign to speak at the European Social Forum. In Cuba, she works as a doctor, specialising in allergies. She is firmly Cuban in every respect, except for the fact that she can’t stand coffee.

3. Xerox Corporation funded the initial research on personal computers in their Palo Alto laboratory in California. However, the company failed to capitalize on this work, and the ideas that they put together went into the operating system developed for Apple’s computers.

4. On the environment, IFG argues that conservation is the key to sustainable development, and that capitalist-oriented globalisation is resulting in its destruction. IFG opposes the emergence of a strong private sector as it undermines the role of government in the protection of human rights, and believes intellectual property rights, and TRIPs, should be reversed to reflect local and domestic interests rather than the interests of transnational corporations. (The International Forum on Globalization).

5. Medecins Sans Frontieres advances the importance of human rights and public health above international trade, intellectual property rights and commercial interests. This is clearly indicated through its ‘Access to Essential Medicines’ campaign. MSF claims that the poor’s access to medicine is restricted by market-driven prices, and that this is often the result of intellectual property rights protection that favours rich countries.

6. An analysis of the typical shopping basket at eight supermarkets by the British Market Research Bureau found that Sainsbury’s had the highest proportion of packaging that could easily be recycled (66 per cent) while Lidl had the lowest (58 per cent). Waitrose had the heaviest packaging (803g) and Tescothe lightest (646g).

7. The telescope is being run by scientists at the new Space Telescope ScienceInstitute, housed at Johns Hopkins Universityin Baltimore, Md. The data will be collected by some 380 institute researchers and computer technicians and will be used by scientists all over the world. Over the Hubble’s expected 15-year life-span, teams of astronauts will shuttle to and from the telescope to service and upgrade it.

Задание 10.Сопоставьте исходный и переводной тексты и прокомментируйте обнаруженные переводческие ошибки.

Characteristics of Effective Language Practice Validity The activity should activate learners primarily in the skill or material it purports to practice. This is an obvious principle that is surprisingly often violated. Many ‘speaking’ activities, for example, have learners listening to the teacher more than talking themselves. Note that ‘validity’ does not necessarily imply that the language should be used for some kind of replication of real-life communication. Pronunciation drills and vocabulary practice, for example, may also be valid if they in fact serve primarily to rehearse and improve the items to be practiced.   Pre-learning The learners should have a good preliminary grasp of the language they are required to practice, though they may only be able to produce or understand it slowly and after thought. If they are required to do a practice activity based on something they have not yet begun to learn, they will either not be able to do it at all, or will produce unsuccessful responses. In either case the activity will have been fairly useless in providing practice: its main function, in fact, will have been a diagnostic test, enabling the teacher to identify and (re-)teach language the learners do not know. If, however, they can produce successful responses, they have a firm basis for further effective practice of the target language material.   Volume Roughly speaking, the more language the learners actually engage with during the activity, the more practice in it the will get. If the lesson time available for the activity is seen as a container, then this should be filled with as much ‘volume’ of language as possible. Time during which learners are not engaging with the language being practiced for whatever reason (because nothing is being demanded of them at that moment, or because they are using their mother tongue, or because of some distraction or digression) is time wasted as far as the practice activity is concerned.

Характеристики эффективного применения языка на практике Мотивированность В первую очередь упражнения должны побуждать учеников использовать умения или факты на практике. Этот весьма очевидный принцип на удивление часто нарушается. Например, многие виды упражнений для развития умения говорить чаще всего являются просто слушанием того, что говорит учитель. Стоит отметить, что «мотивированность» не всегда подразумевает, что язык должен использоваться для своего рода копирования сообщений из обычной жизни. Например, зубрежка правил произношения и упражнения на расширение словарного запаса также могут иметь силу, если на самом деле они в первую очередь служат для повторения и улучшения тренируемого материала. Предобучающая подготовка Обучаемые должны иметь хорошую склонность к усвоению языка, который они должны практиковать, несмотря на это, они, скорее всего, смогут медленно воспроизводить или понимать сказанное и сделают это только после обдумывания. Если обучаемых попросят сделать какие-либо упражнения, основанные на материале, который они еще не начали изучать, то все их попытки сделать упражнения будут безуспешны. В этом случае упражнения будут бесполезны в условиях обучения: самым лучшим решением в данной ситуации будет тест на определение уровня знаний учащегося, который поможет учителю определить и подкорректировать то, чего не знает обучаемый. Если ученик успешно ответит на вопросы теста, то у него есть хорошая база для дальнейшего успешного изучения планового материала. Объем Если говорить приблизительно, считается, что чем больше ученик пользуется языком во время занятий, тем больше у него практики. Если рассматривать время урока с точки зрения «вместилища», то оно должно быть заполнено максимальным «объемом» языка. Время, когда ученики не вовлечены в языковую практику (по причине того, что ничего от них не требуется в данный момент или потому что они говорят на родном языке или по причине каких-либо отвлекающих факторов или отклонений от темы) считается потерянным, так как практика языка является важнейшим элементом занятий.

Задание 11. Определите получателя и цель перевода следующего текста и выполните перевод.

Generalremarks

The following considerations draw on a functional approach of translation (cf. Nord 1997), based on Skopos theory (cf. Vermeer 1978, Reiss/Vermeer 1984). Skopos is the Greek word for "aim, purpose", and the basic principle of Skopos theory is that the (intended) purpose of the target text determines the choice of method and strategy in the translation process. The target-text purpose is defined by the translation commission, or rather: translation brief. In professional settings, the "brief" is often not sufficiently explicit because commissioners are no translation experts and therefore they are not aware of what kind of information the translator needs to produce a text that fulfils the needs and expectations of the client and/or the prospective target-text audience. Therefore, the first step in the translation process is the "interpretation of the brief", drawing on whatever information there is or can be obtained about the "profile" of the target text the client needs. In routine tasks from well-known clients, for example, the translator may rely on previous experience; in "standard briefs" (like translating a set of operating instructions for a similar audience to achieve the same communicative function as that of the source text), they may simply follow the culture-specific norms for this kind of translation. Any task that is not standard or routine, will have to be specified before the process is initiated, and clients have to be "educated" to provide all sorts of information or indications available. Otherwise they will have to take what they get: a target text that fits many functions but none particularly well – instead of a text that is made to measure for the client's needs.

This does not mean that the client should tell the translator how to go about her or his work – no less than a client tells a mechanic how to fix the broken car or a lawyer how to defend the accused. The methods and strategies to choose from are part and parcel of the translator's professional competence, and this, in turn, is the basis for loyalty and trust between the translator and her/his interaction partners in intercultural mediation, as we will see below.

 

From “Loyalty and Fidelity in Specialized Translation” by Christiane Nord.

 

ТЕКСТЫ ДЛЯ САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОЙ РАБОТЫ

Текст 1