Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Translation on 07/04/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13556509.2020.1735759
Accepted author manuscript, 508 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Translating Science for Young People through Metaphor
AU - Deignan, Alice
AU - Semino, Elena
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Translation on 07/04/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13556509.2020.1735759
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - In this article we show what insights can be gained by considering the relationship between expert and non-expert texts about scientific topics through the lens of ‘translation’. We focus specifically on the metaphors used to discuss climate change in a range of educational materials and in interviews with secondary school students in the UK. We show the complex web of relationships among the people and genres that may influence students’ understandings of climate change, and focus on the role of teachers in particular as ‘translators’ of scientific knowledge. We then report on several comparisons of metaphor use among texts and genres that stand in source-target relationships within this web of intralingual translations, and also consider the metaphors used by students themselves to express their understanding of climate change. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of the differences we have observed, and suggest that a translation perspective can usefully highlight the challenges and potential pitfalls involved in mediating scientific knowledge for the benefit of non-experts such as school-age students.
AB - In this article we show what insights can be gained by considering the relationship between expert and non-expert texts about scientific topics through the lens of ‘translation’. We focus specifically on the metaphors used to discuss climate change in a range of educational materials and in interviews with secondary school students in the UK. We show the complex web of relationships among the people and genres that may influence students’ understandings of climate change, and focus on the role of teachers in particular as ‘translators’ of scientific knowledge. We then report on several comparisons of metaphor use among texts and genres that stand in source-target relationships within this web of intralingual translations, and also consider the metaphors used by students themselves to express their understanding of climate change. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of the differences we have observed, and suggest that a translation perspective can usefully highlight the challenges and potential pitfalls involved in mediating scientific knowledge for the benefit of non-experts such as school-age students.
U2 - 10.1080/13556509.2020.1735759
DO - 10.1080/13556509.2020.1735759
M3 - Journal article
VL - 25
SP - 369
EP - 384
JO - The Translator
JF - The Translator
IS - 4
ER -