The Effect of Translating Specialized Vocabulary into Plain English in the courses of Food Fermentation and Brewing

Abstract

Abstract. This study aimed to explore how the translating of traditional scientific vocabulary into plain English influences student achievement in food fermentation and brewing university courses. The Data were collected from course sections instructed with traditional vocabulary, which is only translated and explained by Chinese, as well as sections instructed first with plain-English equivalent terms and then Chinese. The both treatment groups followed the same inquiry-based curriculum. The results showed that while different groups gained similar scores in basic knowledge and experimental ability, the plain English instructed students showed significantly better performance in the comprehensive written exams of food fermentation and brewing when compared to peers instructed with traditional vocabulary. The results supported the validity of the instruction methodology which relating unfamiliar new words to familiar known words. IntroductionThis study seeks to assess and quantitatively evaluate a method by which university teachers may make their courses more effective and accessible to undergraduate. The method under examination utilizes pedagogical techniques to examine the effect of inquiry-based learning and vocabulary modification on student outcomes in Food Fermentation and Brewing (FFB) course. The main objective of this study was to investigate if the translation of scientific and technological special vocabulary terms to plain English, a process that will henceforth be referred to as Anglicization, would work on student learning within the course context. The specific vocabulary of food microbiology, fermented food processing and traditional brewing which are derived from the Classical languages was Anglicized whenever possible (Table 1 as an example).