ABSTRACT

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.

摘要

在本文中，我们展示了通过考虑“翻译”的角度来考虑有关科学主题的专家文本与非专家文本之间的关系，可以得到哪些见解。我们将重点专门放在用于讨论气候变化的隐喻上，这些隐喻在一系列教育材料中以及在与英国中学生的访谈中使用。我们展示了可能影响学生对气候变化理解的人际关系和体裁之间复杂的关系网，并着重于教师的角色，尤其是作为科学知识的“翻译者”。然后，我们报告了几种语言和文字之间在隐喻使用上的几种比较，这些文字和体裁以这种语言内翻译网络中的源－目标关系为基础，并且还考虑了学生自己用来表达对气候变化理解的隐喻。