ABSTRACT
Community translation (CT) provides minority group members with access to public services such as health care and legal services, and hence facilitates the integration of those individuals into mainstream society. There is some concern that despite being superdiverse, New Zealand is not making best use of migrants’ economic and social capital. As translated material plays an important role in facilitating social inclusion, it is important that translators are trained to provide pragmatically accurate texts which do not inadvertently mislead the NESB readers. In this chapter, we first discuss some of the features of CT in New Zealand and propose ways in which pragmatic equivalence may be assessed. Second, we conduct a detailed comparative analysis of two English to Chinese translations to assess in what ways they may help or hinder social inclusion. Third, we discuss student translators’ reflections on pragmatic equivalence. And finally, we introduce a non–language-specific pedagogical approach which encourages translation students to incorporate proofreader comments on pragmatic, sociocultural, and language issues. Such reflections can help student translators develop a connection between translation practice and social inclusion.
