Difficulties Arab translation trainees encounter when translating high-frequency idioms

• Published in: Babel (Frankfurt) 2012-01, Vol.58 (2), p.181-204
• Main Author: SAEED, Aziz Thabit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied linguistics; Human translation; Linguistics; Translation
• ISSN: 0521-9744; 1569-9668
• DOI: 10.1075/babel.58.2.04sae

This study attempts to investigate the difficulties that translation trainees encounter when rendering idioms into Arabic. It also explores the strategies that the trainees utilize in their translation attempts. To carry out the investigation, the author designed a translation task that comprises 20 frequently used idioms, the selection process of which passed through four rigorous steps of frequency check tests. The translation task was distributed to a randomly selected group of translation trainees, 30 undergraduates and 15 graduates, from the Department of English, University of Sharjah. Findings of the study show that both groups of trainees used more or less the same translation strategies but with a frequency that differed from one group to the other. The study also shows that the translation trainees encounter tangible difficulties in their attempt to translate idioms. These difficulties range from the selection of inappropriate strategies, inability to recognize the presence of an idiom, inability to preserve the idiomatic effect of the SL idiom, interference of trainees' L1 culture to difficulties that result from shallow competence in L2. Despite the different levels of training, the findings of the study did not reveal a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the difficulties they encountered. Adapted from the source document