Translation Research Amira Completed

A Training program for Developing English Majors' Translation Competence Based on
the Eclectic Approach

By
Amira El-Amir Khater
Lecturer, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Women's College, Ain Shams University
:Abstract
The present study aims at developing basic-education English majors' translation
competence in light of the eclectic approach. The researcher designed the program by
integrating the linguistic approach, the cognitive approach, cultural studies approach and the
functional approach in order to improve students' accuracy, grammar and style, finding
equivalent and reducing the shifts, omissions and additions. They were also trained to
translate idioms, proverbs and collocations from English to Arabic and vice versa. Data was
analyzed statistically by means of t-tests for the English-Arabic and Arabic-English passages,
and the descriptive analysis for idioms, proverbs and collocations. Results proved the
effectiveness of the program.
Key words:
Translation competence, eclectic approach, linguistic approach, cognitive approach, cultural
studies approach, functional approach,
:Introduction
Mastering a second language requires going beyond the acquisition of pure linguistic skills.
In order to gain command in second language, it is valuable to analyze and contrast the style,
format and organization of the discourse in both L1 and L2. Translation as a unifying discipline
could facilitate this task to the L2 students. Pariente-Beltran (2006) indicates that translation, as
a pedagogical resource, may contribute to enhance the learners' accuracy of the L2, which will
eventually foster communicative confidence and development of their linguistic and
communicative skills in both languages. Language skills are no more the traditional four
language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing; cultural skill and translation skill were
added to these traditional skills as both contribute to language comprehension. Therefore,
translation learning is an effective component in language teaching.
Although translation is one of the courses being taught in English departments for English
majors in Faculties of Education, students still have translation problems and commit translation
errors. Translation teaching depends mainly on translation product rather than process. Shi-Yang
(2009) explains that traditional translation teaching main aim is to improve the language
competence; it is teacher-centered, mainly concerned with error correction, based on words or
sentences, and focused on the foreign language competence (Sadeghi and Ketabi 2010).
Studies conducted in Faculties of Education proved that English majors face problems while
translating. Most of these studies were concerned with error analysis such as Gabr (2002) which
investigated the practices of teaching and studying translation in Egyptian governmental
universities. Aly (2004) conducted a study to investigate the strategies followed by EFL students
in the translation process. It was a case study since it followed a think aloud protocol to identify
the EFL translation strategies followed by the students. Abdellah( 2007) explored the practices
of learning and teaching translation at Faculties of Education in South Valley University.
Results showed that there is a bad need for designing a systematic program for developing basic
translation skills for English majors in the Faculty of Education. The study showed also that
there is a need for a systematic translation test that measures translation ability. Also, Badawi
1
(2008) investigated EFL Saudi prospective teachers' ability to translate culture-bound

expressions. The researcher concluded that EFL prospective teachers' performance is very poor.
Abbasi and Karimnia (2011) developed an analysis of grammatical errors among Iranian
translation students: insights from inter-language theory. Findings showed that 98 percent of the
students had grammatical problems, and most errors that the students produced were of
interlingual errors, indicating the influence of the mother language. The main aim of
Firoozkoohi, Beikian and Golavars (2012) study was to conduct a survey among translation
students to find out the translation assessment criteria used by their translation instructors and
the extent to which these students are aware of such criteria. The results showed that translation
instructors were not unanimous in terms of the criteria they used in assessing students
translations. Furthermore, in most cases, the students were not aware of such criteria. Finally,
Atawneh and Alaqra (2007) investigated the course outline given in different places of
Palestinian Universities to check the objectives of teaching translation and look into samples of
tests to check the compliance of tests with the courses taught. Results proved that there was a
gap between theory and practice and students faced cultural bound problems while translating.
These studies proved that there is a problem facing EFL students in different contexts.
:Context of the problem

Being concerned with teacher preparation issues, the researcher has always been following
student-teachers' academic progress and their achievement not only in the Methodology course
but in the other courses as well. Among the problems they mentioned, in a free discussion, was
the problem of the translation course. They mentioned that they are always assessed according to
the product they produce but are not directed to the process they should follow.
For further emphasis on the problem, the researcher conducted a pilot study where 10 students ,
fourth year Primary stage English majors, were provided with 5 English proverbs, 5 Arabic
proverbs, 5 English collocations, 5 Arabic collocations and two small passages; an Arabic one
and an English one (Appendix :1 ).
:Results were as follows
:Analysis of students' translation of the Arabic proverbs
Results showed that students had difficulty translating Arabic proverbs as indicated in the
analysis (appendix:1)
:Analysis of students' translation of the English proverbs
From the analysis, it was conclude that most of the students were unable to translate proverbs
correctly. It is important to mention that proverbs are important cultural part of language
learning which are ignored in teaching language in general and in translation teaching in
particular.
The second part of the pilot study asked students to translate five English collocations into
Arabic and vice versa. First, the analysis the translation of the English collocations into
Arabic proved that students translations of the English collocations were unsatisfactory.
Students who translated them correctly said that they depended on the strategy of guessing
the meaning rather than their knowledge of these collocations.
Moving to the analysis of the students' translation of the Arabic collocations, results showed
that students' ability to find an equivalent for the Arabic collocations was poor. Finding
Arabic equivalents to English collocations was, to some extent, easier because they may
guess the meaning of the collocation.
The third part of the pilot study was the translation passages from English to Arabic and vice
versa. Correcting students' translation from Arabic into English holistically it was concluded
that
1-Students have difficulties to find the proper equivalent for some Arabic words such as
Word for word translation was another problem that affects the context and the meaning of
the translated part.
2-Some of them do not recognize the tense of the source text and as a consequence they
translate the passage using another tense. Also, subject verb agreement is another
grammatical problem.
Punctuation was an apparent problem when translating from Arabic into English. Arabic
sentences are, sometimes, long and do not have punctuation marks but when translated into
English one may need to add punctuation marks for the sake of the context or to clarify
meaning.
Moving to students' translation of the English passage, it was concluded that translating
from English to Arabic was a little bit easier for them; at least the context was more
comprehensible than that of the Arabic passage. Even though, they encounter the same
problems they faced in translating the Arabic passage.
Problem of the study:

The traditional translation classroom presumes that a transfer of translation knowledge takes
place from teacher to student. The teacher presents the ideal translation, points out the students'
deviations from the ideal, with the expectation that they will avoid making same errors in the
future. Translation needs to be approached in a new way where the student is the core of the
learning process. Students need to experience the translation process rather than produce a
translated text to be assessed and graded.
Hence, the problem, as revealed in the pilot study, was the weakness of the basic education
students in translation, both from Arabic to English and vice versa, as well as their weakness in
translating idioms, proverbs and collocations from English to Arabic and vice versa. Thus, the
present study aims at developing a training program for primary stage English majors' at Girls'
College to develop their translation competences based on the eclectic approach.
The study seeks to provide answers to the following main question:
What is the effectiveness of a training program for developing English majors' Translation
competence based on the eclectic approach?
From this main question the following sub-questions emerge:
1-What are the features of the training program for developing English majors' Translation
competence based on the eclectic approach?
2-To what extent will students master translation discourse of a passage in both languages
(Arabic and English)?
3- To what extent will students master translation of idioms and proverbs in both languages
(Arabic and English)?
4- To what extent will students master translation of collocation in both languages (Arabic
and English)?
Hypotheses of the Research:

The study seeks to verify the following hypotheses:
1-There will be statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the English
majors' overall English-Arabic pre-post translation discourse passage competence test in
favour of the post test.
majors pre-post English-Arabic translation discourse passage competence test in favour of
the post test in the following sub-competences: accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and
style, and avoiding shifts, omissions, additions and inventing equivalents.
majors' overall Arabic-English pre-post translation discourse passage competence test in
majors' Arabic-English pre-post translation discourse passage competence test in favour of
style, and avoiding shifts, omissions, additions and inventing equivalents.
5- There will be statistical differences between the mean scores of the English majors'
English-Arabic pre-post proverbs and idioms translation test in favour of the post test.
English-Arabic pre-post collocations translation test in favour of the post test.
Arabic-English pre-post proverbs and idioms translation test in favour of the post test.
Arabic-English pre-post collocations translation test in favour of the post test.
Variables of the Study:

1-Independent variable:
The independent variable is the training program for developing fourth year basic-education
English majors' translation competence.
2-Dependent Variable:
The dependent variable is the experimental group of basic-education English language
majors' performance on translation competence test .
Delimitations of the Research:

The study is delimited to:
1-Fourth year, basic-education English majors, Women's College, Ain Shams University, the
second term of the academic year 2011- 2012.
2-The translation competence training program for both English-Arabic translation
competence and Arabic-English translation competence covering Arabic proverbs, English
proverbs and idioms, Arabic collocations, English collocations, Arabic passage and English
passage.
3-The translation competences were: accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and style, and
Shifts, omissions, additions and inventing equivalents.
Design of the study:

The present study adopts the one-group pre-post test experimental design. The results treated
through quantitative data, qualitative and descriptive analysis. T-tests will be applied for the
English-Arabic passage and the Arabic-English passage on the four translation competences:
accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and style, and Shifts, omissions, additions and
inventing equivalents. While the descriptive analysis is used for the Arabic-English and
English-Arabic proverbs, idioms and collocations .
4
Tools of the Study:

1-A pre-post translation competence test which is divided into four sub-competences:
accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and style, and Shifts, omissions, additions and
inventing equivalents.
2-Translation competence scoring rubric.
Significance of the study:

The present study tackles a problem that faces English majors in faculties of Education;
mainly basic-education English majors Women's College Ain Shams University, where
students have difficulties in the translation process. Their education in this field emphasizes
the product rather than the process. They need some theoretical background on translation
theories as well as some information about translation competence. Moreover, they need
more tasks, activities and exercises that enhance the translation process. Also, instructors
need a criterion to assess their students performance. Translation teaching does not depend
mainly on translating the ST (source text) to the TT (target text). A prerequisite to this stage is
needed where students practice some tasks and activates related to linguistic aspects such as,
word choice grammar and style, and cultural aspects such as, proverbs and their equivalents,
idioms and collocations. New trends in education call for the integration between more than
one theory, approach and more than one instructional design. Therefore, the researcher
presents the training program to improve basic-education English majors' translation
competence based on the eclectic approach.
Definition of Terms:
Eclectic Approach:
It is defined as "the use of variety of methods or approaches, choosing techniques from each
method that are considered effective and applying them according to the learning context and
objectives. It aims at facilitating the understanding of the language and do not rely on one
specific 'best method' ". (TJ Taylor: WWW.tjtaylor.net/english/teaching-method-summary)
Operational definition:
Using a variety of approaches' activities, tasks and exercises in a mixed way to teach
translation ; namely the linguistic approach, the cultural studies approach, the cognitive
approach and the functionalist approach in order to improve basic-education English majors'
translation competence.
Translation Competence:
Neubert (1994) explains that "translation competences have to provide students with the
ability to recreate the source text (ST) in a context of different language and culture. He
proposes a hierarchical definition of translation competence that consists of language
competence, textual competence, cultural competence, and transfer competence".
Operational definition:
In this study translation competence is defined as the students' ability to translate from the
source text to the target text taking into consideration mastering language accuracy, finding
the proper equivalent of the translated words, using correct grammar and style, and the proper
use of shifts, omissions, additions and the adequate invention of equivalents, and the
effective use of cultural elements to translate idioms, collocations and proverbs by finding
their equivalents, paraphrasing them or coining new ones that keep the flavor of the source
(adaption).
Review of Literature
What is translation?
According to Avval (2009) translation is considered "an act of communication. To translate
effectively, the student should analyze the message; to do so, he/she should have some tools
at hand: such tools can be the well known communication strategies which prevents a
communication from disruption".
Moore (2009) explains that "translation refers to carrying the meaning of a text from one
language to another. This process involves interpretation of meaning of the text and
producing the same meaning in another language."
For Al-Kufaishi (2004) "translation is a cognitive activity in the sense that it engages the
translator's cognitive structures in an attempt to comprehend, deconstruct and reconstruct
meaning. Schemata are involved in the four translation processes (decomposition,
conversion, restructuring and editing). In the deconstruction process, the translator utilizes his
SL schemata especially his knowledge of the processes of discourse analysis, communicative
context and cultural reconstruction. In both restructuring and editing processes, he exploits
his schemata to properly encode the transferred meaning'.
Richards and Rodgers (2002) define translation as the process of rendering written
language that was produced in one language (source language) into another language (target
language) or the target language version that results from this process."
For Bassnett (2002) "translation involves the rendering of a source language (SL) text into
the target language (TL) as to ensure that (1) the surface meaning of the two will be
approximately similar, and (2) the structures of the SL will be preserved as closely as possible
,but not so closely that the TL structures will be seriously distorted".
James (2000) regards translation as "a kind of activity that involves two languages and two
cultures. It is an activity of a cross-cultural communication rather than the mere
transformation of linguistic signs of different languages. Translation is not only the
transformation of linguistic signs but also the communication of thoughts and culture".
Al-Kufaishi (1996) also defined translation as" an interlingual communicative activity in
the sense that it is primarily concerned with conveying meaning across different cultures and
with enhancing cross-cultural understanding. It is interactive in the sense that it involves
interaction and negotiation in its four processes of text decomposition, conversion,
restructuring and editing".
It is concluded that translation is the process of transformation of certain message from one
language to another language. This process involves not only linguistic signs but also a
cognitive activity that requires the translator to activate his schemata and to understand,
deconstruct and reconstruct the meaning. It is also a communicative activity where the
translator interacts with the text and activates the communicative strategies to overcome the
obstacles s/he meets while translating. It is also considered a cultural activity where the
translator has to be familiar with the cultural differences between the languages and the
cultural implications a text may contain which affect the meaning while translating.
Traditional translation teaching:
Traditional translation teaching is teacher-centered, mainly concerned with error correction,
limited in classrooms' teaching, based on words and sentences, and focused on the foreign
language competence. It emphasizes mainly the word meaning and the sentence meaning
which is not completely right in context. The pragmatic meaning may change the meaning
completely.
The main short comings of traditional teaching as presented by Shi-Yang(2009)

1-The traditional translation teaching prefers the bottom-up order, concentrating on the
semantic meaning, it mainly emphasizes the word, phrase, clause, or sentence meaning. In
this situation, when the students get the translation text, they usually study new words and
phrases to understand the sentence meaning, finally translate the text with the help of
sentence translation skills. These kinds of meaning cannot clearly and exactly realize the
purpose of the original author, and it is difficult for target readers to obtain the same effect as
source readers obtained from the original text.
2-The traditional translation teaching focuses on the word or sentence meaning(He-Ping,
2000:42).
3-The traditional translation teaching is teacher-centered. In general, teachers give students a
text, which is full of pitfalls, that is to say, the teachers at the very beginning do not plan to
train their students to be engaged in complex and difficult translation skills, and confuse them
and mislead them to the wrong way. They discuss sentence by sentence after students have
translated the text, eventually, teachers give the right translation. This translation teaching
becomes error correction; and teachers' reference becomes the ultimate aim. Thus, the
purpose of translation teaching disappears and it, to some extent, harms students' activity and
creativity.
4-The traditional translation teaching is not concerned much about the culture factor. In
translation, culture difference is an important factor that the translator must consider.
Based on the findings that identified the drawbacks of the traditional translation teaching
method, experts in the field started discussing the competences that students need to master in
order to translate a text comprehensibly. Different classifications of translation competence
were presented and the following is a presentation of the most important and more relevant
ones to the present research followed by a discussion of the different approaches of teaching
translation, methods, strategies, and techniques.
Translation Competence
Neubert (1994) cited in Schaffner (2000, 15) proposes the following hierarchical definition
of translation competence that consists of:
1-Language Competence: includes the knowledge of the grammatical system as well as
repertoires, terminologies, syntactic and morphological conventions.
2-Textual Competence: emerges from and is intertwined with the linguistic competence, and
represents an ability to define textual features of e.g. technical, legal or literary fields,
3-Subject Competence: stems from textual competence, it represents the familiarity with what
the particular text is about, this concept covers both knowledge about the world
(encyclopedic knowledge) and readers' knowledge.
4- Cultural Competence: is what students need while translating as they act as mediators
between various cultural background and presuppositions.
5-Transfer Competence: encompasses the strategies and procedures that allow translating the
text from L1 to L2. It is the ability to perform translation quickly and effectively. This
competence is superordinate to the previous four competencies and has a transient nature
because it is "triggered off by the nature of the text" or by different parts of a single source
text.
Schaffner (2000, 146) presented a pedagogical model known as Christina Schaffner's
model where she defines translation competence (TC) as "a complex notion which involves
an awareness of and a conscious reflection on all the relevant factors for the production of a
target text (TT) that appropriately fulfils its specified function for its target addressees". Her TC
model consists of the following translation sub-competences:
1-Linguistic Competence- is the languages concerned
2-Cultural Competence- is general knowledge about historical, political, economic, cultural, etc.
aspects in the respective countries.
3-Textual Competence-is knowledge of regularities and conventions of texts, genres, text types.
4-Domain/ Subject Specific competence-is knowledge of the relevant subject, the area of
expertise.
5-(Re)search Competence- ability to produce TTs that satisfy the demands of the translation
task. (Schaffner 2000:146).
These competences are interrelated and interacted together depending on a given translation
task.
TC models based on pedagogical experience may be constructed in the light of undesirable
traits exhibited by students and by the products of their efforts.
Fox (2000: 115) presented some of the negative aspects of translation performance of
undergraduate students :
-lack of awareness of the purpose of translation task
-lack of knowledge of the TT language, its conventions and usage
-lack of knowledge of the socio-cultural context within which texts were to be received
-The absence of effective text editing
In response to the needs presented by aforementioned shortcomings, Fox (200:116-130)
developed the following definition of translation competence/s:
1-communicative competence- awareness towards the purpose of translation task and the
situation resulting in the ability to produce an adequate TT
2-Socio-cultural competence-awareness of the socio-cultural context in which the ST emerged
and an ability to comprehend texts in TL and SL culture.
3-Language and cultural awareness- being aware of how language/s work and conveys meaning
and an ability to produce TTs that meet the linguistic and cultural expectations of target audience
4- Learning-how to learn an awareness of different resources and how to use them to record
ones observations.
5-Problem-solving goals awareness of situational, linguistic, cultural or textual problems and
being able to solve them.
Having a glance to the competence models presented, one can conclude that:
First, all the competences are interrelated, and cannot be segregated.
Second, all the competences suggested are derived from different theories; either theories of
language or theories of learning. For example, linguistic or language competence and textual
competence are derived from the linguistic theory, the communicative competence and problemsolving competence are derived from the communicative and functional approaches, cultural
competence is derived from the cultural studies theory, and the subject/ domain specific
competence is derived from the cognitive theory.
Depending on this, the researcher designed the program in light of these theories which are
integrated under the umbrella of the eclectic approach. The following discussion is a short
presentation of the four theories being used in the present research.
The linguistic approach to translation:
The linguistic approach to translation focuses primarily on the issues of meaning and
equivalence (same meaning conveyed by a different expression). Linguistics thus tries to
discover what the language actually means. It is then the work of the philosophy of
linguistics to understand how the language means. Language has certain features like
meaning, reference, truth, verification, speech acts, logical necessity etc. it is through these
feature that the linguists try to understand the what and the how of the text. Any language
8
uses a particular set of signs and symbols to convey a particular meaning or idea. These signs
and symbols are signifiers. The meaning or idea that is being conveyed by these signifiers
is called signified. All languages are used in a particular social and cultural context. So the
signified for a particular signifier may change from culture to culture and society to
society. For example, for signifier yellow in America, the signified is cowardice, for the
Egyptians yellow signifies jealousy whereas for Indians it signifies joy. Thus the translator
has to understand what the author of the original text actually wants to convey(Moore, 2009).
Undoubtedly, for the linguistic approach, language is the component in translation.
Translation can actually be understood as transferring the meaning or the idea from one
language to another. It thus becomes imperative for a translator to understand the meaning of
the source text (text to be translated) in the context in which they are said or written.
Cultural studies and their implications on translation:
Now the academic circles of translation studies have reached a consensus that translation
studies have been taking a shift from the mere linguistic transformation to the transference of
cultural messages. It can be seen from some cultural terms. For example, Conacher (1996:169)
replaces translation with inter-cultural communication; Holz-Manttari substitutes
intercultural cooperation for translation (1984:17); and Snell-Hornby (1988:2) regards it as a
cross-cultural activity
Translation is more of a cross-cultural communication than of a bilingual communication the
aim of which is to break the language barriers to cultural communication; the nature of
translation is a cross-cultural transmission of information, a cultural activity in which translators
make the reappearance of the source text with the target language. The essence of translation is
cultural transplanting and cultural mixture. It is rather than the language but cultural information
that is the object of translation activity (James:2002).
James (2002) adds that understanding the meaning of the source text is much more than a mere
linguistic matter. Language is part of culture and is, in turn, influenced and restricted by culture.
Under different cultural background, the same word may mean differently. So, in the course of
translating, whether the translator can understand one passage correctly or not is to a great extent
determined by his knowledge of the culture concerned. Cultural Translation (or Cultural
Approach) is a term used informally to refer to types of translation which function as a tool for
cross-cultural or anthropological research, or indeed to any translation which is sensitive to
cultural as well as linguistic factors. Such sensitivity might take the form either of presenting
target language recipients with a transparent text which informs them about elements of the
source culture, or of finding target items which may in some way be considered to be culturally
equivalent to the source language items they are translating. Thus a translator who uses a
cultural approach is simply recognizing that each language contains elements, which are derived
from its culture (such as greetings, fixed expressions, etc), that every text is anchored in a
specific culture, and that conventions of text production and reception vary from culture to
culture. An awareness of such issues can at times make it more appropriate to think of
translation as a process which occurs between cultures rather than simply between languages.
(Shuttleworth Cowie 2004: 35)
The functional Approach:
Sui and Wang (2005) indicated that the functional approach is a model of performance. It is
concerned with meaning, function, and language in use. It is an important tool for interpreting
texts. According to Halliday (1985), the functional approach has the following three
characteristic features:
1) It is based on systemic theory; a theory of meaning as choice. It means starting with the
most general features and proceeding step by step so as to become even more specific.
2) It is functional in three distinctions: First, it is concerned with the way language is
organized to fulfill communicative functions. Second, it aims to account for three basic kinds
9
of meaning, the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual. Third, each element in a
language is explained by reference to its function in the total linguistic system.
3) It is discourse approach. It aims to provide two levels of discourse analysis: the first is the
understanding of the text. The second is the evaluation of the text.
Accordingly, Sui and Wang concluded that:
1) Use, not just study. Modern methods give priority to classroom activities that encourage
students to use the language rather than merely study it.
2) Exchange of information. Communicative activity also necessitates a focus not just on the
forms of language, but on the information that is accessed through it.
3) Skill integration. Language learning, listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating
are seen as mutually supportive.
4) Grammar is only a tool to use language well, no need spending much time on actual
explanation. Of course, people communicate with one another not only in language, but also
with their body and mind.
According to this functional approach, translation training does not depend merely on
translation from and to the target language; it depends on several activities to enhance the
process of translation. These activities range from pair work to group work and from
language exercises to cultural ones.
Translation as a cognitive process:
The cognitive theory depends mainly on the assumption that learners are not simply passive
recipients of information; they actively construct their own understanding. Bassnett (2002)
indicated that translation is a cognitive process, because conscious knowledge helps towards the
development of L2 proficiency. It involves a deeper understanding and internalization of the
language (translation becoming a mediation resource for communication). Wilson ( 2011 )
indicated that how translation occurs is the cumulative cognitive behavior of the translator and
what the transition of the sign and its components is from the source language to the target
language. She added that translation, at a minimum, involves cognitive functions such as
problem-solving and decision-making. Linguistic skills in two languages are not sufficient, as
translation is a complex cognitive function that extends beyond linguistic skills. Wilson
summarizes the cognitive translation process into three general tasks (analyze, interpret and
reformulate) under the umbrella of these three tasks operational concepts occur: action,
behavior, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, intuition, and strategies , techniques and
routines of translation. For Al-Kufaishi (2004)Translation provides learners with opportunities
to operate on the text extracting salient information, interpreting propositions, rejecting
redundant information, focusing on what is relevant, etc. Translation is thus an exercise that
helps learners develop their cognitive data processing capabilities their abilities to recognize
and reproduce structured discourse and sharpen their comprehension skills. With its focus on
meaning, translation helps learners identify the communicative value of utterances which is
determined largely with reference to the interaction between sentence meaning and the
communicative context. Sentence meaning, in turn, is determined largely with reference to the
interaction between words and the structures in which they are embedded. One of the important
learning principles is the linkage principle-learning through associating related elements. It
postulates that learners learn by linking (a) grammatical forms to their communicative functions
and to the parameters of the communicative event, (b) the different functions manifested by a
single grammatical form and (c) the different forms that serve the same function. Since a
translation text exposes learners to the communicative functions language forms encode
(functions such as those of description, definition, classification, etc.), it helps them associate
these functions with the grammatical structures that realize them and with their illocutionary
intent.
:Transformational approach
10
It is a student and learning-centered context that focuses on collaborative study and exploration
of the translation process with the teacher acting as guide and where procedures bridge class
work and practice with theories (Davies, 2004:14).
It is obvious that the implementation of translation could not only enhance the process of
learning the language from a pragmatically and socio-cultural point of view, but also contribute
to a better and deeper understanding of the L2 and culture. By bringing the translation exercises
into the L2 classroom, students' use of grammar, vocabulary, registry are reinforced and they
become aware of different situational contexts and cultural aspects.
Based on these approaches Davies (2004:15-19) summarized the implementation of them in
classroom dynamics as follows:
a-the linguistic-based approach based on the comparison and contrast of languages, on text
types, pragmatics, morpho-syntax, that is mainly text and language centered.
b-The cultural approach where the students are made aware of the hidden agendas in texts, and
analyses and translate according to these, discussing mainly the procedures used by authors and
translators to reveal covert or overt intentions and what the translator's reactions and actions
should be accordingly. Challenging ideologies is the crucial issue here.
c- The cognitive approach in which the emphasis lies on the application of translation solutionssometimes called strategies or procedures-to specific problems, on the discussion about what
goes on in the translator's mind and on exploring what lies behind translation competence.
Transference skills are main area of study and practice.
d-The functionalist approach where the emphasis lies on the translation assignment and its
initiator, whether an author or the translator him/herself. Here, the target text is more central
than the source text and its author, and the transformations necessary to comply with the
initiator's request are the key issue around which classroom discussions revolve.
Davies added, in the approach to translation training to be applied, the following points affect
the design of any training program directly (19):
-An interaction between all the participants of the learning setting.
-The inclusion of both process and product oriented activities.
-The integration of five main approaches to translation training: linguistics, cultural, cognitive
psychology, functionalism and cooperative.
-The inclusion of research in pedagogy studies, especially the area related to class dynamics.
-A need to build bridges to fill the communication gap between theories and practice.
-The perception of the teacher's role as guide, counselor, informer and evaluator.
-The acceptance of student diversity and the perception of their role as autonomous learners.
-A need to respect learner styles and teaching styles.
-Learning through negotiation and experimentally in a classroom environment understood as a
combination of a hands-on workshop and a discussion forum on ongoing translation issues.
-The design of worksheets and activities to complete the texts for translation and enhance
different aspects central to translating, whether linguistic or extra-linguistic.
-Catering for the specific needs of students with little experience in translation to help them
move from language learning to translation learning.
Reasons for using translation in the classroom:
Slepchenko (2003) agreed with Duff (1994) in highlighting the following reasons for using
translation in the classroom:
1-All people have mother tongue: Translation shapes people's way of thinking and their use of
the foreign language to some extent. It helps people to understand better the influence of one
language on the other. And because translation involves contrast, it helps them to explore the
potential of both languages- their strengths and weaknesses.
2- Naturalness of the activity: He believes that translation is a natural and necessary activity.
11
3-The skill aspect: Language competence is a two-way system. People need to be able to
communicate both ways; into and from the foreign language. Translation is a perfect means of
practicing this vital skill.
4-The reality of the language: The proper material for translation is authentic and wideranging; the learner is being brought into touch with the whole language, and not just the parts
isolated by the textbook.
5- Usefulness: As a language learning activity, translation has a lot of merits; in translation there
is hardly any 'right' answer, but there are a lot of wrong ones. Doing all the work individually
and in writing is not necessary. Students can work in pairs of groups for oral discussions. He
adds that translation is useful because it develops three essential qualities to all language
learning: accuracy, clarity and flexibility. It trains the reader to search (flexibility) for the most
appropriate words (accuracy) to convey what is meant (clarity).
Slepchenko (2003) added that depending on the students' needs, and on the syllabus, the teacher
can select material to illustrate particular aspects of language and structures the students have
difficulties with. By working through these difficulties in the mother tongue, the students can see
the link between the language (grammar) and the usage.
Methods of translation:
Newmark (1988: 81) presented the following methods of translation:
1-word for-word translation:
In this method, the source language word is translated into another language by their most
common meanings, which can also be out of context at times, especially in idioms and proverbs.
2-literal translation:
In this method, the source language grammatical constructions are translated to their nearest
target language. However, the lexical words are translated singly, out of context.
3-Faithful translation:
In this method, the translation interprets the exact contextual meaning of the original within the
constraints of the grammatical structures of the target language.
4-Semantic translation:
Semantic translation refers to that type of translation which takes into account the aesthetic
value of the source language text.
5-Adoption:
Adoption refers to that type of translation which is used mainly for plays and poems. The text is
rewritten considering the source language culture which is converted to the language culture
where the characters, themes, and plots are usually preserved.
6-Free translation:
This method of translation produces the translated text without style, form, or content of original
text.
7-Idiomatic translation:
It reproduces the message of the original text but tends to distort the original meaning at times
by preferring colloquialisms and idioms, where these do not exist in the original.
8-Communicative translation:
This method attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original text in a manner
where both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readers.
Adetunji (2010: 15-16) presented another classification of the methods of translation:

1-Idiomatic Translation
12
Idiomatic translation is the kind of translation that is meaning - based and which communicates
the meaning of the source language in a natural form of the receptor language. In translating an
idiom, the translators goal should be to reproduce in the receptor language a text, which
communicates the same message as the source language but using the natural grammatical and
lexical choices of the
receptor language.
2-Unduly Free Translation
Unduly free translation is the kind of translation that has additional extraneous information
which is not included in the source text, whether the meaning of the source language has been
changed or the fact of the historical and cultural setting of the source language text has been
distorted. However, this kind of translation is not totally considered acceptable and normal. It is,
however, usually used to bring a kind of humor and special response from the receptor language
speakers. And it also emphasizes on the reaction of those reading or hearing it and the meaning
is not necessarily the same as that of the source language.
3- Interlinear Translation
It is a completely literal translation for some special purpose. It is preferable to reproduce the
linguistic features of the source text as, for example, in a linguistic study of that language.
Although these literal translations may be very useful for purposes related to the study of the
source language, they are of little help to speakers of the receptor language who are very
interested in the meaning of the source language text.
The present research concentrates on both communicative translation and idiomatic translation
because the sample of the study is not professionals and will not work as translators; their
profession is mainly English teachers for basic education cycle.
The following are techniques and strategies of translation adopted from Adetunji (2010):
A. Equivalence
This implies searching the target language for the most appropriate and equivalent
expression corresponding to the one in the source language. It is the technique most
frequently applied in the translation of proverbs, idiomatic expressions and figures of
speech. Simpson (1985) explains that the translator has no choice than to search for similar
situation in the target language. It is therefore a cultural transplant. For example
al- waladu sirru abihi If we translate this literally, we may write: the boy is the secret of
his father this translation does not give the exact meaning of the source language, the real
meaning is like father like son. From this example, it appears that equivalence plays a
significant role in the translation of idioms, proverbs and figures of speech. It is the safest
way of ensuring that the right message is transmitted from the source language to the target
language.
B. Adaptation
Adaptation means the modification of the idea in the source language so as to find an
acceptable one in the target language. Adaptation can be used where the translator does not
find an appropriate equivalence.
C. Transposition
Transposition is a replacement of a part of speech by another, without altering the meaning.
Therefore transposition as a technique of translation means changing the syntactical
structure of an expression so as to clarify the meaning.
Dornyei (1995) cited in Brown (2000:128) provided the strategies that students usually
follow while translating:
1-Avoidance strategies:
13
Message abandonment:
Leaving message unfinished because of language difficulties.
Topic avoidance:
Avoiding topic areas or concepts that pose language difficulties.
2-Compensatory strategies:
Circumlocution:
Describing or exemplifying the target object of action (e.g. the thing you open bottles with
for corkscrew).
Approximation:
Using all alternative term which expresses the meaning of the target lexical item as closely
as possible (e.g. ship for sailboat).
Use of all purpose words:
A general empty lexical item to contexts where specific words are lacking (e.g., the over use of
things, stuff, what-do-you-call-it)
Word coinage:
Creating a non-existing L2 word based on a supposed rule (e.g., vegetaianist for vegetarian).
Prefabricated patterns:
Using memorized stock phrases, usually for "survival" purposes (e.g., where is the..or
where the morphological components are not known to the learner).
Non-linguistic signals:
This strategy is used in the case of oral translation like mime, gesture, facial expressions
Literal translation:
Translating literally a lexical item, idiom, compound word, or structure from L1 to L2.
Foreignizing:
Using L1 word by adjusting it to L2 phonology (i.e., with a L2 pronunciation) and/or
morphology (e.g., adding to it a L2 suffix).
Code-switching:
Using a L1 word with L1 pronunciation or a L3 word with L3 pronunciation while speaking
in L2.
Appeal for help:
Asking for help from the teacher directly of asking a colleague by saying (what do you call
..?)
Stalling or time gaining strategies:
Using fillers or hesitation devices to fill pauses and to gain time to think (well, now, uh
..etc.)
Pedagogical strategies to implement translation activities:
Sainz (1991:70) presented two effective activities to train students on translation.
Back-translation: It requires students to translate a text into L2, and after having set it aside for
some period of time, either translate the previous translation back into L1, or compare this
previous translation back with the original text in L1. This technique makes students realize
"how far away are the students translation from the original version and how their own
translations can be misleading even for themselves".
Collaborative translation: This consists of students comparing and sharing their own
translations. The goal is to promote discussion among students. Thus, they could eventually see
a better translation in each other's target text, or admit more than one option as a valid
translation.
Davis (2004:129, 135, 136) presented the following variety of translation tasks and activities:
Proverbs and fixed expressions activity:
14
1-The students take to the class between 10-12 beliefs, superstitions, or customs belonging to a
given culture. In groups students try to find equivalents in other cultures.
2-Match the columns activity: proverbs and sayings are listed in one column and their
correspondences in another language are listed jumbled in a second column. The students have
to match the correspondences. In some cases, there may be no correspondence or there may be
more than one possibility.
Collocations: Tackling negative transfer activity
1-The teacher chooses verbs that pose problems for the students because of linguistic
interference.
2-The verbs are situated in the centre of a "bubble" and few words which usually collocate with
it are written around each one. One false collocation is added. A blank space, or more, is also
left.
3-The students have to find the false collocation, fill in the blank/s with another collocation, or
others, and give possible translations that may vary according to different contexts.
Fast thinking: stop!
1-The students draw a grid in their notebooks with the semantic fields that the teacher has
proposed or the class has agreed upon previously.
2-A letter is called out by the teacher. The students have to fill in their grids with one word for
each field. The word must begin with the letter that has been called out.
3-Each student in the pair takes turns to draw back up the list in one of the two languages in
which they are working. Each time they have completed a list corresponding to a given letter,
they exchange them and translate each other's.
Synonyms and context activity:
1-The teacher chooses a number of challenging words which appear in the chosen text and
writes them on the board. The students then jot them down in their notebooks.
2-The teacher says aloud a synonym of each of the words but not in the same order in which
they were written on the board.
3-The students have to write the corresponding synonym next to the word it matches.
4-The students correct each other's synonyms against the complete text, that is, they put the
words in context. Problems are discussed as a class activity(e.g. how words may have different
meanings depending on their context).
5-Finally, students try to find correspondences for the words in their own language and comment
on any interesting points which may arise.
Many other activities were presented by Davies (2004) and were used and presented in the
present research's method.
Design of the study:
It is a pre-post one group design. Consequently, one group of fourth year basic-education
English majors, Women's College, Ain Shams University was used for conducting the
experiment. The pre-translation competence test was administered to the students before the
experiment. Then, they received the training program for developing their translation
competence based on the eclectic approach. Finally, the post- tests were administered to the
students and the differences were calculated by means of t-tests for the English-Arabic passage
and the Arabic-English passage while descriptive analysis was followed with the other part of
the test concerned with proverbs, idioms and collocations.
Participants
Participants included 19 fourth year basic education English majors who represented the whole
section. The program was administered in the second term of the academic year 2011/2012. All
subjects were graduated from governmental schools.
15
Instrumentation
The following two instruments were developed
a)Translation competence pre-post test. (Appendix:2 )
b)Translation competence scoring rubric (Appendix : 3 )
Content of the test:
The pre-post test is divided into six parts: the first part consists of 12 English proverbs and
idioms to be translated into Arabic. Part two consists of 15 English collocations. Part three
consist of 12 Arabic proverbs to be translated into English. Part four consists of 15 Arabic
collocations. Part five is an English passage to be translated into Arabic. The last part is an
Arabic passage to be translated into English.
Description of the translation competence scoring rubric:
The translation competence rubric is adopted from Khanmohammad and Osanloo (2009)
published in JELS Journal (Journal of Experimental Learning and Simulation) vol.1, no.1
entitled Moving toward objective scoring: A rubric for translation assessment.(appendix: 3 ).
Validity of the test:
To measure the test content validity, the first version of the test was given to three jury
members, 2 of them were TEFL professors and a linguistics lecturer who used to teach
translation, to evaluate the appropriateness of the items of the test.
The test in its first version consisted of 20 Arabic proverbs and idioms and 20 English
proverbs and idioms, 20 Arabic collocations and 20 English collocations, an Arabic passage
and an English passage.
The jury suggested the following:
a-They chose 12 English proverbs and 12 Arabic proverbs which are considered well known
proverbs and idioms for the Egyptian students in order to guarantee the full comprehension of
their meaning in order to test the students' translation ability only.
b-They chose only 15 collocations for each language. The collocations chosen varied to cover
economical, social, political and religious aspects.
c-The two passages were approved without any modification.(Appendix:2)
Reliability of the test:
In order to establish the reliability of the test, it was administered to a randomly chosen
group of 10 students from the third year basic education English majors, Women's College.
They were chosen from a level other than the sample of the study because the whole section
of the fourth year was the entire sample due to the low number of the section. After two
weeks the researcher retested the same students on the same test. Then, the Pearson
Correlation Coefficient between the test/retest results were calculated. The reliability
coefficient was (r = 0.94). Therefore, the test was considered reliable for the purpose of the
study.
Test time limitations:
Time of the test was estimated by calculating the means of time of both the fastest and
slowest students that finished answering the test. The slowest student finished after three
hours while the fastest student finished after an hour. Thus, the estimated time for the test was
120 minutes
Administration of the program:
The program was administered on the second term of the academic year 2011/2012 for two
months. The researcher used to meet the students regularly once a week for 2 hours. The
program consisted of eight sessions each consisted of a group of activities. The activities
were based on the four approaches (linguistic, cultural, cognitive and functional approaches).
The Program:(Appendix:5)
Rationale:
16
The present program stems from the belief that translation teaching/learning is an essential
component of language acquisition that constructs students' language competences of both the
target language and the mother tongue language. It depends on the eclectic approach which is an
integration of more than one approach. In the present program the approaches are the linguistic
approach, the cultural studies approach, the cognitive approach and the functional approach.
These approaches were carried out through the transformational approach which is a student and
learning-centered context that focuses on collaborative study and exploration of the translation
process with the teacher acting as a guide and where procedures that bridge class work and
practice have a place. Out of these approaches, different classifications of translation
competences emerged. Surveying these classifications, the researcher designed the present
program to develop four competences required for basic-education English majors students
which are accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and style, and avoiding shift, omission,
addition and inventing equivalent.
Sessions of the program: Activities used in this program were both adopted and
adapted from Davies (2004)
Session 1:
Activity 1: 30 minutes
Objectives:
By the end of this session students will be able to:
1-reflect on preconceived ideas about translation and elicit their expectations.
Procedures:
a-The researcher writes a series of words connected with translation on the board as "word
stars".
b-Each student should write between 3-5 words, expressions or ideas that she associates with
each of the words (they can be nouns, adjectives, verbs, phrases.)
c-When they have finished, they compare their associations with those of another student and
discuss their different and similar viewpoints.
d-Finally, in a brainstorming session, the researcher writes the different associations on the
board and a class discussion on preconceived ideas and expectations follows.
Equivalence
Translation
Creativity
Activity 2 : what is translation (60 minutes)

Objectives:
By the end of this activity students will be able to:
1-Present their beliefs about translation.
17
2-List possible items that form part of translation competence.

3-Compare and discuss their attitudes towards translation.
Procedures: (pair work)
a-The researcher asked students to write down about 5-6 points they need to know in order to
carry out an adequate translation task.
b-The students compared their list with those of another two students and discussed and justified
their points. The instructor circulated to find out what the general feeling was and to help out
with any problem.
c-Once all the students had had time to discuss, a brain storming session followed. The
instructor drew up three columns or bubbles on the board under the headings: Languages,
Encyclopedic knowledge, Transfer skills.
d-The students read out the concepts on their lists, which were then included in one or other of
the columns or bubbles. Of course, some may overlap, but this was considered an interesting
part of the debate. They decided under which column they wanted to include the more
ambiguous items and, if no consensus was arrived at, they were written in a space between the
two columns that seemed most appropriate.
e-The columns could be visualized as a triangle as follows:
Target
language
Interferen
ce
Linguistic
knowledge
subject
Source
language
Encyclop
edic
Theory
of
translati
on
Translation
aptitudes: the
task
knowledg
e
Source
and
target
language
resourc
ing
Transferenc
e skills
ment
al
Decisi
on
makin
g
Probl
em
solvi
ng
strate
gies
f- A discussion and an explanation, from the part of the researcher, of the terms included in
the bubbles follows.
Activity 3: 15 minutes translation (30minutes)
Objectives:
18
By the end of the activity students would be able to:

1-write translation drafts quickly.
2-translate with no resources, e.g. coping with translation without depending on a dictionary.
3-guess meaning through context.
4-Discuss translation issues with their peers.
Procedures:
a-the students received a text to be translated. The first time they did this activity, they read
the text before the activity started.
b-The students were given exactly 15 minutes to translate the text individually. Once the time
was up, they exchanged what they had done with another student and compared the results.
c-A discussion on which they was the best way to deal with translation under time constraints
followed.
Session 2:
Objectives of session 2:
By the end of this activity students would be able to:
1-become aware of cultural similarities and differences.
2-discuss translation strategies that can be used to translate proverbs and expressions.
Task 1: proverbs and fixed expressions
Activity 1: find equivalent
Activity 2:match the columns
Activity 3: practice translation alternatives
Activity 4: mind maps
Session 3:
Activity 1: collocations
Objectives:
By the end of this activity students would be able to:
1-compare collocations in two languages
2-choose the appropriate correspondence
Activity 2: choose the appropriate word
Objectives:
1-explore specific vocabulary
2-Choose the most appropriate word or expression in the source language and justify the
choice
3- Choose the most appropriate word or expression in the target language and justify the
choice
4-pratice dictionary exploration
f. Finally, each pair translated the text they did not prepare originally.
g.Different translations were presented and discussed.
Activity 3: synonyms and context
Objectives:
By the end of this activity students will be able to
1-introduce or reinforce specific vocabulary, synonyms and connotations
2-spot cultural components in words
3- contextualize vocabulary
4-Justify choices and make decisions
Activity 4: fast thinking
Objective:
19

1-explore and apply semantic translation
Session 4:
Activity 1: Connectors:
1- contextualize connectors
2- discuss semantic translation
Activity 2 : contrasting verb tenses
1-Compare the uses of verb tenses
2-Practice reverse dictation
Activity 3: gapped translation
1-Take decisions about their translations
2-Use correct context, register, style
3-Justify their choices
Session 5:
Task 2: What is ..?
Objectives:
By the end of this activity students will be able to
1-present their background knowledge about .
2-introduce specific terminology
3-collaborate to complete a text
4-Peer edit a translation
Activity 1: pre-task
1-This activity began at home where the teacher asked each group to decide on a topic and
collect data about it.
2-Find information about this topic from any sources they like: paper, electronic or human, in
L1.Write down/underline key terminology.
3-Do not overdo it just bring what you think will be necessary to your work.
Activity 2: read and translate:
Session 6:
Activity 1: Idioms game
1-Translate idioms and proverbs in two languages
2-Use different translation options
3-Practice problem solving
Activity 2: Quick vocabulary lists
1-Use effectively specific vocabulary
2-Apply communicative, semantic and literal translation and recognize the differences.
Activity 3: Bilingual chain words: code switching
1-practise transfer skills from L1 to L2 and back to L1
Session 7:
Activity 1: Deverbalize and paraphrase:
1-reformulate and change register
20
3-deverbalize and explain a text in another language (from reading to writing)

4-practise peer editing
Activity 2: Gist translation
1-practise synthetic translation
2-Make decisions related to text type
3-Justify choices
Activity 3: one minute translation
1-Translate specific vocabulary
2-Become aware of register
3-Practice transfer skills
4-Transfer cultural references
Session 8:
Activity1: Accordion translation
1-Practice direct, indirect and reverse translation of the same text
2-Discuss issues of translation
3-Become aware of interference
Activity 2: persuasion: spotting and correcting mistranslation
1-practise text checking
2-revise grammatical structures, vocabulary and expressions
3-justify choices
4-become aware of mistranslations
Activity 3: text and context
1-translate idiomatic expressions proverbs and word play
2-decide on cultural transpositions
3-assess translation product
This activity consists of three stages:
1.analysing the text linguistically
2.translate the text
3.product assessment
Session 9
Activity 1: Current affairs quiz
Objectives:
By the end of this activity, students will be able to:
1-translate some news papers' news.
2-translate avoiding literal translation
Data Analysis and Discussion of results:

The statistical analysis of the data and the results were interpreted in terms of the research
hypotheses. Therefore, each hypothesis is presented together with the findings related to it.
21
Moreover, in order to make sure that the results obtained from the t-tests were reliable and
measure the effectiveness of the training program, the effect size was calculated.
The second part of the analysis is concerned with proverbs, idioms and collocations will be
discussed after the presentation of the statistical part.
First: the statistical analysis
Hypothesis 1:
There will be statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the English
majors' overall English-Arabic pre-post discourse passage translation competence test in
Table (1) Comparing between pre and post overall English- Arabic translation competence test
Variables
Admi
.S.D
nistra
Paired Differences
M
S
D.
T-
Lev
Effec
.F
Valu
el of
t Size
.Sig
tion
Overall
Post
53.20
2.42
mark
26.85
pre
26.35
12.9
12.339
19
9.73
Sig.
4.47
at
large
0.01
38
Table (1) shows that differences between the mean scores of the overall English-Arabic prepost test are highly significant where t= 9.732 at 0.01 level of confidence. This provides
evidence for the effectiveness. Also, the calculated effect size value of the program on the
students' overall English-Arabic pre-post test was 4.47. Therefore, it can be inferred that the
program had a very large effect size on the students' performance on the post- test if
compared with their performance on the pre-test.
Hypothesis 2
majors' pre-post English-Arabic discourse passage translation competence test in favour of
style, and Shifts, omissions, additions and inventing equivalents
In order to verify this hypothesis, a number of t-tests were used (table 2).
22
Table (2) Comparing pre and post English- Arabic translation sub-competences test
Variables
Admini
.S.D
Paired Differences
stration
Accuracy
Post
Finding equivalent
Grammar & style
Shifts, omission
Addition and
inventing equivalent
20.50
1.000
Pre
10.20
5.327
Post
14.80
1.508
Pre
7.40
3.844
Post
11.45
0.759
Pre
5.10
2.382
Post
6.45
0.945
Pre
3.65
10.300
5.283
7.400
6.350
2.800
1.663
3.267
2.390
2.191
D.
T-
Leve
Effect
.F
Value
l of
Size
.Sig
19
19
19
19
8.720
Sig.
4.00
at
large
10.13
0.01
Sig.
4.65
at
large
11.88
0.01
Sig.
5.45
at
large
5.715
0.05
Sig.
2.62
at
large
0.01
Table (2) indicates that there are statistically significant differences at 0.01level in EnglishArabic competence between the mean scores of the experimental group on the pre
administration of the English-Arabic competences and the post administration in favour of the
post administration scores in each sub-competence and the overall mark. The following remarks
can be concluded from table (2):
1-There are statistically significant differences at 0.01 level in the students' accuracy
competence where the estimated value was 8.720. Besides the calculated effect size was 4.00.
This means that the program in the accuracy sub-competence had a large effect size on the
improvement of students' performance and their accuracy competence.
2-There are statistically significant differences at 0.01 level in the students' competence "finding
equivalent" where the t-value was 10.130, and the effect size was 4.65. This means that the
program in the finding equivalent sub-competence had a large effect size on the improvement of
students' performance and their competence "finding equivalent".
3-Also, table 2 shows that there is statistically significant differences at 0.01 level between the
mean scores of the pre-post test in the sub-competence "grammar and style" in favour of the post
test where t= 11.881 and the effect size was 5.45. This reveals that the program had a large effect
on students' post-test in the sub-competence "grammar and style" if compared with the pre-test.
4-The above table also shows that there is statistically significant differences between the mean
scores of the pre-post test in English-Arabic translation sub-competence Shifts, omissions,
additions and inventing equivalents at 0.01 level in favour of the post-test where t=5.715 and the
calculated effect size was 2.062. These results reveal that the program had a large effect on the
students' post-test in the English-Arabic sub-competence Shifts, omissions, additions and
inventing equivalents if compared with the pre-test.
The following figure (1) shows the differences between the pre administration and the post
administration.
Figure (1) pre-post mean scores of the English-Arabic translation competence test
23
Hypothesis 3
majors' pre-post overall Arabic English discourse passage translation competence test in
favour of the post test
In order to verify this hypothesis, the t-test was used (table 3).
Table (3) Comparing pre and post Arabic- English overall translation competence test
Variables
Administratio
SD
Paired
D.F
T- value
Differences
M
Overall
Post
54.45
2.39
mark
Pre
29.45
8.99
9.28
Effect
at
size
0.01
25.00
Sig.
19
12.049
Sig.
5.53
at
large
0.01
The above table shows that there is a significant difference between the students performance
before and after the treatment in favour of the overall Arabic-English translation competence
post-test where the t-value was 12.049. It can be said that t-test result proved to be
statistically consistent with the hypothesis. Thus the third hypothesis was confirmed.
Furthermore, the estimated effect size value 5.53 shown in the table indicates that the
program had a large effect on the students' overall Arabic-English post-test.
Hypothesis 4
majors' pre-post Arabic English translation competence test in favour of the post test in the
24
following sub-competences: accuracy, finding equivalent, grammar and style, and Shifts,
omissions, additions and inventing equivalents
In order to verify the validity of this hypothesis, a number of t-tests were used (table 4)
Table (4) Comparing between pre and post Arabic- English sub-competences translation test
Variables
Administ
.S.D
ration
Paired Differences
M
S
D.
T-
Leve
Effect
.F
Value
l of
Size
.Sig
Accuracy
Finding
equivalent
Grammar &
style
Shifts, omission
Addition and
Post
20.3
Pre
0
11.0
3.43
Post
Pre
14.8
7.75
0.79
2.83
7.000
Post
Pre
12.3
6.50
0.57
2.39
5.800
Post
Pre
7.10
4.20
0.98
0.91
1.11
9.300
2.900
inventing
3.64
2.71
2.38
1.55
19
19
19
19
11.42
Sig.
5.24
at
large
0.01
Sig.
5.29
at
large
10.92
0.01
Sig.
5.01
at
large
8.35
0.05
Sig.
3.83
at
large
11.53
0.01
equivalent
The above table also shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the
mean scores of the Arabic-English competence pre-post test in the sub-competence
"accuracy" in favour of the post-test where t= 11.416and the effect size value = 5.24 which
reveals that the program had a large effect on the students' post-test in the sub-competence
accuracy if compared with the pre-test.
There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the pre-post test in
the sub-competence "finding equivalent in favour of the post-test where t= 11.533 and the
effect size value = 5.29 which reveals that the program had a large effect on the students'
post-test in the sub-competence "finding equivalent if compared with the pre-test.
Students achieved progress in the post-test over the pre-test in the sub-competence
"grammar and style", since the t- value is 10.920 and the effect size value is 5.01 and that
proves the progress the students achieved in this competence.
Also, there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the ArabicEnglish translation competence pre-post test in Shifts, omissions, additions and inventing
equivalents in favour of the post-test where t= 8.353 and the effect size value = 3.83 which
reveals that the program had a large effect on the students' post-test in the sub-competence
shifts, omissions, additions and inventing equivalents if compared with the pre-test.
The following figure (2) shows the differences between the pre administration and the post
administration of the Arabic-English translation competence test which proves the
effectiveness of the training program.
Figure (2) pre-post mean scores of the Arabic-English translation competence test
25
Figure (2)
The analysis of the proverbs, idioms and collocations:

The analysis of the pre English-Arabic and idioms versus the post English- Arabic Idioms:
First: the pre-idioms test
Hypothesis 5
There will be statistical differences between the mean scores of the English majors' pre-post
English-Arabic proverbs and idioms translation test in favour of the post test.
Results of the pre-test of the idioms proved the following
Sentences number 1,2,3,4,5 are idiomatic sentences, while the rest are proverbs:
Starting with the English idioms, it was found that in the pre-test students' translations were
either not translated or those which were misunderstood and as a consequence translated
wrongly .
Table (5) results of students' pre-idioms translation test
Idiom
number
1
2
3
4
5
6
Number and percentage of students who didn't
Number and percentage of
translate it
52.63% = 10
Non of the students
% 10.526 =2
21.052%= 4
% 10.526 = 2
73.68% = 14
students who translated it wrongly

47.368% =9
% 100 = 19
% 89.473 = 17
78.947% = 15
% 89.473 = 17
% 26.315 = 5
Table (5) shows that students had real problem with English idioms where their pre-test reveals
that they either did not translate the idiomatic sentences or translated them wrongly. For
example, in sentence (1) they translated "toffee-nosed" as which reveals a word for
word translation for the word "toffee", while others translated it as where they
misunderstood the word "toffee" and replaced it with the word "tuff".
Moving to sentence (2) it was found that the 19 students translated it thinking that it is the
easiest one because they translated the idiom "Five-finger discount" literally as
which is a wrong translation as it means he must have "stolen it " which means " "" ".
Coming to sentence (3) the idiom "led by nose" was translated also in a wrong way where
students thought that it means " "because culturally in our Arab culture the nose is a
symbol of pride. In fact in this idiom "led by nose" resembles "" which means in
Arab culture " "
" " .
26
As for sentence (4), students misunderstood "let the cat out of the bag" as some of them
translated the sentence as ""
while others translated it as " " in both
translations non of them recognized that the meaning is "to reveal a secret".
In sentence (5) 89% translated the idiom "vote with their feet" as " " others
used more sophisticated Arabic words " " and of course the meaning is "to run
away" or to leave the place".
The last idiomatic sentence (12) 73.68% could not answer it while 26.31% gave incorrect
answers. The most astonishing one was " " because there is nothing in the
sentence that gives such meaning. The other students translated it as " " "
" . their translation was a little bit shocking because in Arabic there is
such idiom "fat cats" which means the wealthy business men.
It is worthy saying that when these idioms were chosen, some of them were chosen on the basis
that they would be easily translated by guessing if the students think of them for a while like the
first one because the use of "but" indicates that what comes next is the opposite of the previous
part of the sentence.
Second: the post-idioms test
Analyzing students' translations of the idioms, it was found that in the post-test students'
translations were improved due to the administration of the program as they were trained to use
idioms correctly through the exercises they practiced and the hand out they were provided
covering so many idioms. The correct translations exceeded 60% in all idioms and proverbs.
Also, they were provided with soft copies with books of idioms and internet sites that enhanced
their idiomatic. Besides, they were very much interested in comparing the English proverbs with
the Arabic ones. The following table shows their progress if compared with the pre-test .
Table (6)results of students' post-idioms translation test
Idiom
Number and percentage
students who did not
students who translated it correctly
of students who translated
73.68%=14
63.158%=12
% 78.95=15
78.95%=15
63.158%=12
68.42% = 13
it wrongly
26.315%=5
% 36.84=7
% 21.052=4
21.052%=4
% 36.84 = 7
% 31.58 =6
number
translate it
_________
__________
________
______________
___________
_______
1
2
3
4
5
12
Table (6) proves that students had improved in translating the English into Arabic. The
researcher did not explain their performance on each idiom because the incorrect translation
resembles those presented when discussing the pre-test and the correct answers were
provided also in the pre-test.
Third: the pre-proverbs test:

Moving to the students' performance on the pre English-Arabic proverbs, it was found that their
answers were ,to some extent, better than that of the idioms as indicated in the following table
Table (7) results of students' pre/English-Arabic proverbs translation test
Proverb
Left not
Wrong
Correct
Coin a
number
translated
translation
equivalent
new
10.53 = 2
% 10.53 =2
No
27
proverb
26.32 = 5
paraphrasing
Literal
translation
% 15.79 =3
% 36.84 =7
7
8
%
none
none
none
none
equivalent
% 47.37 =9
% 84.21= 16
%
_____
___
% 26.32 =5
none
% 26.32 =5
15.79 = 3
% 5.26 =1
non
No
15.79 =3
none
%
78.95 = 15
10
10.53% =2
% 21.05 =4
equivalent
% 31.58= 6
%
15.79 = 3
_____
%
21.05 = 4
11
21.05 = 4
% 26.32 =5
No
%
=1
none
%
47.37 = 9
equivalent
5.26%
Table 7
The first proverb "the darkest hour is just before dawn" 10.526% of the students did not
translate it, 10.526 % provided wrong translation " " while 26.315 %
coined a new proverb which is to make up a proverb keeping the flavour of the original and
giving the same indication or denotation. These students translated it as " or "
" or " 15.789 . " % of the students paraphrased it as"
" or " " . But those who translated it literally
were 36.842% , they translated it as " " of course there is no need to
say that the literal translation is always considered inaccurate one.
The second proverb was After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile." 47.368% of the
students provided the correct equivalent which is " " while 26.315%
of the students paraphrased it as " " and 26.315 % of them
translated it incorrectly as
""
The third proverb was " Birds of a feather flock together". 84.210% of the students succeeded in
giving the correct equivalent " " , while 15.789% of the students provided
literal translation as " " .
The fourth proverb was " Don't bark if you cannot bite". 5.263% of the student provided
incorrect translation "" , where 15.789% of the students coined a proverb which
was considered a correct one " " . While 78.947% of them provided
literal translation " " .
The fifth proverb was Man proposes, God disposes" . 10.526% of the students translated it
incorrectly as " 31.578 . " " " % of the students provided the correct
equivalent "15.789 . " % of the students coined a proverb "
" . While 21.052% of the students translated it literally as " " .
The last proverb was Stolen fruit is the sweetest" . 26.315 % of the students provided
incorrect translation " " and " " , while only 5.263% managed
to coin a correct proverb " " . finally, 47.368% of the students provided literal
translation " "
Fourth: The analysis of the post English-Arabic proverbs:
Moving to the students' performance on the post English-Arabic proverbs, it was found that
their translations improved too as they trained to translate so many proverbs and also were
provided with hand outs with a great number of proverbs either translated into Arabic or
explained in English which helped them to find an equivalent or coin new ones. Their
improvement was presented in the following table .
Table (8) results of students' post/English-Arabic proverbs translation test
Proverb
Left not
Wrong
Correct
Coin a new
number
translated
translation
equivalent
proverb
28
paraphrasing
Literal
translation
6
7
8
9
10
11
_________
______
______
% 5.26 =1
______
5.26%=1
____
_______
_____
________
______
5.26%=1
No equivalent
% 78.95=15
% 100=19
No equivalent
63.16% =12
No equivalent
Table 8
68.42%=13
_____
___
% 73.68=14
21.05%= 4
63.16%=12
% 31.58=6
% 21.05 =4
______
21.05%=4
_____
non
% 36.84 =2
______
______
5.26% =1
15.79%=3
26.32%=5
Again, these results proved that the students improved in their translations of proverbs. They
managed to apply more than one translation strategy namely, presenting an equivalent,
paraphrasing and coining a new proverb or saying. One more time, the researcher is not going
to analyze each proverb because the different answers provided by the students were provided
previously and the correct translations, paraphrases and coins were presented too. The only
difference is the change of the percentages. If something new added in the students
translations, they would be presented as follows:
In paraphrasing the ninth proverb "don't bark if you cannot bite" they added a new coined
proverb or saying "" " "
Though 15.79% of the students translated the proverb "man proposes, God disposes"
literally, but their translation was better than the one they provided in the pre-test where they
translated it as
" " , the literal translation in the post-test was "" .
Fifth: The analysis of the pre English-Arabic collocations:

Hypothesis 6
There will be statistical differences between the mean scores of the English majors' pre-post
English-Arabic collocations translation test in favour of the post test.
Results of the pre-test of the English- Arabic collocations proved the following
Analyzing the students' performance on the pre English-Arabic collocations, it was found that
their answers were presented in the following table.
Table (9) results of students' pre/English-Arabic collocations translation test
collocation
Left not translated
Correct
Precautionary measures
Plastic arts
Scanty information
Underground organization
15.789%=3
26.31%=5
None
None
29
translation
26.31% =5
5.26% =1
42.105% =8
10.526% =2
Wrong
translation
57.894% =11
68.42% =13
57.894% =11
89.47% =17
Radical changes
Pent-up anger
A non-binding agreement
Controversial issues
A pathetic sight
Exclusive offer
Astronomical profits
Noble endeavours
Wild imagination
Accepted pilgrimage
A bewildering question
None
31.578% =6
36.84% =7
none
21.052% =4
none
none
47.368% =9
none
21.052%=4
26.31%=5
63.157% =12
None
10.526% =2
57.894% =11
26.31%=5
73.68% =14
47.368%=9
21.052%=4
10.526%=2
% 78.94 =15
10.526%=2
36.84%=7
68.42% =13
52.63% =10
42.105%=8
10.526%=10
26.31%=5
57.89% =11
36.84%=7
89.47% =17
none
% 63.157 =12
The first collocation (precautionary measures) was translated correctly as " " by
26.31% of the students, where 15.789% did not translate it. 57.894% provided wrong translation
where they translated it as " " " .
The second one was plastic arts. 26.31% did not translate the collocation, while 5.26%
translated it correctly as "" and 68.42% of the students provided wrong translation
where, astonishingly, all of the 11 students translated it as "" .
The third collocation "scanty information" was translated correctly by 42.105% as "
" " " " " while 57.894% provided wrong translation as "
"it seems that these students translated "scanty" as a deviation of "scan" and the other
students who translated it wrongly too as " " " " translated it using the
guessing strategy.
10.526% of the students translated the fourth collocation "underground organization
correctly as " " , while 89.47% provided wrong translation where most of them
provided literal translation as " " though this translation, to some extent, could
be accepted. The rest translated it as " " as they translated it lexically apart from the
metaphorical meaning.
The fifth collocation was "radical changes". 63.157% provided correct translation where 4 of
them translated it as "1 ," student provided an approximate meaning "
"which is correct adaptation while the other 7 presented the exact meaning " ."
36.84% provided incorrect translation where 5 of them translated it as " " and the other
3 translated it as "" .
The sixth collocation was "pent-up anger" which means " " was a problematic
collocation for all of the students. 31.578% did not translate it, non of the students translated it
correctly while 68.42% provided wrong translations as " " " " "
".
The seventh collocation was "a non-binding agreement". 36.84% of the students did not
translate it, 10.526% of the students provided correct translation " " and 52.63%
provided incorrect translation " " " " " " .
"Controversial issue" was the eighth collocation where 57.894% translated it correctly as"
", while 42.105% translated this collocation in different ways such as the following "
" " " " " " " .
The ninth collocation was "a pathetic sight". 21.052% did not translate it, 26.31% translated it
correctly as " " " " while 10.526% provided wrong translation
" "
""
"Exclusive offer" was the tenth collocation that 73.68% of the students translated it correctly
as
"" , while 26.31% provided wrong translation as"" " "
this translation indicates that these students may have consulted an electronic dictionary as they
30
provided literal translation accompanied with the bad choice among the equivalents provided by
the dictionary. Their translation was also shocking because the word "exclusive" is always
repeated in the TV.
The eleventh collocation was "astronomical profits". 47.368% of the students provided correct
translation as " " " " " " , while 57.89% provided wrong
translation " " " " " " .
The twelfth collocation was "noble endeavours". 47.368% of the students did not translate the
collocation. 21.052% provided correct translation "" " " .While 36.84%
translated it wrongly as" " " " . This mistranslation is a result of the
overlap between "noble" and "Nobel" the prize.
10.526% of the students provided correct translation for "wild imagination" which is "
", while 89.47% translated it incorrectly where some of them translated it literally as "
"and others translated it as " " which is incorrect too because of the misuse of the
translated Arabic meaning where the word " "can never be described as " ".
The next collocation was "accepted pilgrimage". 78.94% translated it correctly as "
"" while 21.052% did not translate it.
The last collocation was " a bewildering question". 26.31% did not answer it, 10.526%
translated it correctly as " " while 63.157% translated it in correctly as " "
"" .
sixth: The analysis of the post English-Arabic collocations:

Analyzing the students' performance on the post English-Arabic collocations, it was found
that their translation improved if compared with the pre-test as presented in the following
table
Table (10) results of students' post/English-Arabic collocations translation test
collocation
Precautionary measures
Plastic arts
Scanty information
Underground organization
Radical changes
Pent-up anger
A non-binding agreement
Controversial issues
A pathetic sight
Exclusive offer
Astronomical profits
Noble endeavours
Wild imagination
Accepted pilgrimage
A bewildering question
Left not translated

____
5.26% =1
________
________ _
_______
10.53%=2
10.53% =2
______
5.26% =1
_____
_______
21.05%=4
______
________
5.26% =1
Correct translation
63.16% =12
78.95%=15
89.47% =17
100%% =19
84.21%=16
68.42% =13
73.68% =14
% 89.47=17
26.31%=5
100%=19
94.74%=18
68.42% =13
73.68%=14
94.74%=18
% 73.68=14
Wrong translation
36.84%=7
3-15.79%
10.53% =2
89.47% =17
15.79% =3
21.02% =4
15.79% =3
10.53% =2
5.26% =1
_____
5.26% =1
10.526%=2
26.31%=5
5.26% =1
% 21.05=4
The results proved that the students improved in translating the English collocation after
administering the program because of the training they had and the exercises they practiced.
31
Besides, they were provided with lists of English collocations and their translations to be
reviewed at home.
The analysis of the pre Arabic-English proverbs and idioms versus the post English- Arabic
proverbs and idioms:
Hypothesis 7
There will be statistical differences between the mean scores of the English majors' ArabicEnglish pre-post proverbs and idioms translation test in favour of the post test.
First: the pre-idioms test
Sentences number 1, 2,9, 10, 11,12 are idiomatic sentences, while the rest are proverbs:
Starting with the Arabic idioms, it was found that in the pre-test students' translations were
either not translated or those which were misunderstood and as a consequence translated
wrongly .
Table (11) results of students' pre/Arabic-English idioms translation test
Idiom
Number and percentage of students who didn't
translate it
100% =19
% 26.31 = 5
100% =19
21.052%= 4
% 89.473 = 17
% 57.89 =11
students who translated it wrongly

_______
% 73.68 = 14
____________
78.947% = 15
% 10.52 = 2
% 42.105 = 8
number
1
2
9
10
11
12
Table (11) proves that students had real problem with Arabic idioms more than the problem
they faced with the English idioms where their pre-test reveals that they either did not
translate the idiomatic sentences or translated them wrongly. For example, in sentence (1)
none of the students managed to translate " " and its correct translation is "has no
relatives". Also, in sentence (2) 26.31 % did not translate it , while 73.68% provided literal
translation for the idiom " " as they translated it as " shapes and colours" though
the correct translation is very simple ''"several kinds or different kinds". In sentence (9) non
of the students managed to translate the idiom " " and the 19 students left
the space plank, its correct translation is quite easy " don't worry" . In sentence (10) 21.052%
did not translate the idiom " " , while 78.947% translated it wrongly, for example
" cannot hear in the noise" its correct translation is a kind of paraphrase " cannot understand
what is going on". In sentence (11) the idiom " " was translated wrongly by 10.52 %
as "cool my chest", "cool my breast", while 89.473 % did not translate it at all while its
correct translation is "relieved me". The last idiom " " was not translated by
57.89% while 42.105 % provided literal incorrect translation "his hands are in cold water" ,
while the correct translation is " careless".
Second: the post-idioms test
Analyzing the Arabic idioms, it was found that in the post-test students' translations were
improved but not as much as the improvement in the English Arabic and that is due the
complexity of the Arabic language and the guessing factor do not always work. But still there
is an improvement that would be recognized in the following table.
Table (12) results of students' post/Arabic-English idioms translation test
Idiom
number
1
students who didn't translate it
students who translate it
students who translated it
% 26.31 = 5
correctly
47.37%=9
wrongly
% 26.31 = 5
32
2
9
10
11
12
_______
% 10.52 = 2
21.052%= 4
78.947% = 15
15.79% =3
% 73.68=14
% 10.52 = 2
57.89% =11
21.052%= 4
21.052%= 4
% 26.31 = 5
% 10.52 = 2
% 31.56 =6
68.42% =13
52.63% =10
Table (12) proves that students improved in translating the Arabic idioms, but they did not
reach 60% of the correct translations in some cases; namely in idiom (1) , and
idiom (10) , and idiom (12) . These idioms where the correct
translation could not reach 60% represented 50% of the number of the idioms.
Third: the pre-proverbs test

Moving to the students' performance on the pre Arabic-English proverbs, it was found that
their answers were worse than that of their English-Arabic proverbs as indicated in the
following table
Table (13) results of students' pre/Arabic-English proverbs translation test
Proverb
Left not
Wrong
Correct
Coin a new
paraphrasing
Literal
number
3
translated
translation
equivalent
proverb
1=5.263%
_______
_________
__________
_______
17= 89.47 %
4=21.052%
_________
___________
_____
2= 10.52%
13=68.42%
______
non
_________
translation
5
6
12=63.157%
18= 94.73 %
___
___________
7
7 =36.84%
4= 21.052
4=21.052%
%
______
_______
7= 36.84%
_______
1= 5.263%
_____
_______
8= 42.105%
______
______
10= 52.63%
5= 26.315%
_________
_________
This table shows that finding the equivalent for an Arabic proverb was quite difficult for the
students; even paraphrasing the Arabic proverb was very poor. The number of the students who
managed to paraphrase the proverbs was very few. None of the students managed to neither
provide a correct equivalent nor coin a new proverb.
The first proverb" " was translated literally by 89.47% as the need is the
mother of inventions", while the correct translation is "necessity is the mother of inventions.
The proverb " " was paraphrased by 10.52% as truth is apparent" and the
appearance reflects the hidden". 68.42% of the students translated it literally as "the answer
appears from the title". The correct translation is "A tree is known by its fruit".
The proverb " " was not translated by 63.157%, 36.84% of the students
paraphrased it as "your are looking for something that is not clear", "you are searching for tiny
33
things", it is too difficult to find what you are searching for", "your efforts are in vain". The
correct translation is "you're looking for a needle in a haystack".
The proverb " " was not translated by 94.43% of the students, while
5.26% translated it literally as " hit the imprisoned persons, free ones will be frightened, where
its correct translation is "kill one to warn a hundred".
The proverb " " was translated incorrectly by 21.052% as dont be stupid
to arise wise man's anger" , "take care from the evil in the good man" these translations are
structurally incorrect, students tried to paraphrase but they did not manage to. 42.105 %
paraphrased it as careful from the anger of patient people", "when a kind man gets angry, you
should avoid him". Where the correct translation is Beware the levelheaded when he is angry".
The last proverb " " was not translated by 21.052% , 52.63% of the
students paraphrased it as " save some money for the future", while 26.315% translated it
literally as " a white pound is useful in a black day" and its correct translation is " A penny saved
is a penny gained".
Fourth: the post Arabic-English proverbs:
Moving to the students' performance on the post Arabic-English proverbs, it was found that
their translations were improved, to some extent, as indicated in the following table (14)
Table (14) results of students' post/Arabic-English proverbs translation test
Proverb
Left not
Wrong
Correct
Coin a new
number
3
translated
translation
equivalent
proverb
paraphrasing
Literal
________
_______
12=63.16%
__________
_______
7= 36.84%
4=21.052%
_________
No equivalent
9=47.37%
2= 10.52%
4=21.052%
translation
________
___
5= 26.34%
______
_____
_____
2= 10.52%
______
______
12=63.16%
No equivalent
_______
10=52.63%
7= 36.84%
_______
4=21.052%
_______
4=21.052%
______
______
______
______
13=68.42%
19=100%
This table shows that out of six proverbs, students' correct translations that exceeded 60%
were 4 which indicates that the translation of Arabic proverbs into English is more difficult than
the vice versa. These results prove that cultural translation is not an easy task and needs more
practice. In spite of these results, the students' achievement is considered acceptable.
Fifth: the pre Arabic-English collocations test:
Hypothesis 8
There will be statistical differences between the mean scores of the English majors' ArabicEnglish pre-post collocations translation test in favour of the post test.
Analyzing the students' performance on the pre Arabic-English collocations, it was found that
their answers were presented in the following table
Table (15) results of students' pre/Arabic-English collocations translation test
collocation

Left not translated

9=47.37%
4=21.05%
2=10.53%
34
Correct translation
2=10.53%
5=26.32%
11=57.89%
Wrong translation
13=68.42%
10=5.26%
6=31.58%
6=31.58%
__________
5=26.32%
--------------3=15.79%
8= 42.11%
2=10.53%
12=63.16%
3=15.79%
________
7=36.84%
9=47.37%
4=21.05%
___________
7=36.84%
2=10.53%
5=26.32%
___________
7=36.84%
__________
13=68.42%
14=73.69%
4=21.05%
_______
9=47.37%
19= 100%
7=36.84%
17=89.47%
11=57.89%
11=57.89%
10=5.26%
7=36.84%
3=15.79%
5=26.32%
8=42.11%
10=5.26%
Analyzing students translations of the Arabic collocations it was recognized that the
percentage of the correct translations were always below 60% except for 2 collocations only
that exceeded 60% although the researcher considered some translations to be true one in spit
of the fact that they did not give the exact translation. It was recognized that most of the
incorrect translations were because of the literal translation or syntactical translation.
The first collocation " " was left not translated by 47.37% of the students, only
10.53% translated it correctly as "rough sea", while 68.42% of the students provided wrong
translation " angry sea" was the common translation, "waves sea". But the most unexpected
one was "nervous sea".
The second collocation was " " . It was left not translated by 21.05% , 26.32%
translated it correctly as "dangerous consequences" though it is not the exact translation
which is "dire consequences" but though the researcher considered it true. While 5.26% of the
students translated it wrongly as bad results and "huge results".
The third collocation " " was not translated by 10.53% , while 57.89% provided
correct translation "official statement". 31.58% provided wrong translation formal speech",
"formal announcement".
" " was not translated by 31.58% of the students, 21.05% provided correct
translation "reliable resource", while 47.37% provided wrong translation "trusted source",
"truthful source", "official source".
The fifth collocation " " was translated incorrectly by 100% of the students as
fresh food", "fruitful food", "eatable food". None of them managed to translate it correctly as
"edible food".
" " was not translated by 26.32%. 36.84% provided correct translation "clear
evidence", this translation is considered correct though the exact translation is "clear-cut
evidence". 36.84% translated it wrongly as "appeared evidence", "short-cut evidence".
The seventh collocation " " was translated correctly by 10.53% as "strong tea", while
89.47% of the students provided wrong translations as "black tea" of course the adjective
"black" describes "coffee" not "tea". Others translated it as "heavy tea", and "red tea".
The eighth collocation " " was not translated by 15.79% of the students, 26.32%
provided correct answer "aggressive act" though the exact translation should be "a hostile act".
57.89% provided incorrect translation enemies-like act", harsh work".
The ninth collocation was "" . It was not translated by 42.11% of the students,
while the rest of the students 57.89% presented incorrect translation "unjust government",
"undemocratic government", "dictator government". None of the students translated it correctly
as "arbitrary government".
The tenth collocation was "10.53 . " % did not translate it , 36.84% translated it
correctly as "fundamental rights", while 5.26% provided incorrect translation " basic rights",
"main rights ".
The eleventh collocation was "" . It was left not translated by 63.16% ,while
36.84% provided incorrect translations "unarmed areas", "non-weapon areas", "free weapon
areas" Non of the students provided correct translation which is "demilitarized zone".
35
" " was not translated by 15.79% of the students, 68.42% provided correct
translation "limitless patience", "unlimited patient" though the exact translation should be
"boundless patience" but their translations are acceptable. 15.79% provided incorrect translation
"great patience", "wonderful patience".
The next collocation was "" . It translated correctly by 73.69% as "unjustified act",
while the rest of the students 26.32% provided incorrect translation "unfair work",
"unreasonable word", "unacceptable work".
"" was not translated by36.84% of the students, while the rest of the students
provided incorrect translations "common affairs", " shared obligations", "contributed affairs".
Non of them managed to give the correct translation "mutual obligations".
The last collocation was "43.37 . " % of the students did not translate it, while the rest
of the students 5.26% could not provide the correct translation where most of the translations
were "great effort", continuous efforts", "on going efforts", limitless efforts". None of them
translated it correctly where the correct translation is "a ceaseless effort"
Sixth: The post Arabic-English collocations:
Analyzing the students' performance on the post Arabic-English collocations, it was found that
they have improved in this area because of the training program and the hand outs they were
provided with, beside the web sites and books names about idioms and collocations. But though
they were improved, their improvement in the translation of the English Arabic is better than
that of Arabic-English and that is due to the shortage of the materials dealing with this area. The
following table presents their results
Table (16) results of students' post/Arabic-English collocations translation test
collocation

Left not translated

10.53%=2
15.79%=3
_______
10.53%=2
_______
--------------15.79%=3
21.05%=4
10.53%=2
26.32%=5
15.79%=3
________
10.53%=2
21.05%=4
Correct translation
68.42%=13
52.63%=10
78.95% =15
57.89%=11
36.84%=7
84.21% =16
100%=19
57.89%=11
42.11%=8
73.69%=14
52.63%=10
68.42%=13
89.47% =17
68.42% =13
57.89%=11
Wrong translation
21.05%=4
31.58%=6
21.05%=4
31.58%=6
63.16%=12
15.79%=3
_______
26.32%=5
36.84%=7
15.79%=3
21.05%=4
15.79%=3
10.53%=2
21.05%=4
21.05%=4
This table shows that the students were improved if compared with their performance in the
pre-test concerning collocations. But, although they have improved, only 8 correct answers
exceeded 60%, while the other seven correct translations were below 60 % .
In conclusion, it was found that students' performance improved after administering the
training program in the translation competences in general. The program had a distinguished
effect on their performance in both the English-Arabic passage and on the Arabic-English
passage where the t values were high in the overall tests as well as in the sub-competences.
Students also achieved progress in the cultural-linguistic part of the test- idioms, proverbs and
collocations- in both English-Arabic version and the \Arabic-English version. Their results
proved that translating English-Arabic idioms, proverbs and collocations was easier than
translating them from Arabic to English.
36
Conclusion:
In light of the results of the study, it can be concluded that the training program to develop
students' translation competence based on the eclectic approach proved to be effective in
developing English majors' translation competence. This was clear in the support gained for the
four hypotheses of the study and the descriptive analysis of the English-Arabic and ArabicEnglish idioms, proverbs and collocations. From these significant results, it is concluded that
Following the product approach to teaching translation cause boredom to both the teacher
and the student and does not teach the student the process of translation.
The transformational approach guarantees both a learner-centered classroom and the teacher
acting as a guide which supports the positive atmosphere and improves students self-esteem.
This conclusion supports that of Davies (2004) who recommended this approach for teaching
translation.
The integration between different approaches facilitates teaching and learning where the
teacher elects the appropriate approach and the suitable activities that suite the situation, the
students' differences and the learning process. ,This conclusion supports that of Beltran (2006)
who recommended the integration of more than one approach, specially the cultural approach,
the cognitive approach and the linguistic approach.
The variations of the activities enhanced the students learning and contributed in
developing their translation competence where they discovered that translation is not just
conveying message from (ST) to (TT), or transformation of words from one language to
another, they recognized the different types or methods of translation and the effect of the
cultural domain. This conclusion supports that of Nolasco and Arthur (1995) who encouraged
the use of various activities to enhance students motivation and self esteem.
Including idioms, proverbs and collocations enriched the program and affected the students'
interaction in the program because they were interested in discovering the differences between
the two languages and the two cultures. This conclusion supports that of Shi (2011) who
stressed that without consciousness of linguistic and cultural accommodation, students would
never become qualified and competent translator. This part of the program was very enjoyable
and enhanced the training regardless of the results.
Through the training program, the researcher recognized that students have a theoretical
background about language use yet, they commit mistakes mainly because they usually do not
revise their final draft, besides they do not recognize that, in general, they not only have to
convey the meaning from one language to the other but also to convey the structure and the
verb form.
Throughout the training, students used to use fragmented sentences and run on sentences.
When they cooperated in the activities, they started to recognize their mistakes and overcome
bit by bit.
Shift, omission, and addition were used heavily in the students' translations. But, by the end
of this training program these shifts, omissions and additions were minimized but not
vanished. They recognized that using them is a competence; they are not prevented but need
to be used when necessary.
Providing students with handouts of English proverbs and collocations followed by the
English explanation of each contributed in enhancing their learning and understanding each.
The same was done for the Arabic proverbs though the sources were not quite enough. Also,
they were provided with handouts, web sites and books' names about English idioms but the
Arabic ones were not very much available.
The insufficient material of the Arabic proverbs, idioms and collocations-though they
practiced activities as much as the English ones-are reflected in the students' results where
37
1234-
their performance on the English-Arabic translations were better than their performance on the
Arabic-English translations though they were improved in both cases.
The researcher thought that English-Arabic translation is easier than the Arabic-English
translation, but the students results in translation passage were, unexpectedly, the opposite.
Their performance in the Arabic- English translation was better than the English-Arabic
translation. These results could be interpreted in the light of the expectation that if a student
faces a difficult word and fails in guessing the correct meaning that will affect the translation
and breaks the context. On the other hand, if a student translates from her mother tongue to
the foreign language, she understands the context perfectly. As a consequence, if she faces a
word that she does not know its foreign equivalent, she will search for another alternative as
she already knows the meaning. This result was mentioned by Friedlander (1990) who proved
that translation from native language appears to help rather that hinder writers.
Recommendations:
Based on the data collected and the results of the study, a number of recommendations can be
presented:
Instructors are advised to shift from the product approach of teaching translation to the process
approach to teaching students how to translate instead of the modeling and correcting technique.
A variety of activities should be included in the teaching process, as those used in the training
program, to enhance learning and improve different competences instead of relying on linguistic
translation.
Teaching idioms, proverbs and collocations should be included in translation programs being
taught in faculties of education because they are integral parts of any language.
Translation instructors are recommended to integrate different approaches and methods for
teaching Translation including those presented in the present program .
5- The activities used could be used in training in-service teachers who teach translation for
secondary stage schools.
6- The present program is applicable for English majors in Faculties of Arts as translation is
a basic course for these students and it could be supported with theoretical background
about translation theories.
Suggestions for further researches:
1-More researches are needed in the field of evaluation and assessment to develop rubrics
specially developed for EFL students in the Egyptian setting and to be tested on a wider scale.
2- A translation course is needed for non-specialist post-graduate students.
38
Bibliography
Abbasin M. and Karimnia, A.(2011): An Analysis of Grammatical Errors Among Iranian
Translation Students: insights from inter-language theory. European
Journal of Social Sciences, ISSN 1450-2267, Vol.25 No.4 (2011), pp.
525-536 Euro Journals Publishing,Inc.2011,
http://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com
Abdellah,A. (2007): Exploring the practices of learning and teaching translation at faculties of
Education in South Valley University, Egypt. Qena Faculty of Education
fourth conference.
Adetunji, B. (2010): Translation (Arabic-English), NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF
NIGERIA, Course Editor / Programme Leader Dr A. Raheem Mustapha,
Department of Islamic Studies.
Aly, M.( 2004 ): Translation strategies of EFL student teachers: A Think Aloud ProtocolBased Case Study.
Al-Kufaishi, A.(2004): Translation as a learning and teaching strategy , Copenhagen
University, copyright of John Benjamins Publishing Co. Babel 50:1
(2004), 4559. issn: 05219744 / e-issn: 15699668 Federation des
Traducteurs (fit) Revue Babel
________________ (1996): A Model of Semantically and Pragmatically EFL Syllabus
Design
Atawneh, A. & Alaqra, M. (oct.2007): An appraisal of the teaching of translation in
Palestinian Universities , Conference on the Role of Translation in Dialogue of
Civilizations.
Attia, I. M. (1975). A classification of some common Errors involved in the process of
Written Translation from Arabic into English and some Suggestions for
Remedial Measures., MA thesis , Faculty of Education, Al Azhar
University.
Avval, S. (2009): Communication Strategies Do Work, Translation Journal
http://accurapid.com/journal
Bassnett, S. (2002).Translation Studies. London, New York: Routage.

Beltran, B. (2006): Rethinking Translation in the second language classroom: Teaching
Discourse and Text Analysis Through Translation to Advanced Students.
39
A published M.A. Thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the

University of Massachusetts.
Brown, H. D. (2000): Principles of Language Learning and Technology. 4th ed. Ny: Longman
Catford, J.(2002): A linguistic theory of translation.
Conacher, J.1996Native Speaker to Native Speaker: Crossing the Translation Gap. In P.
Swell and I. Higgins (eds.), Teaching Translation in Universities: Present
and Future Perspectives. London: Cilt.
Davies, M. (2004): Multiple Voices in the Translation Classroom: Activities, Tasks and
Projects. John Benjamins B.V. publishing Co. Philadelphia
Dornyei, (1995): communicative strategies and foreign language learning. Cited in Brown,H.
2000, p.128.
Duff, A.(1994): Translation, OUP.
Fox, O.(2000): "The Use of Translation Diaries in a Process-Oriented Translation Teaching
Methodology" in C. Schaffner & B. Adab (eds.) Developing Translation
Competence, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamin p.115- 130.
Friedlander, A.(1990): "Composing in English": Effect of a First Language on Writing in
English as a Second Language. In : Kroll,B. (ed.) Second Language
Writing, Research Insights for Classrooms.Cambridge University Press
Gabr, M. 2002. A Skeleton in Closet: Teaching Translation in Egyptian National
Universities. Translation Journal, vol 6, No 1, Jan 2002, available also
on-line: http://accurapid.com/journal
He-ping, L.(2000): On Pedagogical Translation and Translation Teaching. Chinese Translators
Journal,4.
Holz-Manttari, J. (1984) :Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode. Helsinki:
Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.In Kate James (2002): Cultural Implications for Translation,
translation journal, http://accurapid.com/journal/22delight.htm
Kate James (2002): Cultural Implications for Translation, translation journal,
http://accurapid.com/journal/22delight.htm
Khanmohammad, H. and Osanloo, M. (2009): Moving towards objective scoring: A Rubric for
Translation Assessment. JELS, vol.1, No.1, fall 2009,131-153.
Massoud, M. (1988). Translate to Communicate, A Guide for Translators. New York: Library
of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.
Moore, M. (2009): The Linguistic Approach to Translation.
40
Nadstoga, Z. (1988): A Communicative use of translation in the classroom. English

Teaching Forum , Vol. XXVI/4
Neubert, A. (1994): Competence in Translation: "a complex skill, how to study and teach it".
"Mary Snell-Hornby et al. eds., Translation Studies. An Interdicipline.
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamin 411-420.
Newmark, P. (1988): Approaches to translation. Hertfordshire. Prentice Hall.
Nolasco,R and Arthur, L. (1995): Large Classes, Hemel Hempstead. Phoenix ELT
Pariente-Beltran, B.(2006): Rethinking translation in the second language classroom: teaching
discourse and test analysis through translation to advanced students,
Published M.A. thesis, Master of Arts, Graduate school of the
University of Massachusetts.
Rabeh, F.(2010): Problems in Translating Collocations: the case of Master 1 students of
Applied Languages. Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the Master degree in Applied Language Studies, Faculty
of Letters and Languages, Department of Languages, Algeria.
Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. (2002): Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 2nd
edition. CUP: United Kingdom.
Sadeghi, S. & Ketabi, S. (2010): Towards a critical-functional approach. BABEL, v.44, n.3,
May
Sainz, M.J.(1991). Developing translation skills. In C. Dollerup & A. Loddegaard: Teaching
translation and interpretation, training, talent and experience,
Denmark: John Benjamins.
Schaffner, C. (2000): Developing Translation Competence. in C. Schaffner & B. Adab (eds.)
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamin .
Sebokova,S. (2010): Comparing Translation Competence, Published MA Thesis. Department
of English and American Studies, Masaryk University, Faculty of Art
Sepideh Firoozkoohi, Ali Beikian and Ebrahim Golavar (2012): Translation Assessment in
Educational Environments: Teachers Criteria and Students Awareness
Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 2(5)4400-4406, 2012
Shi-Yang, R. (2009): Macro-perspective in Translation, Us- China Foreign Language,v.7, No.7
, July.
Shuttleworth, M. & Cowie, M. (2004) Dictionary of Translation Studies. Shanghai:
Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Slepcheno, N. (2003): Translation Teaching.
41
Snell-Hornby, M. (1988) Translation Studies An Integrated Approach. Amsterdam and

Philadelphia: John Benjamin.
Sui,H. and Wang, R.( 2005 ): The Functional Approach: Material and Methods. Nov. 2005,
Volume 2, No.11 (Serial No.23) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN15398072,USA
"Using Cognitive Theories To Improve Teaching." The Teaching Professor, April 1995: 3-4.
Used with permission from Magna Publications, 800/433-0499
Waddington, C. (2001): Different Methods of Evaluating Student Translation: the question of
validity. Met: Translator's Journal,46 (2), 311-325.
Wilson, F.( 2011): A Model of translation based on proverbs and their metaphors: A cognitive
descriptive approach, Translation Journal based on Wilson, F.( 2009) A
model for translating metaphors in proverbs (French to English) A
cognitive descriptive approach, MA. thesis UBC Okanagan, Kelowna.
Electronic Thesis and Dissertations. http://hdl.hadle.net/2429/12923.
Yu-Ping, S. (2000): Essays of Western Translation Theory. Beijing. Foreign Language
Education and Research Press.
Sources used in the program:
Books:
Hill, J. (1999): LTP Dictionary of Selected Collocations. Language Teaching Publications.
England.
McCarthy, M. and O'Dell, F.(2010) : English Idioms in use advanced: 60 units of
vocabulary reference and practice self-study and classroom use.
Cambridge University Press.
______________________.(2002) : English Idioms in use : 60 units of vocabulary reference
and practice self-study and classroom use. Cambridge University Press.
______________________. Collocations in Use: how words work together for fluent and
natural and natural English, self-study and classroom use. Cambridge
University press.
Porter, D. (2007): Check Your Vocabulary for Academic English. Third edition, A & C
Black. London.
, , :(2008) .
Websites:
Bou-tahar, N. : Collocations. www.portfolio.edu.kent.edu/boutaharn/collocation.htm
Collocations: www.TransAraLingo.com
42
English Idioms and How to Use Them: www.englishidioms.wordpress.com

English proverbs and sayings: www.learn-english-today.com
Egyptian Proverbs: www.blogs.transparent.com/Arabic/Egyptian-proverbs-1-
/
Phrases, sayings and expressions at "The Phrases Finder":
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.htm
Oxford Practice Grammar (Advanced) (2008), Oxford University Press,

www.freefromgrammar-to-go
Sayings and proverbs in English: www.englishclub.com
43

Translation Research Amira Completed

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Translation Research Amira Completed

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Training program for Developing English Majors' Translation Competence Based on

the Eclectic Approach

(2008) investigated EFL Saudi prospective teachers' ability to translate culture-bound

:Context of the problem

Problem of the study:

Hypotheses of the Research:

Variables of the Study:

Delimitations of the Research:

Design of the study:

Tools of the Study:

Significance of the study:

The main short comings of traditional teaching as presented by Shi-Yang(2009)

Adetunji (2010: 15-16) presented another classification of the methods of translation:

Activity 2 : what is translation (60 minutes)

2-List possible items that form part of translation competence.

By the end of the activity students would be able to:

By the end of this activity students will be able to:

3-deverbalize and explain a text in another language (from reading to writing)

Data Analysis and Discussion of results:

Grammar & style

The analysis of the proverbs, idioms and collocations:

Number and percentage of students who didn't

Number and percentage of

students who translated it wrongly

Number and percentage of

Number and percentage of

Number and percentage

students who did not

students who translated it correctly

of students who translated

Third: the pre-proverbs test:

Fifth: The analysis of the pre English-Arabic collocations:

sixth: The analysis of the post English-Arabic collocations:

Left not translated

Number and percentage of students who didn't

Number and percentage of

students who translated it wrongly

Number and percentage of

Number and percentage of

Number and percentage of

students who didn't translate it

students who translate it

students who translated it

Third: the pre-proverbs test

Left not translated

Left not translated

Bassnett, S. (2002).Translation Studies. London, New York: Routage.

A published M.A. Thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the

Nadstoga, Z. (1988): A Communicative use of translation in the classroom. English

Snell-Hornby, M. (1988) Translation Studies An Integrated Approach. Amsterdam and

English Idioms and How to Use Them: www.englishidioms.wordpress.com

Phrases, sayings and expressions at "The Phrases Finder":

Oxford Practice Grammar (Advanced) (2008), Oxford University Press,

You might also like