The effects of cultural barriers on EFL learners in English-Arabic translation

Abstract EN

The present paper investigates the cultural barriers that obstacle EFL learners in translating culture - specific terms and expressions from English into Arabic.

The barriers are posed in translation because of the learners' lack of cultural competence of the source language (SL) and their failure to find their counterparts in the target language (TL) due to the influence of the native tongue, and the improper use of bilingual dictionaries.

This will lead to misunderstanding of the meaning and hence mistranslating the cultural equivalents in the targeted language.

The purpose of the study is to emphasize the effective role of the cultural factors in translation, and their close relation to language, as a subject matter of translation process.

The study also aims to show how the cultural problems are encountered in translating some specific terms and expressions from English into Arabic by inexperienced EFL learners of translation.

Some proper translation strategies are proposed as best solution to overcome such problems for the sake of conveying the intended meaning of the SL into the TL.

To fulfill the aim of the study, some representative samples for cultural - related difficulties at hand are discussed.

The study concludes with some recommendations to be employed when practicing translation by EFL learners to overcome the cultural barriers, and improve the students' performance in translating and the quality of translated texts from English into Arabic.