Problems encountered by 4th. level EFL students at women's college- Hadhramout University when translating English modals into Arabic

Abstract EN

Translating English modals always constitutes a problematic area that faces Arab learners of English, especially translation students and trainee translators.

This study investigates some problems that face 4th level EFL students at Women's College/ Hudhramout University when rendering the meaning of some English modals into their accurate equivalent meanings in Arabic.

It aims at facilitating this task by highlighting the main reasons behind committing mistakes when translating these modals.

Further, the study aims at increasing the students' awareness towards the problem of translating these modals into Arabic.

The study utilizes a translation test as to collect data from the study sample, which consists of 51 female students enrolled in the 4th level English Department at Women's College.

The study concludes that students have poor knowledge of English modality and modals as well as the equivalences of these modals in Arabic (their mother tongue).

They are, sometimes, overwhelmed by the idea that there is only one meaning (the commonest one) for each modal even it occurs in different contexts.

Moreover, they, sometimes misled by the past forms of modals and consequently, mistranslate the tense of the sentence that includes the modal.

The study recommends that EFL students should be familiarized with the different meanings of English modals as well as their functions.

Moreover, EFL students in general and translation students in particular should be taught modals while relating them to their equivalents in Arabic.

Further, the researchers recommend conducting research on translating modals in conditional clauses, passive voice, subordinate clauses, negative and interrogative sentences into Arabic and the difficulties that face Arab learners when translating modals in such structures.