Obstacles that face Yemeni students in translating proverbs from English into Arabic

Abstract EN

This study aimed to investigate the obstacles that face Yemeni students in translating proverbs from English into Arabic.

To achieve the goal of this study, the researcher selected a random sample of 45 English students who registered in the first semester of the academic year (2021-2022) in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts at Thamar University in Yemen.

The researcher designed a translation test that consists of 14 English proverbs.

The students were asked to translate them into Arabic.

The collected data were analyzed and investigated.

The results discovered unaccepted level of students in translating these proverbs.

The most committed problems were related to students‟ unfamiliarity with English culture-specific items; their failure in achieving the exact Arabic equivalence; lack of knowledge of techniques and strategies of translation in general and proverbs in particular; the ambiguity of some English proverbs and committing linguistic, stylistic, and grammatical mistakes.