Transferability and translatability of idioms by Arab students learning English as a second language
Other Title(s)
طوعية ترجمة التعابير الاصطلاحية و نقلها على أيدي الطلبة العرب المتعلمين للغة الإنجليزية كلغة ثانية
Dissertant
Thesis advisor
Comitee Members
al-Said, Jumah Salim Najadat
al-Ghazw, Manal Muhammad Hamdan
al-Shannaq, Abd Allah
University
Mutah University
Faculty
Faculty of Business
Department
Department of Public Administration
University Country
Jordan
Degree
Master
Degree Date
2004
English Abstract
This study aims at investigating whether prototypically theory by Kellerman (1999) holds true for the L2 acquisition of elements beyond the lexical level by examining the acquisition of clause-level idioms (proverbs) in two typologically distant languages (Arabic and English).
The study contained four experiments exploring the effects of several factors on idiom transferability; these factors are : native speakers' intuitions about the semantic transparency of the LI idioms, the pragmatic and structural congruency of idioms across the two languages, the L2 proficiency level, and the L2 idiom comprehension and production.
The first experiment explored the Arabic native speakers' intuitions about semantic transparency.
The second and the third experiments investigated learners' judgments about the acceptability of structurally and pragmatically congruent translations.
The fourth investigated the learners' actual productive use of L2 idioms, L2 idioms comprehension and production.
Results showed that semantic transparency plays a significant role in the learners' acceptability judgments of L2 idioms translations.
Moreover, results showed that L2 proficiency level is also an interacting variable in determining transferability.
Additionally, learners at the higher proficiency level did better than learners at the lower proficiency level in all the experiments of this study, indicating that errors and L1 influence decrease with increasing proficiency.
However, results showed that structural congruency doesn't have a significant impact on transferability.
Learners, regardless of proficiency level, accepted pragmatically congruent translations more frequently than structurally congruent translation.
Moreover, learners provided target-like idioms and target-like paraphrase more often than literal translations indicating that learners do have L2 knowledge about L2 idioms and thus they have transferred L2 idioms into their interlanguage.
Finally, results showed that learners processed (comprehended) the figurative meaning of the idioms far before they processed the literal meaning.
Main Subjects
Topics
No. of Pages
154
Table of Contents
Table of contents.
Abstract.
Chapter one : Statement of the problem.
Chapter two : Review of related literature.
Chapter three : Design and methodology.
Chapter four : Findings and disscution.
Chapter five : Summary, conclusion and recommendations.
References.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Malahmah, Muhammad Ali. (2004). Transferability and translatability of idioms by Arab students learning English as a second language. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University, Jordan
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303785
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Malahmah, Muhammad Ali. Transferability and translatability of idioms by Arab students learning English as a second language. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University. (2004).
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303785
American Medical Association (AMA)
Malahmah, Muhammad Ali. (2004). Transferability and translatability of idioms by Arab students learning English as a second language. (Master's theses Theses and Dissertations Master). Mutah University, Jordan
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-303785
Language
English
Data Type
Arab Theses
Record ID
BIM-303785
