Stylistic problems confronting Arab students in Arabic-English translation

Abstract EN

Away from simplistic definitions, translation is, in fact, both a painstaking and an arduous process especially with regard to style.

To prove this lucidly, a translation test (Arabic into English) has been administered to 40 advanced-level students of the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Translation, Ajman University of Science and Technology Network.

Dealing with a passage of fair length (170 words), the testees have committed stylistic errors in areas pertinent to literal vs.

free translation, mistranslations, inadequate translation, inexact rendering, and L1 interference.

It has been found that the students have generally focused on translating words as isolated entities.

Their task, however, should have been directed, rather, towards dealing with complete discourse in its diverse dimensions.